Authors Interviewing Characters: Stella Fosse

November 8, 2021 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

Brilliant Charming Bastard by Stella Fosse

First Wives Club meets The Witches of Eastwick in Brilliant Charming Bastard. When three women scientists discover they are dating the same lying dilettante, who is stealing their ideas as well as their hearts, the best revenge is getting rich.

Rose Bingham is a professor of Biology at UC Berkeley. Rose dates Brendan Burns, who claims to be a physician and inventor. One night they argue and he storms out, leaving his email open on Rose’s computer. When she realizes that Brendan sends identical love emails to her and two other women, Rose contacts the women and invites them to meet.

Joyce Farrell is a chemist who runs a research lab at an Emeryville biotech company. Maxine Vargas is an engineer and attorney who is a partner in a San Francisco patent law firm. The three women realize Brendan is stealing their ideas to use in his research on photosynthetic solar panels. They each break up with Brendan, resign their positions, and together create a startup, Canopy Enterprises, to invent the very thing Brendan tried and failed to develop.

Brendan dies soon after the breakups. At his funeral, Rose, Maxine, and Joyce meet Brendan’s former research partner, Fred Hinkle. Hinkle decides the three women stole Brendan’s invention. He sues Canopy for stealing trade secrets and smears the company’s reputation with potential investors.

Rose eventually overcomes her post-Brendan aversion to dating and begins seeing an amusing computer consultant. Maxine revives an old flirtation with a venture capitalist. Joyce begins to date Gloria, an attorney friend of Maxine.

Will the founders of Canopy complete their invention, despite a looming court date with Fred Hinkle? How can they convince Hinkle that his dead partner stole their ideas instead of the other way around? And will the women’s new romances survive the pressure?

We joined Maxine, Rose, and Joyce in their company lunchroom for an interview.

Stella: Many thanks for taking time to meet.

Maxine: Thanks for inviting us. We’re always glad to get the word out about Canopy.

Stella: You’re doing important work here, but first let’s talk about the three of you. It’s interesting that three women would become friends after you all dated the same guy. You even started a company together.

Rose: We had some rough spots at the beginning. Especially me—I was actually in love with that jerk. At first, I resented these two for dating him too.

Joyce: The key thing is, Brendan brought us together. And we’re doing great work at Canopy.

Stella: And you, Joyce, you’re in an open marriage and your husband encouraged you to date Brendan?

Joyce: He did at first, until he realized Brendan was dishonest.

Stella: And more recently, how did your husband react to finding out you’re bisexual?

Joyce [laughs]: It surprised him as much as it surprised me.

Stella: All three of you dated Brendan in your sixties, and then found other relationships after that one ended. Did you ever expect to have that kind of dating success at this age?

Maxine: Just to be clear, I’m not currently in a relationship.

Stella: Right, you’re only flirting with Gordon Hendricks over at Tarth Capital.

Maxine: You don’t need to print that. Nothing doing while Tarth is invested in Canopy.

Stella: But once you go public and Tarth is paid out?

Maxine: No comment.

Rose: Let me jump in and say that women live long, vivid lives after menopause. The Grandmother Hypothesis in anthropology says women far outlast nonhuman primates for good reason. Human children are helpless much longer than nonhuman offspring. In the early days of civilization grandmas did the childrearing while moms worked in the fields and dads went hunting. Modern societies are organized differently, but grandmas are still vibrant. The main problems older women face today are ageism and sexism.

Joyce: Quite a lecture, Rose. Still a professor at heart.

Rose: Thanks. I think.

Stella: The three of you are great examples of vibrant crones, starting a company in your mid-sixties. How is your research going?

Joyce: Canopy will update everyone at a press conference once this lawsuit is finished.

Stella: Yes, and about the lawsuit: There’s a rumor going around Silicon Valley that Canopy will offer Dr. Hinkle an equity share and a position at the company in exchange for dropping his intellectual property suit. Any truth to that?

Rose: Hinkle must have planted that rumor himself. It’s wishful thinking. He’s contributed nothing to this effort. The work and the ideas are all ours, not Hinkle’s, and certainly not Brendan’s.

Stella: And that’s what you need to prove in court?

Maxine: That’s right.

Stella: Is it tough preparing for court and running experiments at the same time?

Maxine [glancing at her watch]: It’s a lot. But we’ll get through it. Speaking of that, we need to get back to work.

Stella: Time for one last question?

Maxine: Sure.

Stella: Where do you see yourselves, and Canopy, in five years?

Joyce: That one sounds like a job interview.

Rose: No, Joyce, it’s worse than that. I think Stella is picking our brains for a sequel.

Stella: Well, I am considering…

Maxine: A sequel? No way. I’ve seen Back to the Future 2. I know how writers treat characters in second installments.

[Maxine punches a number on her cell and speaks into the phone]. Hey, it’s me. Yes, she’s still here. Listen, do characters have standing to sue when authors decide to write a sequel? Yeah, cause of action is no problem. Reckless endangerment. Intentional infliction of emotional distress. You’re the litigator, what do you say?

During this phone call, Stella waves goodbye and tiptoes out of the room.

BUY BRILLIANT CHARMING BASTARD HERE

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Stella Fosse has been called the “Pied Piper of erotic creativity.” Her 2019 book, Aphrodite’s Pen, encourages women past midlife to write sexy stories as a creative way to push back on ageism and sexism.

Her 2020 collection, The Erotic Pandemic Ball, tells fantasy tales about the love lives of women in a locked down senior community.

Stella is a California native and biotech professional who lives with her partner in North Carolina. Brilliant Charming Bastard is Stella’s first novel.

Find out more about Stella on her website https://stellafosse.com/

Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/stellafosse

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