I’m welcoming Kate Forster to Book’d Out today to celebrate the release of her fourth adult novel, Close Up.
Kate 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. Kate is the author of the adult novels; The Perfect Location, The Perfect Retreat, Seduction and Close Up. She has also written five young adult romance books including; Unlucky Break, Head over High Heels, Beauty and the Beat, Piece of Cake and Twice Upon a Time.
Close Up is the story of three women in Hollywood. Zoe Greene 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.
My review of Close Up can be read here , but first, here is your opportunity to learn more about the story and the author…
Q&A with Kate Forster
Q: What five words would you choose to describe Close Up?
Funny, romantic, escapist, revealing, beautiful.
Q:What was the first element of inspiration for the story of Close Up?
That the best drama often happens off the screen. The secrets that made and break deals and careers. These are the only politics that interest me and I consider myself an expert in all of these machinations. I love the deals and the secrets of the stars and how the industry ticks. Things are never as the publicists want the media to believe, and the more they try and control the story, the more social media and the public will pull it apart to reveal the truth.
Q: What is your favourite scene in the novel?
When Maggie, the actress, first meets Hugh, the writer. Their dialogue was so much fun to write. I am so in love with both of them.
Q: Did you ever want to be an actress?
I did. I attended WAAPA, in Perth, whose alumini includes Hugh Jackman and Lisa McCune. I acted for quite a few years, mostly commercials, which paid well when I was a young stay at home mum.
Q: What is your favourite source of celebrity news/gossip?
Most gossip columns are echo chambers, repeating the news from another site, but I adore Lainey Gossip, who is a self professed ‘gossip hound’ from Canada. She analysises the gossip, and the stars careers. She doesn’t do ‘sad smut’, as she calls it, eg. when people die from their addictions etc, so there is an element of integrity about her. She also has hilarious names for some of the stars. She is funny, witty and smarter than her peers.
Q: Can you please share three of your favourite novels by Australian women writers?
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta. I could not put this book down, and then I slowed as I came to the end, wanting to make the most from the remaining pages. I might be written for teens but the writing trancends age. Please read, then give to your teenage daughter to read. As near perfect as any other book I have ever read.
Earthly Delights by Kerry Greenwood- These are my escape from the world. They are set in Melbourne- my favorite city in the world, with a curvy baker heroine, who solves mysteries, and has a hot boyfriend, what’s not to love?
Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner- Sometimes when I was a child, I would reread the section in the book where my favourite character dies and cry until I had to go to bed. It is still the saddest story I read a child. And yet, so beautiful and a wonderful dip into early white settler life in Sydney.
Q: What is your preference?
Coffee/Tea or other? Coffee first thing in the morning. Tea in the evening.
Beach/Pool or River? Beach. Always the beach. Winter or Summer.
Slacks/Jeans or Leggings? Yoga pants. These are the lower half of my writing uniform.
Butterfly/Tiger or Giraffe? Giraffe. Those long eyelashes and legs! They’re the Victoria’s Secret models of African savannas.
Learn more about Kate Forster at
Website I Blog I Facebook I Twitter
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Close Up is available for purchase from
Penguin I 
I Booktopia I Amazon AU I via Booko
Filed under: Australian Reading, Author Interview/Guest Post, Contemporary, Fiction
