Author interview: Trusting her instinct paid off as Scarlett follows up ‘Boys Don’t Cry’

Fíona Scarlett can’t wait for the launch of her second novel. She loves the thought of having her family, her friends, and all the people who helped her with May All Your Skies Be Blue celebrating together, in the same room. 

It’s all a huge contrast to her first launch, back in 2021, when Ireland was still in the third lockdown.

“I was teaching at the time, and on the day of publication the staff organised a surprise event in the school hall.

“All the doors and windows were open, and we had to social distance, even though we came from a classroom of 30 kids.

“There were balloons, there was champagne, a cake, and a cardboard cutout of me holding the book, but I couldn’t hug anyone. It was so strange.

“And then I went home to watch my launch on Zoom. My mum and brother brought me presents, but they had to leave them at the gate.”

In spite of that difficult start, with bookshops closed, her debut novel, Boys Don’t Cry, became an instant success. 

It sold by word of mouth. Booksellers and libraries were hand-selling it from a computer screen. Everyone was online a lot more and it really took off.

We’re talking via Zoom having postponed a face-to-face interview twice — when the storm, and then sickness, scuppered our plans — but we’ve met before. 

When I interviewed Fíona at Bantry House live, but with no audience, in May 2021, when Ireland was struggling to come out of that third lockdown.

Unusually, Fíona hadn’t thought of being a writer until she hit 35. When making up funny stories for children she found that she couldn’t stop writing, so she took an MLitt in creative writing, adding to her degree in music education and MA in early childhood education.

Boys Don’t Cry sold on April 1, 2020, by which time Fíona had written the first draft of May All Your Skies Be Blue. 

“I started it on the first day of lockdown,” she says. “I remember we were called in, at school, and told that we would be closing down for the two weeks before Easter.

“We’d then have the two-week Easter holidays, then everything would be back to normal.

“I thought, this is my chance now. I used those four weeks and got a really good chunk of a draft done. It came very quickly.

“But when 'Boys Don’t Cry' sold, I found writing really tough.”

I was in my head too much, and in lockdown, when I was teaching as well, I found it really hard to write anything. I didn’t touch it for about a year.

When she finally went back to it, writing a total of eight drafts, she had lost confidence. Thinking the story was too quiet, she kept adding to it.

“I contacted my editor with a long list of the things I was going to do with the book; there were going to be weddings and babies and all types of things, and she said, ‘We need to have a meeting now. Go back to your first draft.’”

It was good advice. The story opens in 1991, when Shauna moves into an estate, and her mum opens a hairdressing salon. 

She makes friends with some local children, notably Dean — and their close friendship deepens over the years into romance. 

Fíona gives us a wonderfully authentic depiction of the way teenagers think and act — with all their insecurities and rivalries. It’s funny, and poignant, but the plot darkens when we get glimpses of the families behind closed doors.

Each alternate chapter takes place on one day, by which time Shauna is running the salon, and we meet the other characters as they come in for appointments, or just for a chat. 

It’s a clever device, which shows the strength of the community. How did Fíona come up with the idea?

Obsession with local hairdresser

“I was always really obsessed with the local hairdresser when I was younger,” she says. 

“It’s a typical local hairdresser and is fictionally based on where I come from. The hairdressers was always full of life, with all these local characters going in and out.

“I just loved that place — it was always in my head.”

The character of Dean came next. Fíona had intended to tell the story in his voice, but she soon realised that this was Shauna’s tale.

“Shauna is the same age as I was in the ’90s, so there is a lot of me in the book — I was at that age and doing that stuff. It’s fiction, but I drew from my own life.”

It wasn’t until Fíona had applied for — and got — an Arts Council bursary allowing her to take a year’s career break that she finally got to grips with this second novel.

“I then took a second year, and I worked as writer-in-residence at Maynooth University,” she says. 

“And then in September 2023 I covered Joseph O’Connor’s sabbatical leave, teaching creative writing on the MA programme.”

“I really love lecturing. I wouldn’t go back to primary school teaching, but when you’re in that creative head space all the time, talking about writing and about literature I found it much easier to say, ‘These are my writing days, and these are my lecturing days’.

“And you have an office where you can get the work done. Nobody will interrupt you.”

There are many issues covered in May All Your Skies Be Blue. Shauna’s mum develops early onset Alzheimer’s, and the effect of alcoholism runs through Dean’s family. 

While Dean escapes his family situation, Shauna embraces her role as carer — but her life never moves on.

“She holds on to her past so much, seeing it with a sheen on rose tinted glasses, all love and vibrancy. But she was never going to leave her mum. In a way the book is more their love story than the one between Dean and Shauna.”

The mum of a friend of Fíona’s had suffered from early onset dementia. She saw how devastating that was, and she researched the subject thoroughly to make sure she handled the story line sensitively.

“And I’ve an incredibly close friend whose mother was an alcoholic. There were three in the family, and they all dealt with it differently.

“One turned to addiction. I find it fascinating the way it runs through families and the ripples it creates.”

“They were in good form, and were holding down jobs, but it wasn’t like that all the time. The children always knew their mum had her own ‘special’ drink.”

Fíona has always had incredible support from her family. When some agents rejected Boys Don’t Cry because they ‘didn’t know where to put it on the shelf’, her mum said, ‘Of course they don’t. It will be in the window, not on a shelf!’

Fíona’s children, Charlie, 17, and Molly, 14, can’t wait for the launch. 

“It will be so nice to celebrate with them, and to show them to go for what they are passionate about; and not to be afraid to do whatever they want to.”

Halfway through the draft of her third novel, Fíona is enjoying the process. “I’m finding joy in the writing again,” she says. 

“After going though the process of my second book I’ve realised that the first draft is what matters. The moral is, learn to trust your instinct.

“Try not to get into your head too much — the truth is somewhere there, in the first draft.”