This Interview is Bitchin'!
Martha O’Connor is the celebrated author of The Bitch Posse. I recently asked Martha about her book and for any words of advice she had for aspiring writers. But before we get started…
Warning: do not begin reading this book unless you have time to be completely immersed in the compelling, insatiable world of Rennie, Cherry and Amy—the Bitch Posse. I’ve burnt two casseroles and twice forgotten to tuck the children in on time. (How Martha Stewart does that make me sound?) People must be forewarned.
Martha O’Connor takes her readers on a dark, wild, deliciously sinful ride through the lives of three girls. As teens, Rennie, Cherry and Amy are an unlikely band of friends, but their bond is one of deep, guttural need to belong somewhere. But no matter how close the girls become, each of them carries a dark secret that threatens to crumble the Posse from within.
The story moves back and forth through fifteen years, teasing the reader masterfully with a hint at a shared secret that tore the trio apart. We see the girls as adults: Cherry lives in a psychiatric hospital; Rennie drowns her memories in sex, drugs and rock n’ roll; Amy suffers from dire marital troubles. And the only thing that holds their sanity intact is knowing that the Bitch Posse is still out there, somewhere.
HB: "The Bitch Posse" is dark, compelling and addictive. What inspired it?
MO: I know it sounds really ridiculous, but the book practically wrote itself. I was down and out after enduring numerous publisher rejections for a different novel of mine (still unpublished), a mystery, and decided to start something new. The Bitch Posse girls just knocked me to the ground, held a knife to my throat and wouldn't let me up until I'd let their stories unfold on paper. Addictive is a great word, because it was addictive for me, too. Sometimes I'd write compulsively, all night long.
HB: What are the joys & nightmares of being a writer, getting published...any stories, advice?
MO: My advice would be to remain true to your own vision. I had a very enthusiastic literary agent for another project of mine, mentioned above. When she started getting publisher rejections on the mystery, I began writing The Bitch Posse in order to take my mind off things. 50 pages into the novel, I wanted a little feedback, so I showed it to my husband, also a writer and my first and best reader. He demanded that I keep writing it so he could find out what happened next.
Still not satisfied, I decided to send the partial to my then-agent. She HATED it. She said it was so dark and different that no one would ever want to read it. She even said, "I don't think I can sell this and I can't imagine who the audience would be." She suggested I write another mystery with the same detective instead.
Well, I didn't want to do that. If you've read the novel, you know that by 50 pages into the story, the girls are in a HUGE amount of trouble. Not only that, but I considered the girls my friends. I wouldn't abandon friends in that much trouble, so how could I abandon my girls?
So I plowed on, writing to please no one but myself. I broke ties with the agent, but part of me was still convinced that she was right, that I'd never find a traditional publisher. I'd have to self publishor go overseas. In truth, though, her comments were the best thing that ever happened to me because they freed me to write like no one was watching. I smashed all the censors, and that was why I was able to take the risks I did with the novel.
HB: "The Bitch Posse" seems very much on the opposite end of the spectrum from your average chick-lit. Do you think that women and their needs are being accurately portrayed in today's fiction?
MO: I personally find it really hard to find a book featuring women that appeals to me. If the character makes me sick with her own selfishness (I'm thinking of the recent Sue Monk Kidd novel The Mermaid Chair) or just bores me with her obsessions (the character in Plum Sykes' Bergdorf Blondes) then I won't read the novel.
But I'm observing that tough, in your face heroines are popping up infiction more and more--the girls in Colleen Curran's Whores on the Hill, Joshilyn Jackson's character Arlene Fleet in Gods in Alabama, and Madeline Dare in the upcoming novel by Cornelia Read, A Field of Darkness. These characters are women who speak to me, women I respectand care about. I can only hope that there will be more "tough girl" books in the future!
HB: The book cover for "The Bitch Posse" is sexy and attention getting. How important do you feel the book cover is in relation to sales?
MO: Well, I personally love the cover. I think a cover needs to evoke acertain mood that goes with the novel. And I do feel my cover suggests that: it's dark, it's sexy, there's a mystery to it. I'm not really sure how covers affect sales, but I do know of cases in which certain covers were nixed by a big bookstore chain and the publisher had to go back to the drawing board. Covers are really important, but I'd be horrible at designing them. I haven't moved past the stick figure phase of Art 101.
HB: "The Bitch Posse" has been compared to the work of Joyce Carol Oates. Do you feel that's a fair comparison? Was your book in any way homage to her?
MO: Well, Joyce Carol Oates is my literary goddess. I totally adore herwork and I am sure the edgy mood of the novel echoes her work in someways. But if this novel is in homage to any other writer, it is Vladimir Nabokov. There are many little hints and puzzles dropped into the novel along the way. One has to do with butterflies, but there are many more. I'll leave the finding and unwinding to those who enjoy those types of things!
HB: Several fans of your book have expressed that they strongly identified with at least one of your main characters—so strongly, in fact, that it was like you knew them. Who do you identify more with—Rennie, Cherry or Amy? And why?
MO: There are obvious similarities between me and Rennie--we both live inMarin County, are both writers, were both teachers. However, I hope I'm not as dysfunctional as she is! I'm like Cherry in that I am almost compelled to help people, even at my own expense. Also, Cherry is a writer too. And I can easily relate to Amy because she's a mother... the entire world changes when you become a parent because you are no longer living just for yourself. Your choices are for the most part governed by what is best for your children. Anyway, I guess the short answer is that I'm like all of the characters! It depends which day you ask...
HB: What advice would you offer new authors?
MO: Write like no one is watching. Also, check out any potential agent with the AAR and Predators and Editors.
HB: What's next for you—any future books planned?
MO: Yes! I am working on another book right now, but I'm superstitious about talking about unfinished work... so my lips are sealed!
THE BITCH POSSE was published by St. Martin's Press in May of 2005 and is available online and in stores. You can read an excerpt of it here, on Martha’s website. So go forth, my minions...and support this talented author by buying her book!
(don't make me sick the Spork of Doom on you)
Warning: do not begin reading this book unless you have time to be completely immersed in the compelling, insatiable world of Rennie, Cherry and Amy—the Bitch Posse. I’ve burnt two casseroles and twice forgotten to tuck the children in on time. (How Martha Stewart does that make me sound?) People must be forewarned.
Martha O’Connor takes her readers on a dark, wild, deliciously sinful ride through the lives of three girls. As teens, Rennie, Cherry and Amy are an unlikely band of friends, but their bond is one of deep, guttural need to belong somewhere. But no matter how close the girls become, each of them carries a dark secret that threatens to crumble the Posse from within.
The story moves back and forth through fifteen years, teasing the reader masterfully with a hint at a shared secret that tore the trio apart. We see the girls as adults: Cherry lives in a psychiatric hospital; Rennie drowns her memories in sex, drugs and rock n’ roll; Amy suffers from dire marital troubles. And the only thing that holds their sanity intact is knowing that the Bitch Posse is still out there, somewhere.
HB: "The Bitch Posse" is dark, compelling and addictive. What inspired it?
MO: I know it sounds really ridiculous, but the book practically wrote itself. I was down and out after enduring numerous publisher rejections for a different novel of mine (still unpublished), a mystery, and decided to start something new. The Bitch Posse girls just knocked me to the ground, held a knife to my throat and wouldn't let me up until I'd let their stories unfold on paper. Addictive is a great word, because it was addictive for me, too. Sometimes I'd write compulsively, all night long.
HB: What are the joys & nightmares of being a writer, getting published...any stories, advice?
MO: My advice would be to remain true to your own vision. I had a very enthusiastic literary agent for another project of mine, mentioned above. When she started getting publisher rejections on the mystery, I began writing The Bitch Posse in order to take my mind off things. 50 pages into the novel, I wanted a little feedback, so I showed it to my husband, also a writer and my first and best reader. He demanded that I keep writing it so he could find out what happened next.
Still not satisfied, I decided to send the partial to my then-agent. She HATED it. She said it was so dark and different that no one would ever want to read it. She even said, "I don't think I can sell this and I can't imagine who the audience would be." She suggested I write another mystery with the same detective instead.
Well, I didn't want to do that. If you've read the novel, you know that by 50 pages into the story, the girls are in a HUGE amount of trouble. Not only that, but I considered the girls my friends. I wouldn't abandon friends in that much trouble, so how could I abandon my girls?
So I plowed on, writing to please no one but myself. I broke ties with the agent, but part of me was still convinced that she was right, that I'd never find a traditional publisher. I'd have to self publishor go overseas. In truth, though, her comments were the best thing that ever happened to me because they freed me to write like no one was watching. I smashed all the censors, and that was why I was able to take the risks I did with the novel.
HB: "The Bitch Posse" seems very much on the opposite end of the spectrum from your average chick-lit. Do you think that women and their needs are being accurately portrayed in today's fiction?
MO: I personally find it really hard to find a book featuring women that appeals to me. If the character makes me sick with her own selfishness (I'm thinking of the recent Sue Monk Kidd novel The Mermaid Chair) or just bores me with her obsessions (the character in Plum Sykes' Bergdorf Blondes) then I won't read the novel.
But I'm observing that tough, in your face heroines are popping up infiction more and more--the girls in Colleen Curran's Whores on the Hill, Joshilyn Jackson's character Arlene Fleet in Gods in Alabama, and Madeline Dare in the upcoming novel by Cornelia Read, A Field of Darkness. These characters are women who speak to me, women I respectand care about. I can only hope that there will be more "tough girl" books in the future!
HB: The book cover for "The Bitch Posse" is sexy and attention getting. How important do you feel the book cover is in relation to sales?
MO: Well, I personally love the cover. I think a cover needs to evoke acertain mood that goes with the novel. And I do feel my cover suggests that: it's dark, it's sexy, there's a mystery to it. I'm not really sure how covers affect sales, but I do know of cases in which certain covers were nixed by a big bookstore chain and the publisher had to go back to the drawing board. Covers are really important, but I'd be horrible at designing them. I haven't moved past the stick figure phase of Art 101.
HB: "The Bitch Posse" has been compared to the work of Joyce Carol Oates. Do you feel that's a fair comparison? Was your book in any way homage to her?
MO: Well, Joyce Carol Oates is my literary goddess. I totally adore herwork and I am sure the edgy mood of the novel echoes her work in someways. But if this novel is in homage to any other writer, it is Vladimir Nabokov. There are many little hints and puzzles dropped into the novel along the way. One has to do with butterflies, but there are many more. I'll leave the finding and unwinding to those who enjoy those types of things!
HB: Several fans of your book have expressed that they strongly identified with at least one of your main characters—so strongly, in fact, that it was like you knew them. Who do you identify more with—Rennie, Cherry or Amy? And why?
MO: There are obvious similarities between me and Rennie--we both live inMarin County, are both writers, were both teachers. However, I hope I'm not as dysfunctional as she is! I'm like Cherry in that I am almost compelled to help people, even at my own expense. Also, Cherry is a writer too. And I can easily relate to Amy because she's a mother... the entire world changes when you become a parent because you are no longer living just for yourself. Your choices are for the most part governed by what is best for your children. Anyway, I guess the short answer is that I'm like all of the characters! It depends which day you ask...
HB: What advice would you offer new authors?
MO: Write like no one is watching. Also, check out any potential agent with the AAR and Predators and Editors.
HB: What's next for you—any future books planned?
MO: Yes! I am working on another book right now, but I'm superstitious about talking about unfinished work... so my lips are sealed!
THE BITCH POSSE was published by St. Martin's Press in May of 2005 and is available online and in stores. You can read an excerpt of it here, on Martha’s website. So go forth, my minions...and support this talented author by buying her book!
(don't make me sick the Spork of Doom on you)
posted by Heather Brewer at 11:41 AM
2 Comments:
Hey, totally great interview, and I'm not just saying that because I got to see my name in it... I would like to be BOTH of you guys when I grow up. Fortunately for you, there is no imminent threat of that happening. The growing up thing. Wait... does iminent have only one M? No, that looks ridiculous.
Anyway, really cool stuff, and thank you for putting it together. Now I'm going to have to go back and re-read Martha's book to check out the secret butterfly motif.
Thanks, Cornelia! You can be me when you grow up...but then who do I get to be? Certainly not another grown up. Hmmm...maybe I can be Martha. ;)
And now...I have to check out the butterfly thing again as well.
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