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The best dancers from across the globe are about to join me for the
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audition of a lifetime.
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ABC Mondays. Do they have what it takes to compete and be the next Dancing with the Stars pro? I'm here to win.
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Nothing is gonna stop me.
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Our star judges will decide.
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This is what hunger looks like.
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It was 100% a wrong choice. Robert Irwin hosts The next era of ballroom starts right here on Dancing with the Stars.
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The next Pro.
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All new Mondays, 8, 7 Central on ABC. Next day on Hulu. This summer, Prime Video takes you back before Legally Blonde, before law school, and into the world of Elle woods in high school. Set in 1995, this Gemini vegetarian knows exactly who she is until her family moves from Bel Air to Seattle. Packed with iconic fashion, 90s nostalgia and a throwback soundtrack, Elle proves one law school was hard. High school was harder. From the world of Legally Blonde, watch Elle, a new original series only on Prime Video. Watch now. This summer, serve up the cookout classics, Oscar Mayer hot dogs and Heinz mustard.
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Grill up a dog, add classic yellow
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mustard or loaded Chicago style.
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We all know it's not a cookout
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without Oscar Mayer and Heinz.
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Welcome to the New Books Network. Hi. This is Rebecca Buchanan, host at New Books Network. And today I'm here with Molly Fader to talk about her latest book, a Lady X. Molly, thanks for being here with me today.
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A
Oh, Rebecca, thank you so much for having me. This is fun.
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B
Could you start out by giving a little bit of a synopsis about Lady X?
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A
Yes. So Lady X is about a woman whose husband has he's a giant Hollywood star and he's created a disgusting scandal by sending inappropriate pictures to women all over the Internet. And she, in order to kind of protect her daughter from the paparazzi and her peace of mind, she escapes back to her hometown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where her sister is living and attempting to clean out her mother's house. But as we all know, if anybody out there has cleaned out their mother's house, it's a slow going process. So anyway, that night they find this box of books, this box in the attic about a vigilante named Lady X from 1977, New York City. And they discover some clues that would indicate their mother was a part of this vigilante movement. So it's a dual timeline story. And in the past, we meet Ginger, her mom and her two roommates who become this vigilante girl gang to go after the men who wronged them and try to take down some patriarchy as they go.
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B
So could you talk a little bit about how this Book came to be. How. Yeah, how did you come up with this? A sort of idea and start to write?
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A
Yeah. So whenever I'm thinking of a new idea, like, it takes a long, like, I call it kind of the percolation. So sometimes it's years, sometimes it's shorter. But I, I knew, I mean, like a lot of people, you know, watching the elections, watching the Epstein lack of justice, I was enraged, very, very angry, like a lot of people. So I had all of this anger. And then at the same time, my daughter was in grade eight and like so many girls in grade eight was being. She and her friends were being harassed by this kid. And you know, we were like, tell the tea. You know, she was doing all the things that, that you're supposed to do. And the kid wasn't stopping and it was escalating. And I said what my mother told me, which was probably what her mother told her. And I said, ignore him. And my daughter said, to my shame, I said, ignore him. And my daughter said, mom, you've gotta be kidding me. And they went and reported this kid and he got in a lot of trouble and actually probably got the help he needed at the same time. And my daughter and her friends were able to go to school and not be harassed, which shouldn't be that big of a deal. So I thinking about that, about how wrong I was and how my attitude enabled that kid to just get worse, you know, to grow up and be, who knows, you know, what kind of situation and how brave my daughter was as a. As a young teenager to just sort of fight that ingrained, you know, just. I mean, I'm from the Midwest, like that ingrained, just be nice mentality and hopefully it'll go away. So I had those two things sort of percolating in my head. And then during the pandemic, Taylor Swift released the Midnights album. And there's the song Vigilante Shit on it. As soon as I heard that, I was like, vigilantes. So everything sort of, you know, when you're working with two or three or however many different ideas you need that lightning strike alchemy that kind of brings it all together. And so thank you, Taylor Swift, for being the alchemy for Lady X. Yeah, so that's how it kind of came to be.
- [05:21]
B
So you put this, like you said, it's a dual timeline. Can you talk a little bit about why you chose New York City in 1970, the summer of 77, right. This, you know, it. It's such a summer in, in New York City. So it's.
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A
It's one of those things that you. When you start researching it, you're like. And then, look, you have the blackout. You have Son of Sam, you have police cuts which were cut. You know, like, you have a garbage string.
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B
You just.
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A
You have. You know, parts of the city are literally burning. You know, hip hop is coming out, up out of nowhere. Like, the. The city was just a lightning rod at that time. And I initially, you know, there's a great documentary about New York City and the summer of 77. I highly recommend it. But you start. It's one of those things that, like, you start to think about it and you start to learn about it, and you're so excited, like, oh, my God, like, so much is going on. This is so cool. And, you know, Club or Studio 54, like, all of these things that are so, like, electric. And then after a while you're like, oh, no. Like, there's two lifes going on. You know, like, how's this going to work? But it became. It was an excellent place to put the book because I wanted Lady X to be important, but also sort of forgotten. And it was. With the Son of Sam, it was very easy to. Everything got kind of pushed aside because of the media's, like, absolute obsession and the city's absolute obsession with Son of Sam. So it all worked out.
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B
And you said you're from the Midwest, so you put this in Pittsburgh. Is there. Did you like. Yeah. Can you talk My.
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A
My grandparents. My dad is initially from Pittsburgh and my. My grandparents, like, you know, that's where we went up to that house at the top of the. Of Sewickley. Yeah. So I have lots of good memories of Pittsburgh.
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B
So you talked a little bit about. You were mentioning all. As you do research and you find out about, like, the summer of 1977. So can you. Did you do other research for this book or was this like the basic where you, like, need to figure out a time to put this in. I'm gonna put it in New York City and spend time researching New York City for a time. Or like, what kind of research did you do to. I mean, it's a story like people. I. I almost feel like 1977 isn't history. But it is history, right? It is. Like, I'm like, but no, I know, but so, like, it's historical fiction, right? Yeah.
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A
Well, you know what else is fiction is historical fiction. The 80s.
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B
And it makes me so sad. I'm like, no, none of these are historical fiction. They're like, My life.
- [08:16]
A
You know, it's interesting. You talk about the research, and I obviously, I had that the interest was sparked at the beginning with that documentary. And then, you know, you. You read and read and read and read. But one of the coolest things was it was during the pandemic. And this New York City walking tour company started to put everything online. So there was a there. I did two. I'm using air quotes, walking tours that were online. One was a guy just with his phone and he was doing the tour, but he was talking into the phone with a mask on and sort of. And it was Greenwich village in the 70s. And then another one was a guy who was putting up. And I think it was like crime, Crime in New York city in the 70s. And, you know, so it was a lot of mob stuff, but. But was just using newspaper articles and had created this. So I got. I got what New York City looks like today and what New York City looked like in 1977 while these stories were being told. And both of those experiences were. Were absolutely key to the research for this book. Other than, you know, like, I feel like anybody writing historical fiction, you end up researching everything. Like, you're like, you know, when, you know, I mean, it doesn't pertain to this book, but I remember once, like, having to look up when was. When were light flashlights invented, you know, like, so you just start to really doubt your knowledge of the.
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B
I feel like that's my everyday. But more and more, More and more. The book I wrote before this was
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A
called the Sunshine Girls and Pregnancy Tests. Like the history of pregnancy tests. Like, it's just. There weren't any for very, very long time. Anyway.
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B
You're like. But this is supposed to always have, like I always say, because it fits with your book. I always say, like, if that was a problem, then we're having. That would have been figured out decades ago.
- [10:23]
A
Yeah, decades ago. Is this when we talk about menopause? I don't remember.
- [10:29]
B
I don't remember anything, though. Did you. So you have these great characters. Did you start with, like. Can you talk a little bit about your writing process? How you sort of like, do you start with a character? Did you. You kind of talked about how you started with these sort of different ideas, but then when you, like, kind of sit down, like, where does it start? And what is that process kind of.
- [10:55]
A
Well, I will say that Lady X was a kind of a different beast for me because the idea was so big, so the world and the plot came together really fast. And normally when I'm working on a book. I think of the premise, I think of the idea, the world, and then I think about the characters and how they fit in that world, and then I think some more about the world and then some more about the characters. And it's kind of this layer cake. And Lady X just sort of exploded and took over. And I felt myself having to stop at one point and go back and go, like, okay, like, who. Who am I talking? Who are these women? And, you know, to make any plot believable, the characters have to be real. And I felt like I was really kind of lacking some of that. Margot, the woman in the present day, she was clear to me from the get go. Like, I felt, you know, mom, you know, a woman who. Who'd put aside a lot of her dreams because her husband's dreams were just exploding everywhere and, And. And, you know, whose marriage was falling apart, but whose entire identity was kind of caught up in this marriage. Like, I really felt a lot of her life. Like, that made a lot of sense to me. So I. But I struggled more with the girls in the past. Rachel was kind of clear to me. Faye was a mystery till the end. You know, Faye might have been one of those characters. Like, you know, I'm not sure if I created her or she created me or where she came, you know, like, one of those. Yeah, one of those sorts of things. So I. I kind of had to go back and. And figure them out. And once I was able to figure them out and I did, you know, all the tricks that writers do, I try to think of actors, I try to think of, you know, like just sort of place them sort of in a. In a world. But in the end, it just. It was a matter of thinking about them and thinking about them and think, you know, just adding and adding and adding layers and humanity to them as best I could.
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B
Yeah. So you have these. One of the things I really love was all the different female relationships. Right. Going on in here because you have two sisters, you have these three friends, you have mother, daughter relationships. Multiple mother, daughter relationships. Right. So, yeah, can you talk a little bit about that? And writing about, like, were these. I don't know if it's like, was this something that just sort of came from this? Did you want two strong sisters to be together? Like Margo's, like, kind of family and her support system after her husband blows up? Yeah. Was that something you were like, I do want this to be her support system. I want, you know, I'm trying to think about Ways to ask this question without giving away lots of, you know.
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A
But yeah, yeah, I liked the idea of Margo going home and being like in a, in, like locked in indecision and then having a sister who's never. Or having someone in her life who's never been indecisive, you know, like who, who acts on her gut and, you know, does the thing. So I felt like Margot needed that kind of push, pull in her storyline, so I did. I, you know, I like writing about sisters. I feel like there's so much good conflict and tension inside that relationship. And I say this as a person who doesn't have a sister. Maybe it's what, it's the relationship I long for, although I do have a lovely brother. But like, you know, someone who you can't get away, you, you, you can't pull any bullshit with. Right. Like, they're just not going to let you get away with it. And, and I, Margot needs. Needed that. And then on the, on the, in the past timeline with the three roommates, the thing that I was really inspired by was, you know, the friendships that you make in your 20s and your early 20s and whether you're in university or in your first crappy job or whatever it is that it's, it's, you know, it's friendship under fire and how quickly you become, like, how immediate that friendship is. That, that link. I really love that. I, you know, I've had a bunch of those sorts of relationships and they're really, really powerful. They tell you a lot about who you are in crisis when, you know, when things are, are bad. And I don't know, I just think that's so powerful, particularly for women, because I think in the, in your 20s you can very easily find your, your partner. If you're heterosexual, you can find a man, you know that. Then that becomes the most important relationship of your 20s. But, you know, if you are lucky enough to find a group of girlfriends, you know, that becomes the most important relationship. So I, those were the two dynamics and then Margo and her daughter, obviously. I, you know, I just told that story about how I blew it with my daughter and so I was sort of. I wanted to give Margo a chance to do something right. Like, I did not. And I felt like she, she got to do that in the, in the principal's office. So, yeah, those were just the dynamics I really wanted to explore.
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B
Yeah, I really loved the character sky, the daughter, right, like, or the youngest daughter. She has multiple daughters, but Skye sort of is the one that's there.
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A
Yeah, we see.
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B
Yeah. And that sky got to kind of see and experience these friendships and relationships with women. Like, there's a nod to sky having sort of one close friend, but really getting to see these women, multiple decades and multiple generations, interact with one another and have those relationships with one another, because I think that's so important. Important for young women to be able to see.
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A
Yeah, I think so, too. And, you know, I never really thought about that. Like, that's an interesting point. I wrote this book when my son was at university, so we. We got that kind of, like, really magic time with the kid who didn't go to university, where, you know, the older siblings gone, so the house chemistry's changed, and we were all so delighted to find each other to be such wonderful company. And, like, my daughter's name is Lucy. The book is dedicated to her. You know, I just had this, like, great. We were just like two, you know, two buddies running around. You know, like, it was just really quite. It was quite nice. Quite charming. So, yeah, I guess that got reflected a bit in the book.
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B
So we can just talk about how great having a daughter named Lucy is, since mine is Lucy, too. I'll get it. And my, like, mine's 15 right now. She's almost 16. But I, like, also, when you were telling that story, it made me think, like. And I've said this probably on this podcast, I've said this before when I've talked to people about young women. It's like to be able to see how much they are ready to sort of stand up for themselves and just sort of cut the bullshit and just be like, I'm not doing that, or this is how it needs to be, is really lovely. So I think, like, for me, like, having a 15, like, you know, reading Scott being like, yep, that is exactly like the. I see that in this generation, and I love that in this generation. You know, people give young people crap all the time, but they don't. They're awesome.
- [18:22]
A
Yeah, I agree. It's very, very inspiring watching Lucy and her friends reject some of the shit that. When I was 17, you know, I was. I was saying okay to. Or, you know, or. Or being a. A party to. Right. Um, yeah, it's awesome. I agree. I agree. They've got boundaries where I never had bound. You know, like, they really. I. You know, it's two Midwestern women. The real disservice was being told that believing that we needed to be nice over everything else. You know, our biggest virtue was being nice and.
- [19:03]
B
And still being told, right. Still being told that, like it's. If you as a woman are forceful or angry about something, then you are many, many different negative things, right. Or you're problematic in some way where men will do the exact same thing and that will look, that's. And this sort of gets at what happens in the book, right? And with Lady X and, and that movement, I'd love to talk a little bit more about like that idea, like the idea of Lady X, because it is, it's this idea that women are always supposed to be. If you are not following that sort of status quo, you're not going to make it past a certain point, right. If you're not kind, if you're not nice, if you're not sort of forgiving, there's only so far you can go. Otherwise you're. Yeah. A problem.
- [19:51]
A
Exactly. Yeah.
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B
So can you talk a bit. Let's talk a bit about Lady X, right, And this idea and how. Well, how you came up with it. But also like this is this movement, right? These three girls, how they sort of decided to become Lady X and what that meant for them.
- [20:11]
A
You know, it was interesting because it
- [20:13]
B
was like
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A
when you kind of like break apart the sequence of events, you know, their first foray into Lady X hood, you know, they're spray painting little penises. Like they're really, you know, it's not, it's not like they're criminal masterminds, right? They, they've. They've had this. One of them has, had. Has been attacked and, And Faye, who's sort of this mystery character and who is sort of ready, she is simmering and ready for violence. She's like, come on, let's go. Let's. Let's show this guy that he can't. We're not going to be nice anymore. And they, they get swept up in this thing. And initially they vandalized this guy's store. And it feels like a one and done kind of situation. But then it starts to grow and other people who have been victimized start to, to take it on as well. And writing that, like, initially I felt like it had to be the three of them that did this thing over and over again. And it grew through them. But then I realized, like, you know, I was able to pull in other characters and other experiences, other identities and have them get their, their revenge as well. And so I realized that it became more powerful if I let it grow outside of them because I knew, you know, the idea of kind of creating this lore about a character that Never a person, a thing that never exists. Like, that was a tricky part of it, like creating those interstitials. But, yeah, so I, once, I was sort of battled through that a few times, I was like, oh, this just has to start growing outside of their control, and other people start picking up the mantle of Lady X. And one of my favorite lines is, you know, anybody at any. At any time could be Lady X.
- [22:15]
B
So, yeah, I kind of love. I want Lady X to be real, like, in this way. Right. Like, I really love that they're like, that you have this. This sort of movement, and there's this lore behind it and that you have in the present day, sky and Julia kind of investigating this. And sky want, you know, wanting to learn more about it. And you have. Even the two sisters saying, well, I learned about it this way in school and the other. I learned about it this way in, you know, my classes. And talking about just how it is. It's very dynamic. Right. It's not this static thing.
- [22:55]
A
Yeah. The hardest. People ask me what was the hardest part about the book and what was the easiest part about the book? And writing the scene where Margo loses it in her house with the baseball bat, that was the easiest scene to write. Like, I felt like it just flowed right out of me. I knew when I started the book that that scene was going to happen. And I was excited about the day. The day that I got to write it. I was thrilled. The hardest thing by far were those interstitials where I was trying to build the. The. The lore around her. And I mean, I. I probably had 800 of them. And when, you know, you know, you're trying to reference what happened without giving anything away, while also foreshadowing what's going to come without giving anything away. You want it to be interesting and compelling without giving anything away.
- [23:45]
B
It was just.
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A
I don't know that I'll do that again.
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B
Did you build. Did you build Lady X as a character, like, for yourself? Did you think of her as a character in and of herself then when you were doing that, or was it like in the.
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A
In the. In the present day? I. I was like, they have to believe that it was one person, you know, so. So the classes are taught and the, you know, the, The. The reports are being done and the podcasts are being recorded, and Lady X is one singular person. Yeah.
- [24:18]
B
So when you write, do you. Because you sort of said you couldn't wait till you get to the day when you write that scene. So do you write in sort of order. Like, do you start at the beginning and go. So you just.
- [24:28]
A
I don't. I. Like, I have a lot of friends who are able. Like, if you're excited about that scene, go write that scene. And I'm like, well, that scene. Hold your horses. Like, there's a lot. Like, what if that scene dramatically changes? And then. Anyway, it. Yes, sadly, I am. I have to write in order. I do a fair bit of plotting beforehand. I can't. I have no problem sort of deviating from the plot once it gets going. I write this after having just. I turned in another book. In the book, I knew it wasn't great, but I wrote the whole thing. I wrote the whole thing and I knew it wasn't great, and I turned it in and I was like, I love edits. So the edits are gonna come back and I'm gonna fix it and it's gonna be great. And instead my editors were like,
- [25:16]
B
so
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A
we don't know what's happening in this book. So to my detriment, I have to write. You know what I mean? I can't not write the whole thing. But I'm not great at flying. Like, flying by the seat of my pants, I guess, is what I'm saying. I'm not great at that.
- [25:33]
B
So was there anything.
- [25:34]
A
You write this dumb book.
- [25:36]
B
Yeah. Like, so the. The. What is it? The Pantser versus the plotter. You're the plotter. Kind of. So was there anything then that surprised you when you were writing where you were like, I thought it was going to go in this direction, and it totally went in this other direction. Or were you just.
- [25:50]
A
I will say. So this book was. I wrote the whole thing before we. We took it out on submission. So my agent, lovely agent, had gone through it a couple times, and we'd made a bunch of changes. So I. I sent out a. A complete and. And pretty polished manuscript, and the editor had a couple of back and forth, and then we were. I felt like we were sort of on the final edit, the final, like, run through. And my editor's assistant had this incredible idea. Do I. My. Do I. I don't want to give things away. Do we give things away?
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B
Whatever you want to do.
- [26:29]
A
Okay, I'll tell. So the. The. In the initial manuscript, Faye's husband is the man on the fire escape. And my editor's assistant, super smart. So grateful to this. To this woman. She was like, I think it should be the cop. Like, I think should be the cop. So once we made that decision, we had to go back and beef up his involvement and his threat level and things like that. So that was the biggest change. It was the best change. And it was kind of in the 11th hour.
- [27:04]
B
That's fascinating now. See, that's fascinating. Now I'm thinking about what that would be like, and that's fascinating.
- [27:09]
A
I mean, it was a bit like an out of the blue kind of thing.
- [27:14]
B
Yeah, that's great. So you have. You have these, like. Can we. Well, let's talk about the Orbit Room a little bit. Right? Because you have this, like, you have Studio 54. You could have just placed these women and, you know, like Ginger, who's the mother living, like, when she's living in New York, working at Studio 54 and you chose not to. Why did you create your sort of own room and your own. Or your own club and your own space?
- [27:43]
A
You know, I think it's kind of like that. I mean, there's a lot of document. There's like Studio 54 is well, well, well documented. So I wasn't worried about getting it wrong. But there were also. Is one of those things that there are a lot of people who like, am I ever gonna get it right, though?
- [28:01]
B
You know what I mean?
- [28:02]
A
Like, it's one of those very, like, mythical, almost storied places. And I just felt like the room for error, the room for people who had been there and emailing me, telling me how wrong I got it was high. So I was like, you know, I'm just gonna create my own. And I think, you know, as I create like, as Lady X's kind of fiction, like, it just felt like a good. It just felt right. It just felt like a good thing to do.
- [28:33]
B
So you have one of the things I, you know, a book like this, there are lots of issues with sexual violence and sexual assault. Right. Trauma. Because that's what it's based in and grounded in. So is this, like, when you are doing this writing, is this something that you have to, like, do a lot of self care for? Do you are thinking through this? Yeah. How do you sort of work on, like, how do you write about, like, sexual assault, sexual violence and this kind of thing without falling apart?
- [29:05]
A
You know, I'll tell you, I. I've been very lucky in that I haven't been violently assaulted. But I think, like most women, I've had some shitty things happen. And, you know, the MeToo movement of it, of it all, where we all just realized, you know, just how baseline women experience women experience, you know, it's. It is all of us get harassed or, you know, to varying levels. There's. There's so few women, I don't know any women. And not to say that there aren't who escaped without something. And so as I was writing this and I was like, you know, one of the things that I was sort of worried about was like this portrayal of all men being bad or whatever. You know, obviously that's not true. I'm writing about bad men. But I also felt like a certain kind of obligation to say, you know, there are good men, but all those scenes got cut. I mean, not all of them. Obviously there are good men in this book, but I will say that, like, there were a bunch of scenes on the subway and I spent a summer in Chicago with my best friend. And like there was, you know, all these casual things just came back to me, like I had forgotten them and now I can't forget them again. Right. So they're just here in my brain all the time. And like I said, it wasn't, it wasn't violent, but it was a. It was, you know, there. It was scary, it was ridiculous, it was shocking, you know, and, and I, I'd forgotten them and now they're back. So self care. I don't know. I think maybe there's. There's some real self care and writing a book where women get to, you know, kick some ass and, and not be victims. There's a lot of self care and thinking about Sky's experience and my daughter's experience. Yeah, that's not maybe a great answer, but it's what I've got.
- [31:08]
B
Well, it's fine. I always wonder, right, Because I think your book also shows that trauma is not like this idea of, or I don't know if ideas that. That's not the right word. But like when people talk about women and sexual violence and sexual assault, this is nothing new, right? This is something that is generational, that it doesn't matter when women are always experiencing it. You might not hear about it, you might not know what's going on. And also that like in the 70s, and I don't think it's not necessarily gotten better, but there's a different way we approach it now, right? Like that women were not listened to. Right. And so this is this thing that we see, we see often and, and it's important to read about. But I also want to ask, like, and what do you do when you're writing about it?
- [32:00]
A
Yeah, yeah, I, you know, it's funny, one of my favorite authors is Jocelyn Jackson. Have you read she, she Started writing. I mean, she's an incredible writer and she started writing sort of women's gods in Alabama. A grown up, kind of pretty. And then she started to write thrillers. And there's. There is a sexual assault theme in most of her books, almost sisters. And, you know, she gets asked like, why? You know, why? And she's like, what do you mean, why? This is every woman's experience. I'm writing about women. Like, there's no way to not write about this if you're writing about women. And, And I just, you know, particularly as. Right. Like, we come out of this. Jeffrey Epstein, you know, no one getting punished for. For their role and all of that. That. Yeah, women. Women are victimized a lot. It's a lot. It's a big part of the women's stories.
- [32:55]
B
Yeah. And I think you get a. Too, like, you talk about that. This whole. The premise of this is like, that Margot has a husband who is a big star who is like, basically assault sexually, like, like sexual violation, right. To. So, you know, sending pics and. And he's not the one who has to clean it up. Right. Like. Right. You know, and this is, this is the thing too. It's like, okay, it's always on the women to clean it up, to take care of it, to sort of. To take care of the mess that has been made and sort of. Yeah, yeah.
- [33:31]
A
You know, it's interesting. Margot is a. I didn't expect it, but Margo's a pretty divisive character. Like, there's a lot of readers who don't, you know, find her too passive. And meanwhile, I'm just like, I don't know, like, how. How quickly do you walk away from that marriage and, and four kids, and how do you figure, you know, give the girl a couple of weeks. That's my take. But, you know, I wanted to write and I. I wanted to write a character who is, you know, she's white, she's rich, she has all the privilege in the world. She has her own kind of empire, you know, is respected. And, and she's not safe. Right. And, you know, so just the idea that this is. This is not a. A poor woman's. This is not a woman in the past problem. It is a problem for everybody all the time now.
- [34:21]
B
Yeah. And I, and I do. It's so funny that Margo's divisive because I do think that Margo also does need to figure out how all the, all the pieces that need to fall into place. Right. Like, who is she there to Take care of. And she needed to figure out who she was. Right. Like she really didn't know. And you know, as you go, as you read, like she, she admits it too. Like she didn't know who she was. Like, what is her relationship? Who does she want to be and how does she want to present that? And she needed kind of a journey to get there. Right. And define that.
- [34:56]
A
Yeah. I mean, the most important relationship she made in her 20s was with, you know, she got pregnant young and she met her husband. And so that became such a huge part of her identity. And meanwhile she had been able to meet a couple of, you know, kickass female roommates that maybe she would have
- [35:13]
B
a better idea of who she was.
- [35:15]
A
But, you know, she became a wife and a mother, you know, before her court frontal cortex closed or whatever that
- [35:22]
B
is, and had to figure that out too. And had to figure out, like, what relationship did she want with her daughter? How do you form that relay? Like she didn't have. Like this allowed her to. To figure out, to build a friendship with her daughter. Right. In a way that she didn't have before. And I think, like, that's important too, to think about that. Mother, daughter. Like, she really wanted her mom to be there for her and so she had to be there for her daughter. Those kinds of things that we don't. Or we either take for granted or we don't think about. Right? Yeah. Like all the people who are impacted and how do you, like, how do you take care of your kids when that kind of thing happens and it's in the spotlight all the time.
- [36:05]
A
Yeah. Yeah. And. And what are you protecting them from? Right? Like are. And, and who actually are you protecting? Are you protecting him? Are you. You know, it. It's a, it's a, it's a tough one. And I don't know, we teenage girls are the smartest, dumbest. Don't tell my daughter I said that
- [36:24]
B
in the Best Together. Yeah. So. So we've been talking a while. So I'll like the book comes out July 14th. So what are you. Your sort of, you know, what are you working on now? Is there something you're working on now? Is there anything with the book? What do you want to self promote?
- [36:44]
A
Oh, yeah. Well, by all means, July 14th. You know, everybody go grab a copy of Lady X. Helen Laser does the audiobook. She did the Wedding People. I don't know if you're an audiobook person, but I love her. She's an incredible narrator. And then the book that I. And I will be in the Midwest in July. So if you're listening to this somewhere in a cornfield in Illinois, I'll be near you, either in St. Louis or in northern Illinois or Michigan, to tell you the truth. And then the book that I'm working on, the one that I blew the first, wrote a whole book that was no good, is about Nashville in 1988, and it's about the formation of a. Of a kind of revolutionary girl band called the Thorns.
- [37:38]
B
I love it. More. More historical fiction.
- [37:41]
A
Yeah, right. The 80s. So historical. You know, something I think it's going to be, the breakdown is going to be pre phones, post phones. Like, that's the. That's the story. That's where his history breaks down. Now, it used to be like Charlemagne or something, and now it's.
- [37:58]
B
Well, I was talking to somebody else who was saying, you know, like, that's the thing. Like the early 1990s, before everybody had their phone. Right. Where everybody could record it. And this is the same thing. Like, this story can happen in the way it did because in 1977, nobody was carrying around a camera. Right. Or, you know, or videotaping everything. So. Yeah. Well, Molly, thank you so much for talking with me on New Books Network again. Molly Fader and her latest novel, Lady
- [38:24]
A
X. Rebecca, thank you so much for having me. What a great way to spend the day. Thank you for listening to this episode of the New Books Network. We are an academic podcast network with the mission of public education. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and rate us on your preferred podcast platform. You can browse all of our episodes on our website, newbooksnetwork.com Connect with us on Instagram and BlueSky with the handle ew booksnetwork, and subscribe to our weekly substrate newsletter at newbooksnetwork.substack.com to get episode recommendations straight to your inbox.