Happy Girl Lucky is the first book in the hilarious new romantic-comedy series by Holly Smale, the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Geek Girl books. We chat to author Holly Smale about her new series The Valentines, book recommendations, writing advice, and much more! You can find Holly on Twitter and Instagram.
Hi, Holly! Thank you for taking to the time to chat with us! First off, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! Lovely to be here. I’m a British writer, living by the sea on the south coast of England surrounded by books and half-dead plants: not in a garret, but near enough. I’m a lifelong bibliophile and have been obsessed with literature from birth: Happy Girl Lucky is my ninth published novel, but I’ve also got quite a few unpublished attempts rotting in boxes in various attics around the UK. I spent years academically studying English literature and Shakespeare, and now try to weave my love of books into my stories and casual conversations wherever possible. I’m also passionate about travelling, which has proved unfortunate over the last year.
After the chaos that was 2020, have you set any goals for this year?
I’m a geek and a hardcore planner, so I usually have my years planned out in excruciating detail before they even start. I like knowing exactly where I’m going to be and what I’m going to do: I enjoy having very specific goals to aim for. But – like everyone else – 2020 threw my plans out of the window (I was supposed to be in Mexico), and I had a very strange, very unstructured, very uncontrollable year. I’m trying not to make the same mistake for 2021. There’s really no way of knowing what’s going to happen, so I’m trying to live more in the moment, stay flexible and make the best of whatever happens. Obviously when the time comes, I’m going to pack in as many hugs and as much travel as physically possible. 2020 has definitely taught me not to take time, loved ones or freedom for granted.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
A love of words and stories seems to have come inbuilt: I don’t remember a time without them. My mum is an eccentric retired English teacher, and she was reading incredibly inappropriate stories to me from birth: Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats, Longfellow. When she finally phased into children’s books, I fell madly in love with Enid Blyton’s The Enchanted Wood and carried it everywhere with me like a paper teddybear. When I was four, she explained to me what an author was, how reading and writing worked and a strangely detailed overview of the publishing industry. I remember a rush of excitement, and I knew immediately that I wanted to be part of that world. I learnt to read and write with the very book that had been so life-altering, and I’ve been reading – and writing – ever since.
Your new novel, Happy Girl Lucky, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Full of hope and warmth!
Now tell us a little more! What can readers expect?
Happy Girl Lucky, on the surface, appears to be a romantic comedy about a family of very rich, famous and privileged British-American actors who have the life that everyone else wants. Hope, the protagonist and the youngest of the Valentine siblings, is a sunny, positive, not-very-bookish fifteen year old who can’t wait until she gets to join them in living the fairytale – especially if it involves a hot boy – but until she turns sixteen she’s stuck on her own, rattling around the family home. She’s lonely, and uses her imagination to escape… until she finally finds another way out.
Really, though, it’s a much darker, sadder book about trying to find normality within extraordinary circumstances, and the power of family: particularly sisters. The family is dealing with a tragedy that’s been buried and revealed over the series. It’s a story of hope and lightness, but also one that challenges the toxic romantic narrative forced we all keep swallowing, and asks what’s really important.
Fingers crossed, it’s a book that can empower young people, especially girls.
If it’s not too spoilery, was there a certain scene or character that you enjoyed creating?
Hope struggles with reality, and with any kind of negativity or sadness. She prefers to see the world as she wants to see it, rather than as it is. While it’s a sweet quality, it can also be frustrating and ultimately quite dangerous, especially for a girl or woman. There’s a scene in LA towards the end where she finally accepts that she cannot rose-tint the world all the time – or the people in it – and decides to face the situation as it exists. It’s a moment of pure kick-ass and clarity – a moment of growing up – and it was a joy to write.
Although, it should be added: while Hope lives in England her father is American, and a large part of the story is set in Los Angeles. I travelled out to California for research (pre-Covid) and loved it. Frankly writing all of the American scenes brought me great happiness. It’s such a beautiful part of the world.
What challenges did you face while writing and how did you overcome them?
For Happy Girl Lucky, my main challenge was in changing my narrative voice. I’d just spent over a decade writing Geek Girl (my first series), and the protagonist – Harriet Manners – has an extremely strong voice and a very specific way of seeing the world which was not easy to leave behind. It took a while to authentically embody a totally different person: a new vocabulary, cadence, sense of humour, thought pattern, set of reactions, body movements, aspirations, background, family. My books are always hinged on character and Hope is nothing like Harriet, so it required a lot of experimentation to nail her voice: for the first couple of months, I’d frequently slip back into my old protagonist and have to consciously shove Harriet back out again so Hope could breathe.
I think it really came together for me when I began to tap into the part of me that genuinely identified with Hope. When I’m writing character, I always try to find the pieces of myself that have deep similarities: the same way an actor has to dig into themselves for things that can connect them to a new role. Once I’d found the hopeful, optimistic, rose-tinted, romantic part of me, Hope suddenly became very real and Harriet took a back-seat.
What has been so fun about The Valentines series is that I got to do that three times, as each of the books is based on a different Valentine sister: Hope, Faith and Mercy. I found a way to dig into myself for each of them, and to embody totally different girls with vastly different ways of speaking, thinking, feeling.
It’s been a challenge, but one I’ve enjoyed every second of.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The worst advice I ever received was when I was fourteen years old, in a meeting with my school Careers Advisor. I told her I had wanted to be an author since I was four, and – with some amusement – she responded: “oh no, people like us don’t do jobs like that. Choose something more realistic.” Her reasoning was that ‘writing’ was a special job, for people with connections and affluent parents: neither of which I had. I still think about that moment, and wonder how many other children she deterred from chasing their dreams because we weren’t born into the right circles. I’m just lucky that I was so obstinate, and saw her advice as a personal challenge.
The best advice was around a similar time, during an English lesson. Our eccentric, somewhat surly teacher – who terrified us all – had walked into the class and stared at us in total silence for half an hour. Everyone giggled, grew uncomfortable, started napping. At the end of what felt like a decade, he set us a creative writing assignment: to write about the first half an hour. When the next class had finished, he quietly pulled me aside and showed me thirty pieces of paper. “I have twenty-nine essays here,” he said, “mulling on sunshine and the meaning of life, and one essay wondering why my trousers are too short and whether I’ve forgotten what room I’m in.” I started apologizing, but he stopped me and said: “Honesty takes courage, and it’s the only thing that matters in writing. Never worry about your reader, and never stop writing truthfully.”
That moment has driven my writing ever since.
What’s next for you?
I’ve just finished the third and final book in The Valentines series, so – after a solid decade of deadlines – I’m taking some time to assess and experiment. I love trying new things with writing and giving myself different challenges, so I’m using this weird, pandemic isolation to play a little with my writing, give my brain a good scrub and see what sparks joy (a bit like clearing out my internal closet, Marie Condo style). Also I also need a decent holiday, ideally somewhere sunny!
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I always recommend The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams: it’s such an off-beat, funny, joyful ride. Similarly, The Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend is a masterclass in first-person narrative.
