Everything
You Always Wanted to Know about Watergate But Where Afraid to Ask
1. What really inspired you to
write your book, to force you from taking an idea or experience and conveying
it into a book?
It was the combination of the 45th
anniversary of the Watergate break-in and the constant stream of comparisons
between Nixon’s scandal and the “Russiagate” investigations around President
Trump. Lori and I realized that we get all these references because we grew up
watching the televised Senate Watergate Committee hearings, but Millennials and
pretty much anyone born after 1970 doesn’t really understand all this talk
about a potential “Saturday Night
Massacre” and constitutional crisis. At the same time, we didn’t want to write
some dry historical recitation of facts, so our tone is more like having The
Daily Show tackle Watergate.
2. What is it about and whom do you
believe is your targeted reader?
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW
ABOUT WATERGATE is targeted at three types of readers: Post-Boomer readers who
don’t have any clue what Watergate was all about, those of us who could use a
good refresher, and people who only know Watergate through the very narrow
official white male perspectives of the time. We’re looking at Watergate
through more of a cultural lens, from how it influenced language, the arts and
humor, the involvement of women, what else was happening at the time, and we
bring people up-to-date on all the players. We even binge-watched the entire
committee hearings, which, believe me, doesn’t have nearly the production
values of “Breaking Bad.” We have chapters on Watergate collectibles – they’re
really are such things – and we even found the martini recipe that had Pres.
Nixon bombed as regularly as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Finally, we found some
striking similarities between Trump and Nixon, from their association with
foreign influence on their elections to the fact that they both demanded the
White House chef cook their favorite recipes for meat loaf.
3. What do you hope will be the
everlasting thoughts for readers who finish your book? What should remain with
them long after putting it down?
In talking with teachers and younger
people – even our own interns – we found out that Watergate gets little or no
attention in high school history or civics classes, so we’re hoping that people
will come to understand that this was a very big deal – after all, Nixon’s the
only president ever to resign – that involved a criminal conspiracy run out of
the White House. This changed the way Americans thought about their government
and politics in general. We’re hoping that this will help people consider that
the similar things we’re seeing in politics now can constitute major concerns
and crisis in how we govern ourselves.
4. What advice or words of wisdom
do you have for fellow writers?
Write the book that only you can
write. Watching Watergate as teenagers was a big influence on both Lori and me
because we were just becoming interested in journalism, so we were naturally
enthusiastic about this topic. But there was just no way that I could write
this straight – I’ve won three humor-writing awards – so we decided to approach
this with a point of view and tone that make it entertaining as well as
informative.
5. What trends in the book world do
you see and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?
To me, it looks like everything is a
niche now, and every book needs that kind of very specific hook to get noticed.
Lori and I would never have written a book about the history of presidential
crises, for example, so we focused just on Watergate and how it relates to
where we are now. And then doing it with humor and snark narrows that down even
more. My own next book won’t be general personal finance advice, but will be
tailored to people going through specific types of financial turmoil who need
answers. I think readers now go beyond asking “Is this a good book?” and want
to know, “Is this a good book for me and where I am right now?”
6. What great challenges did you
have in writing your book?
Two things. The first one was
deadlines. We only had about three months from when we started talking about
the idea of doing a Watergate book to when it went to press in order to hit the
anniversary of Nixon’s resignation. But Lori’s extensive digital experience
made it possible to not only get the e-book done on time but to have the print
version out, too. It didn’t hurt that we’re both old newspaper hacks who long
ago learned to laugh in the face of even the most ridiculous deadlines. “Ha!
Ha! Ha!” See, there goes on now.
The second thing was the news itself.
Just trying to keep up with the constant missteps of Trump & Co. had us
constantly running to keep up to date and dig out more parallels to Watergate.
Personally, I’m still waiting for Trump to trot out a Cocker Spaniel and give a
word-salad rip-off Nixon’s Checkers speech about how he’s not going to make
Jared and Ivanka give it back. Although it’ll probably be a Russian Wolfhound
with a forged pedigree.
7. If people can only buy one book
this month, why should it be yours?
Watergate was the last time we ever
had as chaotic a situation going on in Washington as we do now. Who knows where
all this will end up in another year or two, but Watergate can give this all
context and, we hope, some lessons. The Nixon administration wasn’t as
pathetically clownish as the Trump administration acts, but the issues about
obstructing justice and running roughshod over the Constitution are raising a
lot of the same questions, along with basic questions about the fitness of a
paranoid, immoral bully to sit in the Oval Office. Plus I’m still really
bothered by that meatloaf thing.
Author bios: Lori Perkins
is the editor/author of 25 erotic romance anthologies including the first
zombie romance short story collection, HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE, as well as the
anthology 50 WRITERS ON 50 SHADES OF GREY, which looks at the erotic romance
phenom from 50 points of view, She is the founder of the L. Perkins
Literary Agency, and a former adjunct professor of journalism at NYU. She lives
in New York City.
Brian O’Connor is an award-winning
business and financial columnist, as well as author of "THE $1,000
CHALLENGE: HOW ONE FAMILY SLASHED ITS BUDGET WITHOUT MOVING UNDER A BRIDGE OR
LIVING ON GOVERNMENT CHEESE,” which was named Best Money Management Book of the
Year by The Institute for Financial Literacy. O’Connor is a three-time winner
of humor-writing awards from the National Society of Newspaper columnists. His
freelance work has been featured in The New York Times, The Christian Science
Monitor, Martha Stewart Living and The Wall Street Journal.
For more info, please see: https://www.smashwords.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
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when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2017©. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now resides in
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