I’m frequently asked where I get my wacky ideas
from for my stories. Well, I collect them from everywhere:
from news articles, from TV shows, from books, and
even from real life, too. Here’s a little bit
from behind the scenes with 32AA.
Q. I really like the quirky
ways that Emma deals with telemarketers. Is this
based on personal experience—do
you deal with telemarketers in quirky ways, too? A. I
have to admit that this is based
on personal experience. When we first moved to America
a few years ago, I hadn’t really experienced
torture by telemarketer before, and found it hard to
say "no" and hang up. Besides, they were
always in support of such great causes. I cannot tell
you how many bronze, fifteen-dollar donations they
wrangled out of me…
I didn’t know that only a small portion of my
donation made it as far as the charity. On one occasion,
so sick was I of the constant phone calls that I offered
the telemarketer five dollars just to get rid of him.
When he told me the minimum donation he could accept
was fifteen dollars, it was the final straw. My five
bucks wasn’t good enough for him! And so the
idea for having Emma torture telemarketers was secretly
me taking my revenge on all those calls!
But no, I don’t deal with telemarketers in the
quirky ways that Emma employs…she’s far
funnier than I!
Q. In one scene, Emma’s
date talks about a new centipede discovered in Central
Park. Is there really such a thing, or did you make
it up?
A. It’s true! The centipede, Nannaruup Hoffmani,
wasn’t in the first draft of 32AA, but
during the second draft I decided to add some disaster
dates for Emma. I wanted to echo the "drinks
with worms in" theme I’d used earlier
in the book, and thought of a scene where a bad date
is slurping spaghetti. Soon after, I found an online
article about this tiny, new, yellow centipede, it
seemed like fate! Hence Helmut the bad-date scientist
was born!
Q. In that same scene, Helmut
also disgusted me by talking about a phallic stinky
plant. Is there really such a thing, or did you make
it up?
A. Also true! It’s called Amorphophallus
titanum. I discovered the information online
as I was writing the Helmut scene. Again, it seemed
like fate. What could be worse than a boring date
talking about stinky plants and worms, while eating
spaghetti smothered in parmesan cheese? Here are
a few odd (yet horrible) facts about the plant:
-
It is huge and crimson,
the world’s biggest
and smelliest bloom, with giant petals bursting
from a tall, phallic-like stem.
- It has been nicknamed "corpse
flower" because
when in bloom it smells like the rotting carcass
of a dead animal. The smell is so strong it can
be picked up a kilometer away—the smell is
to attract flies for pollination. You will be relieved
to know that it doesn’t bloom very often.
Q. I really like the ionic bonding theory about men.
Were you inspired by your vast knowledge of atomic
chemistry?
A. Let’s
just say that chemistry, to me, falls into the same
category as math (just read my
bio to understand my
stand on math). Fortunately for me my wonderfully
clever daughter, who knew that I was trying to
develop a "theory about men," and
who was also thinking about how expensive are college
fees and if only Mum sold a book it would be great,
was studying atomic chemistry at school. She dashed
home one lunchtime to tell me all about it, and the
ionic bonding theory about men was born!
Q. In the book, Emma
attends a Robert Plant concert at the Hammerstein
Ballroom. What made you use that?
A. As
with the stinky plant and worm scene, I needed another
disastrous date for the second cut of 32AA.
In the first draft, awful Norbert only appeared once,
but why not send him on a date with Emma? But I needed
a reason for her to date him. Well, at the time I
did the second cut, I just happened to be attending
a Robert Plant concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
He was truly sublime…
top
|
