SCANDALOUS WOMEN excerpt
It's 1969 and Jackie Collins is in Manhattan promoting her first novel—and finding out that writing a book with sex scenes in it comes with consequences.
Jackie’s promotional trip was exhausting. She wasn’t in the city long enough to adjust to East Coast time, so she kept wakening at four in the morning and felt tired by seven in the evening. Melanie accompanied her in taxis from one event to the next, and each time she had to dig out her snappiest repartee and widest smile. Jacqueline Susann seemed to revel in being a public persona, but Jackie found it draining and yearned to get home and curl up on the sofa with her girls. She vowed she wouldn’t set foot outside the front door for at least a week.
On the final night, Melanie took her across town to a radio station, where she was to be interviewed by a presenter called Long John Nebel.
“What’s he like?” Jackie asked. “Will it be a hostile interview?”
“You’ll be fine if you’re as honest and funny as you have been with everyone else,” Melanie said. “Just be your amazing self.”
Jackie thought that was all very well for her to say. People never guessed that beneath her smartly made-up exterior she was an introvert who worried endlessly about how she came across. That wasn’t the “self” she wanted to project when publicizing her book. Jackie Collins the writer was supposed to be confident, witty, charming, and wise. She wrapped the two-hundred-dollar leopard-print coat around herself, like an invisibility cloak.
Long John Nebel was a bespectacled man with thinning hair and a mellifluous radio voice. “How would you answer those who claim The World Is Full of Married Men promotes promiscuity to young people?” he asked. “A lot of them will be learning about sex from your book. Does that worry you?”
Jackie had been asked versions of this question before and she had an answer ready. “On the contrary, I hope my book warns young people about the dangers of promiscuity. None of my characters who sleep around come out of the experience well. Those who are faithful to one partner are happiest in the end.”
“I’m sure readers assume you have personally tried all the kinky things your characters do,” he continued. “Do you get your husband to act them out as part of your research process?” He grinned cheekily over the top of his mic. She guessed this was the way the deal worked on both sides of the Atlantic: write a book with sex scenes in it and your own life becomes fair game.
Jackie laughed. “I would be flying home to divorce papers tomorrow if I talked about my sex life with my husband on air! What I can say is that I’m not ashamed of any sexual experimentation I’ve done. And if my ideas can help other couples to spice up their sex lives, that would make me very happy.”
“Both you and Jacqueline Susann have written about womanizers in your latest novels,” he said. “Was that coincidence, or was one of you copying the other?”
Was he calling her a plagiarist as well as a sexual deviant? “The Stud was delivered to my British publisher long before The Love Machine came out,” Jackie replied, “so there was no copying involved. The books are set in different countries and our stories are quite different, but womanizing men are a worldwide phenomenon. I recommend you read them both, John!”
When she finished, one of the production guys told her that Melanie had had to leave because she’d gotten a call from her babysitter. Melanie had a child? Jackie was astonished! She didn’t look old enough–and she was sure there had been no wedding ring on her finger, not that that mattered.
“I’ll get you a taxi,” the guy said. “Follow me.”
He led her along dimly lit corridors toward the reception area. It was late and no one was about. Without warning, he turned and lunged at her, using his weight to pin her against the wall. His mouth pressed on hers before she could draw breath to scream, and his hands groped her breasts, then slid downward. Instinct took over and Jackie fought back, trying to knee him in the groin, but she was trapped. He smelled rank, as if he’d been wearing the same clothes for days.
His hand edged up beneath her coat and Jackie struggled with all her strength. She managed to free one arm and grabbed a handful of his shoulder-length hair, tugging hard.
“Ow!” he yelped and leapt back, rubbing his scalp. “I see you’re all talk and no fun. There’s a word for girls like you.”
She shoved his chest, then straightened her clothes. “Yes, and there are several words for men like you.”
“Frigid bitch!” he hissed.
“Oh grow up–and try bathing if you ever want to get a woman you don’t have to force.”
The whole incident took less than a minute, but she was trembling as she strode off in the direction of the door. She’d been dealing with men like that virtually her entire adult life. It was unpleasant, but the trick was not to let it get to you.
When she reached Oscar’s apartment, there was a white envelope in the hall mailbox, addressed to her in block capitals. She frowned, recognizing the style. When she got inside, she ripped it open and out fell a used condom. The note read: When are you going to take me up on my offer and have the shag of your life?
How the hell did the condom creep know where to reach her in New York? Was he following her? Across an ocean? Heart thumping, she rushed to double-lock the door from the inside.
Excerpt of SCANDALOUS WOMEN Copyright © 2024 by Gill Paul
Mad Men meets the world of publishing in international bestselling author Gill Paul’s new novel about Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann, two dynamic, groundbreaking writers renowned for their scandalous and controversial novels, and the beleaguered young editorial assistant who introduces them.
1966, NYC: Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls hits the bookstores and she is desperate for a bestseller. It’s steamy, it’s a page-turner, but will it make the big money she needs? In London, Jackie Collins’s racy The World Is Full of Married Men launches her career. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex.
Jacqueline and Jackie are lambasted by the literary establishment, deluged with hate mail, and even condemned by feminists. In public, both women shoulder the outcry with dignity; in private, they are crumbling—particularly since they have secrets they don’t want splashed across the front pages.
1965, NYC: College graduate Nancy White is excited to take up her dream job at a Manhattan publishing house, but she could never be prepared for the rampant sexism she will encounter. While working on Valley of the Dolls, she becomes friends with Jacqueline Susann, and, after reaching out to Jackie Collins about a US deal, she is responsible for the two authors meeting.
Will the two Jackies clash as they race to top the charts? Will Nancy achieve her ambition of becoming an editor, despite all the men determined to hold her back? Three women struggle to succeed in a man’s world, while desperately trying to protect those they love the most.
Women's Fiction Historical [William Morrow Paperbacks, On Sale: August 13, 2024, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063245150 / eISBN: 9780063245167]
Gill Paul’s historical novels have reached the top of the USA Today, Toronto Globe & Mail and UK kindle charts, and been translated into twenty languages. She specializes in relatively recent history, mostly 20th century, and enjoys re-evaluating real historical characters and trying to get inside their heads.
Gill also writes historical non-fiction, including A History of Medicine in 50 Objects and series of Love Stories. Published around the world, this series includes Royal Love Stories, World War I Love Stories and Titanic Love Stories.
Gill was born in Scotland and grew up there, apart from an eventful year at school in the US when she was ten. She studied Medicine at Glasgow University, then English Literature and History (she was a student for a long time), before moving to London to work in publishing. Her first novel was written at weekends, but she has now given up the ‘day job’ to write fiction full-time. She also writes short stories for magazines and speaks at libraries and literary festivals about subjects ranging from the British royal family to the Romanovs, and about writing itself.
Gill swims year-round in an open-air pond – “It’s good for you so long as it doesn’t kill you”– and loves travelling whenever and wherever she can.
No comments posted.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy