January 20th saw the release of a new book written by Karen. Bring Me Back is a novel about a single 40-something journalist named Claire who just happens to have a favorite band in her past. Claire has a daughter she has raised alone, she has a career, and now she’s facing the opportunity of a lifetime to interview the bass player of her dreams. Simply put, the book asks the question “What would happen if someone you idolized in your adolescence poked his/her head up out of the sand 20 years later into your own life? What would you do? How would that relationship look?”
As Karen puts it, “I do think there are a lot of different things that women in their 30s and 40s can relate to, whether it’s related to motherhood or career or love. I did like the idea that Christopher had lived in her head that whole time—even the years when she didn’t give him a thought, he was still there. So how does this person you were once obsessed with suddenly pop back into your head?”
I can probably speak for all of us with wide-eyed innocence, “Gosh, I have no idea!” The curious thing is that one might assume the reunion – Duran Duran’s reunion of the “Fab Five” that is – spurned the writing of this book.
“Totally accidental”, Karen replies. “In fact, I didn’t start revisiting the band until the first draft was done. It wasn’t like I was listening to Duran the whole time I was writing it, not at all.”
Karen finally gave into the urge to put the story on paper after overseeing her family’s home rebuilt after a fire in the summer of 2008.
“After we were back in our house, kids settled, everything was furnished, I was sort of like ‘Now what?’ So I decided that I would do something for myself and TRY to write this book. I didn’t tell anybody, I just sat down and started writing. I fully expected I would get stuck after a dozen pages or so, but the exact opposite happened. It was like discovering this whole new part of me that I didn’t even know existed. Awakening a sleeping giant, if you will.”
Yeah…I wouldn’t know anything about that at all, right?
I agree. While there might be elements of, say, certain band members we might all recognize, and perhaps tidbits that a fan may find familiar, Christopher Penman is his own man…although we can all certainly wish to see a bit of ourselves in Claire.
Karen expands on this, “I think it’s a case of being able to make it whatever you want it to be. I want the reader to feel the thrill that Claire gets from the experience, but it still belongs to Claire. She is the one who Christopher falls for.”
In many cases, fan fiction is different in that respect. Often (but not always) it is written in such an way that any fan could find herself (or himself) in the role of female role (or male role, should that be the case). Even as I read this book, although I might have chuckled in delight or smiled at the excitement that Claire felt, I never felt as though I was supposed to “be” Claire. The story belongs to Claire. Even so, I felt as though I needed to ask if Karen was a fan fiction aficionado.
“I’ve read one or two Twilight fan fiction pieces, but they were written by people who are both fan and writer. Actually, my daughter has written fan fiction about some of the Japanese boy bands that she likes, I’ve read those.”
The bottom line is that while the premise of the book is loosely based on a similar thread as the fandom that many of us have experienced for Duran Duran, only the most detail-oriented of fans will catch some of the morsels of fandom that is sewn with love into fabric of the story. One of the things I enjoyed most in the book was recognizing those small little “Easter Eggs”.
“That’s been so much fun this week, getting tweets and emails from people as they spot the little Duranie moments in the book. This is the first time I’ve had a book instantly resonate with readers. The fact that people bought it the day it came out and were reading it in a single sitting just blows me away. It makes me really happy, but I never expected that. The thing is, I wrote a book I wanted to read, and I think that’s part of the reason that it resonates with people, that people have a hard time putting it down. I wrote for myself, which makes me a part of my audience – it’s all very natural.”
Let’s just be honest, shall we? Who would NOT want to be the female main character in this book? Most fans – of any kind (Look away, members of Duran Duran, look away!!) – have moments of fantasy like this at some point.
“Exactly!” Karen continues, “That was it – make this dream scenario, make it as real as possible, hopefully put the reader as close as possible to the woman who gets to live it.” So how did the idea for the book come about? Well, as some of the best books happen…it came in a dream. “The premise did come from a dream that I had about JT, a dream that I had as an adult and as a fan who was definitely removed from the band at that point. I had an 18-month old. I’d been out of music for a while.”
Karen says, “I did everything there – marketing, website development, merchandising, but the job I held the longest was Film and Television licensing.”
As a result, Karen has seen the underbelly of the industry, something that normal fans probably don’t have the opportunity to witness. Motherhood brought a major career change for Karen, along with what most moms know to be an identity crisis.
“…none of our friends had kids and my girlfriends still had their jobs or careers and I was staying home with our daughter.” I can relate to this 100%. “No one tells you how boring it can be, and that sounds awful, but there are only so many hours a grown woman can play Barbies.”
AMEN.
“I would prefer to write books like Bring Me Back because I like the idea of borrowing from different genres. I enjoy writing the steamier books as well, but writing sex scenes is incredibly taxing on the brain.”
Oh, I’ll just bet. I would imagine it’s akin to breaking each movement down into tiny processes. Takes the organic nature right out of it, and we just can’t have that, can we?
“It’s so much harder than people realize and there are a lot of guidelines you have to follow. Interesting that sometimes people view writing more of a sexual nature to be a ‘lesser art form’, but it’s incredibly difficult.”
I’m still stuck on the whole “guidelines” comment – I mean, who knew that there were actually rules and guidelines to writing about sex, but I shake myself out of my own head in time to ask if that makes Romantica more difficult than the genre of Bring Me Back…which really doesn’t fit into any one specific genre.
“Romantica stories are shorter, so in some ways that’s easier. I guess the thing that is rewarding for me about writing a book like Bring Me Back is adding the layers to the story, the small threads that run throughout the book. I always enjoy that when I’m reading, and that’s why I like to do it when I write.”
“I have outlined the sequel and contracted it. It will come out in February of 2014.”
This is great news for me, as I’ve sat up during certain times in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping and thought, “Gosh, I wonder what Christopher Penman is up to? Will Banks Forest ever come out with another album? Has he married Claire?” Now you all know when I come up with some of my more stranger blog ideas…. I can’t wait to read the sequel, and part of me wonders (the really sick and twisted part) if Karen’s new book will come out before Duran Duran’s next album. Hmm.
Thanks, Rhonda and Amanda, for having me on the blog today. It's so awesome and I feel honored to be here!
I LOVED Karen's book!! I think everyone should read it. It was a nice escape from reality. I loved the slight sprinkling of “Duran” and “John-ness” in the book. It felt very familiar and fun!! Thank you for doing the blog with Karen. I can't wait for the sequel.