Richard Luck: Did you have a specific reason for writing this book?

Victoria Alexandria: In the case of Smoking Hopes I was responding to Waiting For Godot. I personally don't think it would be so bad if we found out that Godot was not coming back or had never existed at all. One might lead a happier, more sane life without such illusions. That is essentially one of the things that got me started. Another thing was the ridiculous way that men and women often think they need to negotiate for sexual relationships. The two themes became conflated when I found the perfect name for the lover, Gottlieb.

RL: What authors do you like to read? What book or books have had a strong influence on you or your writing?

VA: Martin Amis, Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf and Louis Begley among others. I started writing Smoking Hopes right after reading Amis's Money. My heroine, Charlie Dean, is a feminist's answer to John Self.

RL: Tell us something about yourself that we wouldn't know from the book jacket.

VA: I am working on my Ph.D. in English literature and am co-founder of the Dactyl Foundation for the Arts and Humanities. I worked as a stripper and a hostess in order to (among other things) collect material for this novel.

RL: Having worked as a stripper and hostess, Charlie Dean seems to be a rather tame creature, in comparison to what we might expect. Was this intentional?

VA: Tame? Hmm. If you mean like a wild creature who has been broken, yes. I would be very interested to know what you expected.

RL: You're right, I suppose tame is a poor description. I guess I expected her to be driven more by a blind emotion that she couldn't articulate, and less analytical. This is probably a stereotype, but with her blonde hair, saline boobs, and Barbie waist, I didn't expect to find a character so calculating, cognizant of what it was she was after. Tell me, in your experience are most "hostesses" this way? Fully aware of what it is they're after? Or, are they more like Lola?

VA: I like "tame." It implies a change, and it is very important to think of Charlie of having recently undergone a serious change.

As to strippers generally, these days, it seems, they are all working their ways through college. Well, maybe not all, but a good percentage. (It’s probably higher in New York than, say, Toledo.)

Of course, it may be that I think too much and project my habits on everyone, but the strippers and hostesses I have known are on the whole pretty articulate and reasonably sophisticated thinkers. This may have to do with the fact that we are in a privileged position to observe the workings of male/female relations. Outsiders often have keen insight. Being considered socially "abnormal" we learn to question what "normal" is. Yes, Lola is more like you would expect. But then I didn’t really let you get to know Lola, did I? Maybe if we knew what she thought, how she thought, she would seem less like a typical stripper. But this, again, is my prejudice. I want to think that everyone worries about the details of life and cares deeply about their beliefs and identities. I must say, though, I fear that Gottlieb may not think at all. He is a frightening being, no?

By the way, I feel like I’m driven by a blind emotion I can’t articulate. That’s why I make such and effort, I suppose.