By Belinda Goldsmith

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Bestselling author Cecelia Ahern has a resume that most writers would kill for -- four best-selling books, a Hollywood movie due out next month, and a television series -- and she's only 26.

Ahern, the youngest daughter of Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, has been on a meteoric rise since she graduated with a degree in journalism and media communications five years ago.

Her debut novel, "PS, I Love You," published when she was just 21, was top of the book charts for weeks and has been made into a movie starring Hilary Swank, Harry Connick Jr, and Lisa Kudrow that will be in theaters this month.

She is currently producing the U.S. TV comedy "Samantha Who?" starring Christina Applegate, her latest novel "There's No Place Like Here" is due for a U.S. release next month, and her fifth novel, "Thanks for the Memories," is due out April.

Ahern spoke to Reuters about writing and her famous name:

Q: You've achieved so much in five years. Do you pinch yourself to check it's all real?

A: "Every day. You can analyze it until the cows come home but there is no explanation for it. I just adore what I do and I am really passionate about it."

Q: Did you write fiction as a child?

A: "All the time. As a child I just lived in my head and wrote little poems, stories, and my diary which was a really precious thing. I am still the same. If I am sad or angry I will sit down and write. It is like therapy for me."

Q: Do you think having a famous father helped you?

A: "I think in Ireland. With books it is very hard for the marketing side but at the end of the day my books had to sit on the shelves with others and the reader judges. In Ireland there was a huge amount of attention, some negative and some positive, on this but in every other country people just want to know about the books and their characters."

Q: The theme of loss seems to run through your work -- loss of a loved one, loss of memory?

A: "I love writing about the idea of loss because I like the idea of being found. I always have a very hopeful spin on my stories. We all lose our way sometime and have ups and down. When we get over it, it makes us stronger. In my stories people always reach a good point. It is not a conventional happy ending but they reach a point where they can get through the next day."

Q: I believe you're not keen on the "chic lit" tag?

A: "Every time people say "chic lit" I find myself thinking if you could only see the people who come to my events. It is the majority women but there are also men and older men. There is a man in Dublin who is 70 something and lost his wife and he has read "PS, I Love You" six times and he ticks the front page every time he reads it."

Q: Do people send you their stories?

A: "All my books are about emotion and I hear lots of similar stories. One woman whose husband died in the summer went up to the attic at Christmas to get the decorations down and found a box of presents all wrapped and labeled that her husband had prepared before he died. I love getting letters."

Q: Your first book is now a movie. Will others follow?

A: "My third book, "If You Could See Me Now," has been bought and they want to make it into a movie as soon as they can. "There's No Place Like Here" has been bought by a TV company to make as a pilot."

Q: You write about a book a year. Is that manageable?

A: "I write quickly and as soon as I am into a book I am totally engrossed. I usually write at night -- from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. -- when it is peaceful and quiet and no one disturbs me so I can create my own little world. I sleep a lot during the day. I am very intense."