Catherine Isaac is a best-selling romcom author who is also a master of bittersweet family stories, the sort of stories that break your heart at the same time as they make it soar.

Hi there, I'm your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Catherine talks about her uplifting stories that delight readers with their glorious French and Italian settings, while challenging them to accept that sometimes it takes darkness to see how we shine.

We've got three copies of Catherine's latest book, Messy, Wonderful Us, to give away to three lucky readers. In this story, two friends fly to Italy, one in search of her mother's secret life, the other escaping a sudden separation. It's an uplifting tale of love, regret, and second chances, just what we need in this time of COVID-19. 

The draw closes on June 13 so don't miss out.  Before we get to Catherine, just a reminder that the show notes for this episode can be found on our website thejoysofbingereading.com That’s where you’ll find links to Catherine’s website and books as well as links to go into the draw to win a copy of Messy, Wonderful Us.  Enter now and while you’re there leave us a comment.  We’d love to hear from you.

Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

How going to a wedding got Catherine writingWhat having a Mum in a wheelchair taught her about lifeMaking light shine in darknessThe gamble that paid off big timeThe writers she admires mostWhat she'd do differently second time around

Where to find Catherine Isaac: 

Website: http://catherineisaac.com

Facebook: @CatherineIsaacAuthor

 Twitter: http://@CatherineIsaac_

Instagram: @CatherineIsaacauthor

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Introducing Catherine Isaac

But now here’s Catherine.  Hello Catherine and welcome to the show. It's so good to have you with us.

Catherine Isaac:  It's great to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Jenny Wheeler: You are in the UK and I'm in New Zealand and we're in a time of pandemic.  Can you paint a bit of a picture for our listeners? How is social distancing affecting you?

Catherine Isaac author

Catherine Isaac: I think we're the same as most people.  We’re kind of muddling through really.  I've got three children, aged 15, 11 and 7, so they're all at home doing their schoolwork here.  Obviously trying to write in between printing out trigonometry questions is a bit more challenging than usual.

But we're muddling through and we're lucky because we've got a garden and I know that doesn't apply to lots of people, so we're just tootling along really. We're fine.

Coping with Covid

Jenny Wheeler:  I've spoken to quite a few people who say that even when they're in rather comfortable circumstances, this virus somehow does get into their heads and distracts them from their normal thinking processes.  As a former newspaper editor, are you finding it harder to focus?  Are you a bit distracted by wanting to jump into news cycles still?

Catherine Isaac: I 've always been slightly obsessed with the news.  I was a newspaper journalist for many years before I became an author and I am permanently glued to the news and obviously there isn't a great deal of good news around at the moment.  

In terms of being distracted, I've heard a lot of people say that actually.  In my case, I tend to find that in times of crisis I find writing a kind of distraction in itself and I do like submerging.

Writing as an escape

 I can think of many examples in my life if things have been going badly elsewhere, somehow the writing seems to go well in that case.  Don't ask me why but I think it's a means of escape for me.

Jenny Wheeler:  Yes.  You can lose yourself in it, perhaps.

Catherine Isaac: Exactly.  That's not to say that I always find writing easy or anything like that, or easy to focus on,