The Real James Patterson

Regular readers know about my ongoing imaginary relationship with James Patterson over the past year, but last week I actually got to meet him. And yes, wine was consumed. At least – it was by me.

Maybe this is why at the private reception I didn’t let Patterson leave the table without signing all my son’s books. Maybe it’s the reason I boldly asked him to trade his grumpy expression for a smile when I snapped his photo. Maybe it’s why I disregarded the fact that he is one of the most powerful men in publishing and treated him like my own personal writing coach. Maybe Robert Mondavi is the reason I appear to be distracted by shiny objects in all the pictures.  

Nah, all that would’ve happened without wine. At least this time he wasn’t just a figment of my imagination. I have the pictures to prove it. And they’re on Facebook, so it must be real.

And James, friend me – k?

James Patterson Is Just So Into Me

 

You may remember earlier this year when James Patterson’s people contacted me to ask if they could use my sentence — MY sentence! — in marketing Patterson’s upcoming titles. Um… let me think about it… yeah!

And see that, down there, that’s my blurb! For James Patterson. In a new copy of The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.

They said they’d attribute my ass-kickin’ sentence to L. Davidson, but as you can clearly see , After the Bubbly got the credit. But we all know who writes this blog, right? Consider yourself sprinkled with fame dust. And literary greatness.

By the way, when I mentioned to the kind intern that Mr. Patterson might want to write a blurb for one of my books someday, she was curiously silent.

James Patterson Likes My Writing

I’m sucking down pomegranite martinis at this *kinda lame* party last night and this guy keeps looking at me from across the room. After about ten minutes he comes over and asks, “Are you Lela Davidson?”

Well, of course I am and you know – people know me. He goes on to say how much he enjoys my blog and various other writing and well, it was all very complimentary. I’m pretty sure I blushed a little. But that may have been the liquor. Anyway, he finally gets around to mentioning that he’s a writer too so that’s my cue to enter booster mode.

I go on for a while in my encouraging way about how maybe he ought to join a writing group or take a class at the community college. Something like that. Well my husband must have been getting a little jealous because next thing I knew there he was by my side, arm firmly around my waist – waiting for an introduction. And of course I couldn’t introduce the charming stranger because I’d been a lot more interested in his praise than his name. He reached out a hand to my husband.

“James Patterson,” he said.

Okay – so that’s not exactly how it happened. Really how it went was that last year I wrote a book review of The Dangerous Day of Daniel X and this morning received a request from someone at Little Brown to use MY quote to promote Patterson’s work! Here’s a snippet:

Hi Lela,
James saw your review from a little while ago and thanks you for writing!

How cool is that? See how we’re on a first name basis, James and I?

Want to know what they liked? Here’s what I wrote:

“As he did with the Maximum Ride series, Patterson is once again blurring boundaries between middle grade, young adult, and mainstream fiction.”

Pretty cool, huh? It’s good to know that even if I’m never any good at writing novels, I’m a little good at writing about them!

And James, if you’re reading – I’m totally available, for copywriting. And cocktails.