BA of the Week: Author Linda Olle

Every week we feature a different person from the community shedding a little light on their life of brokeitude. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something about the human spirit — probably not.

Wanna be a Broke-Ass of the Week? Holler at us here and we’ll send you the questionnaire.

This time around our broke-ass is Linda Olle. She’s an author, a fan of the El Quixote bar in the Chelsea Hotel, and once made a porn with her boyfriend in a French Chateau. My kind of broke-ass! Let’s see what kind of tips she has below.

Name: Linda Olle

Age: Forty-nine, give or take.

Occupation: Writer and publisher of fictional series The Upper East Side Cookbook. Main Course is the second of four, and Just Deserts, the third, will be published on December 6.

What neighborhood do you live in?: Carnegie Hill, on Museum Mile.

Best money saving tip: Pack light. Listen to mother.

What do you refuse to spend money on?: Cabs and hotels. I should be spending more on hotels—lately I feel like a broke-ass mooch when I stay with friends.

Most expensive thing you’ve ever bought: A lawsuit that didn’t go my way although it should have.

How’d that feel?: Depleting.

Favorite cheap eat: Oaxaca salad at El Paso restaurant in my neighborhood.

Favorite dive bar: El Quixote in the Chelsea Hotel.

Best deal you’ve ever gotten: The loan of a chateau in France that stood on a cliff for the month of August in 2007. My boyfriend and I were so thrilled that we made an elaborate porn video using the stunning views, décor, and the swimming pool with underwater lights.

Favorite free thing to do: Watch Pat Kiernan read the papers’ headlines at 7:45 a.m.

If you woke up a millionaire, what’s the first thing you’d buy?: I would publish several wild books, mostly by writers I know, novels and memoirs untrammeled by conventional-publisher editing. I would pay off my nieces’ college loans and reconnect with people from my past that I always meant to be with more—this time around we’d have an even better time.

Despite not having money, do you still love your life?: I try not to throw around that word “love.”

Do you own my book?: It’s on order, at Corner Bookstore on Madison Avenue.

Best hangover cure: Light breakfast, gallon of water, and coffee in a semi-dark room. Then, to be jolted awake by a phone call from my mother.

Are you a hipster?: No way.