Shameless Self Promotional Announcement

June 12, 2007

O Best Beloveds, my dad was particularly fond of the “life hands you a lemon, make lemonade” adage–I swear, he was not always prone to cliches, just someone who saw possibility in disappointment–and the timing of the following would have amused him greatly.

So as some of you know, a few years ago I wrote a young adult novel. My valiant lit agent sent it around to every single publisher in the known world–okay, Manhattan, but New Yorkers would say it’s the same thing–and while it came heartbreakingly close to acceptance at a couple of places, ultimately it did not find a home. (Thus answering a question I occasionally get from people–“Mary, why don’t you write a book?” Well, I have. The trick is to get someone to publish it.)

But I still liked my book, and so over time, I took it to various and sundry people in Hollywood for whom I do odd jobs, and said “I think this might make a nice movie. Cable movie, actually.” And all of them said, sweetly, “Maybe. But we don’t want to be the ones to find out.” Until I took it to the very very last name on my list, a woman with whom I had worked at three different companies over the years. And she said “Why, this is absolutely a cable movie.” And she took it to her friend Kathy Kloves–wife of Steve, who wrote WONDER BOYS and also many of the Harry Potter movies–herself a writer, and she said “This is a cable movie,” and they took it to Lifetime who said “Yes, this seems like it could be a cable movie. Go forth Kathy, and write a script.” And she did. And Lifetime found it good.

And lo, today, this very day, this day on which I really did start downing my oral chemo, that script started shooting. Starring Rob Morrow (Northern Exposure), James Denton (Desperate Housewives) and Kay Panabaker (see her as George, Nancy’s best friend in the new NANCY DREW movie). What’s more, they intend to get it on the air late August/early September. And though it probably has very very little to do with the book I wrote (karmic retribution; I spend all my days writing things like “this would make an excellent movie if only the white lawyer were changed to a black dentist and the action relocated from Istanbul to Schenectady “–it is only mete and just that the same be done unto me) there will be a title card towards the very beginning saying “Based on the book, Figures of Echo,* by Mary Herczog.”

Ain’t that somethin’?

But hey, some of you may be saying. What about that book of yours? Surely now it will be published! Why yes it will. But not by an actual publisher. Apparently, they are not swayed by the grandeur of a Lifetime movie. So with the hard work of supremely excellent niece Bianca, complete with bee-you-ti-ful cover thanks to Brigid, I’m self publishing it through www.lulu.com. Basically, it’s print on demand, so you can go to the web site or, eventually, Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com, and buy copies. What the hey; I figure a few people might see the movie and wonder what the book is about and so that’s more people who will read it than would if it’s just sitting in a file on my computer. Lemonade, you know. (I also hope to coax some local bookstores into stocking it.) I don’t have a “pub” date just yet (lulu has a few issues that poor Bianca is trying to overcome; if any of you are computer tech whizzes, or know someone who is, write to me asap) but it should be in a few weeks. I will keep you posted about that and about when the movie air date will be. All that, plus links, will also be on this web site. There’s a nifty button that kind of shows the cover on there right now.

* Title. I suck at titles and never did come up with a “real” one for the book, just a provisional one, figuring that the publisher would come up with a better one, or someone who read it would, but no one did, so my crap temp title is the title. This problem is not isolated to the book: Lifetime still hasn’t decided what to call the movie–the working title is “Custody” which is not good, and I see that imdb.com, which doesn’t yet list me, has it down as “Custody of the Heart.” (And Rick just busted out laughing at that.)

And so there you have it.

Ain’t life the funniest thing? Always?