By Kathleen Whyman
Kathleen Whyman is the bestselling author of relatable, humorous women’s fiction and has been shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print prize.
She writes for all the multi-tasking, mentally-overloaded women who have put themselves on the subs bench for the sake of their family, and are beginning to realise that they don’t have it all – they do it all!
Kathleen also mentors authors and is an events host. She regularly interviews authors, chairs panels and teaches writing with humour workshops. You can see Kathleen’s author interviews for Author Events at https://www.youtube.com/@authoreventsuk
What’s your latest book?
The Mother of All Comebacks is humorous fiction about a midlife mum, Becca, who’s having an identity wobble. Her only child’s just gone to uni, so she’s suffering from empty nest syndrome. The absence of Becca’s daughter has highlighted how little she and her husband have in common – the most aroused she’s seen him in years is when he got Wordle in three guesses three days in a row.
After suffering ageism in the workplace, Becca’s now been made redundant. And her mother’s had a fall and fractured her wrist, so Becca has to move back into her childhood bedroom to look after her.
She’s losing her grip on all her labels – mum, wife, employee. Throwing on her best pair of mum jeans and fighting against all her instincts, Becca has to learn to put herself first. But how can she embrace her second act when she doesn’t have a second to herself?
What was the inspiration?
Empty nest syndrome is a real thing – even Michelle Obama had therapy for it, and that woman is a power house! – and often leaves couples wondering what they have in common now that the children have gone. Salsa lessons aren’t always the answer!
And many of us are in the sandwich generation – looking after children and elderly parents.
So many midlife women are overlooked, ignored and made to feel invisible. It really knocks our confidence. This is such a ridiculous attitude, as there are so many positives to being fifty-plus. This is the start of our second act when, hopefully, we’re finding our voice more and starting to give ourselves permission to do things for ourselves.
I wanted to write a really relatable story that made readers laugh but also resonated and gave them hope. My favourite feedback from Netgalley has been: ‘The Mother of All Comebacks is a love letter to every woman who’s spent twenty years holding everyone else’s emotional support water bottle and suddenly realises no one refilled hers. Honestly, I have never felt more seen.’
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How did you get into writing?
I wrote my first book, The Ghost of Cripple Creek, when I was 10. It filled two exercise books, although quite a lot of that space was devoted to illustrations. These must have been awful, as I can’t draw for toffee. Fortunately I don’t like toffee, so I’m not too concerned about this. I submitted it to a publisher, who sent me a letter saying that it wasn’t right for them, but that I should keep writing. They didn’t return the book though. I’m still upset about this.
I wrote short stories throughout my teens – I have several rejection letters from Jackie magazine – and started a couple of novels in my twenties, but never got very far with them. (I blame the close proximity of my local pub.) I wrote a novel when I was pregnant with my first daughter Eve (not being able to go out drinking meant that I had much more time on my hands than I was used to), about the pros and cons of being pregnant. The main con being not able to go out drinking. I finished the novel, but wisely abandoned it.
As a journalist, I had an outlet for writing in my day job, but still longed to be a novelist. I got slightly side-tracked from this goal over the years by work, children and Netflix. It was Eve’s words – ‘Stop talking about writing a book and just write one’ – that gave me the motivation to knuckle down and write my fist ‘proper’ novel Wife Support System.
I began writing the day my youngest daughter, Elena, started primary school and it got published a week after she left in year six. If someone had told me it would take seven years, about 20 rewrites/edits and countless rejections from agents and publishers I’d probably have cried and gone back to watching Netflix.
I now have four books published – Wife Support System, Would you Ask My Husband that?, Has Anyone Seen My Husband? (which was shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print prize), and The Mother of All Comebacks.
What have been the unexpected benefits of being a writer?
The writing community is very supportive and I’ve made lots of friends through various organisations, such as Comedy Women in Print and the Romantic Novelists Association. Writing can be an isolating pastime, so it’s great to have other authors to spend time with. I now run a local writing group. We meet once a month – in theory to write, but we’ve become such good friends we talk as much as we write!
Writing has opened up lots of opportunities for me. I regularly interview other authors at events, including Shirley Ballas, Susannah Constantine, Freya North and Sophie Hannah. I also did a series of online interviews for Author Events, with amazing authors including Milly Johnson and Paige Toon. You can watch these at https://www.youtube.com/@authoreventsuk
I also chair panels at events such as Forthwrite Festival and MeetCute, appear on panels, and teach writing with humour workshops for, among others, Bournemouth Writing Festival. I also mentor authors at all stages of their writing, from getting started, to approaching agents, to having someone to motivate, brainstorm and be accountable to.
I love supporting other authors, particularly women, and sharing the advice and experience that I’ve been lucky enough to receive over the years.
What three pieces of advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
1. Give yourself permission to write. I treat writing as a reward that I only allow myself to do when I’ve done all the other jobs. The trouble is, there are always other jobs to do, so I could go days without getting any writing done even though I’m itching too. I need to follow my own advice and prioritise my writing.
2. When you sit down to write, don’t waste time perfecting what you wrote last time. Instead, focus on getting the story down. Then go back and edit and perfect it when you’ve finished writing the book. I wasted countless hours tinkering with chapters of Wife Support System that I ended up cutting out.
With Has Anyone Seen My Husband?, I had a deadline to meet to enter the Comedy Women in Print prize, so hammered it out. I didn’t even have time to read it before submitting it. I wouldn’t recommend doing that under normal circumstances though!
3. Tell the story you want to tell and don’t worry about what other people might think of it when they read it. There wouldn’t be any swearing or salacious behaviour in any books if we all worried about what our grandmas would make of it!
Where can people get your books?
They’re all available in paperback, ebook and audiobook online, or you can order the paperback from your lovely local bookshop.
If you’d like to ‘try before you buy’, please DM me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/kathleenwhymanauthor/)and I’ll send you the first three chapters of The Mother of All Comebacks. Hope you enjoy it!
Link to buy books: https://amzn.to/4kumFls
Website: https://www.kathleenwhyman.com/
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