Why I wrote "I'll Have What She's Having"

[Daniel]

I'm a professional movie critic but my two most recent books were "The Fourth Network" (2004) about the history of FOX Broadcasting, and "The Dream Team" (2006), a history of DreamWorks. I told my publisher I wanted to write about movies, not do another corporate history.

Over the past ten years or so I've developed an unexpected sideline in doing lectures at senior housing. They show a classic film and then I come in and do a talk about the making of it. I currently have some sixty or seventy lectures. What I found as I did my research was that the stories of the making of these films were scattered over many books and that most people didn't know these stories, including my colleagues.

So when it came time to pitch a movie book to my publisher, I suggested we do something along those lines. We decided to focus on romantic comedies. Instead of doing the usual focus on the screwball comedies of the '30s and early '40s (which I love, btw), I decided to treat this the way I treat my genre classes: as an opportunity to explore a genre across the decades.

So I tell the stories of making fifteen movies, from "Trouble in Paradise" (1932) to "Love Actually" (2003). The official pub. date is this week so reviews are only starting to appear. The best comment I've gotten so far was one of my editors who told me it was hard to work on the book because she was having too much fun reading it.
I took that as a good sign. :)

[Marilyn]

Great post--something different.

Marilyn

[Steven, About The Author]

Daniel, I agree with Marilyn, your reasons and journey in life are certainly diffent from the normal stuff.

I also get the feel that you thoroughly enjoy your work as I know, sometimes it can become a chore. Especially on top of an already busy job.

Welcome to the group, btw.

All the very best

Steven Preece
Author

[Daniel]

I'm glad people think it's "different." If I ever get one of my novels published perhaps my story on why I wrote it will be more familiar. :)