Best-selling author Liane Moriarty often turns life events into ideas for one of her successful novels. But there is one ordeal she’s not ready to write about and that is her diagnosis of breast cancer.
Early last year, Liane went for a mammogram, which she could easily have put off as Australia, like New Zealand, was enduring Covid lockdowns.
“I was literally a week late with my mammogram, so I’m very glad that I made the effort to get it done,” she says. “I have breast cancer in the family, so I knew I couldn’t miss a check-up. It was picked up quite early and I was very lucky.”
Liane had radiation therapy and surgery, and has used her experience to encourage other women not to miss their mammogram appointment.
“I could easily have left it with the pandemic and so much else going on,” she recalls. “If I’d left it for another year, it would have been quite different.”
In the past, Liane has used experiences in her life as research for her stories.
“I had unexplained leg pain for a long time. I gave that experience to the character in The Hypnotist’s Love Story. So, each time I go into another doctor’s surgery or see a physio, I don’t feel like it is a waste of time because I might get some material from it,” she laughs.
But she says her breast cancer experience won’t be making it into a novel anytime soon, explaining, “I don’t feel like writing about that yet. It’s not because I feel especially traumatised or anything, I just don’t feel a desire.”
Liane will be visiting New Zealand soon as a guest at the Auckland Writers Festival. Interest amongst fans is high because as well as selling more than 20 million copies of her books, her novel Big Little Lies was turned into a successful TV series starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep, which was followed by Nine Perfect Strangers, also starring Nicole and Melissa McCarthy. Her latest book, Apples Never Fall, has also been optioned for a screen adaptation.
Liane has spent time on the red carpet at the launches of these shows and says she has taken it all in her stride.
“I thought of it as a fun experience and just to observe it to see what that’s like with all the cameras flashing,” she says. “If it had happened to me when I was much younger, I would have leaned in more because I got invited to a lot
of parties!”
Liane admits finding the right dress to wear on the red carpet was very stressful and not at all rewarding.
“I was standing in between Nicole and Reese, and a guy with a camera said to Nicole, ‘Who are you wearing today?’ And I thought, ‘Okay, here’s my chance to say who I’m wearing.’ And then the microphone just went straight across me to Reese – ‘Who are you wearing, Reese?’ He had no interest in my dress at all!”
At the premiere of Big Little Lies with Nicole (left) and Reese.
Liane’s Apples Never Fall wasn’t supposed to be written when it was. She usually turns out a book every two years but in 2019, she decided to give herself time off and have what she called “A Year of Joy”.
“I had a really busy few years and I had this self-indulgent idea that this year would be all about me and I’ll have this year of joy,” she remembers. “I thought I would read poetry, but I didn’t and I got bored very quickly!”
She thought she should probably do a bit of writing just to keep her writing muscle going, so played with the idea of writing some short stories.
To get her started on one of these writing exercises, she asked her writer sister Jaclyn Moriarty to send her a prompt.
With author sisters Jaclyn (middle) and Nicola Moriarty.
“She sent me a few lines describing some apples lying on the grass with a bike lying next to them. That ended up becoming the opening chapter of Apples Never Fall because I’m not good at writing short stories,” she admits.
Before she knew it, her Year of Joy turned into 12 months of writing a new book.
“But there was pleasure in that because I didn’t feel as much pressure as I would normally because if it didn’t work, I could just throw it out.”
The book focuses on the disappearance of a mother in a family of champion tennis players. In the past, Liane successfully requested that A-list actresses Nicole and Meryl star in Big Little Lies and that funnywoman Melissa appear in Nine Perfect Strangers.
“I have heard that Bradley Cooper is a good tennis player, but I don’t think he’s really taking me seriously on my casting suggestion for Apples Never Fall!” she says, tongue in cheek.
Liane Moriarty will be speaking about Apples Never Fall at the Auckland Writers Festival on Friday, August 26 at 8pm, and at WORD Christchurch festival on Saturday, August 27 at 7pm.
