I had a wonderful chance to meet Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer at their booksigning for their current book Don't Look Down. Yeah, I know I wrote about it before (see below), but it really is a fun book. It was great hearing that even the authors thought their romantic adventure reminded them of the style of a movie like Romancing the Stone. We got to hear about their collaboration and how it started and how they felt about the book. Their concept of writing - Jenny writing the heroine and Bob writing the hero- and being able to combine their styles is wonderful... And the fact that they are writing another one together is very exciting.
It was also great to hear Jenny talk about the stuff that "stuck" in the books and what did not. (In DLD is it Wonder Woman) This is what I refer to as "the background bits" - the details that can make the lead character (or setting) quirky and informative. And I have a tendency to remember that stuff in odd moments (good tidbits for cocktail parties!) or make a later connection somewhere else. For instance in Jenny's previous book - Fast Women - she writes about various pottery/china. It was an aha moment - when I saw the pattern on sale at Marshall Fields. But hey - that is how you learn stuff. I learned about art glass from Jayne Ann Krentz, and beekeeping from LaVyrle Spencer. You Never Know!
And thanks to Bob - I learned a new swear word/term! Again - you never know...
"One evening in Maui, Jenny Crusie was watching the sun set over the Pacific when Bob Mayer sat down beside her and said, "What do you write?" Jenny said, "Well, basically, in my books, people have sex and get married." Bob said, "In my books, people have sex and die."
Naturally they decided to collaborate.
Nine months later, Don't Look Down was done."
from their website http://www.crusiemayer.com/story.htm
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