All The Beautiful Girls is a dazzling story of a gutsy showgirl who tries to conquer her past amongst the glamour of 1960s Las Vegas – finding unexpected fortune, friendship and love.
Name: Elizabeth J. Church
Occupation: Author (and yahoooo! about that!)
What you’re reading: I just finished my first Helen Dunmore book – sadly, her last: BIRDCAGE WALK.
What you’re listening to: Leonard Cohen’s “You Want It Darker”
What you’re watching: The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel
Favourite word(s): Clarity (in addition to words I listed previously)
Favourite song: “Positively 4th Street” (Bob Dylan)
Living person you most admire: I truly cannot answer this. I resist naming just one person.
The trait you most deplore in yourself: Ceaseless rumination
The trait you most deplore in others: Gratuitous cruelty
The book you wish you’d written: Madame Bovary (and, I suppose it goes without saying, but the entirety of Shakespeare’s works)
The book everyone should read: Inferior Angela Saini
Writing ritual: Walk dog in early-morning dark, come home and feed dog, plant self in front of computer, close eyes, let (and some days MAKE) it happen
Best advice ever received: They’re just as afraid of you, as you are of them.
If you could change one thing about the world: Immediately, as in right now, this nanosecond, get Donald Trump and his minions out of office.
Think of something beautiful: My dog Darwin when he dreams, his feet dance, and his tail wags.
The most memorable sentence you’ve ever read: This changes daily. One of my current favourites: “At some point in life, the world’s beauty becomes enough.” – Toni Morrison
If you weren’t writing: I’d be hiking or swimming or reading
Who would play the main characters in a film adaptation of your book? I want Jon Hamm for the Aviator. I’d bring back Ava Gardner or Elizabeth Taylor to play Vivid. And, as long as I’m raising the dead, I’d say Rita Hayworth for Lily/Ruby.
Best place to write? In my home, looking out my window at the Jemez Mountains, the crows descending to grab suet from my feeder, with my dog at my feet.
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