Kickstart My Heart A Carnival of Dating Disasters

Kickstart My Heart: A Carnival of Dating Disasters

Lana Penrose thought her stint in hell was over after fleeing Greece when her marriage ended. Arriving in London, newly separated, strung out and messed up, Lana begins working for one of the world's biggest pop stars.

It's there she sets out on a mission to heal her heart by frequenting dingy nightclubs, falling in and out of bars and looking for love in all the wrong places.

She comes face to face with a vast array of users and losers- misogynist, crack addicts, would-be Elvis impersonators, surfers, rugby players, writers, ad execs, death metal drummers, and vampires. Lana even finds herself rubbing shoulders with rock-gods Motley Crue and Slash and playboy Russell Brand.

Like so many women, Lana has a blazing international career complete with travel and glamour, but her love life is in tatters. Kickstart My Heart explores her attempts to rebuild her self-esteem and self-image after crawling from the remains of a broken relationship, and is a fresh and comical look at romance for the single woman in her thirties.

Kickstart My Heart will be releases simultaneous to a retro-complication CD (universal Music) inspired by the book.

Lana Penrose is the author of the bestselling memoir To Hellas and Back. She was raised in western Sydney and her various incarnations have included record company promotions manager, music journalist, MTV television producer and personal assistant to the pop elite. She has written for music magazines in Australia and the UK and is currently based in Sydney.

Kickstart My Heart: A Carnival of Dating Disasters
Penguin Australia
Author: Lana Penrose
Price: $32.95

Interview with Lana Penrose

Tell us about Kickstart My Heart: A Carnival of Dating Disasters

Lana Penrose: The book is about what it was like for me to come to terms with breaking up with a long term partner and dealing with matters held with the poise, of lets say, Carrie Bradshaw with an axe through her head.


How was it writing Kickstart My Heart?

Lana Penrose: It was, actually it was very easy. I generally tend to always write things as they are happening, I have two books under my belt now, the other is called To Hellas and Back and with both of them I kind of like making diary entries and kept a record of everything that was going on and trying to process what I was experiencing. The actually writing process actually wasn't too hard to write. I guess the hard part was reading it back and realising all the mistakes I made.


Do you think you learnt from the writing process?

Lana Penrose: I definitely learnt from it, when you see your behaviour there in black and white and in chronological order it becomes really obvious when you are making mistakes in your life.


Has your family and friends been surprised by the book?

Lana Penrose: My Mother has, I forewarned her that she may be a bit surprised, but she had braced herself for it, there are probably some painful things in there for her to have read. I asked my Dad not to read it. You don't really want your Dad reading about your kind of, romantic encounters, it's okay for your girlfriends to read it and to chat with your Mum about them maybe, but your Dad is a different kind of thing.


What is the CD that is inspired by the book?

Lana Penrose: The CD is sold separately, but it is out from Universal Music and it is a double retro CD that basically was derived from them reading through the manuscript and taking out the pop culture and musical references and compiling the music to which best suited the narrative and soundtrack.

The CD is all retro, dance around your handbag stuff, you have Pat Benatar, George Michael, Howard Jones, it is 80's music, Eurythmics, ABC, Dead or Alive, that kind of music. It is a little bit daggy, but I guess I am too.


Do you think that writing the book helped you in general, for now and the future?

Lana Penrose: Yes, I do. I think that is a part of the reason I write, it is a process thing. I like to be able to examine how I am living my life, on the flip side for other people to read it and relate to it and I guess learn from my mistakes.


What is your favourite part of the book?

Lana Penrose: I think my favourite part was the most probably, sad, drastic part - I have a date, with a guy I met on the street, who I didn't know from a bar of soap- and that turned out to be an absolute disaster. It was just so funny to read it back, I think. That is probably my favourite. The more, kind of, drastic it is the more amusing I find it. Even though when I was living it, it wasn't fun or funny at all, but as far as it goes for content of a book it is gold.


Did you add humour to the book?

Lana Penrose: I did, I definitely did, because you know, if you find yourself sitting opposite a crack addict in reality that's not funny, but reading it is. I always use a lot of humour in my writing because I think it helps me to balance the pain and try and keep a light perspective on things that could potentially be devastating.


Do you think that writing down your experiences helped you? Would you encourage others to do this?

Lana Penrose: Absolutely. Yeah, it has helped me a lot, and also you kind of forget what you do in life unless you write it down. Even from years ago, I would have forgotten big chunks of life if I hadn't written them down.

I think that if you are single and you are out there looking for love, perhaps not as desperately as I was, but you are always going to draw parallels to what I experiences, but also you probably have a novel inside of you because there are just so many things going on out there. There are so many people out their in incredibly ridiculous situations; I think that's why Kickstart My Heart is so relatable.


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