Carly Phillips is the bestselling author of The Bachelor, which was the first romance selected by Kelly Ripa for her Reading with Ripa Book Club. Her latest books are Cross My Heart (HQN Books, $19.95, 0373771266), an August hardcover, and the mass market paperback of her 2005 hardcover, Summer Lovin' (HQN
Books, $7.99, 037377110X), appropriately an August title, too. Here she answers
questions that we put to people in the book industry occasionally:On nightstand now:
Captive of My Desires by Johanna Lindsey
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, but now that I'm a mother, my favorite books for my children are Guess How Much I Love You by Sam Mcbratney and Anita Jeram and the Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type series by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin. Maybe you were looking for more advanced books, but these jump out at me! I do notice an animal theme. That is typical of me.
Top five authors:
Howard Fast, Cynthia Freeman, Robert Ludlum, LaVyrle Spencer, Susan Elizabeth Phillips--although my current reading is usually romance authors. I'm a stickler for my kind of ending.
Book you've "faked" reading:
James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. I read, but I did not comprehend. I'm sure I had the Cliffs Notes. I hope my high school English teacher, Mr. Longobardi, will forgive me! I know I learned what misogyny meant from his teaching. I respect the classics, I just cannot comprehend them in the way I know I am supposed to.
Book you are an "evangelist" for:
Exodus by Leon Uris. This book connected me to Israel and my roots in a way nothing ever has. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves history.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I admit to being completely stumped. A good cover won't convince me to buy if I'm not drawn by the subject described on the back or inside flap.
Book that changed your life:
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. Asked this way, I realize this book showed me the pain of unattainable love and how unacceptable that is. Perhaps it helped that Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward played the leads in the TV movie, but it was the book that I read first. It comes as no surprise then that I ended up as a romance writer who can guarantee what I think is the correct ending of any story!
Favorite line from a book:
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Perhaps Margaret Mitchell's famous line from Gone with the Wind is a cliche now, but it stuck with me. Not because Scarlett followed with her eternally optimistic, "After all, tomorrow is another day . . . " but because again, the romantic in me was frustrated that the two people who belonged together didn't end up together.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Separate Beds by LaVyrle Spencer, the book that led me to write romance. I want to see if I am as affected by it the fiftieth time around. Actually it's been a long time since I've picked up this story, so I think I'm due.
Bonus Question:
I'll take a demerit for lack of originality on this one and copy Jason Roberts: What song do you wish was a book?
Dan Fogelberg, Another Auld Lang Syne. I wrote my first book to this tune, replaying it over and over for inspiration. A tale of old love revisited. The opening lyrics are:
Met my old lover in the grocery store,
The snow was falling Christmas Eve.
I stole behind her in the frozen foods,
And I touched her on the sleeve.
She didn't recognize the face at first,
But then her eyes flew open wide.
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse,
And we laughed until we cried.
The song left you with the sense that you can't go back again.
The ending lyrics:
She gave a kiss to me as I got out,
And I watched her drive away.
Just for a moment I was back at school,
And felt that old familiar pain . . .
And as I turned to make my way back home,
The snow turned into rain . . .
I, of course, determined that these lovers COULD somehow find their way. As I said, a true romantic at heart. That's me.