Page 16 - Real Style Fall 2019

PS, I LOVE YOU— EVEN MORE
Real Style: It’s been 15 years since you wrote PS, I Love You. Why did you decide to return to it, and why now? Cecelia Ahern: I did it because the story came into my head and wouldn’t go away. It grew and grew and when that happened I knew it was the story that I had to write. To be honest, I said I’d never write the sequel—for a few different reasons but also because I had brought the char-
acters to exactly where I wanted them to be. But in 2012 I had my second child and was fixing my will, and it was through the act of thinking about what people do in everyday life to pre- pare for those that they may possibly be leav- ing behind, it opened my mind again. It seemed like an original story but then I thought that this could be something for Holly to be in, that this could be a sequel to PS, I Love You. That’s how it all came about; it was very natural.
BEST-SELLING PS, I LOVE YOU AUTHOR CECELIA AHERN RETURNS WITH A SEQUEL TO HER HIT NOVEL. BYCATALINAMARGULIS
WHEN CECELIA AHERN’S DEBUT NOVEL PS, I Love You was published in 2004, it quickly found a spot on bestselling lists. The story about a young widow who rediscovers life, and herself, as she opens letters left to her by her young husband before he passed away, guiding her to her new life without him, captured the hearts of readers the world over. Hollywood came knocking soon after, fulfill- ing what may be almost every writer’s fantasy, and culminating in a feature film starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. The acclaimed author has since published 16 books, as well as writing for movies and television. Her latest novel catches up with the widow Holly seven years after PS, I Love You. Ahern shares why she wrote the sequel, what inspires her and her feelings on achieving international success at just 21.
RS: You’re writing about characters you wrote about at the start of your career, so many books ago, a lifetime ago. How was it different for you, returning to them, to Holly’s story, as the person you are today, with everything you have experi- enced in the meantime?
CA: It was very interesting, and I would say chal- lenging, because what I love to do is create char- acters and develop them. Over the past 15 years or more I have changed. My writing has improved and my writing style has changed and how I go about building a character is different. I had to revisit a character that was already created when I was 21 years old. I needed to capture the tone of the first book but also modernize it and make it for who I am now, and that was really challenging. What I de- cided to do was take the character seven years on. I thought, if we could meet her seven years on, she would be a new version of herself, the new Holly.
16 Real Style Fall 2019
PHOTOS, CECELIA AHERN