Q&A with Amy Rossi

 

Photo by Samantha Everette

 

 

Amy Rossi is the author of the new novel The Cover Girl. She lives in North Carolina. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Cover Girl, and how did you create your character Birdie?

 

A: It may sound cheesy to say I always knew I would write this book, but I did. As a young Behind the Music aficionado, I learned about rock musicians pursuing relationships with teen girls and thought even then that it was something that should be talked about more. I felt ready to tackle it in 2014, when I started the short story that would become The Cover Girl in my MFA workshop.

 

While the book is inspired by the 1970s rock scene, Birdie is not based on any real person. I decided she would be a model because modeling was something I was always interested in, and it seemed like the most natural way to put her in the rock star’s path.

 

This choice shaped nearly everything about her: what she looks like, how she feels about what she looks like, her experience as an image and her experience being a body in front of the camera, how she feels about aging. This gave me a useful framework to explore how she might both embody and repress her trauma.

 

To convey Birdie’s unreliability as a narrator, I also chose to not give her any spoken dialogue, leaving open the question of what she actually says and what she just thinks.

 

Q: The author Alison B. Hart called the book a “haunting meditation on the price of fame, the slipperiness of memory, and the long tail of #MeToo.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: When that blurb appeared in my inbox, I was thrilled! I admire Alison’s writing so much, and her book The Work Wife deals with many of the same themes, so for The Cover Girl to be seen in that way by her was really meaningful.

 

This description also gestures toward one of my hopes with this book, which is that it will start some conversations about the long-term impact of powerful men treating teen girls as sex objects and status symbols.

 

I think you can draw a line from the ‘70s “baby groupie” era to the early 2000s sexualizing of teen pop stars and the horrifying countdown clocks to certain young actresses turning 18 to where we are now. If we follow that long tail and unpack some of this, perhaps something better is possible.

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I read several memoirs from models like Brooke Shields, Paulina Porizkova, and Beverly Johnson, as well as Michael Gross’s history of modeling, Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, and What You Want Is in the Limo, Michael Walker’s book about rock bands on tour in the ‘70s.

 

I also found some archived handbooks online from volunteer organizations dedicated to helping people living with HIV and AIDS in the ‘80s – those were really helpful for a later part of the book.

 

Documentaries were also key, including Versailles 73: American Runway Revolution, About Face: The Supermodels Then and Now, and United in Anger: A History of ACT UP.

 

Of course, with recent historical fiction, there are a lot of odd questions that pop up along the way like, what was renting a car like in 1977 or where would women in elite social circles go have lunch in LA in the early ‘80s? That’s the most fun kind of research to me, digging through the archives of the LA Times.

 

I learned a few things that surprised me. Before this book, I didn’t know that Grace Kelly got her start in commercials for products like bug spray. I was doing research on the difference between a high fashion career and a beauty/commercial career and came across that fact, and it really delighted me: someone who had always seemed to be so rarefied and stylish still got her start somewhere!

 

I also learned that in some ways, modeling was more diverse in the ‘70s and ‘80s than it was in the ‘90s, when scouts started looking at models in the former Soviet Union and runway shows favored models all looking alike rather than models who brought unique flair to their walks.

 

Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I knew fairly early on how it would end, but I wanted to be open to the process. The final image didn’t change very much, but how Birdie gets there – who helps her get there – evolved along the way. That was one of the more satisfying parts of this particular writing and editing process.

 

When I began the book, adult Birdie didn’t have anyone. In the short story version, she didn’t have anyone. But as I kept working, a few relationships emerged that made sense for her and helped balance things out by giving her something good.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m at work on another book that deals with some similar concepts and themes as The Cover Girl – the impact of pop culture, commercialized nostalgia, what it means to be a woman in entertainment, what it means to be a woman on the sidelines of someone else’s story – but in a very different way.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I didn’t write this book because I dislike classic rock. One of the reasons I wrote it is because I love classic rock, and I think you can love something and hold it up to critique at the same time.

 

Thank you so much for including me here!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb