in western Maine and studied English at Brown University, Cambridge University, and the University of Reading, where she is now an associate lecturer in creative writing. She lives in Berkshire in the United Kingdom.
Cohen's new novel is Bad Men, her first thriller.
My Q&A with the author:
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Julie Mae Cohen's website.
My novel, Bad Men, is about a female serial killer who kills bad men who hurt women—rapists, murderers, abusers. The title is slightly misleading and ironic in that the novel isn’t about the bad men; it’s about the protagonist, Saffy, who is by all normal moral standards quite a bad woman, as she has murdered a lot of people. The novel is meant to be funny and highly satirical, and one of the fun parts about writing the story was the inversion of ‘bad’ and ‘good’—with almost all of the ‘bad’ men going unpunished and even abetted by normal society, and almost all of the ‘good’ characters, including Saffy and her love interest, Jon, doing lots of things that are extremely morally questionable. Suffice it to say that the serial killers in this book, while not necessarily cuddly, would be fun to have a drink with.
Of course, there’s a serious intent behind this story, which is to highlight the epidemic of male violence against women. So in that aspect, the title isn’t ironic at all.
What's in a name?
My protagonist is named Saffy Huntley-Oliver. When the hero of the book, Jon, meets her, he thinks that ’Saffy’ is a combination of ’silly’ and ‘daffy’. Of course she’s a serial killer, so this is a misnomer, but she plays up to it—acting like the ditzy blonde on occasion in order to get away with literal murder. ’Saffy’ is a nickname—her real name is Seraphina, which is another major misnomer, because it means ‘angel’. She is sort of an avenging angel, though. I guess it depends on your ideas of angels.
Her last name, Huntley-Oliver, reflects her social class; she’s an heiress, from both old and new money. I wanted something that sounded aristocratic and wealthy. And there’s another glaringly obvious pun, using ‘Huntley’ for a hunter of predators.
How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?
I don’t think she would be surprised at all! As a teenager I loved serial killer books and movies—I think I have seen The Silence of the Lambs more than a dozen times. It is a comfort movie for me.
Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?
Beginnings are much more difficult for me. For one thing, you have to make yourself sit down in a chair and write them. Once you’ve got to the ending, you’ve already got momentum, but beginnings are a standing start. You’ve got the wholeundiscovered mountain of a novel in front of you, and you’re at the bottom. Which is exciting, of course, but it is also daunting. However, from the moment I started writing Saffy, she was alive in my head. She’s the most enjoyable character I’ve ever written—probably because she’s the happiest—and everything about writing this novel was a pleasure, from start to finish.
Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?
If I said that I based my serial killer heroine on myself, I think I would be in trouble, so I am saying nothing. I have definitely only killed fictional people. (Some fictional people may be based on real ones.)
What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?
The horrifying statistics about male violence against women. According to the World Economic Forum, six women are killed by men every hour around the world, mostly by their partners or members of their family. Bad Men is a funny book; but the issues it covers are very real.
The Page 69 Test: Bad Men.
--Marshal Zeringue