A day in the life of Tyne O'Connell

1) Your life was optioned by a USA network NBC - My Two Husbands. And you were co-writer. What was that experience like?

Fabulous. I loved living in L. A. I was out there initially with my husband and youngest daughter because  Tony Danza's company had bought my book What's A Girl To Do and hired me to write the screenplay.

I had an office on the Sony lot in Culver City. Darling I had a drive on! A drive on! Me! And I can't even drive. I was living the dream.

One day my agent at ICM called and gave me 45 minutes notice that I had a meeting at NBC to pitch "My Two Husbands" an article I'd written for Vogue to NBC.  Besides having no car, I can't drive and taxis are non-existent so I called this girl I had met in Cairo ten years ago who absolutely loathed me.  I had heard she lived in LA so I rang a friend in NY and got her number.  As soon as she picked up the phone she said "Oh hi, actually I'm on my way out..." undeterred I dived into my pitch (needing a lift to NBC in Burbank, drive on pass blah, blah". She was an out of work actress so apart from starring alongside Tom Cruise her dream was a drive on pass - actors never get them. The promise of a "drive on" at the NBC lot was all it took. She arrived in a heartbeat made like she had always thought the world of me we made it. She thrust her hand at my agent and introduced herself to my agent as "Tyne's BFF"I. I made my pitch while she babysat my daughter outside just like a real BFF.

I had never personally pitched to a room of network execs before and suddenly I was telling them why my life was a hilarious basis for comedy. In hindsight, sitting there with my hair piled high with pencils and tottering about in my seven inch Vivienne Westwood heels I didn't have to say much to get them laughing. They bought it there on the spot. My co-writer Wendy Goldman spent the next few months discussing what to me were perfectly ordinary daily occurrences  (as a mother living as a family with my three children and their two very different fathers) but which when we wrote them down I realized were classic situation comedy sketches. The NBC execs loved it and bought my life hiring myself and the experienced screenwriter Wendy Goldman (Searching For Mr Right, Bad Girls Guide) to write the series. My BFF scored a date with my agent so everyone was happy. My BFF and I have never spoken again.

The project meant I was talking about my family and writing about them all the time. I had never personally pitched to a room of network execs before and suddenly I was telling them why my life was a hilarious basic for comedy. Sitting there with my hair piled high with pencils and tottering about in my seven inch Vivienne Westwood shoes I didn't have to say much to get them laughing. They bought it there on the spot. My co-writer Wendy Goldman spent the next few months discussing what to me were perfectly ordinary daily occurrences  (as a mother living as a family with my three children and their two very different fathers) but which when we wrote them down I realized were classic situation comedy sketches. The fact that NBC never shot the series was probably a relief to my family - especially my ex-husbands - though of course I may yet draw on this time again so they're not completely out of the woods.

2) How do you come up the inspiration for your books? What is your secret?

My life. I draw all my story lines based on things that have actually happened to me or people close to me. This is the best way to stay truthful and real.  Sex With the Ex for example is based on my life and the lives of my girlfriends and places we go - private members clubs mostly.  Making the A-List was written at a time when we were living in Shoreditch the centre of London's art scene in the mid-late nineties and my husband was an artist putting us very much at the centre of the action. It made sense to write about the world I was living in. Also lots of my girlfriends were single at the time, it was the whole Bridget Jones era and there I was with two husbands - well one was an ex but you get the idea. Writing about single life made me feel more part of the group of friends around me. A little bit of me and everyone I know is in that book. It is so much of its time. I like creating a character based on a tiny aspect of myself or someone I have known well enough to make a study of them. I then think, "what if this happened" and from then on my imagination takes over. I use my friends and family as sounding boards for ideas and propose situations to them to see what other people might do in similar situations. In this ways my characters take over my life in the course of writing about them. While moving them around the chess board of my story, it is inevitable that they become quite real people to me. A writers life is incredibly solitary but inside my head it is always a very crowded house. I am never really alone.

3) So now your back in London and your youngest is up at Oxford and your ex-husbands are living separately what does an ordinary day in the life of Tyne O’Connell look like?

I live in a tiny flat in the very heart of London so I walk everywhere. I can't drive so I sacrifice space - and also I don't want to leave a big carbon footprint. I wake up and make myself two espressos and go back to bed to write. After four to six hours I'll stop for a short break. After I shower and dress I answer emails and then Calypso's fan mail or other email and catch up with my children and ex-husbands news.  I'll go back to work for an hour or two and then shower and play dress ups before heading off for an early supper with friends at the Wolseley or to my club. I don't do lunch or snacks they distract me from writing. If my daughter's home from uni we'll hang out together unless though usually she's meeting up with friends. We both like shopping but have wildly different tastes. I go all jewels and perilously high shoes whereas my daughter is much more effortlessly stylish focusing on the clothes themselves. If she's home I am much more popular with my family and friends so I see a lot more of my sons and ex-husbands. I go out four evenings a week but I always spend a few hours reading before going to sleep. When Cordelia's home we'll chat or watch dvd's into the early hours of the morning. She stays up late like me. On weekends I like going to the theatre.

4) The Calypso Chronicles are an extremely popular series for the youth with quite an unusual story line. Rich boarding school kids and handsome princes are not that common. How did you came up with the idea to write about that?

The boarding school tradition in Britain is much stronger than anywhere else in the world. Because of this there is a long tradition of the good and the great (and the royal) of the world sending their children to be educated here. Boarding schools are full of the children of the famous and the royal. All my three children went to boarding school and yes, I was inspired in part by their stories. Most authors write about what they know. I also wanted to show that even in an extraordinary world teenagers are all driven by the same things. Calypso is an ordinary girl in an extraordinary world who grows to recognize that all the posh and titled girls she's initially intimidated by are not dissimilar to her. Even princes get nervous about pulling.

5) You’ve written some books for adults which are always described as hilarious. What do you prefer: writing books for teenagers or for adults? Why is that?

Both, I draw on my life so while my children were at boarding school I enjoyed writing teen fiction more because I could share my work with them and also they were sharing their stories with me which always inspired me. I don't see a great deal of difference between writing for adults or teens. I think I am very immature really and very much a girl's girl. My own mother (now a great grandmother) refers to herself as an antique little girl and still loves all the same things as my daughter and I - shopping, chatting about boys and current trends, discussing the intricacies of what really makes people tick. When I meet new people especially of a type I haven't met before I think "oh goody" a someone new to immerse myself in and discover. I think all authors have a bit of the rogue outsider about them but my infinite curiosity about others and what makes them tick ensures I never tire of people. Without this longing to endlessly discover the new and my fascination with why people do the things they do, I am sure I would be quite a recluse.