Margaret Gardiner
Author Interview - Margaret Gardiner
Author of Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar
Welcome to the world of model Joey Superstar - a whirlwind of cocaine, sex, and money.
Josaphina Brinkley seems to have it all: she’s a superstar model in 1980s America, a cover girl plastered naked on fashion billboards above Sunset Blvd. Women want to be her. Men simply want her.
But underneath the glossy veneer she hides a traumatic past. The end of her marriage to Italian Aristocracy led to a stint in rehab. As she returns to parties, premiers and modeling, she’s hoping a life of designer clothes and beautiful people won’t take her back to blow. If only she could be truly seen, heard and understood, perhaps she wouldn't self-destruct again?
Joey sets out to confront the roots of her wildness – but must admit to a youthful act that haunts her. As Joey fights from addiction to redemption, can she change the course of her life, deal with her dark past and become the superstar she was always destined to be? Former Miss Universe Margaret Gardiner gives readers the key to a secret world of supermodels, sex, style and scandal in her deliciously intoxicating debut, Joey Superstar, the first in an exciting Damaged Beauty series.
Margaret Gardiner became an international cover girl at 16, Miss Universe at 18, and ultimately, the fashion editor at GoldenGlobes.com. She’s worked with A-list stars from Angelina Jolie to Zendaya. She knows what it is like to be on the red carpet, in the spotlight - and what goes on behind the scenes. With a degree in psychology, and a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, her debut novel is for every woman who has ever been made to feel less.
Author Interview - Margaret Gardiner
Author I draw inspiration from:
There are books I always return to. Tender is the Night or This Side of Paradise. F Scott Fitzgerald. They kill me. I know Hemingway is glorified and I love him, but read those two books and see if you don’t discover your insides spilled out on the floor.
See above. Other writers. John Steinbeck, Leo Tolstoy, Alan Paton, Lauren Weisberger, Richard Yates. Jay McInerney. Sally Rooney. Escapism: Sue Grafton.
Author Interview - Margaret Gardiner | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
Bath tub, bed.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Ripley. (The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith) I like his squirrely mind.
Either he would kill me or I’d convince him he didn’t need to kill another human ever again.
Author Interview - Margaret Gardiner | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
I love reading. No one has a sign on their desk: become an author. Well, in Africa growing up that idea was not practical.
I fell in love with words and how they are used and the multiple meaning of them, really young. Words are like good jazz. My dad made me look at an apple and describe it to him. It was a red apple. Round. And he told me that actually it was flat at the top and the bottom and if I looked properly there were yellow flecks in it and tinges of brown. I started to see the world as a Seurat painting or a Monet. Its about the little things. Everything seemed to be one thing but was really another. That’s my favorite kind of writing. Where the character surprises you because she is not what you thought she was. It’s why I love Joey. She is so easy to dislike and discard. But she is so much more than the first impression. She’s like an impressionist’s painting. Depending on how you view her she is different things.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Hardback. I like to touch and stroke the outside. We used to have those old fashioned books with gold embossed type into red or green leather covers. You could stroke them. It was a visceral experience.
Now paperbacks are my book of choice. The Hardback gets too heavy in the tub. The ebook - well as a journalist I live on my electronics. I want to hold it. If I really like a page, when I finish digesting it, I’ll run my hand over the page. Like my skin is sucking up the words.
The last book I read:
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sherry Sandberg
Some of the stuff is simplistic but the big thrusts should be necessary reading for every little girl so she can navigate life; understanding societal expectations and how they shape women.
Author Interview - Margaret Gardiner | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Pen and paper. I vomit words. Especially conversations. They just come out rapidly. My fingers cannot keep pace. I don’t look at what I write. Blarph. Out it comes. The words are compelled and build, like music, and then are done. Then I read back on the computer and autocorrect has had its way with my words I can sob. I don’t write like AI. I use words specifically and ironically. To read as one thing and mean something else. And my art gets lost. And then it’s gone. I cannot recreate it. So pen and paper preferred. But easier on the computer if it cooperates with me.
I posted this video of me on the red carpet in slow motion and asked: What am I doing? And the answer was: I’m thinking. I’ve since deleted it. Things trigger me. It’s like the world slows down and it embeds in my head like a photograph. I regurgitate it. Break it down unconsciously as I go about my life.
Same things happen with interviews. I interview A-listers and they say the most wonderous things (I also make up words - onomatapoeias or forms of words I think should exist). Robert Downey Jnr when asked what he does to be romantic said something like, skip the flowers and treat her with love. Something like that. Colin Farrell told me that a breath can be more intimate than a touch.
Like. Arghhhhhh. Swoon. How incredible? Right? I’m always scribbling a catch phrase, something unique I heard. I sometimes experience things three dimensionally. Sight, smell/taste, emotion.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Bridget Jones by Helen Fielding.
That’s me. I’m always gung-ho. I’ll jump in if someone needs something. Then I’m on national television with my skirt around my waist sliding down a fire station pole.
And I’ll just pretend like it’s normal. You should see this interview I did with Taika Waititi on Youtube for Jojo Rabbit. He’s smart and funny. Very quick. We started the interview and things went wrong and I tried to pretend that they didn’t and he saw me pretend and then he played with it and. Well. You have to see it. No doubt. Bridget and I. Two peas in a pod. We also eat the same way.
Author Interview - Margaret Gardiner | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
I used to say a racing car driver. I got to race a porsche around a race track and then take it onto a wet surface and skid it and control it. It was beyond. But I don’t think that anymore. I’d like to be a speaker. You know those people who give talks and you go. Oh, I learned something? That was fun? That! That’s the career I’d want.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
No question. 50s. So sensual. Fitted bodice, flounced skirt or pencil skirt. 3/4 cigarette trousers. Flats or stilettos. Eyeliner. Guess made millions recreating the look. Late 50’s early 60s. In my book, Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar, Christian, the billionaire first generation of Ghanian descent uses that image in his clothing line: Bootshoot aka BS. I kinda like the sly analogy that most people will miss - maybe not to Guess, but that I called it BS. My sister said my writing is like an exam at school. There’s the surface and then there is all the stew beneath it.
Absolutely would not want to be a woman in the 50s though.
Place I’d most like to travel:
That’s like ooo. Yeah. The moon. Definitely. Or one of those trips to out of space. But I cannot afford it so I’m an African pragmatist. I’ve been a lot of places. India #1. #2 Iceland. #3 Switzerland.
See. You asked for one. I’m voracious. I want all three. I don’t like to limit myself.
India. When I was Miss Universe flying to Australia from New York, I was invited into the cockpit when we landed. As we were taxing along the runway a dog just ran across the runway, unperturbed by the noise. No one seemed to chase it. Some of the most beautiful physical humans come from that area. The culture, the evolution.
Iceland cos well - the Aurora Borealis
Switzerland cos I’m a chocoholic. I will finish an entire layer of Belgium Chocolates in one sitting without a blink. But Switzerland cos I want to paraglide off the alps.
I’ve also lately started thinking of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro.
My signature drink:
My dad taught me to drink because he had three girls and he thought it important that we know how to handle alcohol. So because I was raised with it I didn’t drink for the longest time. For a while I was strictly white wine. I’ve branched out into cocktails and like a good Mescal.
Favorite artist:
Pollock. Number 1. My book is full of painting references.
My favorite line is: Life with Fran was a Jacques Louis David, life without her was a Pollock. If you know art no more words are necessary.
Number one on my bucket list:
Well. Honestly, because I created this textured woman who seems one thing but tells the story of the voiceless, the unheard, the hurting and in many ways, of women, I so want women to read this and go, Yeah, I know. Let’s change it. So, #1. My bucket list is to have a number 1 best seller with Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar. Of the three books: Damaged Beauty: Plastic Paradise is the most commercial - it would be great to have it made into a movie or the series into a series.
But I have no control of how people respond. That’s a very important lesson in life. Plant the seeds. If a hail storm comes and destroys the crop, it doesn’t make you a bad farmer. The outcome is outside of your control. Doesn’t mean you never plant again. Right?
Something I can control is climbing Mount Everest.
Order of business. Get my series published. Activate the goal. Its really interesting in life. We can dream. But the way to accomplish a dream is to just do it.
Anything else you'd like to add:
Gosh. Joey. Joey Superstar. Joey Brinkley. I think she has the potential to be an important literary figure. Because! Before you snicker snidely - because I think she embodies the modern woman. All the things that get shot at us and layered on us. How it affects us. How we pretend it doesn’t. How we carry our hurt like a rock that can hold us back. Like leaking poison that can curdle our vision and how we view ourselves. There are important themes women HAVE TO absorb, just like we absorb the subtle messages sent by society of what we lack, the new subtle message of this book: Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar? Don’t let ANYONE define you. Don’t you dare talk badly to yourself. If you are struggling, you are not alone. Get help. Ask for help. Call a hotline. Examine your coping techniques and see if they damage or help. And this one truth: bad things happen. Its not because of you. Do not take responsibility for things beyond your control. Be kind to you. Be brave. Be all your colors and those who see your splendor will come to you and celebrate you.
Find more from the author:
https://www.facebook.com/MargaretGardinerOfficial
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About Margaret Gardiner:
Author Interview - Margaret Gardiner
Margaret Gardiner was discovered in Cape Town by John Casablancas of Elite Models, and by the age of sixteen found herself modeling in Paris. In 1978 she became the first South African to be named Miss Universe. Following a permanent move to America, she earned a degree in psychology and became a journalist, writing for Marie Claire, Mademoiselle, People, Huffington Post, and The Sunday Times, among many others. Eventually, she settled in Los Angeles, where she worked as the fashion editor for goldenglobes.com. In addition to interviewing celebrities across the globe, she has also expanded her journalistic focus to write about gender inequality, unconscious bias, and DEI for several publications.
