At a glance
- Liane and Jaclyn Moriarty sat down with host Tiffany Dunk in a new episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories.
- Liane is releasing the hotly ancipated sequel to Big Little Lies, Big Little Truths, which is set 10 years after the event of the first novel.
- Jaclyn is a successful novelist in her own right, most recently releasing Time Travel For Beginners.
When it comes to sibling order, there’s an understanding that it’s the eldest that will mostly blaze the way. But in the Moriarty household, that rule of thumb was firmly flipped on its head.
It was second eldest, Jaclyn Moriarty, who was the first to get a publishing deal with YA novel Feeling Sorry For Celia.
“I get a sense of people thinking or assuming that I started writing because of Liane,” Jaclyn told me as the pair joined me for a new episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories.
Listen to the episode:
“That her success, meant I got to be a writer too. Like, ‘Oh, you were lucky that Liane started writing.’ And then I have this difficulty of not wanting to sound competitive or ‘Well… I was actually the first.’”
Ironically, it was Jaclyn’s success that would lead to firstborn Liane Moriarty finally putting pen to paper. This would kickstart an incredible run that has now led to a slew of bestsellers and several Hollywood adaptations in their wake.
“I was really happy for Jaci because I love her dearly,” Liane told me of what came next. “But I was also filled with a kind of rage. And I always say that the rage is not directed at her, but at myself. Because we’d both said we wanted to be writers when we were little.”
Which Moriarty sisters are authors?
While this may sound like sibling rivalry, what is actually present between the two Moriarty sisters (there are another four siblings, and another author in the form of youngest sister Nicola) is a deep form of love and respect. Jaclyn reads Liane’s first drafts and vice versa – they are not only each other’s biggest fans but the source of trusted advice.
“We often send it to each other at the same time as we’re sending it to the publisher,” Liane said.
“I always say that it’s our job to not give any critique, but to call each other up and say, ‘This is a masterpiece’. Because you’re in such a state waiting for the publisher to call.”
“You’ve spent a year or more writing it, and you’ve given so much of yourself. And then the publishers take so long to call you. We know how important it is to say, ‘You’re a genius’ immediately,” Jaclyn added with a laugh.
Where is Big Little Truths set?
It means that Jaclyn was the first to read Big Little Lies as well as its hotly awaited follow up Big Little Truths, which picks up 10 years after the events of the first novel have ended.
Set back in the world of fictional Aussie coastal town Pirriwee, the characters you loved from the first book are all still there. But so too is Perry’s mother Mary Ellen. She’s the character Liane wrote at Jaclyn’s behest when she was required to pen a novella to inspire season two of the TV series starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.
Liane had been hesitant, she recalled, to dip back into the world and write something that wouldn’t be published.
“(Jaci) said to me, ‘Why don’t you just have fun with it? Why don’t you just write a role for your favourite actress,” Liane said of how she got started. “So that’s when I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to write a role for Meryl Streep. I called that character Mary Louise because Mary Louis is actually Meryl’s real name.
“And I can remember saying to all the producers, not quite believing my own audacity, that I had written this role for Meryl. They were laughing at me saying, ‘Oh, you’ve become so Hollywood, Liane. Look at you saying, Get me Meryl.”
Jaclyn’s magic trick
“I’m going to fully take the credit,” Jaclyn nodded. She then added she also gave Liane inspiration for another hit novel, Apples Never Fall.
“It’s like a magic trick,” she said. I said, ‘I sent a text saying, ‘There’s a bicycle lying on its side in the grass. There are apples.’
“And then I saw on Instagram a photograph for the Apples Never Fall TV series with Annette Benning and she’s on a bicycle with apples. It was that, I did a magic trick!”
A nervous wait
Liane has been anxious for the release of Big Little Truths. She knows that fans of the original will have plenty of opinions and expectations.
She also clearly struggles with a touch of imposter syndrome.
“I think Jaci, because she understands me, knows that sometimes I’m feeling sort of guilty or some strange mixed-up feelings about it all,” she said, looking at her sister. “Where she’s always telling me, “Just be happy.”
“I understand,” Jaclyn replied. “It’s inevitable. We always start questioning things. And when things are going well (you think), “Do I deserve this?’ I would like just really fundamentally (like Liane) to let go of all of that. All the complicated guilt and shame and trying to make everybody happy at the same time.”
Watch the episode:
The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast is brought to you by Vixin Skincare and Wounded Heroes Australia. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Watch full episodes on YouTube now.
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