If you can’t date anyone nice, don’t date anyone at all…

The result? Her life — usually joyfully/traumatically occupied with dates, clothes and vodka — is finally easy. Chastity rocks. No wonder nuns are always singing. Everything falls at her feet. Especially men.
Will Sass break the rules? Why does fate keep throwing her in the path of the irritatingly amusing — and gorgeous — Jake? Will she ever roll the dice and play again? Or is a love-free life too good to risk losing?

The Dating Detox is my new favourite book, it’s super-charged, awesome sauce ‘chick-lit’. The leading lady is called Sass – we were always gonna love her with a name like that Sass, weren’t we? She’s straight talking, ever-so likeable and I’d deffo want her as my BFF.

The Dating Detox is a refreshing anti-rom com, but before you run out to get yourself a copy, which you absolutely should, come meet Gemma – funny, pretty and ever so talented – if she wasn’t so fabulous, I might want to poke her eyes out!

When did you discover you had an awesome talent for writing books?
You! With your sweet talk! Stop it. I’m blushing.

Did you go on a dating detox for research before writing the book?
I went on a dating sabbatical years ago, but not as research, as it was long before I thought about writing a book – just because I was tired of everything in my life being about meeting men, dating men, waiting for phone calls, agonizing over texts, etc. I was pretty sure that I was smarter and better than that but felt like I was off-balance and couldn’t get things right… So I just stopped, overnight, vowed to stop talking to men and thinking about them and then the balance of power tipped back in my favour.  
 


You’ve got an awesome ‘how I became a writer’ story to do with breaking a heel – tell us all about it!
Ha – well. Sort of. I wear a lot of very high heels and your mother’s right, they’re very bad for your back. I hurt my back and couldn’t move for about a month… So the reason I started writing the book was because I had nothing else to do. 
 

What inspires you to write?
My friends inspire me to write – girls who are funny and silly and sarcastic. I started writing The Dating Detox as we wanted to read chicklit that was sharp and funny – we felt like we had to choose between reading warm, comforting chicklit books (which I love) and books that were sharp and would really make me laugh (which I also love).

How long did it take you to write Dating Detox? 

About a year but I would leave it untouched for weeks at a time… I write pretty fast; it’s the editing that’s time consuming. I’d say 95% of writing is editing…


Do you have a writing routine? If so, what is it?
I wake up early, and thunder out some words while my brain is still fresh, drink several cups of coffee, and then go through an edit/review/edit cycle over the course of the day, with stops for food and exercise. (God, that sounds boring. It’s fun. Honestly.)

Has your life changed since you became a novelist?
Sometimes I forget the book exists – then someone references the book and I’m like ‘oh that’. It’s odd that it’s going to be around for the rest of my life – it’s like a snapshot of me in my 20s.

How do you cure writer’s block?
Wailing and drinking. Kidding. You have to just not think about it – read something else. Go for a walk and look at people. Don’t beat yourself up and don’t forget to breathe.

What are you reading at the moment?
Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. It’s a lovely chewy three-course meal of a novel, thrilling and delicious and satisfying… My book is a little amuse-bouche in comparison, but that’s okay. There’s room for both in life. Sometimes you don’t want a three-course meal.

What’s the biggest myth about being a writer?
I’m not sure. What myths are there?

 
What do you love about being a woman in the world? 
I realized a few years ago that life was only as complicated as I was allowing it to be and that I could take control and make things happen. I LOVE that. That’s not a woman thing though, that’s just, I don’t know, a human thing.

What 5 tracks would be essential to a Gemma Burgess soundtrack? 
Great question! This changes every day – I make a weekly soundtrack for my life – but if I was to make a list of songs that I almost always like singing along to, very loudly, it’s:
Journey – Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ (it’s the new Don’t Stop Believin’, mark my words.)
The Turtles – Happy Together
Jay-Z – 99 Problems
The Divinyls – Ring Me Up
And almost any song by Ok Go, Aerosmith or Guns’n’Roses. I love an angry guitar.

What’s your motto for life?
If you think it works, it works. (That’s more of a sartorial motto, but it applies to most things in life.)

The Gemma Burgess Sassy List – what’s your favourite: 

Website/blog: Go Fug Yourself  

Book: Nora Ephon’s Heartburn 

Must-have beauty item: Benefit High Beam. O God. I love that stuff. 
Movie: Sixteen Candles by John Hughes. 

Shop: Topshop. Obv 

City: London or New York – don’t make me choose… 

Hangout: Anywhere that’s not a chain. 
 


What does the term Sassy Minx mean to you?
Smart, funny, confident, charming son-of-a-gun. (Daughter of a gun? No. You know what I mean.) The character in my book is called Sass – I named her after a friend of mine from university whose real name is Sarah but everyone has always called her Sass. And one of the guys in the book calls her Minxy, by the way – that’s a nickname my young man has for me. When I’m being particularly cocky he says I’m afflicted with Minximatosis. Sadly, there is no known cure…

Right, NOW you can go buy the book, visit Gemma at: www.gemmaburgess.com