BIO

Holly Peterson spent a decade as an Emmy award—winning producer at ABC news. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Talk, and Newsweek, where she is now a contributing editor. She lives in New York City with her family and is working on her next novel.

Back to top.   

AUTHOR TALK

June 22, 2007

Holly Peterson's debut novel, THE MANNY, gives readers an inside peek into the lives of Manhattan's elite, including the new trend of hiring "mannies" to care for their children. In this Q&A, Peterson describes the very real circumstances that inspired her to write this fictional story and shares her opinion on why the seemingly unconventional idea of male caregivers is rising in popularity among families of all economic backgrounds. She also explains how she is able to juggle her career in magazines with writing novels and spending time with her husband and children, and offers advice to other harried mothers on how to balance work and family life.

Question: After a career in news and magazines, why did you decide to write a book?

Holly Peterson: These days, people do the craziest things and come up with the most ridiculously funny comments and I have been secretly taking notes for years. When I realized I had notebooks filled with juicy material, I started my book. This book is written from a very factual, journalistic point of view, and though the plots may be fiction, the super upper-class background and basis for all the characters are very real. I think the reader will understand that from the get go --- even though the situations in the book may seem like they come from another planet, they come off as very believable.

Q: The book is set in "the Grid," where you grew up. Yet your heroine is an outsider. Did you make that decision to make her more sympathetic?

HP: Obviously people relate more to an outsider desperately trying to fit in than they do to an insider who has it all and glides through life. Jamie Whitfield shares so many familiar struggles of American women: she tries to be the best mom she can be despite her heavy work load, she feels guilty about her time away, she appeases her husband constantly just to make things smoother, she makes mistakes, and because this is romantic fiction, she finds a sexy manny --- a nanny of the male persuasion --- who sweeps her off her feet and takes her away from it all...not because he is simply smoking hot, but because he is a layered, funny, complex, brilliant guy who understands her better than her husband. Smart and funny and knowing is far more sexy than just plain handsome and hot, don't you think?

Q: Is having a "manny" really a trend in the social circles you describe? If so, was this trend what spurred you to write THE MANNY?

HP: Many women in my neck of the woods hire mannies alongside their other staff members: cooks, nannies, housekeepers, drivers. Though as I have researched the phenomenon, I have found that mannies are becoming more common in all income groups. People are finding that kids love playing with rough-and-tumble guys and that men are terrific caregivers.

Q: Would you consider getting a manny for your children?

HP: Last summer, I watched my kids with their male camp counselor and saw the gleam in their eyes. I tentatively asked him if he had a winter job, and when he said no, I hired him on the spot. He messes up the house, puts his dirty shoes on the sofa, and forgets to tell me everything, but my kids adore him. So he's worth it...most of the time!

Q: Are you as stressed and overbooked as your heroine in THE MANNY, or do you set aside time to be with the family? Do you have any tips for today's harried working woman about juggling all of life's duties?

HP: Like all working women (or stay-at-home moms!) of course I am harried all the time. I work three days at Newsweek magazine and try to write my books in the library on my days off. I have enough flexibility with both book and magazine writing that I can pick up my kids 2 days a week after school.

Of course I am getting phone calls from the State Department when I am trying to drive a Suburban full of screaming kids to ice-skating --- every Mom has a version of that --- but it's still worth it to physically be with them even if phone calls pull me away. One piece of advice that really really works for my family: special time. Every week, each of my three kids gets some special time with me. They feel comforted all week knowing they are getting some time with me alone. I highly recommend it, and remember you have to leave the house during special time or the other kids will barge in!

Q: Do you plan on writing more books? If so, are you working on the next one now?

HP: I plan to write many books in the future. I love to write about people who love someone they don't think they can ever have. Nothing in life is more painful. Whenever I think about Iraq or global conflicts, I always wonder about the lost loves. Shiites who are cordoned off from Sunnis and can't contact them, wives or girlfriends who've lost their true loves to a car bomb, women who can't be with the man they love because of a strict society. I think that tragic love is the one human condition that binds us all. I hope to write about impossible love stories that end up on a happy note.

• Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.

© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.