Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
Author Interview - Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
Author of GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES
“GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES is our debut novel, which features three mothers at an elite Seattle high school whose daughters are all vying for admission to Stanford. As the competition heats up, an attempt is made on one of the girls’ lives, sending this privileged community into a tailspin—until one might wonder if there’s any line these families wouldn’t cross to secure their daughters’ futures. It’s a suspenseful read with a side of satire that takes a deep dive into the college industrial complex, income inequality, and elite entitlement.”
Author Interview - Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
Author I draw inspiration from:
Tracy: Curtis Sittenfeld for her range. Dan Brown for his mastery of the page-turner. Danielle Steel for her mind-blowing output. The late Hariett Doerr, who published her first book, STONES FOR IBARRA, at the age of 74 (and won the National Book Award for it), for her refusal to go quietly into the night.
Wendy: Liane Moriarity and Jeffrey Archer for their abilities to weave intricate plots with surprise twists. Marge Piercy for her feminist writing. James Michener for his sweeping historical, family sagas.
Author Interview - Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
Favorite place to read a book:
Tracy: I have a perfect hammock. On a nice day, there’s nothing better than stealing outside to sway in the breeze and read for an hour.
Wendy: I love to read on my phone so that I can read literally anywhere at anytime—standing in the grocery store line, waiting in the car for my daughter, in bed when I can’t sleep, or curled up on the couch with my new puppy.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Tracy: Ifemelu from AMERICANAH by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Wendy: The idea of being stuck in an elevator terrifies me, so I would want to be with someone who could get us out of the elevator. It turns out Macgyver is only a TV character. So my second choice would be Alexander Rostov from A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by Amor Towels. Alexander would keep us occupied with his wonderful stories and he obviously has relevant experience with confinement.
Author Interview - Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
Tracy: We have been friends for over 20 years and throughout most of that time we’d casually toss around book ideas, but none of them stuck.
Wendy: After each of our husbands experienced a health crisis (they are both OK!) while our older kids were in the midst of the college admissions process, we finally hit on our topic (though it was more friendship oriented and less college focused in our early drafts). But we’d always assumed we’d write a non-fiction book given our backgrounds as lawyer and marketing executive.
Tracy: The moment we knew we really wanted to become fiction authors happened at my kitchen table. On a lark, I said to Wendy, “What if we just try to have some real fun with this and make up a story?” And Wendy, never one to shy away from a challenge, responded without a moment’s hesitation: “Sure, why not?”
Wendy: Then we googled, “How do you write a novel?” We’ve never looked back.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Paperback, ebook, audiobook
The last book I read:
Tracy: THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by V.E. Schwab
Wendy: IF I HAD YOUR FACE by Frances Cha
Author Interview - Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
Pen & paper or computer:
Wendy: We do everything on the computer, except when we’re brainstorming. In the “before times”, we used to plaster Tracy’s dining room with giant poster-sized post-its filled with sticky notes to work out our complicated plot lines.
Tracy: Yes, and we used to do all of our writing using Word and Dropbox, but then one of our college-age kids shamed us into finally learning Google Docs - bless that boy! Since the pandemic, we’ve had to get more creative and found a way to use collaborative storyboards for the planning stages of our next book.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Tracy: Claire Randall from OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon. She’s smart, brave, loyal, resourceful, tolerant, and overflowing with a generous and loving spirit—much like the friends I have IRL. Plus, she’s already helped me through one difficult time in my life when I was so distraught by a family health crisis that I could barely read a magazine, let alone a book. A friend recommended two series to get me out of my reading funk. First, TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer, which I devoured. And second, the OUTLANDER series. Both series provided fascinating and effortless escapes from my worries, but it was Claire who won my heart.
Wendy: My real-life BFFs are better than any character I’ve ever read in a book, but I would choose Charity & Sid Lang in the novel CROSSING TO SAFETY by Wallace Stegner. In my opinion, there is no greater gift than those life-long, deep friendships that build over time as you raise your families, develop your careers, celebrate the good times, and weather the difficult ones together.
Author Interview - Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
Tracy: Policy wonk in DC
Wendy: A graphic designer (which is entirely wishful thinking)
Tracy: No it’s not, Wendy. You’re amazing!
Favorite decade in fashion history:
Tracy: Whichever decade jeans and sweatpants were invented! I rely on my more fashionable friends to tell me what to wear. Thank goodness for generous friends!
Wendy: The decade when athleisurewear became accepted as “fashion,” although I also thought my Gloria Vanderbilt designer jeans, colorful Izod polo shirts with the collar popped, and topsiders were pretty rad in the 80s.
Place I’d most like to travel:
Tracy: Chile and Argentina
Wendy: Galapagos Islands and Iceland
My signature drink:
Tracy: Peets Coffee—Major Dickason’s Blend
Wendy: Lemon La Croix and Jasmine Tea (but not together)
Favorite artist:
Tracy: Queen
Wendy: Rodin
Number one on my bucket list: Publish a book! This is our dream come true!
Anything else you'd like to add: One thing people might wonder when they read GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES is whether we were inspired by the Operation Varsity Blues college admissions scandal. When the scandal broke, we actually felt like the headlines were ripped from our manuscript as we’d already plotted out the entire novel and written the majority of a first draft.
Find more from the author:
@katzndobs on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook
Author Bio: Wendy Katzman and Tracy Dobmeier have been great friends for over 20 years. Their friendship has sustained them through the ups and downs of raising kids, juggling careers, and creating new family traditions. GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES, their debut novel, is a dark, suspenseful journey into the cutthroat world of college admissions that will release on February 2nd, 2021. Between the two of them, they have undergraduate degrees from Princeton University and the University of Michigan, a law degree from UC Berkeley, careers in marketing, non-profit leadership and biotechnology law, two husbands, and four kids (three of whom have survived the college admissions process without a single parent landing in jail). Connect with Tracy and Wendy on Instagram at @katzndobs or www.dobmeierkatzman.com.
