Amy Hatvany blows us away. She’s the celebrated women’s fiction author of four novels. Her latest, Outside the Lines, went into a second print before it was published. She has a full-time day job (in addition to being an author), and she’s a mother of three! So how does she do it all?
Hatvany sits down with SheKnows Book Lounge for some good old fashioned girl talk. She dishes on the reality show she’d love to be a contestant on, shares her secret to balancing two jobs and her family and shares the unconventional way she met her hubby.
SheKnows: You’re pretty active on Twitter (@AmyHatvany). So, tweet us a blurb on your latest novel, Outside the Lines, in 140 characters or less, of course.
Amy Hatvany: Wow, that’s a hard one!! Let me see… how about this: “A touching and compassionate look at an artistic but broken mind, and the unbreakable bond between a father and his beloved daughter.”
Ugh. I’m not a good self-blurber at ALL! Next question, please!?!
SheKnows: Describe the area where you write. And what are five things on your desk?
Amy Hatvany: I write in a main thoroughfare in our house, between the living room and the kitchen, so unless I’m home alone, I get lots of foot traffic passing by when I work. My desk is beyond cluttered, but I swear, I know exactly where everything is!
Five things I’m looking at right now: My wallet-sized senior picture that I scanned to FB about five months ago and never put away; a stack of CDs; an empty Starbucks insulated cold drink cup with a candy-cane striped straw; my cell phone, with ten unread texts from my 12-year-old daughter; and finally, my digital camera, full of 200 plus pictures I need to download to my laptop so I can eventually print them and put them in albums. (Ha! As if.)
SheKnows: You’re a self-proclaimed reality TV junkie and have jokingly (or maybe not so jokingly) referred to wanting to be a part of the cast for the fictitious show Top Author. What authors would you pick to compete against?
Amy Hatvany: Anyone who wouldn’t kick my ass in vocabulary! A fun panel to just hang out with and talk books and writing would be Jennifer Weiner, Emily Giffin, Jen Lancaster and Marian Keyes – to name only a few! I have about 50 fairly serious author crushes.
SheKnows: Besides wanting to be a reality TV show contestant, what would we be most surprised to learn about you?
Amy Hatvany: I’m kind of an open book, but I think most people are still surprised to learn that I met my sweet hubby on Craigslist six years ago – this was way back before it got all weird and in the news for creepy and criminal shenanigans. On a dare, I posted an ad without a picture and after 300 responses, I went on two dates, and one of those men I married two years later. We affectionately refer to our meeting place as “Bargain Basement Match.com.”
SheKnows: Maybe it’s like asking you to pick your favorite child, but do you have a favorite novel that you’ve written?
Amy Hatvany: You’re right – that is like trying to pick a favorite child. But as any mother can tell you, we love our children equally, but for different reasons. Right now, I’d have to say that Outside the Lines is my “favorite,” only because it is about to wander off into the world on its own and I’m feeling extremely protective and proud of it for getting this far!
SheKnows: Speaking of children, you are a mother to three children (and two labs!). When do you write?
Amy Hatvany: I still work a full-time day job, too! (Hopefully, I didn’t just ruin someone’s fantasy about becoming a writer and lounging about the house in their jammies!)
I write in the nooks and crannies of my life – early in the morning or late at night. And on the weekends when my husband is kind enough to get the kiddos out of my hair for a few hours. It’s definitely a challenge, but I’m sort of obsessive (sort of = totally), so once I get my mind wrapped around an idea, I’m compelled to get my butt in the chair until it’s done. I’m actually a little nuts until I do. (P.S. “a little nuts” also = totally.)
SheKnows: You’re currently at work on your fifth novel. What can you tell us about it?
Amy Hatvany: It deals with the sometimes harrowing experience of blended families and women who may not be “naturally” maternal. There’s also a bit of a mystery involved and the search to unearth a few secrets.
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