When I was in New York this weekend, I got a call at lunch from my director saying that we needed some paint in order to finish off the pumpkins in Pumpkin Patch. So all of a sudden I'm down in the West Village, scrambling to find a hardware store. The Chinese woman at the restaurant tried to give me directions, but I didn't really understand what she said. So in my wandering, I stopped into a cool little bookstore on Bleecker Street.
The guy behind the desk helped me out, and of course I happened to remember that I had a copy of Tornado Siren in my bag. So I said, "I'm a novelist down from Boston for the weekend. I have a book that just came out. How can I get you some info on it?"
He asked me what it was about. I told him and he seemed genuinely interested, so I offered him a copy, which he took, saying that he was heading out on vacation next week and would take it with him. Then he asked, "So, who would play the main characters in the movie?"
I imagine most first time novelists have speculated about this very question, with spouses, siblings, friends. I know my wife and I have passed more than a few minutes in the car brainstorming answers.
So, I had a ready response: "Halle Berry and Viggo Mortensen."
"Oh," says the book seller, "Viggo comes in here all the time. I'll have to mention it to him."
So that's it, right there. The start of a whole series of events, that will include the book seller reading and loving the book, passing it along to Viggo, and him loving it, the book being made into a really cool movie, turning the book into a best seller. You read about it here first.
(You gotta have fantasies, right?)
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