Marie Bostwick is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty works of contemporary and historical fiction. Translated into a dozen languages, Marie’s novels are beloved by readers across the globe. Marie lives in Washington state with her husband and a beautiful but moderately spoiled Cavalier King Charles spaniel.
Like most writers, I can never predict where my next book idea might come from. However, twenty-plus books into my career, I can predict that finding the next good idea will be just a little harder than it was the last time.
Unless, of course, it isn’t.
The Spark of a New Idea
Three years ago, after having purchased yet another stack of expensive, out of print books about historical figures and/or movements, only to find the topic didn’t jazz me as much as I’d hoped, I was feeling discouraged.
Would I ever find another really good idea for a book? A story I was excited to share?
About the time it was starting to feel like the answer was no, I went out to dinner with my mom, who was 89 at the time. The talk turned to books, as it often does with us. At some point, The Feminine Mystique came up in the conversation.
“I don’t know if I ever told you, but that book changed my life.”
She hadn’t told me. But as soon as Mom started explaining the impact that Betty Friedan’s 1963 blockbuster had on her and her friends, a group of quietly unhappy housewives who couldn’t understand why “having it all” — kids, husband, house in the burbs — somehow wasn’t enough, I knew what I had to write next. Just like that, a book was born.
Well, maybe not quite just like that.
That conversation with my mother, the excitement in her voice when she told me about closing Friedan’s book sixty years before and thinking, “My God! There’s going to be a revolution!” sparked the idea for my new novel. But turning that terrific, wholly unexpected idea into a book took years.
The characters in The Book Club for Troublesome Women, the story of four 60’s era housewives who form a book club to read The Feminine Mystique and are forever changed, are products of my imagination. The roads they travel and obstacles they encounter are also a writerly invention, and quite different from my mother’s journey.
When a Book Becomes More
However, the conversations Mom and I had while I was working on the book, and the things she shared about her younger, searching,1963-self, influenced the story.
It also changed our relationship.
Talking to my mother about what her world was like before she read The Feminine Mystique, and how it changed after, was eye-opening. For my mother and countless women like her, the early 1960s truly was a coming of age.
It might seem odd to say that my mom, a thirty-one year old mother of four who not only took care of her house and kids but worked full-time in our family grocery store, wasn’t a full-fledged adult in 1963, but in many ways it’s true.
Back then, women were infantilized. No matter their age, personal responsibilities, or level of educational and professional accomplishment, society treated them as semi-grown children rather than fully fledged adults. For example, even though Mom worked fulltime at our family grocery store, Dad controlled the money. At the time, she chalked it up to “just the ways things were.” But it still chafed.
“It wasn’t that I expected to get a paycheck; we were both working to support the family. And it wasn’t that he was ungenerous. I can’t remember him ever saying no when I asked for money. But the fact of having to ask did bother me. He never asked me if he wanted to buy a new boat or a truck. He just did it, never consulted me at all.”
In those days millions of intelligent, hard-working women had to ask their husbands for access to the family purse, like children begging for an advance on their allowance. But when it came to feminine inequality, family finances were just the tip of the iceberg.
The Historical Context and Research Behind the Book
Consider the following…
Up until 1974, women could be excluded from juries on the basis of sex. That same year, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act finally said companies could no longer discriminate on the basis of sex or marital status, or require a woman to have a male co-signer to apply for a credit card or loan. Guaranteeing the same to female entrepreneurs took until 1988. That was when the Women’s Business Ownership Act ended state laws requiring women to have a male relative as a co-signer for business loans.
Talking to Mom about her pre-63 life and digging into the research, discovering, for instance, that it took until 1981 for the Supreme Court to strike down state “head and master” laws, statues which granted husbands control over jointly owned marital property, was eye-opening, and sometimes jaw-dropping.
But the thing that really changed my relationship with my mother was coming to understand how reading The Feminine Mystique had changed her.
I was an infant in 1963. By the time I became aware of my mother as an individual, she was well on her way to becoming the successful, self-actualized woman that I somehow supposed she’d always been, a college graduate, a breadwinner, a respected professional managing a large staff of other professionals.
Talking with Mom while researching my novel made me understand the phenomenal leap she’d made, what courage it took to make that leap, and how her bravery impacted the lives of others. I have always loved and respected my mother. But now I see her with fresh eyes.
My mother is a heroic figure, a pioneer. She and her generation broke a path through a harsh, formidable wilderness, blazing trails for other women to follow. We owe more to them than we probably realize.
Stories Might Be Closer Than You Think
As pub day for my book draws nearer, I find myself thinking back to the moment that sparked it all, when Mom looked up and said, “I don’t know if I ever told you, but…”
I’m so grateful she did tell me, sharing a part of her history that I’d never known existed. Doing so changed a lot for me, giving me a great idea for a book. It also changed a lot for us, opening the door to a deeper personal connection, not just mother to daughter, but woman to woman.
However, as I think back, a part of me is a little ashamed.
Writers are trained to ask questions, to be curious. That’s our job. So, why hadn’t I been more curious about my own mother? Why was she the one who had to broach the subject?
There I’d been, combing through the history of strangers for months on end, turning over every rock I could find in search of an idea, and ignoring the gold nugget that had been laying there all along.
Soon, it will be time for me to settle on a topic for a new book. I’m really not sure what I want to write about next. But this time, before ordering a stack of out-of-print editions from Abe Books, I plan to survey the landscape in my own back yard, see if I stumble upon any gold nuggets.
If I do, I’ll try to do more listening than talking, limiting my comments to one crucial request, “Please. Tell me more.
Connect with Marie Bostwick online at mariebostwick.com; Facebook: @mariebostwick; Instagram: @mariebostwick; Pinterest: @fiercelymarie
The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick
In 1960s suburban Virginia, Margaret Ryan appears to have the perfect life—but something feels missing. When she meets the enigmatic Charlotte Gustafson, a spontaneous book club forms, drawing in two more neighbors and sparking honest conversations over The Feminine Mystique. As the women bond over shared discontent, they begin to question the American dream and discover the power of friendship, truth, and personal awakening.
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