Tell us a little about you.
I’m a twenty-something journalist-turned-romcom novelist. I know everyone thinks that they’re an individual, but I think I’m the very definition of the word, because I have the most conflicting character traits. I’m a very girly girl on the outside, and yet I’m a total tomboy in my head.
Tell us about your new book
Truth or Date is my insight into 21st century dating. The dating game has always been difficult to play, but now more than ever, it’s a nightmare. In some ways we’ve got it easier than our grandmothers did, because we’ve got online dating. In other ways, I think we’ve got it much harder – but for the same reason – because we’ve got online dating.
My main character, Ruby Wood, is happily playing the dating game until she has a red-hot dream about her flatmate. But rather than tell the truth and admit her feelings, she decides to keep playing the dating game in an attempt to get him out of her mind. Of course, things are never that easy, are they?
What is your favourite place to write?
I don’t really have a favourite place to write, I mix it up. Sometimes I write in coffee shops on my laptop like a real writer. Sometimes I crudely handwrite chunks on the train in yet another notebook. Sometimes I’ll wait until my boyfriend goes to work and sit at his desk, with my feet up, alternating short-bursts of writing with drinking tea and admiring the view from his window.
Where do you get your character inspiration from?
Real life, absolutely. Everyone I write is inspired by someone I know, or someone I’ve met. But that’s the best way to write realistic characters, to shape them around the personality traits of people who actually exist.
What are your 3 desert island books?
My favourite book is The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It’s going to sound really weird, but her super-depressing, semi-autobiographical novel is what inspired me to start writing about my own life in a fictionalised way. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, is another one I never grow tired of. And finally, a copy of Closer by Patrick Marber, because that is possibly my favourite story, ever. It just shows humanity for the gross, selfish creatures that we are, especially when it comes to love and relationships. Wow, they’re three really depressing choices, aren’t they?
What is your favourite place to read?
As tricky as it can be to execute, I like to read in the bath. I think it’s the one place where I’m forced to relax, (usually) cast my phone aside and ignore everyone to truly focus on what I’m doing.
What is your favourite book and why?
Oh, I’ve already answered this one, sorry haha. It’s easily The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I think all young women should be made to read it while they’re growing up, because it’s full of such valuable lessons. When I read it for the first time, it made my realise that it’s OK to be different, and it’s OK not to feel like everyone else does, and not to want the same things from life. It also taught me a lot about happiness (or a lack thereof) and how to live my life to its full potential.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I’m an absolute media junkie. I love watching movies and TV shows, I love to read, I’m a massive fan of video games. I’m also quite girly, so I like climbing into an impossibly high pair of heels and strolling around the shops, buying too many clothes and drinking too many cocktails.
Chocolate or sweets?
Chocolate. Easiest questions so far.
Is there a book you wished you wrote?
So many! But if I’d written them, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy them like I did. Take something like Gone Girl – to have come up with such an incredible twist is really something to be proud of, but to experience it as a reader is something else.
You have a free flight and accommodation to anywhere in the world where would you go?
That’s a really good question – and a hard one, because I’ve got at least five different answers. Right now, I’d probably say New York. I grew up reading things like Sex and the City and Lipstick Jungle, and it seems like the perfect place to live out the kind of lifestyle they enjoy in those novels.
What is your favourite season?
Autumn. I don’t really like it when it’s cold out, but I’m not a massive fan of the hot sun either. Autumn seems like a good compromise, with a good mix of weather, and the potential to wear lots of clothes.
Where can we find you?
Truth Or Date by Portia MacIntoshAlso by this author: Between a Rockstar and a Hard Place, Will They, Won't They?
on 11th April 2016
Pages: 243
Goodreads
Amazon Kindle, Audible
Falling for the man of her dreams…
Ruby Wood is perfectly happy playing the dating game – until she has a red-hot dream about her very attractive flatmate, Nick. He might spend every day saving lives as a junior doctor, but he’s absolutely the last man on earth that fun-loving Ruby would ever date!
The solution? Focus on all of Nick’s bad points. And if that fails, up her dating antics and find herself a man! So what if she manages to make disapproving, goody two-shoes Nick jealous in the process…
Only, after a series of nightmare first dates, there’s still just one man on Ruby’s mind. Maybe it’s time to admit the truth and dare to ask Nick to be her next date?
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