The Accidental Virgin received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Amanda Quisenberry.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The Accidental Virgin, November 2021
What’s the book’s first line?
I awake on the morning of November 11, 1997 full of zest.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
It details my roller coaster journey from my buoyant, fun loving girlhood into my womanhood where I am coping with the very tangible, but largely undiscussed, realities quadriplegia presents toward self-image, love, sexuality, and following one’s heart.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Much like my title, “The Accidental Virgin,” I am The Accidental Memoirist. I study journalism in college to learn how to tell other people’s stories. I never expected to tell my own story, but I then found myself at a crossroads in life, and was journaling about some personal anxieties, and one particular journal entry lasted a few months, and by the end of it, I had the first draft of my memoir. From there, it just snowballed into getting advice from some very well read friends, then hiring an editor, and five years later, I had a book.
She’s a person with a lot of vanity, yet despite how she feels about the physical state of her body, and how at times it can disgust her, she doesn’t let her soul wither. There’s a flame in her heart…and in her loins…that cannot be extinguished. She’s forced to reevaluate everything about her life and make a lot of painful concessions regarding the kind of life she’s now able to live, but she never concedes on her desire and necessity for happiness, success and sensations of pure pleasure.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
If you love being a girl, or if you are someone who loves girls who go all in on their girliness, this book will make you feel the whole gamut of personal emotions, and hopefully conjure up some good memories about your childhood and adolescence years. And it’s also inspiring and promotes hope…especially for girls and women who are like me. One of my greatest hopes with this book, is that it connects and resonates with other females who are paralyzed. Statistically, there aren’t a lot of us, but I know there are a lot of cool chicks out there who can relate to my story.
If they made your book into a movie who would you like to see play the characters?
It would have to be someone unknown to play me post-injury because I would want that actress to be a quadriplegic. And for my earlier years, I would have to brush up on my young starlets.
When did you first decide to become an author?
Fate decided now is my time.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
Yes, this is my first book.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I am currently unemployed.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
It depends. I am dependent upon inspiration in order to write. So, when an idea strikes me, I become obsessed and do little else until that piece of writing is complete. I also need equal parts input and output. When I’m not writing, or when I have just completed a piece of writing, I kinda recoil into my shell and become a sponge, soaking up information from news, sports, TV & film, or from whatever I’m reading.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part is having my own schedule to write whatever I want to write about. The difficult part is applying self-discipline to be diligent and stick to self-made deadlines.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
If someone wanted to publish my memoir, I would certainly listen to what they have to say. But my willingness to go main stream would definitely depend on the person and company wanting to represent me. I wouldn’t just sign on the dotted line because I saw an enticing number.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
I really want to connect with like-minded people, and hopefully collaborate and create new things. And I would also love to land a steady writing job.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
At the moment, I would say Elena Ferrante. I’m in the middle of her Neapolitan series and I am taken by the beauty of her writing, and her uncanny ability to write about and capture the essence of girls and womanhood. She blows my mind.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo. She utilized her skills as an investigative journalist and earned the trust of three women who told her their most intimate stories of love, sex, relationships and desires. Her writing is superb and the stories the women tell are gripping.