BAD LIES, released last week, tells the story of a thirty year-old
woman who is a late-blooming professional golf wanna-be. She’s also a recovering gambling addict,
having learned the trade from her father.
Instead of playing sedate games like slots, video poker, the lottery, and bingo, most
enjoyed by women, her ‘proclivities’ are more like a man’s, thanks to her dad. Her highs are poker, black jack and sports betting. Aggressive games.
Point is,
Sophie is a competitor. Research shows,
even today, women shy away from competition.
My Sophie is an anomaly...um...like me.
Most recent
testing of competitive natures of men and women find that men relish
head-to-head gaming; women prefer to compete against themselves. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/business/the-difference-between-men-and-women-revisited-its-about.html
In fact, women in the United States have fallen behind other Western
democracies, by winning less than 25 percent of the nation’s 7,383 legislative
seats. Women in Sweden hold 40 percent;
in other European countries, more than 30 percent. The common reason: “women doubt they are
qualified to run for office (60 percent) than men (40 percent).” http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/opinion/why-so-few-women-in-state-politics.html?_r=0
Now, I happen to be one of the women, like
Sophie in BAD LIES, who plays a better game of golf if I’m competing against a
player with a higher index than mine. I didn’t run
for a legislative office, but I did become the first female high school
principal in a very conservative school district.
Truth is, I like to compete against myself,
but I always up my game when I compete with others.
How about you?
Italy’s haunted
caves spell danger for an American golfer and a NATO geologist
****
Sophie Maxwell is a late-blooming,
unorthodox golfer, and mother of a precocious thirteen year-old. Determined to
put divorce, bankruptcy, and a penchant for gambling in her past, Sophie goes
to Italy for a qualifying golf tournament.
Jack Walker turned his back on a pro
golfing career to become a geologist. As a favor to his ailing father he’ll
caddy for Sophie; off hours, he’ll find caves on the Mediterranean coast,
suitable for NATO listening posts for terrorist activity.
Someone is determined to stop Jack’s
underground hunt and ruin Sophie’s chances to win her tournament.
On a Rome golf course and in the Amalfi coast’s
haunted caves, all the odds are stacked against Sophie and Jack. In their
gamble of a lifetime, who wins?
Seven
Suspense Novels Spiked with Romance
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20 comments:
Sophie sounds like an interesting character.
I really liked the points you covered about women being less competitive in some areas. I agree with you. I noticed in school tha girls are not encouraged to compete in sports like the boys. why is that?
So interesting. I wonder if some of it is cultural. Do we raise our girls to not be competitive? I fall somewhere in between. I don't seek out competition, but when put in the position I plunge in. FDW and I were in a fishing league years ago. He loves to tell stories of how I'd bitch at him for taking a food break, how I'd anger when I'd let one go, etc. And we usually placed. I just had to! Funny thing is, I didn't want to do it a second year. I don't thrive on the competition. I'm just competitive if put in a position of competition. BTW your book is one I'll read. I enjoy your style and this one is on my list.
Angela, thanks for your comment on Sophie. She's a good gambler; her ex was bad at gaming. She gave it up; he's still at it. It's a scary addiction.
Title IX really helped women learn how teams function and how to compete, because it gave us the opportunity to play in organized sports. My sense is women are fiercely competitive when it comes to getting the best for their children, but in the workplace, where head-to-head competition comes into play, they are less interested. May be biological. Cultural? Hell, I remember when I was 'allowed' to only play half-court basketball...too much physical strain for women to play whole court. Geesh!
Brenda, you made me laugh about the fishing derby. I'm like you...'By god if we're going to do this, let's do it well!' I saw some study done about male writers and how much more aggressive they are in promo than we are...with good results. Maybe I need to act more like my tough golfer self when it comes to marketing writing? Thanks so much for looking forward to reading BAD LIES. It was such fun to write!
I wonder if this trend is changing. As for the percent of women in government, maybe our women are too smart to want to be part of the $#!+ show we call politics. In our local high school, the girls are just as active (and competitive) in sports as the boys. My older daughter is insanely competitive and races far better head to head than in a time trial. I'll admit to checking stats for other authors at Lyrical to see if their books are performing better than mine. I don't want to fall behind, and when I see one doing really well, I try to figure out what she's doing to get those results. So, yeah, I guess I'm competitive.
I never thought of myself as a competitive person until I started college. I was in my mid-forties with two children in college. They still joke about helping Mom with her homework. Based on my freshman testing scores, I was invited to test for a special honors class that was only admitting twelve. I got in. The rest of the students were pre-med and pre-law. I was a Mom who was one of three women working at a factory on night shift with over a hundred and fifty men. These kids told me in no uncertain terms I didn't belong there. That I was taking up the space of a smart kid. Well, guess who worked her butt off reading and evaluating the ten books--all relating to wars through time--to earn the only A in the class. I'm not physically inclined. I don't enjoy it. But put a book in front of me and I will beat your butt.
Jannine, I agree you are competitive. You've said you like to check the stats to see where you 'stand.' The tough part about this particular competition is that it's hard to know how to 'up' our game. At golf, I know what to work hard on to improve, then when the game starts, I can focus and thrive. With marketing, it's hard for me to determine the elements, much less control them. What's more, the game smells rigged (Amazon, algorithms, etc.)
Vonnie, what a fabulous story. You sound a little like Brenda and her fishing derby...you both dig in. So many people get game as soon as someone says 'You can't do that.' You are motivated by such challenge...showing up the naysayers. I guess you have to thank those doubters for motivating you :-) Thanks for showing us how you beat their butts!
Yeah, aggressive on marketing. If we're going to do this, then lets do it!
Rolynn, as a school principal you should know that statistics show girls in a coed situation will not do as well as in an all-girls school because they don't like to compete against the boys and show 'em we're better. LOL. They will, however, compete against each other. I sent my daughter to an all-girls' school... having said that, I went to one as well and hate competing, but that's possibly because I've always been the worst athlete and I think it devolved from that. Good luck with the book-sounds like a winner!
Andi, I think most of these proclivities come from the culture and our parent models. In Sophie's case, as an only child who is female, her father kind of treated her like a guy and taught her how to gamble...and gamble wisely. He made her street smart, which isn't a bad thing. All my dad ever said to me was: 'Men are wolves.' What? Anyway, I had to find out on my own what life was about. P.S. I like the word 'devolved.'
I'm am so NOT competitive. I just want to have fun! I played a lot of tennis in high school with friends and was recruited for the school team (they were really dragging the bottom of the barrel though), but I wasn't interested. Later, when I started playing with my husband he would try to kill me, racing me from one side of the net to the other on purpose, and finally I had enough. (I wanted a nice game of volleying the ball back and forth; he just wanted to win.) I haven't played since! I have twinges of competitiveness with writing, but until I can quit my exhausting full-time paycheck job, I can't take much more pressure!
I don't consider myself very competitive, but those who know me might disagree. :) Sounds like a great book!
Arriving late, but arriving none the less. In high school, eons ago, I know, I was on the advanced math track when I hit my senior year ready to take an advanced calculus and trig class---at which point a guidance counselor (male, of course) informed me "Girls don't ususally need these types of courses. We like to save our spots for the boys." Idiot that I was at the time, I believed him. Not that I necessarily would have made math and such my career, but still. Here's hoping we've come a long, long, long way from that kind of neanderthal thinking. (Didn't even capitalize it, 'cause they don't deserve it!) Best of luck with Bad Lies.
Leah and Margo the world needs variety...and Lord knows what the world would look like if we were all eager to compete. I'm just so interested in our differences!
Margo, you story makes my stomach turn. I could be a nurse or a teacher (I thought). No one encouraged me to be more...and math (calculus) was a mystery to me, so I got relegated to women's work...as they thought of it in that time. I agree...hopin' that kind of thinking is dead!
I'm sort of competitive. I love board & card games, but they're for fun. I think I'm more competitive with myself. I like challenging myself to do better. One thing I've learned in this business (writing) is not to compare myself with other writers. I do my best and hope that the sales will show it. I was one of those parents who cheered on all the kids on the team, not just my kid. I wanted them all to succeed and feel good about themselves.
Diane, the research found that most women prefer to challenge themselves to achieve 'better'...the idea of going head to head was not a woman's first choice. In fact, one of the conclusions of the research was for businesses to encourage more 'personal best' events. I can just see you at the games cheering all the kids...I'll bet you were a popular mom!
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