Martha O’Connor’s explosive debut novel, The Bitch Posse, chronicles the crisscrossed lives of three best friends – first as seniors in high school, then as women in their 30’s – who share a terrible secret that will rip them apart. It’s a raw and gritty book that will “walk alongside you and haunt your dreams, long after you turn the last page,” according to author Jacquelyn Mitchard.

O’Connor, a mother of twins, says she wrote the book as a love letter to all the girls who never quite fit in. A graduate of Bowling Green State University, she is married to award-winning writer Philip F. O’Connor and lives with her family in Marin County, Calif. She is currently working on another novel and divides her time between writing, juvenile diabetes advocacy (her son was diagnosed in July 2004), and watching her daughter perform in plays.

MWLM: Your debut novel, The Bitch Posse, is a gut-wrenching story of three high school girls and their all-encompassing, almost dangerous friendship. You wrote it after becoming the mother of twins. Did motherhood influence the kind of book you wrote? Do you think it would have been different if you’d written it before the birth of your children?

MO: I was able to relate to the character of Amy quite a bit, being a mother. As you and your readers know, motherhood changes us irrevocably. We cease living solely for ourselves and begin living for others. Amy’s traumatic experiences with her premature baby came from the heart. I was on strict bed rest for over three months when pregnant with twins, and the very real possibility of premature infants hit me in the face. I knew many women who were dealing with pre-maturity with their twins, and their stories inspired much of the situations facing Amy. I don’t think we as mothers ever hurt as much as we do when our children are in trouble.

MWLM: What kind of reaction to The Bitch Posse have you gotten from teenage girls who have read it? Do teenagers react differently than adults? Have your children read the book yet? If so, how did they react? If not, are you nervous about their reaction when they do read it?

MO: I’ve heard from many, many teenaged girls who have confided in me that they feel broken much the way the girls in the book do. Many come from chaotic or dysfunctional households and find refuge in their friendships with other girls who are also hurting badly. The decisions made under those circumstances aren’t always the best, but when we are very young, sometimes it is all we can do to survive day-to-day.
Although adults who have been fortunate enough not to come from such a background have expressed that the book seems gloomy and hopeless, those girls who are hurting so badly right now have told me in no uncertain terms that the book’s ending is tremendously hopeful to them. Also, adults who’ve endured difficult pasts have told me how much they relate to the book.
The difficulty some adults seem to have with this book is that they fear it might influence girls to commit crimes and use drugs. However, I don’t agree with this opinion since teens have been reading Macbeth in school for years, and that’s a lot bloodier than my book. I don’t see people blaming Shakespeare for teenaged crimes, and he’s certainly read a lot more widely than I am.
As for the last part of your question: My children are only 10, so they have not read my book. I imagine they will want to read it in high school. I’m not nervous about their reaction because we talk about everything at home, including drug and alcohol abuse, as well as other compulsive behaviors. As a recovering alcoholic, I speak very frankly to my kids about addiction. They have heard many devastating stories of substance abuse through some of my fellow recovering alcoholics/addicts, who are just now getting their lives back. My kids know how to recognize a substance abuse problem and where to get help for themselves or for any of their friends. That’s so very important to me. 
Bottom line: In our house, we talk candidly about difficult subjects. If my children do read my book, I expect we will talk about the difficult subjects in the book, as well. That can only be a help to us.

MWLM: Tell us about your next book. What is it about? When will it be published? Will it be as edgy, as dark, as “anti-chick-lit” as The Bitch Posse?

MO: I’m extremely superstitious about speaking about work that’s not completed! However, what I am currently working on is both very similar to and very different from The Bitch Posse. The themes are quite similar, but the subject matter couldn’t be more different.

MWLM: How have you juggled your writing career and being the mother of twins? Do you have a set writing schedule or do you just do it when you can fit it in? What advice do you have for other moms who aspire to write amid all the chaos of raising a family?

MO: Well, right now I am about to embark on a work session as my son’s being tutored here in the library. As a mom, you’re forced to carve out weird bits of time. I even work at saxophone lessons. (I do use headphones.) Often, I’ll get up at 5 a.m. and work for an hour-and-a-half or so, before the kids go off to school. I do freelance editing and consulting for part of the morning, and if there’s time between that and the morning chores, I write. One thing’s for sure—the lack of time really cuts down on writer’s block. I can’t afford that luxury. 
Advice: As Nike would say, Just Do It. Let the laundry or dishes go. Don’t be discouraged by small bits of progress. If you wrote just one page a day for a year, you'd have a novel by year's end.
 
MWLM: You have a history of activism. How do you combine your writing with your advocacy of various causes? How do you involve your children in your activism? Does it frustrate you that so few teenagers and young adults seem interested in activism?

MO: I consider writing and activism two separate parts of my life (at least, at the moment). I’ve never written a novel trying to transmit political ideas – to me, that crosses the line between fiction and propaganda. Of course, my opinions color my work. How could they not?
My biggest cause is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I began working for the JDRF when my son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, a life-threatening, incurable autoimmune disorder, two-and-a-half years ago at the age of seven. Each year, our family raises thousands of dollars through the Walk to Cure Diabetes. I also write about diabetes on my blog (marthaoconnor.blogspot.com). My son has spoken at local political group meetings about stem cell research and frequently chooses it as a ‘current events’ topic at school.
Regarding young people and politics, I have to say that I’m not really getting the impression that young people are uninvolved in political activism. What I see are very vibrant groups blossoming from the grassroots, such as gonextgeneration.org, a young people’s group for peace that sprung up locally and is already making a far-reaching impact. Young people have a lot of passion and idealism and here in Marin, anyway, what I see are young people who really care and believe they can make a difference!  This is very encouraging to me. 

MWLM: You operate your own blog. Does that give you a closer connection to your readers? How do you think blogs have changed the quality of writing and the ability of writers to promote themselves?

MO: Yes, blogging has definitely connected me with readers whom I’d never otherwise have met. I’ve gotten to know other authors via my blog, as well. Blogs are a way for readers to get to know authors more intimately, in a much more personal way than a dust jacket flap. Blog content is always changing, just as we as human beings are always changing and evolving toward whomever it is we are going to become.
Blogging has not changed the quality of my writing. My blog entries are usually off-the-cuff, lightly edited if at all. My readers understand that, and I doubt they expect gorgeous metaphors or hilarious dialogue in a blog entry. 
As for the second half of the question, I’m not sure blogging is this huge self-promotion beacon everyone thought it was for awhile. That’s not really why I do it.  Blogging is fun for me and is a writing warm-up. Any author who thinks that spending time on a blog is going to get a ton of more readers for his or her book is mistaken, I think. 

MWLM: Your husband is Philip F. O’Connor, an accomplished writer in his own right. What’s it like to have two writers in the same household? Do you critique each other’s work? Do you ever feel like you are competing with each other?

MO: Phil’s insights have been a tremendous support to me. Writing can be a lonely business, and having a reader who believes in your work is invaluable. 
We’ve critiqued each other’s work for a long time now. However, I think it’s valuable for any writer to have more than one test reader. You don’t need to have a ton of them (that could get confusing), but I think two to three trusted readers is just about ideal. That way, you can sense a pattern with issues that really are troubling.
I don’t feel competitive with my husband’s writing or with any other writer’s work but my own. It’s a contest with myself to be the best writer I can be. 

MWLM: Any possibility of seeing The Bitch Posse as a movie? Do you think screenplays based on novels are often poor imitations?

MO: The movie’s been optioned by Virginia Madsen (Sideways, The Astronaut Farmer), and I’m absolutely thrilled because I love her work. There’s no guarantee the movie will be made, of course, (my agent says “many are called, but few are chosen”), but I know the heart and talent she brings to all she touches, and I consider myself and the Bitch Posse girls very blessed to be connected with her in any way.
Regarding the second question, I’ve seen wonderful books made into horrible movies (Breakfast of Champions), and I’ve seen movies that I liked better than the book (The Firm). So I guess it’s hard to say. It probably depends on the director and creative team brought onboard. 

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