When it Happens to You

Molly Ringwald is no stranger to the art of storytelling. From an early age, her life has been interlinked with the notion of stories more than the average person. Whereas we all remember our favourite bedtime stories, playground yarns and more, Molly fondly recalls being sat with her father being his eyes and describing what was happening on screen as he took her to the movies. This responsibility was one he entrusted her with, (his favourite child to watch films with, by her own confession). She’d sit in a dimly lit auditorium watching ‘Reds’, and honing her observational and listening senses through translating what was on screen to her blind father. In a simple way, she became a storyteller.

By the age of six, she was performing on an album by her father’s band, The Fulton Street Jazz Band, singing words written by another that evoked emotion and told stories in short designed to entertain. Later she would expand her artistic repertoire and begin acting on television, in film (gaining iconic status) and on stage (she famously nailed it in her portrayal of Sally in London’s West End production of ‘When Harry Met Sally’). She became a part of the stories others wanted to tell, bringing to life the characters seen on screen and on stage.

She met her husband, Panio Gianopoulos - a writer, and they became parents. The bond with storytelling continued as she embarked on the journey that leads to sleepless nights, involves hearing the tales of other children from their parents and sharing her own experiences as a mother with fellow parents in what is a time-old tradition where every adult grows older and wiser learning about childhood diseases they never knew about, become experts in dressing wounds and nursing injuries as well as take on the roles of helper, teacher and friend, revelling in the joys of watching your child grow.

With her debut novel, ‘When it Happens to You’, she switches from being the one who breathes life into characters created by others into the one who crafts a story and leaves you wanting more. While a film tells you what a character is like through visual actions and a physical portrayal which in Molly’s case resonates with her audiences even thirty years after she assayed them, in books we rely on the author’s words to stir up our imagination and help our minds conjure up the world we’re reading about. The way a character dresses, walks, reacts is more personal and if the writer is talented enough they’ll hook you within a few lines and you’ll have a connection with the world they’ve created.

‘When it Happens to You’ is a book of short stories all based on the theme of betrayal – a feeling which the author feels is one of the universal experiences that unites us. She doesn’t hold back and relishes the opportunity to take us down a path of interlocking short stories that captivate and draw you in emotionally, creating empathy with each character as well as moral dilemmas that mirror experiences we have all had or heard of. As a storyteller, Ringwald excels in toying with her readers. She’ll place them in a pre-constructed scenario, flesh out the characters through dialogue and exposition and then introduce an element of betrayal which may be one of many. There are moments where the reader is left holding their breath while continuing reading out of anticipation of how the situation will unfold, not daring to exhale and break the tension of what they’re absorbing. These moments are not few and far between but almost in every story.

It’s not that the author has set out to purposefully create this experience but a credit to her writing that she manages to find the emotional points that connect us, affect us and could destroy us. Each one is life altering and within the safety of the universe Ringwald has created, a tapestry of emotional, physical and mental betrayal leaves its indelible fingerprints.

At a recent discussion of the book, Ringwald said she sometimes doesn’t know how the story is going to end when she’s writing it and prefers to build the characters and then put them in situations. Developing the characters creates the situation and dilemma. Like life, she’s managed to replicate what happens to all of us. With none of us knowing what the next moment will hold, yet sure of who we are and the world around us, it takes only a split second for everything to be turned on its head.

The other masterstroke is that Molly Ringwald in her debut novel has managed to create all these aspects within short stories. With the constraint of the parameters of a short story, she manages to bring the reader into the world of her characters and get them to feel what they’re going through. With the confines of the medium, there is an urgency to connect with the audience soon and she manages this with ease.

With ‘When it Happens to You’, Molly Ringwald, the actress, achieves the impossible: she escapes the baggage of her early Hollywood career generating a legion of new fans who will follow the work she’s creating now rather than fondly remembering how she defined their youth. This is the introduction of a bold and fresh new writer whose ability to permeate the subconscious and translate the human experience onto the page will undoubtedly delight booklovers and fill our heads with a whole new world again and again.

‘When it Happens to You’ is available as a hardback book and on all digital platforms including Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iBooks stores. It is published in the UK by Simon & Schuster.