Galway writer comes home to launch debut novel

A multi-talented Galway writer now based in London came home this week to launch her debut novel – a chick-flick offering that she describes as Bridget Jones meets The Devil Wears Prada!

Fiona O’Malley – author, playwright and weekly fashion writer with our sister paper the Connacht Sentinel – has initially opted for digital technology for ‘What Would Kate Do? The Diary of a Walking Disaster’.

But – as she revealed at this week’s launch in the Meyrick Hotel – she still has plans to bring it out as a paperback.

“I’m publishing it with Byer’s Ink Company for ibooks, ebooks and all other electronic forms. I hope to have a paperback copy of it someday but this is a cheaper and more efficient way to publish it, especially because I’m so broke and Byer’s Ink is a company in its infancy stage.

“I guess you can say that we took the risk on each other and are hoping the book will be a success. If it is a success, I plan to write two more What Would Kate Do? books as I have enough ideas for a trilogy.

“There is a lot of me in the main character. I think every comedy art – be it stand-up, acting or writing – has an exaggerated form of the creator. I often feel like a walking disaster. I have to laugh at myself or else I’d cry. Like the narrator, I adore Kate Middleton’s style, grace, strength and dignity,” she says.

‘What Would Kate Do: the diary of a walking disaster!’ is a story about a girl who idolizes the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, and tries to follow her footsteps in life but fails miserably.

She is in her thirties and is terrified of being left on the shelf while she is maid of honour for her two best friends’ weddings. “It’s a chick-flick light comedy,” says Fiona.

And she’s busy on many fronts – apart from her weekly contribution to the Sentinel, the NUIG graduate from Knocknacarra has worked for Vogue Magazine, The Sunday Times, The Irish Times and The Observer to name a few.

She also finds time to manage the Untold Theatre Company which she co-founded last December – and which is currently working on a new musical based on the News International phone tapping scandal, which has already received the royal seal of approval from Princes Harry and William, as well as phone tapping victim Hugh Grant.