Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in numerous national publications including SELF, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Seventeen and more. Queen of the Court is my first novel, co-written with Andrea Leidolf. Andrea’s writing has appeared in GQ, The Washington Post and SPY, where she was on staff. This is also her first novel.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Our book is Queen of the Court. The title was inspired by a drill tennis teams use in practice, and by the fact that many women who play tennis, supposedly for fun and recreation, compete as seriously as Elizabeth I and Bloody Mary for the crown.
We decided to write the book after reflecting that our hobby had all the makings of a great reality show, so we set a fictional reality show at a country club, threw in a couple of strippers, a mysterious disappearance, politics, snake handling, Wiccans, a play about drag queens working in candy factory….well, as you can see, we had to go pretty far out there to be make fiction more outrageous than the truth. We’re still not quite sure we went far enough.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can’t speak for Andrea, but sometimes when the whole “writer as purist” thing isn’t working for me, I turn on the TV and find some really crappy sci-fi or supernatural move or show and put it on as background. I think maybe it’s because I used to work in a newsroom (crime reporter – sounds awful, but it was the most fun job ever) with the sound of police scanners and other reporters and all this chaos. I’ll also go to a coffee shop or library, and wrote quite a bit of Queen of the Court at Gaulladet University for the deaf because my son was playing baseball at a nearby field. I got locked in once and couldn’t figure out why the “emergency phone” near the fence didn’t work for me. It was a TTY. I tried to flag down a bus, but I think I must have said “I’m nuts, don’t stop” in American Sign Language because it actually sped up. Ended up going out a different gate into a bad neighborhood where hookers were already starting to stroll. I guarantee you this will make it into a book at some future point. This is why I like to get out and work, the world is MATERIAL. I am not a solitude kind of girl.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Andrea and I agreed we wanted Queen of the Court to have an irreverent Carl Hiaasen feel and our first reader, unsolicited, compared it to Hiassen. We were thrilled. We will of course be more thrilled if we make as much money as Carl Hiassen.
I have always loved to read and majored in comparative literature in college. That means I’ve studied Doestoevsky (and seen his original notebooks), but I’m an omnivore when it comes to books. As a kids I read a lot of Dickens when I could convince the librarian to let me check them out (they didn’t have the red tape on the binding indicating it was “easy reading” and I guess not many 10 year olds read Dickens). I started because I just finished books so quickly I wanted something that would last longer. But I loved the intricate plots, the wonderful characters and the British humor, once I got it. Although I also loved Nancy Drew, Dickens taught me that challenging books were worth the work.
I have also often gravitated toward books that allow me to immerse myself in a different world, whether that’s the Orthodox Judiasm of Isaac Bashevis Singer or the alternate futures of Ray Bradbury.
What are you working on now?
We are working on Merrywood, a “prequel” to Queen of the Court set in 1963 at a girls boarding school. We’ll still have that satirical streak of humor, but this is a shorter, tighter novel of suspense. We hope it will introduce readers who haven’t read Queen of the Court to some of our favorite characters and the history of our locale, while it will give those who’ve read the book a chance to know them better. Most important of all, it’s going to be a good read.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Our website is www.queenofthecourt.weebly.com and our Amazon page is http://www.amazon.com/Queen-of-the-Court-ebook/dp/B00DNBMZ6A.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write it, you’re not getting any younger.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Don’t ride the clutch.” My father said that to me when I bought a standard shift VW Beetle in college, but it’s good advice for life as well as cars. Don’t hesitate, don’t let indecision kill your ideas. Just put the damn car (book, life) in gear and go.
What are you reading now?
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. A great book, loving every minute of it.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I have a story out in Cosmopolitan’s September issue, we are working on Merrywood, gathering info and planning for a Queen of the Court sequel and perhaps a Christmas-themed short story to be offered for free online, another intro to our Queen of the Court characters.
More philosophically, I hope to continue to develop my voice. Years of newspaper and magazine writing develop good skills, an eye for detail and a knack for research, but fictional voice is something else altogether.
What is your favorite book of all time?
I absolutely cannot pick one, there are too many amazing books out there. Maybe I haven’t read it yet!
or….
Queen of the Court.
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