Sparta's Desperate Housewives

Sparta - Corporate transfers taking young families from town to town, state to state and sometimes from country to country may ring a familiar bell to some Sparta residents. The transfers always come with the promise of a better job, often times more pay and a bigger house and usually less time spent with family which leaves the wife to find new friends, new doctors, and new teachers with every move. As a realtor, Maryann McFadden, often encountered this scenario and it affected her a great deal at times, so much so, it eventually became her inspiration for her first novel. “Northern New Jersey has been a hot spot for corporate transferees for years,” McFadden said. “The lifestyle looks great from the outside, but as a realtor, I’ve witnessed firsthand the many sacrifices these families endure.” McFadden, a Hackettstown resident, fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming an author with the publication of The Richest Season. Although the book is a piece of contemporary woman’s fiction, it has appealed to a wide audience base, not just women. McFadden story recounts the fictional life of a lonely and unhappy corporate wife from Sparta who runs away from home just before the next family move, to Pauley’s Island, South Carolina. She leaves her husband, Paul, living in a fictitious Sparta neighborhood, to face his new life without his wife, and eventually without his top executive position that drove them apart. There are three main characters whose lives run parallel to each other, sharing a common trait of walking away from lives they always thought they wanted only to find a new part of themselves that had been deeply buried. Prior to publishing her first book, McFadden was a freelance writer for various newspapers and magazines. Eventually she switched gears to become a real estate agent. “Between the kids, coaching, teaching CCD, and a new job, I gave up writing all together for almost ten years. I didn’t even have time to miss it,” said McFadden. As her children grew older, McFadden went back to school and earned a Masters degree in English with a concentration in writing from William Paterson College and taught journalism at Centenary College and Middlesex County College. Through her studies, her interest in writing sparked once again. “I was getting a feeling that something was missing in my life, and I realized writing was it,” said McFadden. She continued to sell real estate, while writing into the wee hours of the morning as the demands form her career would allow. To fulfill a writing class requirement to write a short story, McFadden began looking into her own life for inspiration and ideas from which to pattern her characters after. As a realtor, McFadden saw the transfer scene so many times but had trouble relating to it, having been a resident of northern New Jersey most of her life. She was intrigued by the lifestyle and used it as the center point for her short story. Over the course of two years, the short story evolved into her thesis and eventually to her first novel, which was published by Aventine Press. The novel received good pre-publication reviews. According to Paulette Bates Alden, critically acclaimed author of Crossing The Moon, “There’s so much honesty, searching and struggle involving three characters I grew to love…I hated to come to the end.” “The character development is outstanding as is the description of place. Sparta residents will enjoy reading the novel and relating to the area,” said Carol Viall, of Sparta Books. Still damp from her shower, Joanna tossed her towel on a chair and stood naked in front of the dresser mirror, far enough back to assess her body with a stranger’s eyes, when she heard the phone ring. Grace would get it, she thought, examining her limbs, long and lean, brown from the sun. Her breasts and backside were the blue-white marble of unexposed flesh. Twisting around to catch the full view of her rear end, she caught a few dimples of cellulite beginning to spread and ignored the ringing of the phone. All in all, not a bad body for a middle-aged woman, she thought.     She was getting ready to have dinner at Hank Bishop’s a few jetties up the beach. It was nothing romantic, strictly casual. Yet she began wondering how she looked to other men. Her thoughts were interrupted by the familiar knocking on the wall, Grace signaling that the call was for her. She picked up the extension.      “It’s me,” Paul barked. As she reached for her towel, she wondered if he was angry she hadn’t returned his call the other night. “How are you?” she asked cautiously, pulling the towel around her.      “I’m great,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.