A Moment of Jen
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Saturday, August 24, 2002
posted by Jen at 8/24/2002 09:28:00 AM

Finally got to see last week's "Sex and the City." I have a suspicion that the show may have exaggerated the glory and grandeur of book parties. I haven't had one myself -- not yet, anyhow -- but I tend to doubt that they attract the crowd of avid paparazzi that Carrie entertained. (Think about it....how often have you seen author's photographs in the gossip columns? And no, Ethan Hawke doesn't count).

But the show did nail one thing perfectly. In the scene where Carrie and her awfully nice limo driver are getting their celebratory hot-dogs, and the driver tells the guy behind the counter, "She wrote a book!" and the guy replies, "Oh, yeah? It's gonna be in bookstores?" This is EXACTLY what a lot of people ask when they hear you've written a book. (Or, in the alternate version, you'll get acquaintances stopping you at parties or in the gym to breathlessly report that they saw your book! In a bookstore! And ohmyGod, you must be so excited!)

This always confused me. Of course the book's going to be in bookstores. People need to buy it somewhere, right? And the Book Fairy isn't going to be stopping by, so yes, the book is going to be in bookstores!

I still don't understand why that's so many people's first question. Maybe because there are a lot of people writing books that are only available on their websites, or at online stores. Or maybe they're picking up on the gap between writing a book, which is one thing, and getting a book published, which is something else. Either way, next week it looks like we get a SATC with Carrie dealing with bad reviews. Maybe she'll be able to give me some tips. And then I'd like a scene of the quartet sidling into a bookstore and subtly reshelving Carrie's book so that it's smack dab covering up the new Tom Clancy and/or Anna Quindlen. Because that's another true thing -- once your book is in bookstores, you spend a lot of time fretting that it's not quite in the right place in the bookstore -- the right place, of course, being the most visible perch on the center display area -- and that it is your duty as a protective author to relocate it a bit.
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Friday, August 23, 2002
posted by Jen at 8/23/2002 05:29:00 PM

I'm back!

And if you happen to be reading this in Atlanta, you can get a signed copy of GOOD IN BED at any number of bookstores -- including the W.H. Smith stores in the airport -- that I visited on Tuesday.

It's been a busy few days, topped off by a wonderful reading at R.J. Julia in Madison, CT, last night. And here's the best news of all -- the Publishers Weekly review of IN HER SHOES!

Jennifer Weiner, whose debut novel, Good in Bed, was an instant bestseller, is back with another exuberantly confident offering, In Her Shoes (S&S/Atria). Twenty-eight year-old Maggie Feller relies on her looks and size zero body to flirt her way through life while working dozens of dead-end jobs and dreaming of stardom. At the other end of the spectrum is her older, larger sister, Rose, who relies on her intelligence and is an accomplished attorney at a large Philadelphia firm....

With the help of their maternal grandmother, the two sisters begin to repair their relationship. In the end, these three remarkable women learn that they are stronger than they thought they were, that family ties are worth preserving, and that there are perks to sharing the same shoe size. Weiner, a marvelously natural storyteller, blends humor and heartbreak to create an irresistible novel.


I'm totally thrilled, and deeply relieved. I know somebody's going to say "sophomore slump" at some point, but I'm just glad it hasn't happened yet.
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Tuesday, August 20, 2002
posted by Jen at 8/20/2002 10:46:00 PM

Greetings from Connecticut!

There's a lot that's cool about this author gig. You get to spend your days hanging out with your laptop in coffee shops, wearing whatever you please. You get to spend hours reading books or seeing movies, justifying every minute of it as "research." You get to travel to far-flung, distant lands -- and the occasional city in Ohio -- to sign books and do readings and meet people who tell you how your book has touched them.

And, if you're very good or very lucky, you get to do an event like the one I did on Monday. The good people at Waldenbooks were having a conference at a posh casino in Connecticut -- and I got to go talk to them about the writing life, and bring my husband, and my Mom, along.

It happened in shifts. Adam and I staggered onto a train, after our Urban Challenge adventure on Saturday afternoon. By Saturday night we were all checked in. He played blackjack. I soaked in a tub. Then on Sunday, he played more blackjack, and I won seventy dollars playing digital slots -- some kind of machine featuring animated sheep on the wheels, that would baaa encouragingly if you matched them up and won money.

Then Adam caught a train back to Philadelphia, and my mother arrived. We dropped off her bags and proceeded directly to the casino floor, where confusion ensued.

"I don't understand these machines!"

"You have to line up the pictures."

"But look!" she said, pointing indignantly to her screen. "I've got two oranges and two apples!"

"But they're not in a row, so you don't win anything."

"Hmmph," she said, scowling disapprovingly. "I don't think this is a good machine." We both lost about twenty dollars. Then we had a delicious dinner. Then, on Monday afternoon, it was time for my talk.

We headed down to the conference center where there was a lovely buffet lunch, and a table full of nice, interested booksellers. "I'm Jen, and this is my Mom," I said.

"It's fiction," said my mother, in lieu of a more conventional "Hello." Then, as the plates were being cleared -- just as I was starting to get a little nervous about what I'd say -- she reached into her purse and pulled out a tennis-ball sized wad of tinfoil.

"Ma," I whispered. "What is that?"

"Oh, never mind," she said, proceeding to (noisily) un-crinkle the tinfoil, raining an assortment of pills onto the table and into her lap.

"Mother!"

"Oh, not to worry. It's my medication!"

"What's wrong with your blue plastic pill case?" I hissed.

"Oh, this is my travelling pill case," she said. She swallowed the pills, re-wadded the tinfoil, put it back in her purse, and gestured toward the stage. "Go ahead....give a good speech!"

Honestly, people....how old do you have to be before your mother stops humiliating you? Does this happen to other authors? Because I'm having a hard time imagining Toni Morrison's Mom pulling crumpled-up tinfoil out of her purse right before Toni had to give a speech.

Anyhow, lots of good news here. I just saw my first finished copy of IN HER SHOES, and it is gorgeous! And I'll have more to share next week. Hope to see you all Thursday at R.J. Julia's in Madison, CT!
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Monday, August 19, 2002
posted by Adam at 8/19/2002 11:07:00 AM

FYI, Jen's currently in the middle of an East Coast mini-swing that's keeping her away from her laptop for the time being, so she may not be able to reply to your emails as promptly as she'd like.

She wanted me to let you know, though, how much we both appreciate the makers of Aleve following our running of the Philadelphia Urban Challenge on Saturday. Jen and I were proud to finish 16th out of 70-some teams, taking about 4h 20m to get through the 12 checkpoints. No, we didn't win like our friends Paul and Kim did in the New York race, but because of Philadelphia's public transit system, we had to do a lot of running on a very hot day -- from Rittenhouse Square to the Italian Market, from the Art Museum to the end of Boathouse Row and back, and then some. We were relieved when it was over.

Still, it was a lot of fun, and while we're in no condition to do it again soon, we'll probably do it again next year. If they're coming to a city near you in the future, we highly recommend participating.
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Welcome to A Moment of Jen, author Jennifer Weiner's constantly-updated take on books, baby, and news of the world. Email me at jen (a) jenniferweiner.com.

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