La Jolla resident Peggy Hinaekian has excelled in careers as a secretary at the United Nations, photographic model, fashion designer, and acclaimed international artist.\u00a0Now, she\u2019s embarked on her fourth career as an erotic novelist, which has earned her the nickname of “naughty grandmother” by one Swiss writer. Her novel is called\u00a0“Of Julia and Men,” and this 80-year-old author\u2019s writing is raising a few eyebrows.
\nHow you gained the moniker “naughty grandmother?”
\nWhen I presented my novel in Geneva, a local newspaper journalist put my photo on the front page and dubbed me “naughty grandmother.”\u00a0Well, I am naughty but I\u2019m not a grandmother yet!\u00a0But it was a title that sold newspapers.
\nWhat inspired you to write the book?
\nI wanted to write a romance novel \u2013 slightly erotic \u2013 that would stand out from other romantic novels that were too “goody-goody” for my taste.\u00a0As a professional artist, I decided to put images of my etchings in the book, which are also somewhat erotic in nature.\u00a0I wanted to combine my writing with my art.
\nWhat is the novel about?
\nIt is a tale of love, passion and forgiveness.\u00a0As I am of Middle Eastern descent (Armenian origin), I wanted to describe the life of a young Middle Eastern girl in Cairo in the 1950s and her self-discovery in Europe in the 1960s.\u00a0The main character, Julie, wants to find a man of marriage material who is also very passionate and exciting.\u00a0\u00a0
\nThe 50s and 60s were the most exciting times of my life.\u00a0I was born and raised in Cairo and lived most of my life in Switzerland, so I have traveled extensively.\u00a0I moved to La Jolla in 2009, but still travel to Switzerland and Florida on a regular basis.
\nIs the story autobiographical?
\nMost people think it\u2019s autobiographical, but it\u2019s not. People might think it strange that I chose eroticism as a subject at my age.\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 I am adventurous and feel young and have never followed the norm or been politically correct.
\nHow did you come up with the idea?
\nAt the time, I was reading a book by Anais Nin and her writing is very sensual.\u00a0This gave me the idea of writing an erotic novel, inventing characters to my liking and making the heroine a seductive and passionate young woman.\u00a0
\nAs for the cover of the book, I chose one of my own etchings titled “Girl on a Flying Carpet” which is very appropriate as the subject of the story is the heroine flying from one man to the other.\u00a0
\nYou\u2019ve enjoyed several successful careers up until now, correct?
\nI am a go-getter and fortunately, I have done most of the things I have wanted to do in my life.\u00a0I started out being a secretary in Cairo, because there were no other jobs for women at the time.\u00a0I became a photographic model in Montreal, and then a fashion designer in Boston and Manhattan.\u00a0I then divorced my first husband, went to Europe on a whim, and had a good time going from one boyfriend to another.\u00a0In fact, I wasn\u2019t ever without a boyfriend since I was 15 years old.\u00a0
\nNow, for the second time, I have been happily married for 45 years and have two grown-up sons.\u00a0I worked very hard to get the things I wanted and to be where I am today.
\nTo purchase Hinaekian\u2019s book, visit\u00a0www.OfJuliaAndMen.com.\u00a0It\u2019s also available on\u00a0Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Warwick\u2019s in La Jolla.\u00a0\u00a0
\nHinaekian will also be exhibiting her art at the La Jolla Art and Wine Festival this weekend, Oct. 7 and 8,<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
La Jolla resident Peggy Hinaekian has excelled in careers as a secretary at the United Nations, photographic model, fashion designer, and acclaimed international artist.\u00a0Now, she\u2019s embarked on her fourth career as an erotic novelist, which has earned her the nickname of “naughty grandmother” by one Swiss writer. Her novel is called\u00a0“Of Julia and Men,” and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":275046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Peggy Hinaekian, La Jolla author and artist, to exhibit art this weekend","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}