A Date You Can't Refuse by Harley Jane Kozak
Sometimes blind dates lead to disaster. Sometimes they lead to a life of happiness. And sometimes--if one of the participants is Harley Jane Kozak--it leads to a novel.The fourth installment of her Wollie Shelley series, A DATE YOU CAN'T REFUSE, is being released by Crown Books in March.
"On an airplane several years ago I amused myself by counting my blind dates," said Kozak, who grew up in the Midwest and now lives in Los Angeles. "It turns out I've had over 50. I used the most dreadful ones in my first novel, Dating Dead Men, wherein Wollie dates 40 men in 60 days as part of a scientific research project. My editor loved that element of the mysteries."
In A DATE YOU CAN'T REFUSE, Shelley, a greeting card designer, gets roped into another odd job: a "social coach" for an L.A. media company. It's not an attractive job, but the FBI contacts her and lets her know that turning it down isn't an option. And when a corpse--already gnawed by a coyote--shows up in the compound where she works, she realizes that her work will involve much darker secrets than how to look good on TV.
Kozak began her professional life as an actress, working onstage and onscreen. As she bounced from one creative situation to another, she realized there was a part of her that wanted to not just be in the scene, but to shape it from the ground up. It was divine, she said.
"I turned to writing to occupy a certain part of me, and eventually it became more satisfying to--well, play God," she said. "As a writer, you're God. As an actor, your job is to fulfill the vision of the director, or sometimes the producer, and they get to be God."
Her vision for A DATE YOU CAN'T REFUSE drew on her passion for spy novels, she said. It gave her a chance to revisit a fun character and plop her down into an unlikely fish-out-of-water situation, Kozak said.
"She's really good company," she said. "In A DATE YOU CAN'T REFUSE, I gave in to my deep desire to be John Le Carré. I've always been a fan of espionage, and I saw a real dearth of Cold War novels that involve dating."
These days she keeps herself busy writing, teaching, speaking and blogging.
And Kozak, whose childhood included a long stay in Lincoln, Neb., where her mother taught at the university, applies the same optimism to the rest of her life as she does in ushering an outmatched main character through ridiculous odds. For instance, she soldiered through scores of blind dates. And then there is the re-ascendance of Nebraska football.
"It's reckless, I know, to put my heart once more into the hands of a Cornhusker quarterback, but hope springs eternal," she said.
For more about Harley Jane Kozak and A DATE YOU CAN'T REFUSE, visit www.harleyjanekozak.com.
Contributing editor Gerry Doyle
is the author of numerous short stories published in the United States,
abroad and on the Internet. His first novel, From the Depths, was
released in November 2007 by McBooks Press. He has worked as an editor
and a reporter for the Chicago Tribune since 2001. He's also OK at
ping-pong and has had cocktails on three continents. He doesn't put
much stock in astrology but just in case: He's a Leo.
"I turned to writing to occupy a certain part of me, and eventually it became more satisfying to--well, play God," she said. "As a writer, you're God. As an actor, your job is to fulfill the vision of the director, or sometimes the producer, and they get to be God."Her vision for A DATE YOU CAN'T REFUSE drew on her passion for spy novels, she said. It gave her a chance to revisit a fun character and plop her down into an unlikely fish-out-of-water situation, Kozak said.
"She's really good company," she said. "In A DATE YOU CAN'T REFUSE, I gave in to my deep desire to be John Le Carré. I've always been a fan of espionage, and I saw a real dearth of Cold War novels that involve dating."
These days she keeps herself busy writing, teaching, speaking and blogging.
And Kozak, whose childhood included a long stay in Lincoln, Neb., where her mother taught at the university, applies the same optimism to the rest of her life as she does in ushering an outmatched main character through ridiculous odds. For instance, she soldiered through scores of blind dates. And then there is the re-ascendance of Nebraska football.
"It's reckless, I know, to put my heart once more into the hands of a Cornhusker quarterback, but hope springs eternal," she said.
For more about Harley Jane Kozak and A DATE YOU CAN'T REFUSE, visit www.harleyjanekozak.com.
Contributing editor Gerry Doyle
is the author of numerous short stories published in the United States,
abroad and on the Internet. His first novel, From the Depths, was
released in November 2007 by McBooks Press. He has worked as an editor
and a reporter for the Chicago Tribune since 2001. He's also OK at
ping-pong and has had cocktails on three continents. He doesn't put
much stock in astrology but just in case: He's a Leo.ThrillerFest
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