Bond Girl
What can our readers expect from you new novel Bond Girl?
I think readers can expect to laugh at how crazy life on Wall Street can be! Obviously, the industry has received a lot of negative attention these last few years, so hopefully readers will find themselves surprised to laugh at it. It's not a book on how Wall Street works, it's a comedic take on the people who work on it.
You spent nearly a decade working on Wall Street, to what extent did that help you to write this book?
I think it helped in that it exposed me to a lot of different people with different personality types who could be very spontaneous and hard to read. When I was thinking of how to write the characters in this book I drew a bit on some of my former colleagues to create some very interesting people!
Given your background in English, why did you decide to go into fixed income sales?
I received an internship when I was in college and figured I'd try it out. I never thought I'd be there all these years later! I spent a summer in a sales and trading program and fell in love with it. All of a sudden I had a full time job and spent the next twelve years of my life in the industry. Eventually, my heart returned to writing so maybe I took a really, really long detour to end up where I was supposed to be! Life's funny the way it turns out sometimes.
When did your flair for writing begin?
In middle school. I remember coming home from school and writing stories about very blonde sisters who lived in this very cool room and had their own phone line. It basically was a story about the girl I wished I could be! I had so much fun doing it that I continued to focus on writing while I was in school, and I was lucky to have some great teachers along the way who encouraged me to keep doing it. It's a risk, sitting down and trying to convince yourself that you have something to say worth reading, without their encouragement I don't know that I would have had the guts to even try!
This is your first novel, do you have plans to write another?
Yes! I am currently writing a second book, but it's not a sequel. It's a whole different set of characters and it takes place at the beach. I'm having a lot of fun with it so far!
Who do you like to read?
I'm kind of all over the place with who I enjoy reading. I really love Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of the Vanities is one of my favorite books of all time. At the same time, I also love Sophia Kinsella, Nelson Demille and Mary Higgins Clark. I like reading a lot of different types of writers to keep my brain active! Plus, I'm hoping maybe I can a learn a few things from them by studying how they approach things.
Who were your main influeneces in your writing?
Oh there were so many! Honestly I thought about what Lauren Weisberger did for the tale of the working girl in the Devil Wears Prada and what Helen Fielding did for single, less than perfect girls in Bridget Jones' Diary and what Sophia Kinsella did for flawed but fabulous girls with impulse control issues in the Shopaholic books, and I was so impressed by how relatable all their characters were. They were influential in that they sort of set the standard for female protagonists battling modern day problems that all women come across in one way or another.
How did the character of Alex come about?
I was thinking about what young women on Wall Street are really like and how they perceive themselves,and Alex sort of came to life. One of the things that I love about her is that she doesn't take herself too seriously. She's not perfect, and she will be the first to tell you that. I hoped that would make her relatable to a lot of girls who may appear to have it all together on the surface, but in reality, they don't. Alex gets the joke, and has no problem being the butt of it!
To what extent did your English degree help you to write this book?
My English degree helped me write this book more than I can say. I spent so many years being edited, and critiqued, and graded by some very talented teachers and without them I don't think I would have believed that I had the talent to even try and write a novel. One thing creative arts teaches you is to try new things and to not be afraid to put your ideas out there for the world to see. If people don't like them, that's okay, but never let that stop you from trying. That's one of the most important lessons I learned over the years and I have a long list of English teachers to thank for that!
Female First Lucy Walton
Tagged in James Bond