Timothy Hedden knows what happens behind the cameras.
For more than a decade, he helped craft the drama of 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta', 'New Jersey' and 'Potomac,' working in the edit room, but now, he’s taking readers behind a different kind of curtain with his debut novel, 'Dead Housewives of Philadelphia'.
Hedden’s first thriller follows six women in Philly's elite Main Line social circle whose glamorous lives begin unraveling when one of them turns up dead—and then another.
Hedden’s path to writing a murder mystery wasn’t exactly linear, but it was informative. When he moved to New York in 1985, he set out to be an actor, but he went on to try stand-up comedy, wait tables and work in the fur business before finding his way into television — first as an audience coordinator on 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and later as a production assistant at the fledgling Food Network.
From there, he moved into casting and producing, eventually landing in the world of reality television, where he spent years learning how to find the story… and, perhaps more importantly, how to make an audience believe it.
That experience is all over 'Dead Housewives of Philadelphia.'
“This is not just my experience on 'Housewives'; it's an amalgamation of everything from my career. My book is the first reality TV book that is told from behind the scenes. Most people have grown up with reality TV, but they don't actually know what happens. So I think it gives everybody a glimpse into [that] world,” explains Hedden.
And the City of Brotherly Love was a natural fit for the story. Hedden grew up in the area and went to Pennsbury High School. His professional career brought him back home in previous years as well, with shows like ‘Ambush Makeover’. But with this venture, Hedden is crafting a new world for readers set in the ever-energetic city limits of Philadelphia.
“I wanted to sort of pay homage to where I grew up,” Hedden says. “Nobody goes on a field trip to the Liberty Bell and we don't go to the Walnut Street Theater or anything, but I wanted to set it in a place where I came from, and that meant something to me. I just thought Philly was the perfect place to do it.”
Hedden teases plenty of glamour and dark humor through the story, but at its core, it’s a murder mystery. ‘Dead Housewives’ follows Bailey (Hedden’s producer protagonist) and her fellow behind-the-scenes coworkers who have to deal with the fallout when one of their stars is murdered.
He says Dolores Catania in particular influenced one of his characters—not because of any specific storyline, but because of her ability to remain her own person. For another Diva, Hedden had Kenya Moore in mind as someone who could enter a room and command attention. He also found himself mentally casting Melissa Gorga as he wrote, imagining how some of these larger-than-life personalities might translate from reality television to the fictional world. The characters aren't direct copies, but the DNA of the 'Housewives' is definitely there.
That also goes for one unique aspect of that reality franchise — taglines. Each diva in the book has their own, and Hedden decided to turn it all into merch through an Etsy shop.
“As an editor and a producer for these shows, we are really the ones who write the taglines,” says Hedden. “I always loved writing them then, so writing these was just really, really fun. I'm glad that I decided to put them on merch.”
'Dead Housewives of Philadelphia' is only the beginning. Hedden envisions the novel as the first in a three-book series, with 'Dead Housewives of Boca' picking up five years later and a third installment, 'Dead Husbands of Philadelphia,' following three years after that. The idea for the sequels came together after a conversation with a friend, who convinced Hedden that he didn’t need to reinvent the formula so much as introduce a new cast of characters and find a fresh place for the bodies to pile up.
By the third book, Hedden plans to bring the story back to the city and shift the focus to the husbands, including gay couples, before ultimately bringing the series to a close.
“I wrote this in the author's note, but it's not a literary masterpiece. It's pure entertainment and I think it's funny. I’ve worked in reality TV long enough to know how to do a tease, and so, I feel like I've ended almost every chapter where it's like, Oh my God, I have to keep turning the page,” finishes Hedden.
“I really just want it to be an escape for people. I want people to just melt into the world and take a few minutes to turn everything else off and try and figure out who's murdering the divas.”
To learn more about the ‘Dead Housewives of Philadelphia’ (available via Amazon), visit deadhousewives.com
MORE: Jennifer Weiner invests $30K in next generation of Philly writers
