GUEST BLOG: JJ Salem

Helen really didn't like Jon Salem's debut novel, Tan Lines, but when Jon very graciously asked if he could defend his book we of course said yes. Over to Jon...

ALL THAT GLITTERS ISN’T GOLD:  THE BONKBUSTER 2.0 by J.J. Salem

I’m not a feminist.

When one of my best friends - a bold, opinionated, take-charge career supergirl - said those words to me over lunch one day, I was stunned. And before the check arrived, my new novel, TAN LINES (Pan Books) was born.

Her surprising assertion became the soul of the book - what women think they are on the inside and what they project on the outside. In TAN LINES, Liza Pike is a media savvy feminist political commentator. She could eat a blowhard like Bill O’Reilly for breakfast. But at the same time, her reaction to 9/11 is to impulsively marry a fireman, and she suffers from body image issues and struggles to connect with other women as close friends.

I’ve been reading big, glamorous bonkbusters for years. In fact, if I was ever forced to change families, I would eagerly sign up to be a Bagshawe brother to Louise and Tilly. They know how to mix up sex, glamour, and exotic settings into perfect take-me-away reading. But when I set out to write TAN LINES, I also wanted to craft a story that would shock, disturb, and show that what lurks behind all the glitzy trappings is sometimes gross behavior. The late Jacqueline Susann was the master of this flaws-and-all approach to popular fiction. One minute you were relating to her characters with a certain awe and envy, the next with just lurid fascination and a relief that you did not share the same set of problems.

I remember my agent reacting to an early draft of TAN LINES by saying, “This book needs a Neely.” Of course, she meant Neely O’Hara, the ultimate self-destructive narcissist from Susann’s classic Valley of the Dolls. Instantly, the character Billie Shelton came to vivid life and literally took over my novel. She’s an indie-rock bitch goddess who is equally desperate to maintain her artistic integrity and throw it overboard to taste mainstream success.

And no bonkbuster would be complete without the beautiful one. In my novel she comes in the form of Kellyanne Downey, and I wanted to explore what happens when phenomenal looks don’t get a woman everything or even almost everything, but instead lead her down a path that suddenly becomes a rude and self-loathing awakening.

As a package, TAN LINES contains plenty of vicarious thrills, fashionable exploits, and hot scenes of bed-sheet-twisting sex. But beyond the gloss I feel like some emotionally raw issues are explored - loneliness, the cumulative effects of bad choices, rampant sexism in the media, and the impact of our ubiquitous tabloid and celebrity culture.   

TAN LINES is out now just in time for holiday, and I’d like to think of it as The Bonkbuster 2.0 - a kind of escapist read where readers get grit with the glam and gut-check honesty with the fantasy.

Visit J.J. Salem online at www.jjsalem.com

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