Borden, Debra 1957–

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Borden, Debra 1957–

PERSONAL:

Born 1957; married; has children. Education: Attended American University; University of Michigan, B.A.; also earned a master's degree. Hobbies and other interests: Golf, tennis, music, cooking, skiing, travel, and reading.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, licensed clinical social worker. Worked variously in travel, employment, and advertising.

WRITINGS:

Lucky Me: A Novel, Shaye Areheart Books (New York, NY), 2005.

A Little Bit Married: A Novel, Three Rivers Press (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Debra Borden dates her interest in writing to the first grade, when her teacher handed out sheets of lined paper to the students, and Borden became enthralled by the inherent possibility contained in that single sheet of fresh paper. In an interview for the Backstory Web log, Borden stated: ‘I looked down at my sheet of paper and felt intensely happy.’ She was aware that her classmates did not have the same reaction, but she knew her life had changed through that introduction to the possibility of writing and storytelling. She was also a voracious reader as a child and spent a great deal of time at her local public library. The fascination was not just with the stories, but with the books themselves as coveted objects, a reaction that appears to link to her appreciation for new school supplies. Although she went through a brief period when she aspired to become a singer, and later went through university and graduate school to become a social worker, reading and writing remained her first love. When she began to find the writing assessments she performed on patients were her favorite part of her job, she suspected it was time to start writing for herself again.

The idea for Lucky Me: A Novel, Borden's first published work, actually came to her while she was working on a different project that now resides in a desk drawer. It was followed by A Little Bit Married: A Novel, which tells the story of Bitsy, a product of the 1980s who nevertheless has an obsession with the 1950s. She models her marriage after the perfect relationships depicted on the television programs of that era, which leaves her unprepared for discovering her husband, Alan, close to death due to a drug overdose—hardly the type of event that occurs in a 1950s situation comedy. With two children to think of, Bitsy stands by her husband when he survives, though his memory is gone. The situation forces her to stand on her own two feet and face the reality of her life, and her decade, by getting a job and learning to manage the family through her husband's recovery process. When Alan's memories finally return, including those pertaining to his mistress, Bitsy—now using her given name of Barbara—is in a far better position to deal with the revelation in an adult manner. Danise Hooper, in a review for Booklist, remarked of Borden's effort: ‘Solutions come awfully quickly, but this is fiction. Enjoy it.’ A contributor for Publishers Weekly called the book a ‘dark finding-myself comedy."