by Tamar Cohen
9. The way in which you’ve characterized Sally leaves open the possibility that she is more than just temporarily unhinged by her breakup from Clive. How important was it for you to be sympathetic with Sally’s situation while writing The Mistress’s Revenge? Do you expect readers to be sympathetic as well?
As I said earlier, I think the reason Sally unravels so spectacularly is because the emotional rejection from Clive coincides exactly with a crisis point in her life, where she is beset by doubt about herself and about the future, i.e., “Not only is this all there is, it’s all downhill from here.” Once you realize this, I think you can’t help but feel a certain amount of sympathy. You might not like her, but to a certain extent I think you can understand how and why she got to where she is.
10. What did you learn about yourself in the course of writing The Mistress’s Revenge?
I learned that:
a) I probably have a darker side to me than even I realized.
b) You shouldn’t ever try to judge anyone else’s relationship from the outside.
c) Writing a 100,000-word book in too small a font ruins your eyes.
