Why I Wrote The Late, Lamented Molly Marx

For most of my life I’d been a magazine editor and writer: of articles, profiles, copy, titles, blurbs, the “sell” lines that go on a the cover and editors’ letters once I got to be an editor-in-chief, when I was also responsible for the final spit-polish edit—essentially, rewriting—for McCall’s and Lifetime’s content. All these pieces, small and large, added up to a mountain of work and a very long day. I always loved reading fiction, but who had time to try and write it? Little Pink Slips, my first novel, was almost an accident. Only because I had a bit of severance pay in the bank, did I indulge myself with attempting to write any thing made up.

As I was dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on the final version of this first novel, I started realizing that I didn’t want it to be my one and only book. Writing a novel fills you up. It’s a seemingly endless, multi-faceted creative smorgasbord, intimidating but enormously satisfying on many levels. I found that I love character, plot, dialogue, and narrative development, choosing a point of view and later on, presenting my baby to the public in person, online, on the radio and on television. Hard as the work is—and for me, it’s like swimming to Australia--I put my brain on alert for another story line. This time I knew I wanted to go beyond the boundaries of my own life, since Little Pink Slips was inspired by real events.The idea for The Late, Lamented Molly Marx came to me in a whoosh when I was attending the funeral of a neighbor. (You can read more about that in an interview with me posted on this site.)

For my first novel, I submitted the manuscript with about fifty titles to my agent. Ultimately, we settled on Little Pink Slips. The novel’s editor and her colleagues decided, however, that they might want to try another title. I came up with at least fifty more possibilities. At the end of the day, my editor decided to stick with Little Pink Slips.

For my second novel, I was determined not repeat this torture. I wanted to write the title before the first sentence. Fortunately, the title The Late, Lamented Molly Marx came to me at the same time I hatched the book’s basic premise. This time, no one—my agent, editor or publisher—second-guessed it. At least not to me to my face.

Now I’m at work on a third novel, scheduled to be published by Ballantine in 2010. Sometimes I pinch myself. I’m so thoroughly delighted to be entertaining readers through my fiction, making them laugh or think or even cry, That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. It’s a kick.