What would life be like if you pursued your passion in ballet instead of law school? Or if you reconnected with the one who got away? What if you dropped the monotonous office job and ran off to the bright lights of Hollywood? So maybe none of these situations apply to you, but you get my point, right? To live life to its fullest, you’ve got to take some risks. That’s the underlying message in Michele Gorman’s new novel Bella Summer Takes a Chance. Although everything seems hunky-dory in Bella’s lovelife and career, she knows that it’s just not enough.  With some help from a colorful cast of friends, she takes life by the horns and chases her dream to become a musician.

Michele was kind enough to chat with me about her new book. Read on to learn more about her writing process, character development, and…ahem…how she goes about describing some rather blush-worthy bedroom scenes.

What compelled you to write a story about a woman risking it all to pursue a career in music? And how can some of her struggles resonate with women readers?

I started to toy with the idea of what’s “enough” for a woman (complete with giant quotation finger movements). Where is that line? As I started to play with Bella’s situation (oh the fun of toying with my characters’ lives!), I found myself feeling very disgruntled on her behalf, in all spheres of her life. Why should a life in which nothing is wrong be a life that’s right? Just because society, or your friends or family or boyfriend say so? Nuh uh. I wanted Bella to grab the golden ring with both hands. She may fail, fall off the horse and end up in a heap on the ground with her underpants showing, but she’s going to try.  

The fragility of identity also interested me. Having taken ten years and four books to get my first publishing deal, I knew how hard it was to continue on a creative path when anyone else in her right mind would have given up. As Bella says: When do you stop becoming a musician-with-a-day-job and start being an accountant-who-is-musical? I think that having that experience helped me write her musical pursuits realistically.

Could you tell me a little about the setting, and why you chose that particular location?

That’s easy. Bella is set in London, where I’ve lived for the past 17 years. I absolutely love my adopted hometown, so it’s the natural setting for my books. My debut, Single in the City, is about an American who moves to London, so the city is the other main character in that story. It’s easy to write about an American when you are American (I have dual nationality), but I’ve wanted to write about a British character in London for awhile. I got halfway there this time (Bella is Canadian-American who has lived in London for a decade, so her speech and characteristics are more British than American). My next book, The Reinvention of Lucy Winters, will finally have all British characters in London.

What was the most interesting thing you had to research for Bella Summer Takes a Chance?

Ooh that question made me snort my coffee! Well, okay, I’ll tell you. There is a threesome scene in Bella. Don’t worry, it’s not gross or explicit; I get terribly embarrassed writing about sex, so if I have to do it, I do it with humour rather than detail. Anyway… I felt I needed some help with this, since I had no first-hand experience (Bella gets kissed by a girl). So I invited one of my closest male friends out for lunch. Since he’s bisexual I figured he’d be able to tell me about the differences. Oh boy, could he ever. Unfortunately he described every detail with theatrical glee, in a very quiet restaurant full of old people. As he talked, I noticed the two couples beside us staring over their main courses. I got my research notes, and they got more than petit fours with their coffees.

Who was your favorite character to develop?

That’s a hard one! Usually I have just one or two favourite characters, but I loved Bella, Marjorie (her ninety-one year old friend) and Frederick (Bella’s flatmate). I couldn’t possibly choose!

What message do you hope your readers will take away from this book?

When I began writing, I saw the book as an exploratory journey for Bella but it soon became clear that this is a girl-power story J Each character faces “societal” pressures (there are those ditto fingers again) but lives her life exactly as she feels she needs to. Their stories are all very different but involve balancing ideals (whether that’s in love and relationships, or career or motherhood) against reality to find out what’s possible, and what’s right for them.

Now, a little more about you! Do you have a writing routine? What is your average writing day like?

I do have a writing routine of sorts. I’m an early riser, so usually get up, make a coffee and spend an hour or so answering emails and doing admin. Then I’ll go for a jog or a walk (otherwise the day can go by without me setting foot outside the house) and settle down for a few hours of writing before lunch. I’ll either carry on writing after lunch if I’m on a roll (or haven’t hit my word count – I aim for around 2,000 a day). I always have a nap, then spend the afternoon marketing. Marketing might involve doing Q&As for lovely bloggers, or working on the million little details that each soon-to-be published book needs doing. I try my best to stay off twitter and facebook when writing, but I always fail miserably. I do have a software programme called MacFreedom that I can turn on to block my internet (saving me from myself) when I really need to concentrate.  

And lastly, but not leastly, how do you spend your “free” time — when you’re not writing?

I’ve always been a homebody, so I hang out with my friends and boyfriend (technically he’s now my fiancée, but that’s very recent and I’m still getting used to that title!). Cooking, watching films, reading, going to the local pub or restaurants, having walks in the park. It’s a very low-key lifestyle and I love it!

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks so much Jessica, for having me on Chick Lit Café! And if anyone would like their eBook copy of Bella Summer Takes a Chance signed and inscribed, there’s a genius website called www.authorgraph.com where you can send me a request (if for a friend as a gift, just tell me in the Comments). I’ll e-Inscribe your book and you’ll be able to add it to your kindle (or print it out, keep it as an email or send it to your friend). I’m happy to do that for any of my books – they’re all on there.