Readers Place

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Jessica Brody answers questions about her book The Fidelity Files:

What was your inspiration for The Fidelity Files?

Before I became a full-time writer, I worked in a very corporate environment.  And like all corporate jobs, there were a certain number of ‘alcohol-related’ events that I was expected to attend.  I would often find myself at work ‘happy hour’ functions in nearby bars, observing the interactions between single and non-single co-workers as their behaviours gradually declined from professional to something else entirely.  Something hardly capable of being described as ‘appropriate’.

Some of the disturbing things that I witnessed as I watched alcohol cloud people’s judgment and the bar environment offset any trained workplace behaviour upset me on a profound level. I felt incredible discomfort in some of the things that I observed and above all else, it instilled a level of doubt and distrust in me that I never knew I had.  I secretly wished that someone would tell the ‘conveniently’ absent significant others about what their husbands/wives/boyfriends/girlfriends/fiancés really did while attending these ‘obligatory’ and supposedly ‘uneventful’ work functions. But I certainly wasn’t going to be the one to do it. I was brave enough to think it…but not exactly brave enough to go knocking on people’s doors with bad news. You know what people tend to do to ‘the messenger.’

So instead I created a character whose job and purpose in life was to do just that. To reveal the truth to anyone who wanted to know. To knock on all the doors that I never had the courage to knock on. An invincible superhero-esque woman whose quest is to fight against the evils of infidelity. But of course, she soon finds out she’s not as invincible as she once thought.

In a sense, the Ashlyn character of the book is the mask that I always wanted to wear. She’s the woman that I never had the confidence or audacity to be. A façade behind which I could hide as I watched my fantasies of exposing the truth come to life on the page. I believe we are all afraid of feeling vulnerable on some level. We all fear the painful emotions that come with betrayal. My greater purpose in writing The Fidelity Files was to explore these fears so that I could offer a message of faith and hope despite them. Because if someone who makes their living as a fidelity inspector can believe in love despite everything she’s seen, it shouldn’t be that hard for the rest of us.

Have you ever met a professional ‘honey-trap’?

This is the second most popular question people ask after I’ve told them what The Fidelity Files is about. The first most popular question is whether or not I was ever a professional ‘honey trap’ myself. And the answer to both is, sadly, no. I wish my life was that exciting! Although, I do admit, it sounds like a fascinating job and I would really like to meet one some day. In fact, when I first came up with the idea for the book, I didn’t even know ‘honey-trappers’ existed in real life. I thought that I just made up the profession. And so I wrote the book from the perspective of what I believed the life of a honey trap (or ‘fidelity inspector’ as I called it) would be. I only recently found out that there are quite a few agencies out there that do this kind of thing for real, especially in the UK. I’m just dying for a real-life honey trap to read my book and tell me if I was anywhere near the mark, or just completely off base.

Your writing is very sharp, witty and entertaining but who makes you laugh?

My dad. He’s hilarious…well, most of the time. Sometimes he’s just corny. But I definitely get most of my sense of humour from him. We can both be really cheesy at times. Sometimes we’ll be having a conversation at the dinner table and we’ll both come up with the same stupid joke at the same time. We crack ourselves up while the rest of the family just shake their heads in shame and continue on like nothing happened. My dad likes to add one-liner jokes to my manuscripts when he reads them. Some of them make it into the final draft, but most are still lying on the proverbial cutting room floor.

Jennifer thinks of herself as a modern day superhero: if you were a superhero what would you be called? And what would be your special power?

Calorie Immunity. That would definitely be my super power. The ability to eat anything I want and be completely unaffected by the calories contained within. I would never gain a pound! I have a HUGE weakness for cupcakes. I’m talking epic. I cannot pass up a cupcake to save my life. So with my calorie immunity, cupcakes would no longer pose a threat to me…or my thighs.

I’m not really sure what my superhero name would be, but with a super power like that, man, would I look good in a leotard and boots.

Dream-casting time: who in your head would play Jennifer in the movie of The Fidelity Files? What about Jamie?

I’ve always struggled with this question because I’ve never really had one person in mind for the role of Jennifer/Ashlyn. She would have to be beautiful and sexy so that the men in the movie would fall for her but she would also has to come off as sympathetic and a little vulnerable so that audience would relate to her. I would love to see Eva Longoria in the role because I think she could pull it off. Also Natalie Portman, Jessica Biel, Scarlett Johansson or Keira Knightley would be great casting.

As for Jamie, Patrick Dempsey is an obvious choice for me. I think he has that distinguished mature look that’s described in the book and he also comes off as very sweet and genuine. That’s the kind of guy Jamie is in my head.

Who are your favourite authors?

Well, the first one that comes to mind is Helen Fielding because of her novel, Bridget Jones’s Diary. That book is the reason I even started writing novels in the first place. It was the first time I can ever remember laughing aloud while reading a book.

I’m also a huge fan of Sophie Kinsella. Her ability to make everyday situations funny is amazing and I aspire to entertain people the way she does.

Other favourites include Emily Giffin, Philippa Gregory, Alyson Noël, Beth Harbison, Scott Westerfeld, Dan Brown and Lisa Lutz.

Confession time: which classic novel have you always meant to read and never got round to it?

All of the ones I was supposed to read in high school but just bought the Cliff’s Notes for instead. No, just kidding. Sort of. (I really hope my tenth grade English teacher doesn’t read this.)

I guess if I were to pick just one it would be Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, because not only is it my favourite musical of all time, but I’m also obsessed with European history and the tumultuous period after the first French revolution especially fascinates me. But I think the 1500 pages is what has kept it on my to-do list for this long.

What are your top five books of all time?

That is an incredibly hard question because the minute I finish listing out five, I always think of one more that I forgot and then something inevitably has to get bumped off the list to accommodate it and I feel bad. As if the book’s feelings will be hurt when it finds out that it didn’t make my top five. But here they are, in no particular order: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Greogory The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Which book are you reading at the moment?

The short answer to that is many. I usually have a partially read book in every room of the house…and an audio book in my car. I’m definitely a multi-tasking reader. Here’s the current selection: I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley (bedroom), Cruel Summer by Alyson Noël (living room), The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (oversized purse), The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (car), and A Simple Guide to Marketing Your Book by Mark Ortman (office) – if you’re reading this right now, it probably means it was a good book.

Do you have a favourite time of day to write? A favourite place? What’s your writing process? Are you a planner?

I write best in the morning. Something I never thought I’d say in a million years as I’ve never been a morning person. I used to think that waking up before 11 was early. But in the past year or so, I’ve been waking up at 7:30 and on the computer by 8:00 and I’ve never been more productive.

I can’t write in noisy places like coffee shops (I guess there goes my dream of becoming the next J.K. Rowling) so I usually write in my office at home. It’s quiet and comfortable and my fish is there, right next to my desk. He likes to watch me work. I think he’s my muse. Although I should probably figure out how long fish tend to live before I get too attached to that opinion.

The writing process is very random for me. It all depends on the day. Because I tend to be equally right and left brained, sometimes I feel as though the writing process is just a constant struggle (or sometimes clash) between the two brains to come up with a consistent way to write a novel. I write outlines, because my analytical side tells me it’s the right thing to do, but then halfway through the story, I come to the conclusion that I only write outlines so that I’ll have something to deviate from. I create complicated spreadsheets (a nod back to my days as a strategic analyst) for my storylines and page counts and pacing only to abandon them halfway through. And yet, despite this seemingly random chaos, it all feels perfectly natural to me. As if it was designed specifically for a purpose. So I suppose, my lack of a defined process is a process in itself.

Which fictional character would you most like to have met?

As much as I’d like to come off as sophisticated and literary and list a famous book character here like Hester Prynne or Atticus Finch, I really can’t pass up the opportunity for a hypothetical meeting with Samantha Jones from Sex and the City. It’s my all-time favourite show and a conversation with Samantha would never be dull.

Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time?

Jane Austen. She is the original feminist. And her stories are still alive today, two hundred years later, in both books and films. That is true staying power. I only wish she were alive to see Colin Firth play Mr. Darcy. I think she would have really enjoyed that almost as much as I did.

Other than writing, what other jobs or professions have you undertaken or considered?

Before I wrote my first novel, I worked as a strategic analyst for a film studio. Which basically means I worked on spreadsheets all day. Lots and lots of spreadsheets. Pie charts were popular too. But seriously, I do actually have a very analytical side so I enjoyed analysing the movie industry and predicting how well certain titles would do.

I also waited tables all through high school and college. My parents used to own a pizza restaurant in Colorado and I worked there every summer. I even made pizzas for a little while. And yes, I was able to toss the pizzas over my head like they do in the movies. But what they don’t show you in those movies is how much flour you have to wash out of your hair every night.

If I wasn’t a writer, I think I’d want to be a blackjack dealer in Vegas. I love to gamble. And as the dealer, I’d get to take other people’s money instead of losing my own. Either that, or I’d like to own my own cupcake shop. But without my calorie immunity super power, I don’t think that would be a very good idea.

What are you working on at the moment?

Currently, I’m working on the sequel to The Fidelity Files, which is still untitled. There’s a lot of fun stuff in store for Jennifer in the next book. She’s running an entire agency of fidelity inspectors and trying to manage her own committed relationship with Jamie at the same time. And when you’re breaking up relationships by day and trying to keep one together by night, drama definitely ensues.

I’ve also recently sold a young adult novel called The Karma Club about three high school girls who decide to take Karma into their own hands by getting revenge on the ex-boyfriends who broke their hearts. But as they soon discover, when you mess with Karma…Karma messes back. That’s due out in 2010 and so I’m currently working on the revisions.

And in addition to that, I also write for an internet TV show on Yahoo called Primetime in No Time in which we recap (or more accurately, make fun of) popular American television shows. Which really wasn’t a big leap for me since I used to do that anyway in my own living room. The only difference now is that I have a slightly larger audience than just my boyfriend.

Read an extract of The Fidelity Files here