Author of Releasing Gillian's Wolves Tara Woolpy (Giveaway too!)

Earlier this summer I was thrilled to receive, read and review Releasing Gillian's Wolves because it is set in my state of Wisconsin and Tara is a Wisconsin author too.  I loved the book so much I invited Tara to Dollycas's Thoughts to Guest Post.  She is here today!!!

Welcome Tara!!

Thank you for inviting me Lori.  I am happy you enjoyed my book.

My novel, Releasing Gillian’s Wolves, tells the story of a woman married to an unfaithful politician. He’s cheated on her many times over the years, she’s caught him, their kids have caught him, and yet she stays. What I wanted to explore in the book was the question of why a woman like that would stay and what might drive her to leave.

Politicians live under constant public scrutiny, which makes it all the more baffling when they act as if their private lives were invisible.  I’ve read all sorts of explanations of why they do it from narcissism to thrill-seeking. Or maybe they simply forget anyone’s watching. Whatever the reason, it happens a lot.

And almost all of these men have wives whose every reaction is watched, discussed and judged. Maria Schriver has written several books, earned a Peabody and an Emmy but the thing we’re most interested in lately is, when did she know and shouldn’t she have left him earlier? And sometimes, the scandal is so embarrassing you wonder how the family will make it through the next Thanksgiving dinner.

Take the example of Indiana State Representative Phil Hinkle (and I have  a wonderful friend to thank for bringing this one to my attention). Here’s a family values kind of Republican who cosponsored a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. But he also exchanged a number of emails with an 18 year old who had listed his services in the m4m section of Craigslist. They settled on a price and agreed to meet. At the hotel, the kid freaked when he discovered he was about to have sex with a politician. When he was refused, Hinkle groped him then exposed himself. Ugh. Finally the young man’s sister came to the rescue. Hinkle tried to buy their silence with an iPad, his Blackberry and $100 (for all the sordid details check out the Indianapolis Star’s coverage). In what must have been a horrendous evening, the Hinkle family and the young man’s sister exchanged a series of phone calls and emails culminating in Barbara Conti Hinkle offering the sister $10,000 to stay silent.

When I Google Barbara Conti Hinkle the first two hits I get are the Wikipedia article on her husband (already updated with the scandal which broke two weeks ago) and the archived 1976 newspaper article about the birth of her first child. Two very different moments in her life.

I know that a lot of people are going to be appalled that Barbara appears to be sticking with Phil and even offered money to try and make it all disappear. But I get it, and I think Gillian would too. Whatever the reality of the Hinkle marriage, the fact is that from now on she and her children will be defined by her husband’s bad behavior.  Leaving his personal hypocrisy aside, the salacious details of an old man forcing himself on a barely legal boy are not the legacy she had hoped for her children. Let’s hope, like Gillian, she has good friends to help her through. And maybe she could use some double chocolate survive anything brownies. 

~Tara


About Tara from Goodreads:
Tara Woolpy’s writing career has followed a somewhat unusual trajectory. Throughout her twenties and early thirties she worked hard to learn her craft. Her formal studies included a B.A. in English Literature from Whitworth College and a post graduate year at the Women Writers Center in Cazenovia, New York. In the 1980’s she published poems and short stories in small feminist journals, freelanced for an independent Seattle newspaper and wrote the novel destined for the bottom drawer. 


Eventually returning to school, she earned a couple graduate degrees in aquatic science and has spent the last several years in that field, most recently as a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. As such she published peer-reviewed technical papers and book chapters and edited reams of student writing. While science writing bears little resemblance to fiction, Tara’s academic career taught her to suffer criticism comfortably and relax in front of a crowd. Now that she teaches online, she has returned to fiction. 


Tara, Thank you for taking time out of your busy days to spend a little time with us.


Readers,
This is a must read!!! I highly recommend it and after you read it you are going to want to read more stories by Tara Woolpy.

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Tara is offering one copy of 

Releasing Gillian's Wolves for giveaway!

U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY

Followers will receive 2 Bonus Entries

Leave a comment for Tara for 5 more Bonus Entries

Winners will be chosen by Random.org

Contest Ends September 11 at 11:59 p.m. CST