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EXCLUSIVE: Author Interview with Suzan Holder- Shake It Up, Beverley

It is absolute pleasure to bring you an exclusive author interview with the lovely Suzan Holder. She's written an hilarious debut and you can find out more about it here! Read on to find out Paul McCartney's reaction. (as well as myself!)..


Shaking up the plot:

Beverley Wilson has always loved the Beatles but kissing a poster goodnight isn’t really an option when you’re a fifty-something mum of three. So when she decides it’s time to get back into the dating game, she turns to a dating agency for help.


But the long and winding road to real love is littered with dating disasters – the pantyhose pervert being the real low point and in Bev’s opinion it’s all too much. But meeting fellow Beatles fan Scott Smith changes everything…


This hilarious romantic comedy explores life, love and lonely hearts in the suburbs of Liverpool. Is Bev’s attempt to shake things up foolish…or the bravest thing she’s done?


Bobs and Books honest review:

I was laughing out loud from "tan tights" and there are some really comical moments in there.

I'm not sure I'll ever hear yellow submarine in the same way again either.


Great to see 50+ representation in a book, not enough of this. Some delicate subject matters brought into this story too.


The landscape was described so well that I really now want to visit Liverpool. I'm not the biggest Beatles fan (although I can play Yesterday on the keyboard) but I think the nostalgia and love for music is universal and the author really shines this through the novel.


Funny, flirty, surprising, daring. Read this in one sitting, totally devoured it.


Loved it.


Author interview:


Congratulations on your first novel!


I think I’m right in saying that this was originally a play before a novel. How hard was that transition to go from play to novel? How did you find the writing process?


Yes, Shake It Up, Beverley began life as a play - Shake It Up, Baby - which was performed in Liverpool and Manchester and attracted the interest of a London theatre producer. We had financial backing for a UK theatre tour but the pandemic derailed those plans.

Adapting the script into a book was actually fun! I had a core story all there but I added some backstory, subplots and a new love interest for Bev… the play had a more whimsical ending but I knew romcom readers would need a more satisfying end. It felt like I had a really strong foundation to build upon and I feel very lucky, as a debut author, to have had the chance to see Beverley in action and gauge the reaction of the audience to her as a person and her various adventures. Going forward if the play returns I wouldn’t change much about it it’s an entertaining peak into Bev’s life… but if people want to know what happened next for Beverley they could read the book to find out!

The dating scenes at the start are LOL funny, I'm not sure I’ll look at tan tights in the same way again! Did you base these scenes on friends retellings or did you think up crazy situations? Or both?


Yes I did base a lot of the material on things my friends had told me… the date where Beverley gets presented with a pair of American Tan tights is definitely one of those cases. But I have to confess I hardly had to invent anything! Either the stories have happened to my friends or … to me! (Before I met my husband, obviously) I have a long memory and luckily I am able to laugh now about some of the horrific dating experiences I had back in the day.


I can only imagine that you must be a HUGE Beatles fan to write this? Who is your favourite Beatle and what’s your favourite Beatles track?


Oooo yes, of course I am a huge fan of The Beatles. It’s hard to pick favourites. Growing up I always had a bit of a thing for John but I do have to pick Paul as my ultimate Beatle now, not least because I have met him a couple of times! He also sent me a wonderful reply when I emailed him about the book wishing me all the best, saying it sounded ‘Fab’ and joking that ‘Paul McCartney being anyone’s ideal man is a bit of a stretch’ !! What a guy.


When I watched the Peter Jackson ‘Get Back’ documentary recently my adoration for Paul only intensified and I felt Beverley’s devotion to him was completely validated…Ha! Have you seen Macca in 1969? … I mean … swoon. The intensity, the talent, devoted husband, attentive father - what’s not to love? The moment where you watch him give birth to the song ‘Get Back’ strumming on his bass guitar is something I’m still recovering from - pure genius. I always loved that track but now it’s gone right to the top of my favourite list. As for his solo stuff I absolutely adore ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ - the perfect love song.

Women in their 50s is an age bracket widely not represented in fiction, and women’s fiction in particular. Why do you think that is? How determined are you to break that norm?


I had absolutely no idea when I wrote Shake It Up, Beverley with a main character in her fifties, that I was doing anything unusual. The character of Bev was the one that came to me as right for the story I was telling. It was only when HarperCollins mentioned to me that it was a bit rare to have an older woman at the centre of a romcom I realised how under represented we are. That seems a bit crazy to me as there are loads of more mature women dating and looking for love and having all sorts of adventures so of course their stories need to be told.


Having said all that I’m not on any sort of mission and my next book ‘Rock n’ Rose” has a younger main character (based on me at 25) although there are several other mature women featured heavily throughout.


I certainly intend to include mature female characters in all my future books one way or another, their life experience is far more rich and there is so much potential for exciting storylines - it would be mad to ignore that.

You’ve worked on many television shows, and your “Lively Ladies” section when the media take hold of Bev’s story is an interesting one. Is there a reason you chose to loosely (see what I did there) feature that show rather than any other?


Well spotted, yes I was Executive Producer of Loose Women several years ago and so I know the world of daytime TV pretty well. I certainly based the ‘Lively Ladies’ segment on that kind of show. We used to start every morning with a look through the papers to see what our talking points for that day would be so when Bev hits the headlines due to her antics in Liverpool I knew her dilemma was something the ‘Lively Ladies’ would spot and definitely want to talk about. Poor Bev - can you imagine putting yourself out there internet dating and they finding they are talking about your love life on a TV show !? What a nightmare!

Can you give us a teaser as to what your second book is about?


I’d love to. As I said earlier, the main character in my next book ‘Rock n’ Rose’ is more like me than Beverley (I think). Daisy is a young woman who runs an unsuccessful vintage clothing store in Wales but a deathbed confession from her beloved Nana Rose sets her life in a whole different direction. She heads to Memphis, Tennessee to try and solve a family mystery and her journey takes her behind the gates of Elvis Presley’s Graceland. The story of The King is woven through her journey and she has an encounter with a hunky motorcycle cop called Blue which is based on something that really happened to me when I visited Elvis’s birthplace! As Shake It Up, Beverley was a love letter to Liverpool and the Beatles this is a love letter to Elvis and Memphis. It’s out on September 1st.

Lastly, what’s your top tip for any budding authors out there?


Keep going. I know everyone says it but that’s because it’s true. It took me YEARS to land a publishing deal but if you believe in the story you are writing keep working on it because eventually you can find someone who believes in it too.


Thanks so much to Suzan for agreeing to answer my questions.



Look out for Suzan's second book, out in September. If you have a suspicious mind, or wear blue suede shoes, it might be for you.

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