So then, what's chick-lit without the Ladbroke Grove setting and the Ab-Fab cast-offs? Quite a lot according to Kate Harrison, whose novels are more commuter belt than city living, and take on slightly loftier themes than oversized knickers and PR bashes. While her book covers display the usual pastel hues and girly-swirly typefaces, Kate is adamant that the genre offers variety, and certainly sees no need to keep up with the Joneses.

A bombshell of creative passions, Kate spends her days developing new and exciting ideas for TV, which actually makes her a likely candidate for a chick-lit character and brings to mind images of a BBC think tank labouring to bring forth the latest genre-busting show where smug Islington couples get their studio flat tidied-up before selling it to buy and renovate half of Tuscany. (actually that's not bad. Now we just need a blokey-bloke and a posh bird to front it, and talk to each other in badly stilted dialogue  - Ed)

Her latest novel The Starter Marriage deals with the affects of first divorce, and was actually written before the buzzphrase was coined by Oprah-tic US self-help gurus. It was a useful bit of synchronicity to buoy the book's success, and saved having to find a title. This year, we'll also get Book 3 - Brown Owl's Guide to Life - for which Kate is experimenting with a work-in-progress blog chronicling (and recursively, serving as) her writers' procrastination.

It doesn't stop there. Kate's remaining energy is spent helping new writers get advice on writing and publishing via her Between the Lines newsletter. She's also got some more formalised courses in the works, which she assures us aren't just for wannabe chicklitters. And to round off, there's her Boot Camp for the Broken Hearted, a series of exercises dedicated to getting over your ex. No, really. My money's on that one being adapted for BBC daytime' 2006 lineup.

Eschewing Starbucks for Horlicks (what the hell does that mean!? - Ed), we talked to Kate about suburban chick-lit, having a proper job, and other unconventionalities.

Great Writing: With chick-lit usually presented a fairly homogeneous genre is it difficult to establish yourself as a unique brand?

Kate Harrison: I have a very ambivalent attitude to the whole concept of ‘chick lit' - on the one hand, I think it is a slightly patronising label that often lumps together most novels written by women who happen to be under the age of 45 and are writing about that age group...

But on the other hand, perhaps female authors should ‘reclaim' chick lit as other groups have reclaimed insulting labels: be proud of our Prada handbags! In many ways, the label is no more than a marketing device that encompasses a huge array of styles and subject matter.

In terms of establishing myself as a ‘brand,' it's only something I've been aware of since I was published: when I was writing my first book, I wasn't aiming at a particular market or genre. But now I do realise that I tend to write ‘bittersweet' books that are perhaps more realistic than some of the fluffier titles: funny, I hope, but that dark kind of humour that many of us share when we're muddling our way through life.

GW: Your books lean towards more grown-up themes. Is this a conscious positioning at the 'top end' of the genre?

KH: I never set out to write the standard twentysomething city chick novels - to me, a PR girl with a Selfridges expense account and a Moet habit just isn't very interesting, or relevant to many people.

I suppose I am a grown-up so I want to write about grown up themes -my books are primarily there to entertain, but  I also want to write about aspects of life that matter to me: bullying, recovering from heartbreak and finding the guts to begin again, realising that you can still live your dreams, whatever your age... As a thirtysomething writer, I want to explore the subjects that preoccupy me and the people I'm close to...
Bridget Jones was original and fresh in her day, but now people who read what you could call ‘contemporary women's fiction' (with a label like that, no wonder ‘chick lit' is used as shorthand) want different stories. Even the twentysomething writers are trying new things.

GW: Are you conscious of any schism between chick-lit and more traditional 'romance' works (or between authors of same)?

KH: I don't know about a schism - I'm just back from the conference and had a great time chatting to authors from all our different ‘factions.' I suppose most authors gravitate towards what interests us as readers - I don't tend to read category romance so if I tried to write one, that would show and it'd be awful. I joined the RNA once I was published because I hadn't realised what a broad church it was: my novels are about relationships, of course, because what is a life without love and friendships. BUT my characters' journeys are about more than finding Mr or Ms Right: it's a bit of a cliché but the books are about people finding themselves. So in The Starter Marriage the book begins with the aftermath of a divorce: hardly a conventional ‘romance' storyline.

My friends were really surprised at first that I ‘qualified' as a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association... but when I explained that it covers romantic in the broadest sense of the word, they understood. The organisation is also a terrific resource for new writers and I wish I'd realised I could join when I was struggling with my first novel...

GW: Is chick-lit in general guilty of pushing a certain image of modern women - i.e. that of Sav Blanc-sozzled, relationship-obsessed, slightly-ditzy-but-lovable creatures?

KH: Perhaps that was true in the early days, but I don't think it reflects the range of styles and stories presented behind the ubiquitous pink (or whatever this season's colour is) jackets. Some of my characters are very far from ditzy or lovable! And few publishers would go for a book with a Chardonnay-swilling Bridget clone now. I think that critics tend to be very dismissive and not realise there's been a change but that readers are more sophisticated and can tell the difference, and then choose which of the authors or titles suit them. And don't forget that in the early days of ‘chick' and ‘lad lit,' the girls-and-boys-about-town portrayed hadn't really featured in fiction before. I remember reading High Fidelity for the first time and nodding in recognition at the dysfunctional central character. Nick Hornby is an interesting example: as a man, he gets a much more positive literary press than many women writing about similar issues.  I think he's a great writer, but there are many women - Lisa Jewell, for example, or Marian Keyes - who are also wonderful and write about difficult situations, but are still dismissed by some critics.

GW: Do the two sides of your work (television concept development / novel writing) balance?

KH: They do balance, more or less, though it can be tricky. I work all day generating ideas and writing them up - then come home and do the same with books. Before this job, I was in TV production which I loved but it was extremely demanding, time wise, with 60 hour weeks the norm. Now I work in TV  4 days a week and rarely have to work weekends, giving me more time for writing novels.

In terms of the atmosphere, actually TV development tends to be a very supportive place to be, as the people who enjoy it have vivid imaginations and are really open-minded, so it's less thrusting and cut-throat than other parts of the TV world...

Also office life is a good distraction if a work-in-progress isn't progressing! In the long term, I'd like to write full-time but author friends have warned me it's quite lonely: there's no perfect solution. My double life does mean my friends and family tend to bear the brunt. So they always get a nice big thank you in my acknowledgements!

GW: Let's talk a bit about your work developing new ideas for TV. How would you address the normal perceptions that a) anyone could come up with ideas for TV and b) everything on TV's rubbish nowadays anyway?

KH: In a typical week, I might run brainstorms to generate new ideas, or a smaller meeting about ideas we need to refine; I might be meeting potential on-screen presenter talent, or experts who have knowledge we can turn into a documentary; I could go to a ‘trends briefing' or a session on what the competition is doing; and I'll be doing a lot of writing treatments or pitches to present to TV channel controllers.
It's true that anyone might come up with a great idea, and indeed often different TV companies come up with the same ideas simultaneously: there's often ‘something in the air' if you like... watch out for lots of shows about dog training this autumn.

But we do work very hard to reinvent whole genres of programming - travel, for example, or food. And the real prize is to find the Next Big Thing after reality TV. Docu-drama is very big at the moment, for example.

As for the ‘everything on TV is rubbish' argument... well, I think people always have a nostalgia for the Good Old Days but I recently watched a debate about TV since the 1950s and there was a lot of rubbish in every decade. There's brilliant stuff out there if you choose carefully: amazing documentaries like the new My Life as a Child, wonderful new drama like Casanova or Blackpool, and campaigns like Jamie's School Dinners.

Don't forget, too, that we might come up with brilliant ideas, but if the channel controllers aren't ready for them yet... they'll never see the light of day!

GW: You've managed to avoid the usual trick of a TV professional / writer - that of writing in-jokey media satires. However, do you find your TV work influences your writing, and will we see more of this in future novels?

KH: I don't come from a media background - my mum was a nurse, my dad a computer programmer - and I don't hang out at the Groucho or The Ivy. I am also a terribly incompetent schmoozer. That world doesn't interest me and I don't think it interests most readers either. I deliberately set my books partly or entirely outside London as well.

Having said that, I would love to write a book about journalists about some of the truly dedicated people I know who are committed to investigating wrongdoing - but I keep getting told that the public will never warm to a dedicated journalist as they won't believe it!

The best bit of working in TV and journalism is the people you meet from all different professions and worlds: that is a privilege and has inspired my stories.

GW: With a background in journalism, did you find that novel writing needed a different approach than typically journalistic work?

KH: Fiction writing was always my first love, so in a way when I gave myself permission to try novel writing, it was like coming home. Switching between journalism and fiction was fine for me: I've also written TV scripts and radio. Though never poetry: I am awful at it!

In a weird way, I think that you can tell ‘the truth' better through fiction: you can really explore people's motivations in depth and make characters flawed and three-dimensional: in journalism you rarely have the time, or you might get sued for libel!

GW: Did your track record journalism and/or contacts in the media assist in getting your first book published? Or was it the same long slog that most new novelists endure?

KH: Same old slog, definitely. As I said, I'm awful at networking. I did approach agents in the usual way, by letter, and had the usual rejections. I started writing Book 2 and then went to the Annual Writers' Conference at Winchester. I entered their novel competition, where the rules state you must enter under a pseudonym, so no-one knew what I did or my name. I was given first prize and the editor who judged it asked to see the rest of the manuscript and that was that!

Now I am published, being a hack does no harm because I can write PR pieces and don't mind being interviewed - it's strange to be asked questions after a lifetime of asking other people, though!

GW: How does writing novels essentially 'under contract' (as part of a multi-book deal) compare to writing the first one?

KH: It's exciting, but it is harder in some ways... there's a deadline for a start, and I also find myself wanting to be more ambitious each time, to push the boundaries. So in the book I've just finished, Brown Owl's Guide to Life, I have a whole complex storyline set in the late 1970s as well as the present day. Yet at the same time, my publishers wouldn't want what I'm writing to be dramatically different. I would definitely recommend new writers experiment before settling on a genre or style, because if you're going to write a book every year, you need to be happy with what you're writing.

GW: How disciplined is your writing routine? Does the fact that you're accustomed to meeting copy deadlines make you a more organised novelist?

KH: It's not terribly disciplined... I tend to write in the evenings and on my one day off a week, but I also work a lot at weekends. When I wrote my first book, I had a target of 500 words a day even though I was working full-time, and I finished it in three months. Now it's taking longer and longer... But my journalism training has given me a fear of missing deadlines so I will always meet them if I can, even if that means burning the midnight oil.

GW: How important is it to self-publicise? Do you find yourself having to adopt a market-friendly persona?

KH: Well, obviously it's better to be friendly than grumpy but hopefully it's not a split personality. Despite my shyness, I love talking about writing and about themes behind my books as they're my passion. I love broadcasting too, I used to report on local TV and radio before I decided I was better behind the camera - but it's great fun being on air again.
 
GW: Given that you've got a 'proper' job, is there any tendency to let the novelist thing slide sometimes? It can't possibly pay as well as TV development, or is that another misconception?

KH: Actually, TV development, certainly at the BBC, doesn't pay megabucks, especially with the costs of living in London. But the writing is beginning to catch up - not life-changing amounts (yet) but then most writers realise pretty quickly that six-and-seven-figure first book deals are rare.

I have about a year to write each book. If I fall behind, I suffer the consequences later so I need to stay on target. And it's not just writing the books - doing PR and talks and articles is time-consuming but necessary when so many books are published: you need to do anything you can (within reason!) to stand out from the crowd.

GW: You'll soon be offering courses aimed at writers. Is this mainly for would-be chick lit authors? Are you daunted by the prospect of spreading yourself even thinner and making a transition from author to teacher?

KH: The courses DEFINITELY aren't just for chick-lit wannabes. I love working with people to capitalise on their natural creativity. So at the RNA conference recently, my talk was all about ‘Becoming an Ideas Factory - from first spark to the Block and beyond.' That's relevant to ANY writer, it's not genre specific, but I explain the techniques I've learned to find new ideas, hone them and then keep going through the marathon of writing a novel.

For now, the courses are few and far between for reasons of time but I love seeing people have those lightbulb moments. And I don't see myself as a ‘teacher' as such - more of a facilitator, if that doesn't sound too jargon-y... I don't think there's an artificial divide between us as writers, we all keep on learning.

But yes, I do need to be wary of spreading myself thin!  

GW: You're also reaching out to other writers with the Between the Lines newsletter. What inspired this move, and do you think that becoming more involved with your public will help your own writing?

KH: There's been a huge growth in book groups, but they tend to focus on literary fiction, and my initial thought was to set up a club to review and focus on the best commercial fiction: new books I love and hope other readers would too.

Then I realised I could expand it to include content for new writers: an exercise, an Agony Column about publishing, and interviews with well-known authors. I've learned such a lot since being published and wanted to put it to good use!

There is an element of self-promotion but there's nothing in the newsletter about my books: people would get bored with that very quickly indeed! The feedback so far is great, but I hope Great Writing members might want to join too, it's completely free and spam-free.

Not sure it'll help my writing - it'll possibly keep me from it. But I am great at procrastination...

GW: If you started writing knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?

KH: Only that I might have done it sooner... I did an Open University degree part-time for six years and though it was a great accomplishment when I finished (I was the first person in my immediate family to get a degree). had I begun earlier, I might have caught the mega-publicity and mega-advances that the early ‘chick lit' writers benefited from. But you can't look back...the later you begin, the more material you have to draw on!

More information about Kate, and her books, and her various other endeavours (including the free Between the Lines newsletter) can be found on her website. If you'd like to check in on the progress of Brown Owl's Guide to Life and maybe cheer on the author, then the blog in question is here.