Close Up Interview

Close Up

Even movie stars aren't always ready for their close up, especially when it may expose the secrets of the past.

Zoe Green manages the careers of Hollywood's biggest stars. She'll do anything to help them - and herself - get ahead.

Actress Maggie Hall has been America's sweetheart for nearly twenty years. And she's about to learn that there are two things in life you just can't fight: growing older and falling in love.

Dylan Mercer - young, beautiful and defiant - has run away from New York to try her luck in Hollywood. She's not after fame and fortune, though. Dylan's on a quest to find her birth mother.

All three women are swept up in the search for the actress who will score the role of a lifetime. But ambition and desire can bring out the worst in people. And in a town built on illusions, believing you can escape your past might just be the biggest illusion of all.

Kate Forster lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, two children and two dogs, and can be found nursing a laptop, surrounded by magazines and watching trash TV or French films while Facebooking, pinning on Pinterest, tweeting and texting, usually all at once. Kate is an avid follower of fashion, fame and all things pop culture and is an excellent dinner party guest who always brings gentle gossip and champagne.

Close Up
Penguin Australia
Author: Kate Forster
ISBN: 9781921901638
RRP: $29.99

Interview with Kate Forster

Question: What inspired the story of Close Up?

Kate Forster: The fact that most of the drama in Hollywood, doesn't happen on screen, it happens behind the scenes. The secrets that A list stars try to keep hidden, the backstabbing and the ambition that makes that world go around. Times haven't changed from the 1950's when reputations were so carefully managed. They are still controlled, but it's harder and harder to keep secrets in a digital age. Everyone has a smart phone and this makes the famous more vulnerable than ever.


Question: Was it difficult to write a book that follows the lives of three different women?

Kate Forster: Not at all. I like to create different women for my readers to care about. They are all different but similar. It's fun to write stories that overlap, and then bring it all together at the end.


Question: Which of the three characters (Zoe, Maggie, Dylan) is most like you and why?

Kate Forster: They all have parts of me in them. The romantic nature of Dylan, the survivor mentality of Maggie, and the work ethic of Zoe.


Question: Which of the three characters was your favourite to write and why?

Kate Forster: That's like being asked to pick a favourite child!

Probably Maggie, because she's so funny and sassy and flawed, and her dialogue with Hugh, a male character, was a dream to write.


Question: How much of your inspiration comes from real life and real people?

Kate Forster: All of it comes from real life. The gossip blogs, my friends, stories I've heard, anecdotes I've remembered and saved. It's all real, just carefully disguised!


Question: What advice do you have for females who have a passion for writing?
Kate Forster: Write because you have to. Write because you love words. Write because you love reading. Write because there is no other way to express what you're feeling or thinking.

Just write.


Question: What's next for you?

Kate Forster: I have a new adult manuscript I am working on now, and a new young adult novel due out later in 2014. I also have two children starting high school and finishing high school so it's going to be a busy year.