Interview with Andrew Gross, author of The Blue Zone

When life is too perfect, things have to shatter. In Andrew Gross's first solo debut, THE BLUE ZONE, Kate Raab had it all. She had the ideal family, an inspiring career, and the man of her dreams. In one fretful phone call everything splintered. Kate's father, Benjamin Raab, had been arrested by the FBI for money laundering, tax evasion, and racketeering with the Columbian Mercado drug cartel. Kate's father was a gold merchant not a member of a drug mafia. She blamed her father's arrest on the fantasy of undercover agents and conspiring business partners looking to save their own hides. The truth, Kate thought, would come out, her father would be set free, and she could return back to having it all. As the family comes together to rally support for their father, a man quietly sweeps into their wealthy suburban neighborhood and unloads a machine gun into their home in order to wake them to the truth.

A line had been crossed. Kate knew she'd never have a chance to go back to her old life. The Witness Protection Program immediately forces the Raab family into a new life. Kate makes a hard choice to stay with the only man she has ever loved.  Life seems to smooth out for the next year until disastrous things begin to happen that revolves around her family. Can Kate trust her father? Is someone trying to kill her? Will she ever return back to a normal life? As chaos reigns, Kate learns of a family vendetta that runs deeper than blood. Now, can she learn the rest of the truth before it kills her.

Andrew Gross, co-author of seven novels with James Patterson, has got plot twists and killer pacing that causes every page to flip. The buzz of FBI codes, Witness Protection jargon, and medical-speak feels well researched and authentic. In his three book deal with HarperCollins imprint William Morris, Gross is an author who delivers on mystery and thrills. I suggest that you grab a copy of THE BLUE ZONE because Gross is going to be big author with tons of hit thrillers. Can't wait to get the book, download the first chapters now. Download BLUE_ZONE.excerpt.doc

The Interview

Andrew Gross is a man of big risk and thrills. Before he co-authored seven novels with James Patterson, Andrew received an MBA from Columbia and briefly went into the family clothing business.  After that he took a turn as the President of HEAD ski and tennis as well as working at the ultra hip French clothing line, Le Coq Sportif. Wow! So, um.., how does a guy go from being the President of a major trend setting sports company to writing novels? Passion. Not only is Andrew Gross a man of risk but, he is a man of heart.  When confronted on what was the single most important factor of a huge career change like his, without any sign of any hesitation in his wording, he shouts to the world: A supportive wife! He goes on to talk about the adoration of his family including three very successful kids.  And perhaps that is the big secret that everyone can learn from Andrew Gross: Follow your passion, love your family, love your work, and life will be glorious!

1.    Modern Girl did her research & found out that THE BLUE ZONE was inspired by having dinner with an obnoxious, rich, Ferrari-driving guy that was later arrested by the FBI for money laundering. What was it like having dinner with a real crook?

Actually, a lot of our friends are crooks. We find they’re the only people we can get to the house. (Well, not really.)  Not so far from the truth though. In business organizations, we’ve met a lot of people, CEO-types, some pretty well known, who’ve faced indictments due to (what’s a nice way to phrase it...) securities issues. In the case of Blue Zone, I used a type who was familiar to me. Successful, prosperous, admired, someone who seemingly has everything—whose life suddenly tumbles in a nanosecond. I was more interested in the story of the person left behind, in this case, his daughter, Kate—who has to deal with the shame, betrayal, etc, than following someone conventionally into the Witness Protection Program, which has been done before.

2.    Is it true that your first solo book was bought based on an outline? Yeah or nay, was THE BLUE ZONE an easy book for you write?

Yes, I got a three book deal with HarperCollins based entirely on an outline. But keep in mind I’d been completing a book a year for six years with James Patterson, In fact, Patterson heavily outlines all his books prior to writing. Eighty to a hundred chapters, including the dialogue, punch lines, twists and turns, etc. So my outline read like a novel. In fact, the HarperCollins people said it was the most detailed treatment of a book they had ever read. So, yes, BZ was easy to write from there. Like a road map. One chapter a day. It’s a technique I think people can borrow and benefit from.

3.    How do you write a book that’s impossible to put down? Is it merely the mechanics of pace, plot twists, suspense, etc or do you have a secret modus operandi that you might share?

Well, I think three things are key: One, pace. Which means you strip the story down to its driving dynamics and cut heavily anything that interferes. Short chapters, each ending with a lead in to the next.  The prose has to be stripped down too.

Two, A detailed plot. Lots of unexpected surprises—so the readers is not only not sure what will happen next, but is not certain anyone in the story is sacred. In Book Three of the Womens Murder Club with Patterson (Third Degree we killed off one of the most admired and loved characters. In BZ, someone dear to the reader is killed too. This “distrust” so to speak, keeps them turning.

And  3, create a main character that readers LOVE! Critics love irony and growth, readers love to becomes crucially invested in from the opening pages. Easier said than done of course. Humor, self-deprecation, overcoming adversity—a inner struggle. They all go to make someone human and believable and not ordinary. When a reader cares about a character—put them in danger and you have them hooked!

4.    How does it feel to have the Women’s Murder Club Series with James Patterson turned into an ABC mini-series? When you write do you ever think about how the novel might translate to film or television?

Well, I take some pride in it that I helped create the characters and the series, but I have no “interest” in the ABC pilot. To my knowledge, they merely took the existing characters and created their own stories. Patterson and I did, however, years ago, sell the first three books of the series (that I worked on) to NBC. Only First To Die was made. Horrible TV movie. But 16 million people watched. (And it paid well!)

5.    Can you provide a glimpse into your next book?

Sure. It’s a tentatively entitled Aftermath (I like—publisher’s not sure). It takes place in Greenwich, Ct, and is about a rogue hedge fund manager who suddenly disappears and all these unsavory things (a ala BZ) begin to happen to his wife and family, underscoring that there was a lot more to who he was than he had let on to his family.  It’s a bit steamier than BZ—as the wife takes up with a detective to find the truth and some sparks fly. A bit more like Judge and Jury with Patterson, if anyone read that. I’m pretty sure the pages will fly just like BZ and readers will find t a good followup.

Bonus Question!!!
You have stated in other interviews that rejection was the best thing that happened to you. What can you say to other writers & artists that are dealing with rejections?

Well, what I meant was my particular “rejection” was the best thing—of a still unpublished novel—because it founds its way into Patterson’s hands and my career took off from there. Dealing with rejection—in art and life—is one of the toughest things. My only advice is that it starts with one’s own belief in themselves. What’s inside. This industry has a reflex bias towards rejection. It’s always easy to say “no” as opposed to “yes.” It’s easy to say yes after other people have said yes.  My grandfather, a very successful woman’s apparel guy used to say, “This industry is full of people who are scared to sell selling to people who are scared to buy!” And he was right, Therefore, don’t let the bias towards saying “no” destroy one’s belief in themselves. On the other hand, (and this is key) one needs to have an objective and unbiased conception of just how good your own product is. Don’t let friends and family give you an inflated impression of what you have to sell. False belief is as bad as no belief. And I used to go at making my manuscripts better (taking no account any comments received) the same day I received it back. An hour of sulking-- then improve it! Never threw it in the desk drawer. Perseverance. Hope that helps!

Gloss by Jennifer Oko

Beauty Myth or Fact Pop Quiz

A) GLOSS by Jennifer Oko is a sleek novel that will take you behind the gloss of morning TV, the lives of well-paid government speech writers, and the beauty industry.
Super-Fact!

B) Lip gloss will remove wine stains from Jimmy Choo shoes.
Oh, please, myth!

C) Jennifer Oko is "simply riveting" as stated by the New York Times. She writes "a quick, juicy read" as reported by the Boston-Globe and she is "sharp & fast paced" as reviewed by Publisher's Weekly.
Fact! Jennifer Oko is a riveting writer that writes a sharp, fast-paced and juicy read. Isn't that another reason to read GLOSS?

Who thought the world of fiction could be so fabulous & dangerous? Jennifer Oko has written a book that lies so close to the heart of big media that is easy to forget that her book is fiction. Her personal background and experience as a journalist & big media TV producer delivers to readers the sort of juicy details that only a network insider can provide. The characters in her book spring to life from the page and the story forces you to read it straight to the end. Want a quick smack of what GLOSS is all about? Good, pucker-up and read on!

 

It was a harmless human interest story for breakfast television—who
would've thought it would land her in jail?

New York producer Annabelle
Kapner's report on a beauty-industry job-creation plan for refugee
women in the Middle East earned her kudos from the viewers, her bosses,
even the network suits. But several threatening phone calls and
tight-lipped, edgy executives suggest the cosmetics program is covering
up more than just uneven skin.

All this intrigue is
seriously hampering Annabelle's fledgling romance with sexy
speechwriter Mark Thurber. Mark is handsome, funny and Washington's
Most Eligible Bachelor (the people at People said so). Being with him makes her gossip-column material overnight.

Annabelle
is just getting used to A-list treatment at Manhattan's hottest
nightspots when a fit of journalistic idealism—and a daring
Watergate-style raid—earns her a cozy spot on cell block six.

The
pen may be mightier than the sword, but the celebrity prisoner trumps
both. Annabelle starts a jailhouse crusade to expose the corruption
she's uncovered, and the media are eating it up. The paparazzi, the
pundits and every morning show in America all want a piece of her. But
it'll take more than a few thousand "Free Annabelle" T-shirts to clear
her name and win back her Beltway beau. Especially when she discovers
just how high up the scandal reaches—and how far the players will go to
keep their secret….

GLOSS isn't a book that easily slips into categories. It's chick lit, romance, mystery, satire, and more. At times, I felt like I was reading a Kafka novel or a story by the the French philosopher Voltaire (a few of my favorite writers).  Under the humor and the drama of GLOSS is a cautionary tale of modern life, but nothing stops this book from being an enjoyable and entertaining read!

Jennifer Oko is a modern woman that doesn't stop dreaming. She's a producer for CBS News The Early Show
since 2002, she worked at Inside Edition's
investigative unit, and she's aired many programs, including NBC Nightly News, A & E Investigative Reports, MSNBC Edgewise with John Hockenberry, and ABC's Good Morning America-Sunday.  A segment she worked on for GMA-Sunday won an Emmy Award in 1996 and her profile of Tina Turner won a White House News Photographers Association award in 2005.  She's been published in variety of magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Maxim, Allure, and Huffington Post.

The Interview

Modern Girl Style somehow managed to sidetrack Jennifer into a quick interview about writing, work, and her inspiration behind GLOSS!  

1.    GLOSS is a modern fable about the delicate balance between big business, politics, and media.  Your background as a producer, documentary filmmaker, and print journalist would seem to provide ample opportunity to be inspired to write GLOSS. Was there a particular moment or incident that triggered your need to write this book? If not, what inspired you to write this book?

Actually, the trigger for the story behind GLOSS was more about where I was in my life than anything else, although since my life was and is so seeped in media, I suppose there is a connection.

I started writing GLOSS right before my memoir LYING TOGETHER: MY RUSSIAN AFFAIR was to be released (LYING TOGETHER is about a year I spent working as a journalist in Russia and how the
relationship I was in and the country I was covering both spiraled out
of control at the same time). I had also just gotten married and between that and gearing up for the release of the book, it was a pretty heady time. 

Right after our wedding, we were living in Hanoi, Vietnam

while my husband worked a summer job (I had taken a short leave of absence from CBS News), and it since it was too hot to go outside in the morning (one day my thermometer read 109 degrees), I decided to sit at our kitchen table and see if I could write something that would be fun, entertaining…and not emotionally draining, which writing LYING TOGETHER certainly was. And while there was no particular news event that got me going, after more than a decade working in television news, I certainly had enough fodder to inspire me! I surprised myself to find how quickly the writing took off and how much I enjoyed it. By the end of a couple of weeks, I already had about 100 fairly polished pages.

As the story progressed, I was at no loss for more inspiration. The Judith Miller/Plamegate case was heating up, the Jason Blair scandal was fresh in our memory, the executive branch of our government had run amuck, etc, etc. It makes me think that it must be a walk in the park to work for a program like The Daily Show, there is just so much inspirational insanity going on, both in government and in the media.

2.    Annabelle Kapner almost falls for Washington D.C.’s Hottest Bachelor, Mark Thurber. However, she pulls back to wonder if it’s all just an image he’s projecting. Do you have any advice for woman that think they’ve found Mr. Right on the first date?

Ha! I would advise her to consider that she is probably wrong!

3.    Now that your satire on media has published, have you found it difficult to promote your book?

I’ve given birth to two children and published two books, so I can say with good authority that book PR is harder than childbirth, regardless of the subject. That said, with GLOSS, what attention I have gotten has been fantastic. It was a USA Today “hot summer reads", a Marie Claire “pick of the month” and loads of online reviewers have been saying the nicest things. The media loves to talk about itself, so I did get some good buzz on some industry sites like tvnewser.com and radaronline.com.

Even with all that, the book business is insanely difficult. I mean, think about what it takes for you, an avid reader, to actually buy a book— how many reviews and recommendations it takes for you to log on to amazon or go to your local bookstore and actually pay for a hardcover—and imagine then what it takes to sell one (if you aren’t writing about wizards, that is).  I recently read a funny anecdote on some blog somewhere that went something like this: Two writers are sitting at their computers, typing away. The scene seems to be identical in every way, except that one writer is in heaven and one writer is in hell. How can you tell which is which? The writer in hell has been published.

4.    When you sold GLOSS based on the first hundred pages & a book outline, you landed a two-book deal.  As a current CBS producer, mother of two children, and author, how will you balance your workload?

Well, for starters, let me just say that my next book is a comic novel about psycho-pharmaceuticals.

Beyond that, I find the insane constraints on my time actually help me as a writer. I can’t be as much of a procrastinator or a perfectionist (yes, you can be both) as I used to be in terms of my writing; I have to force myself to focus very hard and be efficient with the time I have. And it helps to have a husband who is willing to put up with my playing a disappearing act from time to time. 

5.    Can you give Modern Girl Style an insider’s peek into your second novel & briefly talk about your writing process?

I was serious about the psycho-pharmaceuticals. The book is tentatively called “Thank You, Eli Lilly,” but beyond that I am afraid to say what it’s about and post that on the internet, at least not until I make more progress. Progress has been slow. I’ve been a little distracted lately, what with the birthing of the baby and all, but the book is due in June, so one of these days I need to get cracking.

Which brings me to your second part of the question. Normally, I work three days a week at a real job and then have two writing days, plus sporadic hours on evenings and weekends. On my writing days, my husband takes the kids to daycare (well, Laila is only seven weeks-old now, so she hasn’t started yet, but this is basically how it worked pre-Laila), I head off to a yoga class, come home, shower, eat, and then go to Starbucks for three hours.

Then I come home, eat again (even though I have usually gobbled down a cookie or two—I always feel that I need to buy some goodies to justify my taking up table space for so long), and then maybe turn on my laptop for another hour or so before getting the kids. This, I should say, is an extremely idealized version of what really happens. It is what would happen if I were the me I’d like to be.

More often, I plan to go to yoga, but get caught up in procrastinating and checking email and then the clock is ticking and I realize it is lunchtime and I haven’t written a word. And only then do I get my butt to Starbucks and focus for am hour or two before I have to go pick up the kids. I eat the cookies, regardless.

I should add that I wish it were a lovely independent coffee house I was frequenting, but I don’t have one in my neighborhood. Cookies tend to be more tasty at independent coffee houses.

Bonus Question!!!
Modern Girl Style has to ask…What is your favorite lip gloss?   

Want to know a secret? I hate wearing lip gloss. I can’t keep it on. Especially if it’s flavored. I eat it all off within minutes.

Not enough, Want more? Jennifer delivers an awesome interview at MommyCast. Just take notes fast, because Jennifer Oko is flying off the hook with energy, wit, and style!
 

INTERVIEW: Tish Cohen knows how to build a Town House.

"Jack Madigan is the 36-year-old son of an Ozzy Osborne-like rocker who died a surreal death onstage involving a recalcitrant reptile. Jack has awakened from the rubble of a life on the road in a shambling mess of a four-storey Boston town house, bequeathed to him by his father, with a teenaged son from an ex-wife about to remarry, never having worked for a living and, worse, with an acute, and apparently incurable, case of agoraphobia. But the money is running out, and the town house has grown decrepit from neglect, and Jack longs for a future free of his phobias and lifelong malaise. In her first novel, Tish Cohen has written an original portrait of a pathetic man that is at times sardonically comic and humanly poignant. Never straying into sentimentality or veering off into ludicrousness, Cohen's Jack Madigan is a three-dimensional, albeit anomalous, lost soul of our modern, twisted, fractured society."
--Rex Pickett, NYT bestselling author of Sideways

    Life can't get much worse than it does for Jack Madigan in Tish Cohen's debut novel TOWN HOUSE.  Can you image getting dizzy spells from stepping outside the house that your famous rock star father left to you in the will? But, it isn't any house. It's the house that you lived in since you had been a child.  Ah, yeah...you might be thinking at this point...why would I want to? And the funny thing is that when I started to read this novel, I was one of those people that wondered exactly why it was that I was reading about a 36 year-old, for lack of a better word choice, loser that can't cope with life. I'd read one chapter and I had to read one more. This book builds slowly. It grows on you like morning glories in the spring time. At a certain point, I was caught in this book so much with the emotional dramas between the most unlikely cast of characters. The ending is absolutely superb! It's the sort of ending that makes you weep and jump for joy at the same moment. It's also an ending that never really leaves you entirely. And, that makes this book, with its strange cast of characters, something that everyone has to read before the movie hits silver screens across the nation. Let me re-state myself to emphasize this point: You have to read this book!

Author Tish Cohen

Tish Cohen is herself something of an unlikely player in the world of publishing. Strangely enough her story is simple and fascinating, like the very book she has written. She is a Canadian author that wrote a novel in record time.  She sent it out to Canadian agents that mostly told her NO because her work wasn't serious enough, literary enough. Classic, isn't it? Tish Cohen doesn't give up.  She sends her novel to American lit agents and sure enough agents at Writer's House, an awesome lit agency based on NYC, picks her book up and sells it to Hollywood. Not classic at all. In fact, is so rare to sell a debut novel to Hollywood before a publishing house has it is what I would define as mythical. Her story is the sort of stuff dreams are made on. Modern Girl Style sets out to learn from Tish Cohen about her books, success, rejections, and more.  Tish Cohen is an inspiring woman that we can all learn something from.

The Interview
1.    How did you manage to write TOWN HOUSE in three and half weeks? Did you outline the novel so that you could turn out the pages faster? What was your writing process like?


The idea for Town House hit me when I was still polishing up another book, so it bounced around in my head for about three months before I got serious about it and began to plan. I started out with Lucinda, the little neighbor girl who acts like a dog, the dilapidated Boston mansion and a protagonist who couldn’t step outside. I knew I wanted Lucinda to force her way into a reluctant Jack’s life, both figuratively, and literally – through a hole in the wall between the houses.

I did outline the book – I’m a huge fan of outlining because it gives me the chance to live through the story before I begin to write. Once the outline was complete and I began to write, I would spend every evening “filming” the next day’s scenes in my head, right down to quirky details and scraps of dialogue. So by the time I actually sat down to write, I knew every scene quite well. Surprises still occur when you outline, but I find I can work more fluidly when I have an idea where I’m headed.
In a way, Town House came to me fully formed. The reason I wrote it so quickly was because I couldn’t function until the first draft was complete. It’s just the way I work. But there are always months of rewriting, reworking, so my timeframe sounds far sexier than it really is.

2.    TOWN HOUSE sold to Hollywood before it sold as a book. Now that sort of success is mythic. How do you define success? Has that definition changed since TOWN HOUSE took Hollywood and the publishing world by storm?


Town House did sell to Fox 2000, with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free productions attached to produce, before the book sold to HarperCollins. While it was unusual for the book to sell that way, I was well aware that not many optioned books actually get made. With that little dose of reality in mind, I was pleased to hear the screenplay was underway shortly after I signed the contract. Doug Wright (Quills, Memoirs of a Geisha) was hired for the adaptation – quite a thrill as he’d won a Pulitzer, a Golden Globe and a Tony. So now we were no longer just a book with an option, we had a pretty hot screenplay. The movie began to feel more and more like a reality.

A few weeks ago, Fox announced they’d enticed director John Carney, writer/director of the acclaimed indie film, Once, to direct Town House. Seeing Town House on film moved a whole lot closer.
Then Fox announced in Variety that Town House is set to begin production on the East coast this coming January. At this point, with an actual film date announced, it feels very real and I feel blessed, actually.


 3.    Before TOWN HOUSE, you wrote two novels that were rejected. What did you learn from those previous rejections and how did those rejections help to create your debut novel?


I was fairly lucky in that my early rejections were encouraging. Most editors offered terrific feedback and (once I wiped away my tears) I absorbed the editors’ comments. I learned a great deal about plotting from these rejections – mostly that plots are considered something of a necessity!


4.    Do you have any fears about your book being translated into a major motion picture? What are some of your general fears and what have you learned about dealing with them?

I have fears about many things, but not about Town House becoming a movie. I have met the people in charge of Town House at Fox and Scott Free and trust them fully. I’ve read the screenplay and adored it. And after seeing John Carney’s Once, I honestly feel like this film is in the very best hands possible. If you haven’t seen Once and it’s still playing near you, go! It’s raw, haunting and real. John Carney will take Jack Madigan’s agoraphobia and treat it with dignity and real emotion – I have no doubt about it.

5.    Are you working on the sequel to TOWN HOUSE or have you turned your writing talents toward a different direction? Basically, what can we expect from you next?

My next novel is not a sequel to Town House, but is called Inside Out Girl, and is about Rachel Berman, an overprotective mother who runs a magazine called Perfect Parent, and is forced to consider caring for Olivia Bean, a learning-disabled 10-year-old girl obsessed with rodents. Olivia’s father is facing a hellish decision and Rachel’s teenage daughter is buckling under her affections for the girl next door. Everyone’s lives are changed forever by the Inside Out Girl, who becomes an accidental superhero in inside out pajamas.

My first novel for 8-12-year-old girls is out in stores – The Invisible Rules of the Zoe Lama. It’s about a feisty 12-year-old whom everyone goes to for advice in a modern-day, middle-grade remake of Jane Austen’s Emma. While Zoe’s heart is in the right place, um, her advice gets her into a giant mess. I’m just starting to hear back from readers on this book , and am happy to say kids are gobbling it up in a day or two. Most comments I’ve received are that kids who’ve never enjoyed reading are loving it and eagerly awaiting the next Zoe (which comes out next July). So that makes me happy.

Bonus Question!!!

If you could live one day as any rock star, who would it be and why?   

Hmm. I think I’d like to be Joss Stone, only without the crazy tights. She has a voice that strikes me as edgy, honest and effortless. She once did a rendition of The Beach Boys’ God Only Knows. It was beautiful – even if it did come free with a pair of jeans from Gap.