Amazon.com talks to Trisha Posner

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You may email Trisha Posner at trisha@posner.com

Amazon.com: Where are you from? How--if at all--has your sense of place colored your writing?

T.P.: Born and raised in London, but I've always had a bit of wanderlust, having lived in Spain for five years, and then in New York for the past twenty. In England, there is a much stronger movement toward holistic and homeopathic medicine, and it is viewed as a real complement to traditional medicine. So when I was confronted with the choice of taking estrogen or not for menopause, it seemed natural to me to look for alternatives. And living in New York also colored my response to my doctor's advice, because being in America has given me an independence and edge to go off and pursue my own choices. America has taught me to question authority more often, and that suits my somewhat rebellious personality.

Amazon.com: When and why did you begin writing? When did you first consider yourself a writer?

T.P.: I've worked as a researcher with my husband, Gerald, on his seven books, and on many magazine articles. I loved the research. So when it came time to have to find natural alternatives by which to master menopause, my research skills came in handy. It was only after watching a five-part television series on menopause - that failed to mention any alternative for women other than estrogen - that so infuriated me that I decided to submit my own journey through menopause as a book proposal. I am only now beginning to think of myself as a writer, having finished my first solo project. But I so enjoyed it, that I might well continue writing, either books or articles, related to women's issues and health and nutrition, in the future.

Amazon.com: Who or what has influenced your writing, and in what way? What books have most influenced your life?

T.P.: I know it might sound corny, but everything I learned was from my husband, Gerald. Especially helpful was his perseverance in researching each and every little detail of a subject, and always maintaining the integrity to state your opinion, even it is unpopular. As for books that have influenced my life, it's an eclectic group, ranging from Orwell's 1984, to Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, to Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, to Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, to Nabokov's Lolita, to Heller's Catch-22.

Amazon.com: What is the most romantic book you've ever read? The scariest? The funniest?

T.P.: The most romantic (and sad) is Memoirs of a Geisha. The scariest is either Poe's short stories like Mask of the Red Death, or the Raven, or even Stephen King's Carrie. Funniest is the cutting Metropolitan Life from Fran Lebowitz. I'd also, although it's not asked, like to give a nod to wonderfully good beach reads like Harold Robbins or early Lawrence Saunders. As a Brit, of course, I reserve my Agatha Christie for winter evenings near a fireplace....

Amazon.com: What music, if any, most inspires you to write? What do you like to listen to while writing?

T.P.: I'm not too wild about music when writing, although I love virtually all types when not at the computer. If I listen to anything while creating, it is Qawwali music from the wonderfully gifted, late Nusfrat Fateh Ali Kahn. I also like Loreena McKennit or tribal sounds like Spirits of the Forest. These aren't at all the sounds I listen to away from writing, but somehow they help foster some creativity for me.

Amazon.com: What are you reading now? What CD is currently in your stereo?

T.P.: I'm behind in my "must read" list, but am currently half way through the Ronald Reagan bio, Dutch by Edmund Morris. I am switching the CDs in my stereo from Santana to Macy Gray to Dixie Chicks.

Amazon.com: What are you working on?

T.P.: I'm doing some early research for a book about looking great after 50, which is unfortunately only a year away for me (yikes!)

Amazon.com: Use this space to write about whatever you wish.

T.P.: I hope that the women who read my book will find it empowering. It really is about much more than menopause. Although it was this midlife passage that infused me with a new vitality and zeal about life, the book's theme - that modern women have choices, and that as informed consumers we can take control of every aspect of our lives - is a message that applies to every woman, of any age. Go girls. And if you want more info, and want to visit on the web, stop by my web site, Posner.com.