Literary Birthday – 28 July – Bella Mackie

Happy Birthday, Bella Mackie, born on 28 July 1983.

Bella Mackie Quotes

1. I always thought it’d be interesting to write something a little similar but with the sort of people that didn’t work for their money and what happens to the second generation of those families. Because, presumably, if your parents are multi-millionaires, do you feel like you need to do a day’s work in your life? That kind of world has always fascinated me.
2. With your first novel, you’re not writing for an audience; you’re just writing your book. So, to write a second one, there is an audience, and you’re very terrified.
3. I knew I didn’t want to do flashbacks, so I came up with the idea that yes, he’s dead, but we still get to hear from Anthony in the afterlife. And that’s the great joy of fiction: you can do whatever you want; there are no rules.
4. I always thought a fun thing would be to write fictionalised crime that doesn’t hurt or trigger anyone… I wanted to channel this interest – which a lot of people have – into something funny and that doesn’t hurt anyone. I want it to be the rich people you hate getting killed rather than women or marginalised people.
5. I think the only healthy thing to remind yourself when writing anything, or doing any job, I guess, is that you do your job and it goes out into the world – then it’s nothing to do with you, really. I don’t look at Goodreads or whatever, because I know there’ll be loads of people who hate it. But that’s not my business, is it? I’ve done my bit, then the reader does their bit. (Irish News)
6. I’m starting the plotting process for book three, because if What A Way To Go has taught me anything, it’s that structure and planning are the bedrocks of writing a novel. In the last conversation I had with my amazing editor before the book went off to the printers, she emphasised that structure is the scaffolding which holds your writing up.
7. I can write anywhere, anytime and with long deadlines, that sometimes means I do more procrastinating than actual typing. I enjoy writing, if I don’t do it daily something starts bubbling up in me and I get jittery.
8. Every book I’ve ever loved has made me either want to be a writer or made me paralysed and think I can’t ever be a writer because it’s so good.
9. I read a lot of Dorothy L Sayers who wrote crime novels and was always coming up with intricate plots – I remember thinking how much fun that must be.

Source for quotes1-4: Stylist Magazine and 6-7: Multiple Anxieties and 8-9: Sheerluxe

Bella Mackie is an English author, journalist, and comedy writer. Mackie’s first book, Jog On, is a memoir of how running helped her to alleviate mental health problems. Her three novels are How to Kill Your Family, What a Way to Go, and Claws Out!. She also writes a twice monthly Vogue column. She has written for the Guardian, The Times, and Vice. According to The Guardian, her best crime novel to read at Christmas is The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie. Follow her on Instagram.

Source for photograph: Curtis Brown

by Amanda Patterson
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