Alison Sweeney is one busy lady. Not only does she star on “Days of Our Lives” and host NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” she’s also written a few nonfiction books – plus she’s the mother of two young kids. Now, add novelist to her resume. She’s about to release her first chick lit book, “The Star Attraction”.
Healthy Hollywood is exhausted (and inspired) reading all that Alison Sweeney does! So, I, Terri MacLeod was thrilled to get a chance to chat with this amazing talent.
Alison phoned me the other day to talk about her new book, which is a page-turning read on the life of a Hollywood publicist. “A lot of the ideas came from my best friend who is a publicist and a lot of my friends are publicists, so it really came from their stories and all the crazy things that happened on and off the red carpet.”
Alison revealed to Healthy Hollywood that a longtime dream of hers was to write a juicy novel about Hollywood. Yet, instead of just thinking about it, Alison mustered up the determination to make it happen. “I guess my creative energy drives me. I’ve always been an actress and I love working at “Day of Our Lives.” It’s been a huge part of my life and continues to be. But, I always wanted to get out some of the storylines I wanted to tell. I guess it’s that frustrated actress thing; things aren’t going the way I think they should.”
To fulfill her desire, Alison tells Healthy Hollywood, “Years ago, I started getting into the habit of writing down ideas or scenes or concepts that seemed fun to me and the next thing you know I strung together this one character who became really important to me. I never imagined when I was writing it would be published so this is surreal to me.”
Alison says a lot of her inspiration to live out her dreams came from the contestants on “The Biggest Loser.” “Once you take the weight loss element out of it, it’s about making your dreams come true and making goals happen and believing in yourself. I think that is what’s empowering about the show. Whatever your obstacle maybe in life or goal you have; looking at the courage of these contestants is encouraging to get off the sofa and make it happen for yourself because you can do it too.”
As Healthy Hollywood knows personally, there are a lot of folks out there with great stories to tell. But, they live behind the excuse of being too busy, it’s not the right time, or I can never do it.
Stop the negativity. “I’m sure there are a lot of writers out there with 60 pages of something and a third of it unfinished and I think there’s a tipping point at which you let it go and not make something out of it. I really encourage people with that dream to go for it. My son’s baseball coach always says ‘go up there and hit the ball – why not’ – and it’s so true ‘why not’. Never let silly fears ruin your dream,” reveals Alison.
— Terri MacLeod
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