We chat with debut author Hannah Sloane about The Freedom Clause, which follows a young couple who agrees to open their marriage, but they soon discover that a little freedom has surprising consequences.
Hi, Hannah! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Yes, happy to! First, thanks for interviewing me. It’s great to chat with The Nerd Daily!
My name is Hannah Sloane and I’m the author of The Freedom Clause, my debut novel about a young English couple, Dominic and Daphne, who meet when they are young (during their first week of university). Aged twenty-five and married, their sex life is already waning, and they are both inexperienced, so they decide to open up their marriage one night a year of a period of five years. The book explores how they both navigate their one night of “freedom” each year, and the unexpected revelations that come from a woman learning to ask for what she wants.
As for me, I’m originally from the UK. I have dual citizenship and live in Brooklyn with my partner Sam, and our daughter, Dot. I’m an avid reader and absolutely thrilled to be a published author.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I’ve always been a big reader, even from a young age. Being immersed in a fictional world is a great distraction and source of comfort to me, and always has been. I discovered writing when I was about five years old and our teacher asked our class to write a short story. I didn’t want the assignment to end. I adored creating a world of characters whose every action and consequence was mine to decide on… spot the control freak!
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I remember reading: Bears In The Night by Stan and Jan Berenstain.
The book that made me want to become an author. I devoured the Enid Blyton books: the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, Mallory Towers. I definitely wrote some short stories when I was seven or eight that mirrored those books and were far inferior!
The book I can’t stop thinking about is: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason. I’m a huge fan of books that make me laugh and cry. It’s such a skill to draw out both sets of emotions in readers. I also loved Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. That was the first book of hers that I read, and then I went on a huge Ann Patchett binge. Her writing is truly brilliant.
Your debut novel, The Freedom Clause, is out September 3rd! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
What a great question! Okay, here goes: one woman’s journey towards self-empowerment.
What can readers expect?
It’s a funny, feminist debut about a young woman named Daphne who has been raised a people pleaser. Daphne agrees to open up her marriage for one night a year over a five year period, and she goes on a journey of sexual self-assertion that plays out in other areas of her life.
At its core, The Freedom Clause is a book that gives women permission to live their lives fully, on their own terms, by ignoring societal pressures and focusing on what they need.
Where did the inspiration for The Freedom Clause come from?
The seed of the idea came years ago. I was in London, at a friend’s house for dinner. It was getting late when she shared, unexpectedly, that she wished she’d met her husband later, specifically ten years later (they met at university). It would’ve been fun to date in her twenties, she told me. I glanced at her husband, wondering what he had to say about this, but it was a topic they’d discussed already. They both would have preferred more experiences in their twenties.
That evening sat idly in my head for years. My friend’s remark fascinated me, mainly because it posed a myriad of other questions. Is there a perfect age to meet your partner? And if you do meet your partner sooner than you’d like, is there a way to manufacture experiences with others within the safe confines of your existing relationship? And ultimately who is going to get more out of that arrangement?
I knew it would make a great novel because there is so much room for conflict and drama, for things to go wrong (which is always fun), and for things to go right for the characters too. And, once I began writing, the story flew out of me.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really enjoyed Daphne’s journey of empowerment throughout the story. Daphne is very honest and vulnerable throughout the novel and it was fun to show how that vulnerability opens doors for her and creates opportunities.
She comes from a family in which she is the middle child, the overlooked one. Henry her brother is the clever one, and her younger sister, Mimi, is the beautiful one and Daphne isn’t sure where she fits in. This family dynamic really impacts her confidence. When her husband, Dominic, declares he wants to sleep with other people, Daphne, a chronic people pleaser, reluctantly agrees to open up their marriage in a bid not to lose him. And what begins as an opportunity for her husband to explore his own sexual freedom ultimately becomes an enlightening journey for Daphne as she learns to re-evaluate what she wants from sex, family, career and relationships.
What’s next for you?
I’ve really enjoyed doing some publicity around the release of this book and I’ve been working on some short essays for online publications. Next, I’ll be working on another novel which is still very much in the ideation phase. Stay tuned!
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Yes, plenty! Most recently, I read and loved: How To Fall Out of Love Madly by Jana Casale which is a very smart, witty novel that prompted me to consider the ways women self-regulate themselves, and how they speak and act around men, and to what end? Deeply funny, I absolutely loved it.
I also loved Old Flame by Molly Prentiss, which is a beautiful book with big thoughts and feelings on: motherhood, female friendship, wanting to create art whilst working in a corporate world. And the writing is stunning.
