Beach Book Queen Heller Soaks Up Success

Book Publicist-Turned Author Is Happy She Took Risk

Summer is slowly running out of steam, but there's still time for one more beach book.

Before you throw in the towel, relax with a read from author Jane Heller.

Already book smart as a top-level publicist for such literary royalty as Stephen King and Danielle Steel, Heller gave it all up to start typing out her own literary success.

Heller's work has been included in the Literary Guild and in the Doubleday Book Club. People Magazine has named three of her books "Beach Books of the Week." Hollywood has also come calling; mega-star Julia Roberts being the latest to option her work for a feature film role.

Now find out the story behind the storyteller.

In First Person
"Beach book" is not a dirty word for Heller. The popular author of "Cha, Cha, Cha," "Sis Boom Bah," and the newest "Name Dropping," is proud that her seven (an eighth is on the way) books provide some relief from worldly woes.

The so-called "Queen of Beach Books," tells me that, "The definition of a beach book, or an airport book, or a page-turner is that it takes you away from the daily grind, the crisis de jour, I'm happy to do that."

When I reach Heller at the home in Florida that she shares with her husband, the first thing that I discover is that Heller is a lot of fun. Her laugh comes easily and her sense of humor, so trademark to her work, is the real deal.

"Oh, you had fun with it," Heller says when I tell her that I enjoyed her latest page turner "Name Dropping," especially because, among other memorable characters, it features a celebrity interviewer -- a role I found personally interesting.

"I'm sure you're much nicer than she," Heller notes of the self-absorbed character in the book.

Heller's plots most often involve mystery, romance and a lot of humor. "Name Dropping" is no exception.

Without giving too much away, "Name Dropping" is about schoolteacher Nancy Stern who lives a fairly mundane life in New York City. But all that changes when a glamorous celebrity interviewer also named Nancy Stern moves into her building. First their mail starts getting mixed up, then Nancy the schoolteacher starts wondering what it would be like to be the glamorous Nancy the starlet, if only for one day. The story gets really good when the wondering turns into reality.

Writer In the Sky
"I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up and I got out of school and answered an ad in the New York Times classifieds for a publicity assistant," Heller says of her former career as a top-notch publicist in the publishing industry.

But was she "Jane Heller Publicist" by day and "Jane Heller Writer" by night?

"No, not at all. I was a publicist all the time. I loved my job," she tells me.

"In all the years I worked with these authors I never once said, 'I want to do what you're doing.' It's really weird, but I didn't."

After a decade of climbing the corporate ladder, Heller found herself backed into a plush corner office.

"In the end, I was vice president of advertising, promotion, and publicity at Jove, which is the paperback arm of Putnam," she says.

But Heller found that being at the top was not only lonely, it was boring.

"It's good to be promoted. On the other hand, once you're an officer of the company, you spend an awful lot of time being an administrator and you sit in boardrooms being bored instead of doing the creative fun stuff."

Despite protests from her friends and associates, Heller wanted out. She quit her high-powered job without a clue as to where she wanted to go.

"I was just following my little voice that said you need to be doing something more interesting," she says.

Sentence Structure
After leaving Jove, Heller was a freelance writer within the publishing industry.

"Then, all of a sudden I got an idea for a story. The idea was the beginning of her first novel, 'Cha, Cha, Cha,'" Heller tells me.

"I didn't tell a single soul. I just went up to my office one night and typed out a sentence and I sort of got goose bumps and thought, 'This is fun.' And I kept going back to it. I had an idea, a paragraph of what this would be about. By the time I had 200 pages of this thing I said, 'Hello, you're writing a novel.'"

But writing the novel and actually getting published are two different things.

"Everyone assumed that because I was in the business, it must have been just so easy. But, no, it was the opposite," Heller says. "I thought I couldn't show (the book) to anyone. You know how people view you as what they knew you as? They knew me as Jane Heller publicist, they'll never take me seriously as Jane Heller writer."

But like a good Heller book, everything managed to work itself out in the end. After a bit of sweat and legwork, Heller signed a three-book deal.

Plot Twists
"I write in the first person so everyone always assumes that these things have happened to me," Heller tells me of her adventurous plotlines.

"I suppose that all the heroines share my twisted view of the world. I guess they do have my attitude," Heller says, adding that that's usually where the similarities between herself and her characters stop.

Just as memorable as the heroines in Heller's books are their sidekicks. People Magazine recently compared the character Nancy Stern and her best friend Janice in "Name Dropping" to television's Lucy and Ethel.

Heller says she doesn't have a relationship like that in real life, joking that her computer is her sidekick.

"I have a lot of friends, but not one that is my sidekick," she says.

Heller says that she writes every day.

"If it's anything I have, it's discipline."

Heller typically works all day and finishes at dinnertime. But she says that when she's getting to the end of a book, that pace becomes accelerated.

"For the last third of the book, when you get into a manic stage, you can see the finish line and you just want to get to the end so that you can see what happens, I want to know, too," she says.

Heller says that she outlines the plots of her books before writing them but doesn't get specific.

"I do (it) in terms of the big picture, I know there will be some suspense angle that will need to be resolved, (but) I don't always know who did it. That will evolve throughout the book and as I get to know the characters," she says.

Roberts Rules of Order
Julia Roberts's production company (Shoelace Productions) recently optioned Heller's book "Sis Boom Bah" to develop with former Disney heavy Joe Roth.

This will not be the first time that Hollywood has come knocking on Heller's door. Two other Heller reads, "Infernal Affairs," and "Princess Charming," were also optioned by Disney.

Heller tells me that a development deal is no guarantee that her books will ever make it to the big screen.

One thing is certain: Heller will not have a hand in developing the script for Roberts.

She tells me that if called upon, she would help, but that her feeling is that "books and movies are two different media. And they know how to do what they do, and I hope I know how to do what I do."

In Black and White
"I feel incredibly lucky," Heller says of her amazing success.

I tell her that she is too humble.

"You can not not be humble and do this job. When you sit in a room all day long without feedback, you are alone. It's the most isolating job. The truth is, the books do not write themselves. You just have to put in the hours," she says.

And what is she most proud of?

"I took the risk and left my job. I didn't have a net, I didn't really know where I was going to go from there."

Then she offers advice for people trapped in work or situations where they are unhappy:

"If you feel that the job or the marriage isn't working, get out. Do something else. I know that's scary for people but its worth it," she says.

Final Chapter
"Now that I have janeheller.com, I get a lot of mail. People feel freer to e-mail then they do to actually write a letter. I hear quickly and often from people who read the books and tell me what they thought," Heller says.

And she says the fan mail helps her keep going.

"For instance, let's say you're sitting in your room a lone, and you're tearing your hair trying to think of the next sentence and you think why am I doing this, this is torture. Then you get a letter from the Web site ..." Heller says.

She tells me about one letter that touched her heart.

It read: "I have cancer, I was going for chemotherapy treatment on a Friday and I stopped at my local bookseller and said, 'Give me something to read take my mind off this terrible weekend.'"

The salesperson told the woman to "read a Jane Heller" and she would feel better.

The letter concludes: "You didn't cure my cancer, but you got me through a horrible weekend and for that I will always be grateful."

Heller tells me of the letter, "It makes you feel like you matter."

The Big Scoop

Post Game Kickoff: CBS has announced that immediately following Super Bowl XXXV, the network will premiere "Survivor 2: The Australian Outback." The Eye hopes that the lead-in audience will create another eye-popping ratings ride.

Duchess Kent: If you're in the mood for love, check out jazz singer Stacey Kent's latest album "Let Yourself Go." With a voice that's a cross between Doris Day and Alanis Morisette, Kent sings Fred Astaire's favorites . . . and s'wonderful.

Kitty's Pause: Gossip maven Kitty Wibaux saw "Hollow Man" this weekend. She's sorry she did. Wibaux laments, "Oh, such wasted talent. It was like one degree of Kevin Bacon."

Star Grazing

'Company' Man: Former "Three's Company" star John Ritter taking a stroll with a female companion at 8000 Sunset.

Parked Posey: Indie queen Parker Posey running for a cab on Sunset Blvd. She didn't catch it.

Next Column:

• Hear from Tim Daly and his CBS' "The Fugitive" co-star Mykelti Williamson. Find out what's new about a classic story.
• Then meet "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer's" boyfriend, Riley. Actor Marc Blucas talks about co-star Sarah Michelle Geller, why he doesn't drink, and his new movie with Freddie Prinze, Jr.
• Past On The Set columns.

Note: "On The Set" appears every week in our Entertainment section. To have this column delivered right to your e-mail box, click here. Have a question about your favorite celebrity? Let Steven know.

Copyright 2001 by Channel 4000. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.