Question Time with Author Holly Kingston

I’m really excited to share with you this interview with Holly Kingston, because it made me laugh SO much. Here we talk all about her Christmas novella, A Cinderella Christmas.

I reviewed A Cinderella Christmas which you can read here.

Holly started her life as a child. When she grew substantially taller and learnt how to read she decided that she’d jolly well like to write books herself. Whilst at college Holly had a slight change in her career focus and decided to become a marine biologist. On discovering that she sucked at science and that her future job was unlikely to involve monitoring anything larger than sea plankton, Holly went back to the drawing board and got a Bsc in Psychology instead.
She studied with Scriptwriting North and wrote her first film, along with a number of shorts and a sitcom pilot. After several years of writing, rewriting, and hiding stuff for posterity on her hard drive, she sent her first novel to The Marsh Agency where she is now represented by Hannah Ferguson.
She is currently working on her second full length novel and wondering how to lose the weight she’s put on whilst writing her last book. Her first novella A Cinderella Christmas is out now.

1. First things first, if you was in Panto and had to pick a Disney Prince Charming to kiss who would you go for? Also who would you cast to play Prince Charming? (I would totally go for the Beast, have you seen that guys library?)

Beast and his library is a good call! So if you’re dating him, I’ll have to go with Prince Charming from Cinderella. He has an awesome castle, throws lots of parties, and is very conscientious with his lost and found box. Missing shoe anyone?
Casting is a great question! I’ve been thinking about this a lot. You know how some people like to meditate? I just sit around staring into space think of cute men to play Ryan in a film of the book. It’s a very similar process…
I’m currently thinking Chris Hemsworth. He’s rather beautiful. Or here’s a thought! What about Prince Harry! I think he’d make an excellent Prince Charming and I think he has the appropriate credentials for the part.
Uh oh, staring into space “meditating” again!

2. One of absolute favourite parts of the entire book is when Ben is picking up Lucy and sees all the Ryan pictures etc. Its his reaction that made me snort with laughter. Have you got a favourite part?

I love that bit too, it actually made me wince a bit as I was writing it. I really like Lucy and at that point the embarrassment factor for her is rather monumental.
Another favourite is when Lucy’s on stage and thinks that she may have accidentally killed someone. And all the bits with Lenin in them, I love Lenin.

3. Lucy has some very embarrassing moments which makes us really sympathise with her. What’s the most embarrassing situation you have found yourself in?

I once attended the wrong Christmas party! To be fair I was in the right hotel…just the wrong function room. What still worries me though is how it took me so long to work out that I was a cuckoo in the nest. I chatted to lots of lovely people. I drank free Champagne, and ate lots and lots of canapés.
And, *gulps*…I even had my “official” photograph taken. Oops.
I blame those canapés, they were rather good. They must have distracted me from the fact that everyone in the room was a complete stranger. By the time I cottoned on and sloped out of the room I was quite tipsy and rather full!

4. Normally I can guess which person the girl ends up with in books, but with A Cinderella Christmas you really are kept guessing until the very end (which I loved). I also never saw that sneaky little twist thrown in. Was that planned from the beginning?

No…But sshhhh, do you mind if you don’t tell anyone?!? I look a little bit smarter if it appears like I carefully plotted everything from the start! To be fair there were a few changes to the story. In the first ever draft Charmaine didn’t even own Lenin! So the book developed as I edited it.

5. If you had to star in any Christmas Panto which one would it be, why and what character would you play?

Star!?! Eeek! I’m a bit like Lucy. I might get stage fright if I had to be centre of attention. So I think I’d have to pick Snow White. That way I’d just have to wear a really pretty dress, eat an apple, and then have a really lovely lie down for the majority of the performance!

6. Charmaine is the perfect pantomime villain, where did you get your inspiration for her from?

Thank you! I love to hate her too! I’m a big fan of celeb magazines, so the swishy hair came from there. And I enjoyed the idea of creating this complete beauty that was a bit rotten on the inside. She was so much fun to write. I’m not sure I’d like to meet anyone quite like her though. I think she’d manipulate the living daylights out of me!

7. What’s your favourite Christmas memory?

My favourite is a big warm mix of old family Christmases when I was a kid. But my strongest memory was coming downstairs one year, sooooo excited, to open a huge box. I was convinced it was something epic.
And it was an electric blanket.
Now these days, that’d be pretty awesome, but when you’re little…Well, it just wasn’t that much fun to play with. I still reckon I would’ve preferred a puppy.

8. Describe A Cinderella Christmas in 3 words?

Funny, Festive & Unpredictable!
Thank you sooo much for the fantastic questions Victoria!

To grab your own copy of A Cinderella Christmas click here