welcome to between the covers summer series where our Spotlight is on South Florida authors Diane bergner joins me with her debut novel Royal Coconut Beach lunch club and it's already making the must-read book lists as VP of development for the kravis center Diane lives and breathes Palm Beach Society well this novel is Juicy and gossipy and all about Mega fundraising in a fictional town that just looks a whole lot like Palm Beach Diane thank you for being here and thank you so much for having me Anne you have been fundraising for I believe more than two decades correct 24 years at the kravis center it's a tough business so that the fundraising part is the backbone the inspiration for the book but tell me why did you write it as a novel well I actually love to write and I started to write nonfiction about fundraising it's something that I'm very passionate about and I thought it would be great to have a manual about fundraising and use all my secrets so to speak and share it and it wasn't that exciting quite honestly and when the movie The Devil Wears Prada was shown I said wow wouldn't it be great to show about fundraising through a fictional lens like Andrea sacks did in that in that movie and that novel so the idea started percolating and I didn't stop okay it was a page Turner I'm for one so happy you did not write it as in how to and that you wrote it as as a novel it's the characters they are colorful and fun and there's social lights and captains of industry and are people that read this book looking for either themselves or somebody they think they know me do they think that they know who the characters are based on and especially the villain absolutely in fact it's become sort of a little bit of a Jeopardy guessing game you know is that her is that this one and the first chapter is on a yacht and everybody thinks they know who's Yad it's on and who it was below the deck not to give it away uh not true nothing happened below the deck and it wasn't on anybody's particular yacht the characters are fictional completely unequivocally fictional all right I've got to go back to the Yacht for a minute because what a way to start a chapter I know that never happened no it never happened and actually it's funny you said that because that was originally chapter six and then I decided to start it with a with a bang and have that as checked everyone okay so and then yeah so to speak there is this dynamic between four women in their lunch Club they are driven and smart and you know what I really loved they're brutally honest with each other so tell me about this dynamic so isn't that what friends are for to be brutally honest I think that they give Julia the main character a reality check every now and then and we'll tell her the truth and you know in in one shape or another one's more empathetic than the other but they do tell her the truth when she needs to hear it most and Julia also listens to their stories because their experience with the wealthy to our high stakes matrimonial attorneys and one is a wealthy decorator and then there's Julia the fundraiser so they're all connected with the sort of the same people and Julia hears the stories and she always uses those stories as a barometer for her own life with her husband so Diane tell me do you have your own lunch club and and can I join oh we'd love you too Anne yes so many women have mentioned that they're going to start a lunch Club of their own in fact the original title was Prosecco lady lunch Club but we changed it to Royal Coconut Beach lunch Club so you mentioned Julia Wilde she is the main character she has so much to contend with she's got this pressure cooker fundraising job she's got some trouble at home and then on the job and I'm not spoiling anything there's this huge check that has gone missing then of course you throw in this handsome Argentinian former Ambassador Who's Making Moves there's a lot that she has to deal with oh how can you not throw in all that right right as I was it actually did I didn't create all the characters from the beginning like you're supposed to it just sort of took a life of its own and it actually surprised me the twists and turns and that Ambassador was one of the twists and turns you know a lot of authors have told me that the the characters and the story The Plot takes on a life of its own so it is not a what you're supposed to it just exactly and that's the beauty of fiction writing as opposed to non-fiction fiction writing it just is full of creativity and you could just let your mind go and have a good time well let's look at fundraising for a moment it is a relationship driven job it is social at its core then you have writing which polar opposite it is solitary so was it a challenge from your normal day-to-day to do the writing actually it was very refreshing it balanced out the extroverted side that is required for fundraising and it is on steroids I have to say that and one of the reasons why I really started writing was to get away from all the noise and the Chit Chat and they constantly smiling and being on and to go into your own world and your own orbit and just focus on what's in your own mind was really a treat what's the best advice you got before writing this book don't do an outline don't do an outline it it deters creativity your favorite book as a child Little Women by Alcott if you had a one-word teaser to describe this book what would it be bubbly if we could see your bookshelf in your own house what would it tell us about you that I'm doing a lot of research right now on relationships and money and one thing that you would tell your younger self start writing earlier start journaling earlier I would have enjoyed it more had I done it earlier I would have gotten more out of it and I tell my little grandchildren to do that so Diane bergner this has been such fun the book is such a treat to read it is called royal Coconut Beach lunch Club I want to thank you so much for writing it and for sharing with us thank you so much for this lovely interview I'm Anne bocock please join me on the next between the covers no