Interview with India Grey

India, thank you for granting us this interview — your first of many! Congratulations again on your recent book sale. We can’t tell you how excited and thrilled we are by the news.

Annie, lurking in the shadows: "We are? Oh yes, of course we are. Very excited and incredibly thrilled." [Annie rolls eyes heavenwards]

Now, let’s get started. First of all, tell us about the call. What were you doing at the time?

Annie: "Maybe, Eva, just maybe, she was on the telephone."

India: "Well, I was reclining on a pink velvet chaise longue eating Turkish delight—same old, same old [mutters Annie]—when the phone rang...(Oh, dear, my pants are on fire again, aren’t they? I’d actually just got back from picking the children up from school and was scraping yogurt and banana slime from the bottom of a lunchbox, but that’s totally sad. Do you think it would be OK if I stuck to the Turkish Delight version?)"

How shocked and amazed were you?

Annie: "Well, on the Richter scale of shock and amazement, I’d guess at a 10 – otherwise known as — now, what’s the word? Oh yes, ‘very’."

India: "Yes. Very."

Rumour has it that you’ve sold to the Presents line. Is that true?

Annie: "Well, if it’s not, Presents really ought to sue whoever’s responsible for spreading such an evil rumour. They have their reputation to think of, you know."

India: "Ok, Ok, so the Turkish Delight part was entirely fabricated but the Presents bit is true."

Did you specifically target that line?

Annie [sniggers]: "Of course she did."

India [sniggers]: "Of course I did."

Why?

Annie: "Because she thought she was going to get lots of prettily-wrapped gifts."

India: "Because I love the glamour and I love the settings and, yes, I love the heroes too. And I think that when your life involves quite a lot of yogurt-slime in lunchboxes all of the above are important."

Is this really your first book and first submission? Wow!

Annie: "Yes, wow."

India: "Yes. Wow!"

How long did the process take, from first submission to successful book sale?

India: "Hmmm. From the very first submission of the first three chapters and synopsis, it’s been about 18 months, but during that time the editorial staff at HMB have been astonishingly kind and helpful. In the end the time between writing the last words on the last page and getting that phonecall was about ten hours, and I spent at least two of them in bed eating cream cakes in celebration of finishing the manuscript."

Annie: "Cream cakes and Turkish Delight? Fat! Fat! Fat! The chaise longue will never hold up."

Tell us a bit about the story. [Eva immediately starts fantasizing about dark, dreamy Raphael, an idiotic smile on her face.]

Annie: "Raphael? Wasn’t he one of the Ninja Turtles who used to live in a sewer?"

India: "Oh, Annie, your cultural references are so limited. Well, Eva, it’s a story about a girl pretending to be someone she isn’t in order to find out if her man is the person she thinks he is. Does that sound confusing? Oh well, lets just say it’s about sex and shopping and saying sorry."

Have you a title yet?

Annie: "Now you’re getting carried away, Eva. It takes more than a published book to make a Lady out of a commoner."

India: "Yes! Yes! Oh, I’m so glad you asked that! I have a title and I love it. It is The Italian’s Defiant Mistress… Soooo Coooool."

When is the book due to be published?

Annie: "Good question, Eva."

India: "July 2007."

What are your next steps with regard to the book?

Annie: "To do a world tour and publicise it, Eva. Naturally, I shall accompany her."

India: "Thank you, Annie. I shall need someone to carry my designer luggage, tip doormen, etc. To be honest (and that doesn’t come naturally as you’ll see from the Turkish Delight incident earlier) I’m not sure what happens next. Do I get proofs to correct or something? I hope so—then when I’ve done them I can go back to bed and eat more cream cakes in celebration of finishing all over again."

We know you’re working on another contemporary romance.

Annie: "That would be the one stuck at 11,000 words, would it?"

India: "Ah, yes, I was going to mention that. The word worm will certainly need to be updated a little—to something more in the region of 00,000. I’ve learned so much in the process of revising the first book that I’m afraid there’s only one thing for it. Back to the start!"

Would you care to tell us a bit about it?

Annie: "Like the first 11,000 words perhaps?"

India: "I’d love to—if only I hadn’t deleted them all…"

To what do you attribute your remarkable success (besides hard work and dedication, of course)?

Annie: "Funny thing that, I attribute my remarkable failure to the same things."

India: "Duuhh. My lucky mug, of course."

Would you care to tell us your real name?

India: "Well, I could, but then I’d have to kill you. Just call me India...[India stares smokily into the distance in the manner of a Bond girl or similar]...India Grey..."