A Community for Book Lovers
Sponsored by
Badge
Latest Activity
Featured Author - Mandy Behbehani
Tell us about your book(s) My book recounts the story of nice, attractive Maddy Nelson, who soon after she turns fifty, wakes up in her San Francisco home to find her husband Steven, announcing that he’s leaving her for his girlfriend who is half her age and half her size.
Ouch.
Maddy simply cannot believe it. She and Steven have built a pleasant life with three children, vacations with friends and the comforts of what she has always thought was a secure and stable marriage.
Feeling totally unmoored and grieving for her married life and husband, Maddy finds herself thrust into the unfamiliar and uncomfortable world of middle-aged singledom. There she must come to terms with her situation and embark on her new life: divorce proceedings, single parenting, internet dating, and trying to earn a living. It’s enough to drive her over the brink.
To help her cope, she shares her struggles in a smart, wry blog named The Blasphemy Box, after her ex-husband’s obnoxious habit of having her drop a quarter into a wooden box every time she said something off color. In a series of wry, witty posts, she chronicles her often funny, but always heartfelt experience as she navigates the world as a divorced single mom, and even gains a following of dedicated readers.
Ultimately, her life is positively transformed. She meets Mike Dutton, a professor of creative writing, novelist and single dad, whom she begins to date, comes to terms with the divorce and finally finds herself firmly on track for her new life. Mike and Maddy fall in love. Her biggest fan, he encourages her to write a novel based on her blog and helps her get it published
Where did the idea of your (latest) book come from? I'm not quite sure! I know I saw myself aging and not liking it one bit, and that got me to pondering the question of women's aging in general: all the issues they face and how, as their sexual appeal dims they often lose their sense of self and begin to feel invisible. I thought about what are women's roles in the various stages of their lives and how so many of them, after twenty or twenty-five or thirty years of marriage, of learning, of growth, of experience, are often faced with the shattering event called divorce, from which some women, by the way, never recover.
My heroine Maddy does recover, of course, and ends up happier than before. (Phew!) In writing this book, I thought maybe there is room for this kind of story. Because, I think, there are so many books for hip, young women, and so few for the women they become, their older, better selves.
Who and what inspires you to write your books? Everyone has stories. Everyone. And almost all of them are interesting. I just wanted to tell those stories. And my own, of course.
Each author has their own fascinating journey. How did you begin writing? I began writing because I loved reading. l just love words. The power they have to move you is shocking (and delightful), particularly considering they are mere static symbols on a page. My first short story was published when I was twelve and I scribbled away over the years that followed, with little result and less satisfaction. But I seemed always to be writing something, a little novella here, a short story there. I just couldn't stop myself. And in England, where I grew up and went to school, all school work was done by way of the essay. We had to write essays about everything from Hamlet and flower imagery in D.H. Lawrence’s “Sons and Lovers,” to the Crimean War.
When I was deciding on a career, I thought I’d be a lawyer. A couple of terms of contracts and torts at university quickly disabused me of that notion. I could think only of journalism. I moved to the U.S., got my journalism degree and started working shortly after. I discovered I had the opportunity to write every single day. It was magical. And what I discovered that I hadn't really known until then, was that I was a creditable writer. People would comment on my stories and my confidence level went up. They told me to write a book. I even thought I may be able to write a book.
I started working on a novel, and then another, and then this one presented itself to me, and took me over. I wrote it in three weeks. (And then revised it numerous times!)
What has been the most pleasant surprise about being a writer? How about the most unexpected downside? My most pleasant surprise about being a writer has been tapping into my creative potential and producing something other people like to read and from which they gain some insight. The downside has been that as a writer you are almost always alone. Unlike football players or university professors, you work on your own. It’s a very solitary life and sometimes that amount of solitude can be a bit oppressive!
Do you have any particular writing routines or rituals? I try to write in the mornings because that is when my energy is the highest. I usually chew gum, which I shouldn't do because I have bouts of TMJ when I do, and I sometimes drink coffee which I shouldn't because I often spill it over my keyboard!
Do you write in order? I do write in order, but sometimes I have the ending in my mind while I'm writing. Which is the best way to go if you can do it.
What is on your playlist when you write? I don't listen to music when I write. I need peace and quiet, which are not easy to find!
Favorite writing snack? Walnuts
Where do you like to write? In my loft. It’s light and bright and the only room in the house that doesn’t get direct sunlight in the heat of summer. As I write I see dogs, kids and cars go by, all signs of life.
Do you have any advice for authors wanting to publish? None.
Are you currently working on anything else? Yes.
Who is your favorite character and why? I love Lily Bart in The House of Mirth. She was so naïve and so vulnerable and so doomed. I have been obsessed with Anne Boleyn since I was nine when I read my first book about her. She singlehandedly caused the shattering, monumental break of England from the Church of Rome.
I feel so for Madame Loisel in Guy de Maupassant's short story "La Parure." So overreaching, so tragic.
I adore Anne Elliot in Jane Austen's Persuasion, forced to break her engagement to the man she loves by her family who thinks he's not up to snuff. Eight years later, he's now rich and successful and they meet again but Captain Wentworth has not forgiven Anne for rejecting him. The feeling of yearning and regret is so palpable. You're just screaming at them to kiss.
Favorite book of all time? Only one? The Golden Bowl, The Wings of the Dove and the Aspern Papers by Henry James, House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, A Room with A View by E. M. Forster, When We Were Orphans by Kashuo Ishiguro, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Breakfast says a lot about a person, what is your perfect breakfast? French toast or pancakes or waffles smothered in butter and syrup, mascarpone and fresh sliced peaches and strawberries.
What I actually have: eggs poached medium, dry wheat toast and a non-fat, decaf latte.
Please tell us in one sentence why we should read your book. Because it's a story so many women can identify with, speaking to some of the core issues of their lives. And because it's smart and funny and moving!
Purchase Kindle / Paperback
© 2024 Created by Jen Rattie.
Powered by
