Edgy Mama

As always, I try to bring you the edgiest in women and writing (even if it’s frequently just me).

Today, we have sexy writer Amy Guth visiting EM (I planned on posting her photo, but not only is this screwy blog not letting me load photos, now nothing at all happens when I click on the photo icon. Arrrrgh. You can visit Amy’s website or bloggie to see how hawt she is. She’s got those smart girl glasses that are so chic and sexee).

In addition to sex appeal, the girl’s got write. Amy’s novel, Three Fallen Women, is now available. I haven’t read the book yet, although it sounds like my kind of read (hint, hint, Amy).

Amy describes herself as “urbanite, smart-ass, feminist, anti-socialite.” Hmmmm, sounds familiar. And we totally heart chicks with attitude, don’t we?

Here’s how Amy describes her novel: “Three Fallen Women peers in on three women – a frustrated painter newly-aware after a breakdown; a heroin addict whose organs are attempting to warn her she’s dying; and a woman who finds serious catharsis in prostitution, castrations and mercy kills – as they individually fall apart, reconstruct, rinse, lather, repeat.”

While you’re waiting for your copy of this clearly twisted book to arrive, you can satiate yourself by reading Amy’s bloggie, Big Mouth Indeed Strikes Again.

What you won’t find out on her website (which is almost as intriguing as her Big Mouth) is that Amy was born in Ashvegas and lived here for the first few months of her life. She still visits family in AV. So, next time she’s in town I can have a fangirl moment when I run into her at Izzy’s (cause you just know that’s the only place that’s cool enough for her).

On to the interview. Read it and learn why Amy doesn’t wear pants when she’s writing (stop salivating, boys).

EM: As a fallen woman myself, I immediately identified with your novel’s title. Why did you chose to write about fallen women and do you consider yourself one?

AG: Every time I think it would have been romantic or simpler to have lived years and years ago, I remind myself that I would have been called a fallen woman and likely burned at the stake. I don’t think I am a fallen women. But, that probably means that I really am one, hm? (laughs) No, no. There is a line in the novel, about an action done for “the voices of millions of fallen women who never mustered the ovaries to fly away.”

In this context, I think the fallen women are bullied women, and specifically, women who can’t or won’t stand up and enforce their boundaries, for whatever reason. At the time I started writing this novel, I became very aware of a lot of women like that and started exploring that in writing. Joke was on me, a question turned into a novel!

EM: A lot of writers and wanna-be writers read my bloggie, do you have any publishing advice for us?

AG: Good question. I think the writing industry is like having healthy finances. Diversify! Write for different places, some online, some in print, a little of this, a little of that, and get some variety in your portfolio. Oh, and, make a game out of rejection letters and they won’t sting a bit. I heard a story about a man who wallpapered his bathroom with them. I used to attack them with a red pen and laughed my ass off every time by how many grammatical and usage errors were in them! Best line ever: “But best lucks finding a suitabler more publisher.” Ummm…

EM: Describe your writing schedule, writing rituals, writing space–or anything really weird about how, when, and where you write.

AG: Oh man, you’re going to make fun of this. I write to music and can’t bear to wear pants while writing. Let me back up. When I find a song that works for me on a given day, I put it on repeat and write to it until I can’t stand it for a while. I wrote Three Fallen Women to three songs only, one at a time over and over! And, while I write, and while I sleep for that matter, I can’t stand having fabric bunching around my knees. I had a knee injury a few years ago that left my left knee wimpy and sensitive, so…yeah. Pants all day long are fine, but when writing or sleeping, it’s shorts or a skirt/slip. No way around it.

EM: If you could come back in your next life, as any woman who has lived, who would it be (please ignore the inherent timeline problems of this question)?

AG: Hmm… Can I be future Lisa Simpson, to, you know, really confuse things…?