THE BOOK: The Bitch Posse

THE PITCH:

Meet Rennie, Amy, and Cherry - first as rebellious teens and then as grown women in their mid-30's coping with the repercussions of their actions. As high school seniors, the girls form a tight circle of friends - which they name the Bitch Posse - in order to lash out against tumultuous situations in their lives. But as steadfast as their friendship is, it's not enough to protect the girls from circumstances that cause all three of their lives to
spiral out of control. Rennie has a doomed affair with her married drama teacher, which results in her bearing the psychic weight of an abortion and a blighted love. Amy's parents think their daughter has thrown over her bad-news friends, and upon learning their daughter has become a drug and alcohol addict (not unlike themselves) they turn their backs on her. Cherry's mother finds solace in cocaine, then heroin, leaving her daughter to target her rage at someone, anyone, over whom she has control.

Flash-forward to the present, where one girl is now a wife and mother-to-be, trying to uphold a life of normalcy for herself and her family. One is a writer with a sexual addiction that sucks her into destructive relationships. And one is incarcerated in a mental hospital - and has been since one fateful night fifteen years ago, when a betrayal led them to commit a crime that profoundly changed their destinies.

THE BLOG: http://marthaoconnor.blogspot.com/

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

"The story fascinates even as it repels." -Publishers Weekly

"We all have skeletons in our closet, but the three friends in this dark tale - Rennie, Amy, and Cherry - have so many they need a walk-in. A sizzling page-turner." - Cosmopolitan

"The Bitch Posse is dark, poignant, and only too believable. Rennie, Cherry, and Amy are strivers at school by day and connivers by night. Self-styled rebels without a clue, they are bound together in friendship. Little do they realize that there will come a day when their naïve passions will lead them to a vicious mishap, blood that will stay on their hands for the rest of their lives. This is a book that will walk alongside you, and haunt your dreams, long after you turn the last page." - -Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean and A Theory of Relativity

THE SAME THREE QUESTIONS I ALWAYS ASK:

Martha, what are your Top 10 Desert Island Discs?

Doolittle by the Pixies
Surfer Rosa by the Pixies
Nevermind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols by the Sex Pistols
Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails
Lincoln by They Might Be Giants
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie
I Left My Heart in San Francisco by Tony Bennett
Watermark by Enya
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me by the Cure
Closer by Joy Division

Let me guess: you wore a LOT of black in high school, right? Okay, Martha: if you were going to appear on Jeopardy, what would your seven dream categories be?

Life of Pablo Neruda
Facts about Type 1 Diabetes
Mental Illnesses and Disorders
Poetry of Pablo Neruda
Ways to Use Tofu
Things Which Contain Carbohydrates
Think Like a Pancreas

How ... cheery. Last question: if you could live in any TV show, what would it be and why?

The morning yoga show where they practice really slow and relaxing moves in front of a calm lake. It just seems peaceful.

Wow, and I thought you were going to say The O.C.. (Kidding!).

Martha O'Connor grew up in Illinois and earned a BFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude. Her poetry has been published in the literary journals Stand, Poetry London Newsletter, Confrontation, and Midwest Poetry Review, among others.

By turns a department store clerk, waitress, latte-maker, and eighth-grade teacher, Martha O'Connor now lives and writes fiction and poetry full-time in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, award-winning novelist and short story writer Philip F. O'Connor, and their children.

Visit her website at http://www.marthaoconnor.com.