Hedge Fund Wives- Author Interview

After I wrote my review of Hedge Fund Wives, TJ Dietderich set up an e-mail interview with Tatiana Boncompagni for me.  Read the review here, and the interview below.

At what point in the writing process of the book did news of the current economic downturn become apparent, and how did that shape your writing?  (I know you had the idea for the book in 2007, before the mortgage crisis and credit crunch became daily news fare.)

Last summer the economic situation began looking progressively dire and it was pretty clear we were headed for a recession. I was about two thirds of the way through writing the book at the time, and decided to tweak some of the plot points to make the story line seem grounded in real events. For example, I added that Ainsley’s husband Peter had worked for Bear Stearns, and that he had run his fund’s trades through Bear. Then I explained how the fall of the bank contributed to the demise of his fund and to Peter’s own financial problems (because a lot of Bear’s former employers were still heavily invested in the bank). This gave me an opportunity to show how the world of finance is interconnected and how one event can lead to another, etc.  After September 2008, when I turned in the book, I didn’t make any changes to the plot.

You draw from the lives of hedge fund wives you know- how have they reacted to the book and its characters?  Anybody recognize themselves?

I don’t know if anyone has recognized themselves. If they have, they haven’t told me. They’ also be wrong. None of the characters are modeled after people I know with one exception: My friend Gigi asked me to name a character after her. The Gigi in the book is Southern and Sassy like my friend, but that’s where the similarities end. The rest of the characters are either composites of real people or entirely fictional creations.

What is your favorite upmarket indulgence?  I know your main character, Marcy, loves cheese.

I’d have to say shoes. They are the one thing I don’t mind buying spending a lot of money on. I have my shoes for years and years and only buy classic looks. I also think they are worth it because a great pair of heels makes me feel more confident. I think it must have something to do with the added height. I grew up as the shortest girl in my class–I was a late bloomer–and always wanted to be tall.

In the interview at the back of the book, you allude to some of the Hedge Fund Wives anecdotes that didn’t make it into the book- would you mind sharing another?

It’s hard to keep track of them. But here’s a good one. There was a woman who married a much older, not terribly attractive guy. She left her then current husband for this guy because he had a ton of money. A couple years later an old friend from high school saw her at a party. But instead of saying hello, she turned her head, lifted up her left hand, with just her ring finger extended (she has a gigantic diamond engagement ring) and walked away, not saying a word. Only in the hedge fund world, could a ring finger function as a middle finger…

What book have you read more times than any other, and what keeps you coming back to it?

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The writing is just so beautiful. It’s not as minimalistic as Hemingway, or as flowery as Henry James, another favorite writer of mine. I guess I try to model my work after Fitzgerald’s in the sense that I try for both graceful prose and economy of words. Also, The Great Gatsby is at its heart a condemnation of materialism and how the American Dream had been corrupted, and my works are inspired by the same themes.

What question do you wish interviewers would ask you?

I like talking about my process. How I come up with my stories and how I work. I usually come up with an idea or concept first and then turn it over in my mind for a while before I start working on the character sketches and outline. Then I start the actual writing process, during which I end up altering the plot line and characterizations. The hardest part for me is getting the story going. Once I get fifty pages of story that I am happy with, the rest is easy. In general, it takes me about a year to write a book. I loathe rewrites, but really that’s when all the magic happens.