BABBLING BOOKS

annecater

Thanks to Laura for speaking to Kate Jacobs for us.

Kate has agreed to visit Babbling Books for a live Author Chat on Monday 23rd March 2009 at 7pm.

Please post questions for Kate on this thread or keep them for the evening itself. If anyone cant make that date, please PM your questions and we will ask them on your behalf.

Kate has written the following books:

The Friday Night Knitting Club

Casting on! It starts almost by accident: the women who buy their knitting needles and wool from Georgia's store linger for advice, for a coffee, for a chat and before they know it, every Friday night is knitting night. Finding a pattern! And as the needles clack, and the garments grow, the conversation moves on from patterns and yarn to life, love and everything. These women are of different ages, from different backgrounds and facing different problems, but they are drawn together by threads of affection that prove as durable as the sweaters they knit. The Friday Night Knitting Club - don't you want to join?

Comfort Food

The lives and loves of a TV chef, her daughters, neighbor and associates all receive a makeover in this lighthearted but sometimes sagging romantic problem-solver.Jacobs (The Friday Night Knitting Club, 2007) turns to the subject of food on television. Widowed control-freak and mother of two Gus Simpson, approaching 50, has been a star of the CookingChannel for 12 years with her show Cooking with Gusto! But now, under pressure to improve her drooping ratings, she finds herself sharing a new program - Eat Drink and Be - filmed in her own kitchen, with pushy Carmen Vega, a ruthlessly ambitious ex-Miss Spain. Helping out on the live program are Gus's adult daughters Sabrina and Aimee, her neighbor Hannah (a reclusive journalist with a disgraced sporting past), one of Sabrina's ex-boyfriends and Oliver, the show's attractive producer.

Knit Two

Old Yarns It is five years since the members of The Friday Night Knitting Club bonded during divorce, job loss, romance, birth -- and the sudden death of their dear friend, Georgia. But the Walker and Daughter knitting store on Manhattan's Upper West Side is still going strong. New Patterns Drawn together by their love for Georgia's daughter, Dakota, and the sense of family the club provides, each knitter is struggling with new challenges: for Catherine, finding love after divorce; for Darwin, newborn twins; for Lucie, being both single mum and carer for her elderly mother, and for Anita, marriage to her sweetheart over the objections of her grown-up children. A love letter to the power of female friendship and, of course, knitting, Knit Two is entertainment with heart.

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Currently reading: The Tent The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy and Granny The Pag by Nina Bawden

1001 Challenge Books read in 2009 - 3
1001 Challenge Books read in 2008 - 8
1001 Challenge Books read in 2007 - 13

Lauzc · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:51 pm Post subject:

And I hear she is working on a new book too!
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handmade by Laura Croxson

eightlegs · Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 4:14 pm Post subject:

I saw one of her books in a charity shop but decided I had too many but since the chat is this month I've been back for it and luckily it was still there.

So I shall be reading The Friday Night Knitting Club in time for this chat. Anyone else read any?

Lauzc · Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 6:08 pm Post subject:

Yes I am too.
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handmade by Laura Croxson

Lauzc · Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:03 pm Post subject:

Bump.

I have been so busy with work, my reading is nearly at a stand still at present!
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handmade by Laura Croxson

Lauzc · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:38 am Post subject:

Just a reminder for the author chat tonight. Post your questions here for Kate.
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handmade by Laura Croxson

Lauzc · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:59 pm Post subject:

Hi Kate - Welcome to BB!

Just a couple of questions from me to get started:

1. Did you always want to be a writer?
2. What has been your biggest knitting achievement?

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handmade by Laura Croxson

katejacobs_writer · Babblers First Words Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 5

Hi! What fun to be online with all of you!

First question: Yes! I always wanted to tell stories. From a very young age, I would write poems and stories and all that good stuff. When I grew up, I worked as a journalist and an editor, so words have always been my passion. I'm delighted to be able to write novels full-time now.

As for a knitting achievement, I tend to stick to tried and true projects! Nothing fancy. The patterns in the knitting books reflect that, I think. For our holiday card this year, we took a photo of our dog Baxter, who's a very cute Springer Spaniel, wearing the very first scarf I made for my husband years ago. Now that we live in California he doesn't get much chance to wear it, but he always brings it out and shows it around in the winter. Of course, it's just a basic garter stitch scarf, so it's not special from any technical standpoint. But it was made with much love and so it's special to us.

Lauzc · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:23 pm Post subject:

3. Can you tell us a bit about what new book / writing you are working on now?
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handmade by Laura Croxson

Lauzc · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:28 pm Post subject:

4. What are some of your favourite books and why?
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handmade by Laura Croxson

Karen · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:41 pm Post subject:

Just finished reading The Friday Night Knitting Club , which I did enjoy. Not exactly what I was expecting, I think I expected a bit of a feel good ending and of course that was not there and so that was a little surprising. When you began writing this, did you always have that ending in mind?

katejacobs_writer · Babblers First Words Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 5

I'm delighted to talk about the new book I'm working on. It's a mother-daughter story -- I love to focus on the relationships between women of different generations -- but it definitely has a twist. Of course, I'm not going to give it away! But it's a book that really looks at how we define ourselves and how we feel about where we've been slotted in by others.

As for what I love to read, I love to sample first novels and I read a wide range of books. I'm a huge fan of Alice Munro and Ian McEwan. Love Joanna Trollope -- her books are very delicious. My favorite recent novel, however, is When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro. I talk to book clubs via the telephone all the time -- about 40 clubs a month and not just in North America -- and I have recommended When We Were Orphans to a ton of readers. I just think it's a wondrous novel, beautifully written and paced.

Karen · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:49 pm Post subject:

Did you research this sort of group at all - knitting or craft groups I mean? I lived in the US for a while and used to frequent a little cross-stitch and craft store called Mom and Me, although I pictured that place in my mind when reading about Walker and Daughter I could never imagine Mom and Me being anything other than 10 til 5 Tuesday to Saturday.

Lauzc · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:56 pm Post subject:

katejacobs_writer · Babblers First Words Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 5

Hi Karen!

It IS a non-traditional ending and it's where I was going. But I do hope FNKC is ultimately hopeful, even optimistic. My goal with the ending was to make us more aware of certain health issues, but most of all to bring home the point that we should appreciate our friends -- and really let them know we care -- instead of putting off sharing a few kind words. FNKC is a story about dealing with regret and one of the major regrets we all share is the regret of the things we leave unsaid. So I was hoping there was some take-away because by the end of FNKC, these characters say what they mean and they mean what they say. They are in the moment. They are a community.

I'll let you know, though, that the sequel -- Knit Two -- is very much the counterbalance to FNKC. It has a more traditional ending. Because I like happiness as well!

katejacobs_writer · Babblers First Words Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 5

Research is often important. When facts are paramount, from a health issue standpoint, I do research and reach out to experts. And I lived in New York for a decade during the contemporary period in which the novel was set; I know the area and the lifestyle well.

But I did not interview any yarn shop owners or base the knitting shop on one particular store -- I wanted a reader to be able to imagine Walker & Daughter as her store, wherever it may be. And, because of my journalism background as a magazine writer and editor in NYC, in which objectivity and accurate quoting is essential, I didn't want to feel I had to represent just one particular yarn shop owner. I couldn't risk approaching FNKC the way I approached an article. I wanted the book to feel personal and, I hope, warm and welcoming. So I imagined. I knit little items along with the characters. Dakota makes cell phone socks because I was always making little cases for my mobile phone! Essentially, I lived in this fictional world in my mind and opened myself up the idea of making up quotes! (In other words, I wrote dialogue.) It was liberating but scary. And fun. Don't forget fun.

Lauzc · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:44 pm Post subject:

Well that's it for me now Kate. Thank you for joining us. I'm looking forward to read Knit 2... on my last pages of FNKC now!
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handmade by Laura Croxson

eightlegs · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:47 pm Post subject:

Sorry, forgot about this, have had a lot going on and am off to work shortly but just thought I'd say Hi and that I too enjoyed FNKC and was surprised by the ending yet once I'd finished the book it seemed right.

I loved the descriptions of the store, and the women getting together. And I was struck by how different each of the characters was from the others, did you base them on actual people you know, or are they all a mixture of traits in others?

katejacobs_writer · Babblers First Words Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 5

Hi! I tend not to use real people as characters -- I want to make sure my friends and family will still talk to me! -- but I think we've all met lots of different types of people in the world. As a writer, all of your experiences go into the well from which you draw upon emotionally. So I have great friends in my life, I know the importance of having strong support networks, and so on. And there are a few characters that have more in common with people from my real life. Darwin, for example, has a lot of similarities to how I thought when I was a teen. (Was very suspicious of domesticity, for example.) Or Gran has a lot in common with my grandmother, whom we called Nanny. But, in general, the characters in all of my novels are truly themselves, and are fictional creations.

Thanks again for including me! So nice to chat.

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