Interview with Maria Murnane

[Rachel]

I had so much fun with Perfect on Paper that I asked author Maria Murnane to answer a few of my questions and thought I would post it here at GoodReads. She graciously agreed, and I’m excited to post her answers below.

What books would you recommend to others?

Hmm, this is an eclectic list, but I loved the following:
1) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
2) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
2) Beach Music by Pat Conroy
3) Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
4) McCarthy’s Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland by Pete McCarthy

What are you currently reading?

Right now I’m reading The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David S. Landes But it’s SO long and dry that it’s literally taking me forever to read it, so I’ve been sprinkling in lighter books along the way. Last week I finished Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

How have your reading tastes changed since finishing your book?

My tastes really haven’t changed; I like to learn, so I’m usually reading a long non-fiction book (see above) concurrently with a novel or two. But one thing that has definitely changed is my attention to detail, especially when reading novels. Now I notice lots of things that I don’t think I ever did before, particularly dialogue and how important it is for characters to show their personality through what they say, as opposed to telling the reader what a character’s personality is. As a writer, when you’re able to look at a line you’ve written and think “hmm, that doesn’t sound like something so and so would say,” then you know you’ve created a real character.

How did your day job influence your book? Were any of Waverly’s experiences in the workplace true to life?

The one thing about Waverly’s workplace life that was straight out of my own was her visit to the Super Show in Atlanta (minus her little social mishap at the JAG party (don’t want to give it away to your readers who haven’t read the book yet, but luckily that never happened to me.). The show itself though was over the top and incredible, filled with celebrity athletes, trade show bunnies and huge parties- it’s amazing anyone ever gets any work done.

Several people have asked me if I based the Mandy Edwards character (the thorn in Waverly’s side) on a real coworker of mine, and the answer to that is no. She’s more a compilation of people I’ve met over the years in various jobs, classes, soccer teams, etc. I think everyone has at least one Mandy Edwards in their life, you know?

What elements of Waverly do you see in yourself? Is she the character of the book that you identify most closely with?

My friends all say that reading Perfect on Paper is like listening to me talk for 320 pages, so that should answer the question! I like to say that Waverly Bryson’s life is essentially my life: if my life were more exciting. In many ways we are very similar. For example, I tend to care too much about what other people of me and of what I’m doing with my life, and I’m always making random observations like she does. I also tend to stick my foot in my mouth when I get nervous because I can’t think of the right thing to say. But in other ways we are very different. My family situation is a good example of that; my parents have been happily married for 45 years and are extremely supportive of me, and I have two sisters and a brother who are awesome, as are their spouses and kids. Waverly sort of missed out on that, but I felt it made the story more interesting to have her as an only child with a less-than-perfect relationship with her dad. And while Waverly doesn’t like sports, I play soccer five times a week- can’t get enough!

What was your motivation behind writing the book?

I’ve always loved to write (I was an English major in college), but I guess you could say about eight years of working and being single in San Francisco was what really motivated me to write this book. It just got to the point where I had so many funny stories running around in my head that I needed to do something with them. But I was working full-time and never really had the time, and I didn’t know exactly what the plot would be.

Then one day I quit my PR job because I just, well, hated it, and I literally had no idea what I wanted to do next. So I bought a ticket to go to Argentina by myself for a couple weeks. And after two weeks I loved it so much there that I decided to stay for a year. I got a job playing semi-pro soccer (random, but fun), and after I’d been doing that for a couple months I realized that if I was ever going to write a book, that was that time. So I just started writing and writing and writing, and eventually I had the first draft of what would eventually become Perfect on Paper.

How can fans of Waverly help get the word out?

Many people don’t realize that I self-published Perfect on Paper because the publishers all told me that while they thought it was funny, it wouldn’t stand out in a very crowded market. So that means I really need their help to show publishers that there IS an audience out there for Waverly Bryson! So besides telling their friends about the book, there are three key things Waverly’s fans can do to help in my efforts to get the book picked up by a publisher, which would hopefully allow me to write a sequel!

1) Write a review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0980...
2) Become a fan on Facebook and write something on the wall (you can use the “share with friends” link here too if you want: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Perfect...
3) Post a comment on my Web site: http://mariamurnane.com/reader-comments/

Doing those three things would be fantastic, so thank you in advance to any of your readers who take a few minutes to help out!

Thanks Maria, and best of luck to you with getting this book picked up!