{"id":473410,"date":"2026-05-29T17:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/473410\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T17:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:14:17","slug":"ive-remained-lifelong-friends-with-my-complete-aisling-co-author-heres-our-secret-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/473410\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve remained lifelong friends with my Complete Aisling co-author. Here\u2019s our secret \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watching Hollywood<\/a> A-listers promote their films, performing for the viral clips, eating the medically unwise hot chicken wings for the YouTube video, putting forward the most sparkling chemistry imaginable with their co-stars, I\u2019m often reminded of a quote commonly attributed to George Clooney<\/a> in which he quips that he acts for free but gets paid to publicise his movies<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I may not have Clooney\u2019s chocolate Labrador eyes or holiday home at Lake Como, but after two weeks of intense book publicity I can relate to the sentiment. The interviews, appearances, Q&As, social clips, planes, trains and automobiles have made writing the novel seem like a walk in the park. It\u2019s even done the unthinkable. It\u2019s made me sick to the back teeth of my co-author Sarah Breen<\/a>. She won\u2019t even get thick if she reads this, because I\u2019d say the feeling is mutual. <\/p>\n

The question we get asked the most as two women who write books together \u2013 our latest, Our Deadly Summer, is our sixth and a departure from our Complete Aisling<\/a> series \u2013 is: \u201cYou must fight all the time?\u201d We never fight. We couldn\u2019t be arsed, quite frankly. Our priorities lie in getting the work done efficiently and maintaining the friendship above all else. How have we done it? Here are our secrets: <\/p>\n

We keep each other grounded: <\/p>\n

A true friend is one who could watch you become president, cure cancer, walk on the moon, but still remember and continuously remind you of the time you called an air steward \u201cMammy\u201d on a packed plane. Not that this has ever happened to either of us. A real friend will also let you know if your sartorial gauge is off. I once wore an immensely sturdy and utilitarian pair of sandals on a trip abroad, calling them my \u201choliday sandals\u201d. Without missing a beat, Sarah asked: \u201cAre they on holiday from style?\u201d Brutal, but necessary. <\/p>\n

We share the wealth: <\/p>\n

Back in the noughties as students and in the early years of our careers we observed a sort of \u201cyou scratch my back and I\u2019ll scratch yours\u201d approach to financing our deep love for multiple nights out a week. If one of us was going through a lean month, the other would pay, knowing the favour and the funds would come back around. It helped that our drink order was identical: a double vodka and Red Bull each, a beverage we fondly referred to as \u201cdrinkie plus\u201d and wouldn\u2019t touch with a 10-foot pole these days.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Aisling series authors: \u2018It\u2019s jarring to see the clothes I wore in my early twenties referred to as \u2018vintage\u2019\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But never act the scab: <\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s vitally important not to take the mickey when it comes to a friend\u2019s generosity. Spotting each other on a night out is one thing, but we never let it get to the point where there was an outstanding and unaddressed debt. We split all of the income from joint writing work evenly down the middle. When we first got an agent in 2018 she suggested drawing up a business agreement, in case the friendship and partnership ever went south. We still haven\u2019t got around to it. <\/p>\n

We have the same impeccable taste: <\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t a mid-2000s reality TV show that we haven\u2019t watched together multiple times. The 1987 Diane Keaton film Baby Boom is our joint favourite. We can both quote the entire Mighty Boosh Live 2006 DVD from memory. When Oasis reformed in 2025, we were by each other\u2019s sides for the entire Croke Park weekend, and despite living in each other\u2019s pockets for the past few weeks we\u2019ll be together again this weekend for our sixth CMAT gig. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m the fun aunt: <\/p>\n

Sarah has three children, and is an only child herself. I adore my role as surrogate aunt to the kids, who I\u2019ve known since infancy; they have enriched my life in so many ways. One of my most treasured memories is a time when one of the children did an exercise in school about \u201csafe\u201d people they know they can trust. On the list (after the obvious parents and grandparents) was \u201cEmer\u201d, in the gorgeous hodgepodge handwriting of a seven-year-old. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Friendship is something we \u2018do\u2019 \u2013 it does not just magically happen or keep itself aliveOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She\u2019s my emergency contact: <\/p>\n

When I was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in 2020, Sarah was my \u201cin case of emergency contact\u201d, and when I was discharged right into Ireland\u2019s first Covid lockdown, Sarah insisted that I form a bubble and move in with her family (worth noting that Sarah\u2019s husband is patience personified). <\/p>\n

We\u2019re always laughing: <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been hooting together for 23 years, and I\u2019ve lost track of the annoying inside jokes and lore that cause us to assume the position (cross-legged and crouching. We are in our 40s, after all). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watching Hollywood A-listers promote their films, performing for the viral clips, eating the medically unwise hot chicken wings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[25772,93,631,61,60,42415],"class_list":["post-473410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-emer-mclysaght","tag-entertainment","tag-for-you","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-your-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}