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We had a chance to talk with who is a former writer on . She has just written a novel titled “” and is available for purchase. You can also win a free copy of the book on our website. Maria was kind enough to answer a few questions we had about her new book and about her time on .

Maria Semple will be chatting live Today at 1pm ET on Blog Talk Radio. We would love for everyone to call in and chat with her about her book and about her writing experience on . Maybe you can ask her questions about the upcomping Movie ;-). Click Here to Connect To Blog Talk Radio

ADBlog: What made you pursue writing a novel after being involved in television for so long?

Maria: I loved writing for TV and I’ll always consider myself a TV writer first and foremost.  TV writers are my tribe.  After Arrested was cancelled, I realized it would break my heart being in another room without and all the other great writers.  It was the best experience ever, one I’m humbled to have been a small part of.  So it kind of forced me to try writing the novel I always thought I had in me.

ADBlog: Does your novel have any truth to it, does it mimic your life or any experiences you have had yourself?

Maria: My novel is filled with truth and mimicry!  But I’ll leave it at that to protect the innocent.

ADBlog: How much of a transition was it going from writing for television to writing a novel?

Maria: Gigantic.  In TV you’re working as a team.  A big, complex unwieldy team.  And nobody is solely accountable for what’s on screen.  With novel-writing, you’re totally on your own.  There’s no network executive or actor or union schedule to blame.

ADBlog: Is there anything you want your readers to take from your book after reading, some possible lessons or suggestions?

Maria: I felt like my job was to get the reader to the end of my book.  Beyond that, I’m happy with anything they take away from it.  A common response has been– “The characters in your book are awful.  I couldn’t put it down.”  That’s a gigantic compliment, and a lot like what people would say about Arrested.

ADBlog: Give us one of the best moments you had working on ?

Maria: There’s one thing that fills me with joy every time I think about working on Arrested.  It’s us writers sitting around the big table and Mitch is at the keyboard typing in the script.  And we’re all raucously pitching insane things and cracking each other up and going off on some insane “room run” that nobody expects will ever make it into the script.  And then, in the middle of the craziness, Mitch cocks his head and hunkers down over the keyboard and says (in most cases it was to Jimmy Valleley or Richard Day)… “Say that again, Jimmy.  What was that, Richard?”  And they repeat it and… MITCH BEGINS TYPING.  And I can’t never believe it, because Mitch is actually putting it in the script!  On other shows, there was a very clear division between when you were all goofing around and when you were working on the script.  In Arrested, it all swirled into one.

Oh– I was also very fond of the outgoing message left on my cell phone, in his crazy Gob voice, with “The Final Countdown” playing in the background:  “Hi, Maria has better things to do than talk to you right now.  Leave a message, but she probably won’t call back.”  I lost my phone a few weeks after the show wrapped.  I didn’t care about the phone– all I cared about was Gob’s lost message!

ADBlog: One of the best things about was the character development (no pun intended), did you have anything to do with the development of these character or the path taken to shape and mold the characters into who we all know and love.

Maria: I joined Arrested in the third season.  So all the characters were fully developed.  But I loved writing for them and taking them further.

ADBlog: Of course every visitor to our website wants to know, Will there be an Movie or a possible return to the show?

Maria: I totally understand that’s what people want to know.  Poor , he’s out there promoting Frost/Nixon and it’s all anyone’s asking him about.  Here’s what I know– they’re trying to make a deal for Mitch to write a movie script.  While this in no way guarantees a movie will be made, it’s a huge leap forward from where the project was six months ago.  Alas, I can’t imagine the show ever coming back.  The big reason being it would be next to impossible to make new deals with all those great actors who are probably not wanting to tie themselves down to a TV show at this point in their careers.  If the show had immediately moved to Showtime from Fox, as had been seriously talked about, the actors would have still been under their old contract.  But to get all those people together again from square one– I can’t see it happening.

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