Stephanie Plum

Stephanie Plum is novelist Janet Evanovich’s bounty hunter heroine.  I started reading this series a few months ago, waiting for John Grisham’s latest to come out in paperback.  I have about two dozen books sitting on my shelves that I took from my mother’s collection that I’ve wanted to read, but since starting the Plum series, they will have to wait.

John Grisham, I may have already mentioned, is my favorite writer.  But, since I’ve already titled this post, “Stephanie Plum,” I’ll write about his books later (I don’t think I have, yet, have I?)  But, I’ve read all but the latest because I buy them and don’t want to pay for the hard cover… paperbacks fit nicely in my purse, too.

The Stephanie Plum series was recommended to me by my sisters-in-law several months ago.  The two of them also got me watching “Sex and the City” so I trust their recommendations   These books are funny.  It took me a while to get used to reading a funny novel… John Grisham books are usually on the dramatic side… with the exception of “Skipping Christmas” which I didn’t like… maybe now that I’ve been reading funny novels, I should re-read that one.

This series starts out with “One for the Money” which of course introduces all the characters that will be throughout all the books.  Stephanie, the bounty hunter, gets herself into a lot of sticky situations.  Almost like Lucy Ricardo might if she were a bounty hunter… although Stephanie’s “Ethel” is a plus-sized, black ex-hooker named Lula.  Stephanie also has a love interest (or two).  The man who she’s bounty-hunting turns out to be one of them.  The other is another bounty hunter and her mentor, sort of.  She lives near her parents in Trenton, New Jersey.  Her father is not-quite Archie Bunker, her mother is not-quite Marion Cunnningham, and her grandmother (who lives with Stephanie’s parents) is nowhere near a typical eighty-year old (actually, if her age has been mentioned, I don’t remember, but I imagine she’s between 75 and 80). She also has other recurring characters: her boss (and cousin) Vinnie, Connie the receptionist, a couple of cops, neighbors, her best friend, and her archenemy.

I went to the author’s web page the other day for the first time.  You can go there and put in your suggestion for the name of her next book.  They go in order by number… One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly, Four to Score, etc.  She just published Fearless Fourteen.  If you suggest the name of her next one and she chooses it, you get a free signed copy of the book and she thanks you on the acknowledgement page.  I won’t tell you my suggestion, and I’ll probably be one of many who suggest it, but I think I have a good chance! 

I’m only on Seven Up.  I’ve been getting them out of the library.  I’ve been reading a lot more frequently… in the summer I tend to do that because there’s not so much on TV.  The library has most of them in paperback and my library card is good for all the libraries in the four surrounding counties, so I have two places to go within three miles of my house and many others not too much farther.  

As I’ve been reading, of course I try to picture the characters.  I found a web page where people posted suggestions for casting the movie (I don’t think there’s a movie in the works currently, but if there was…)  The first suggestion for Stephanie was Sandra Bullock.  She is who I imagined Stephanie to be right from the start, but in reality, if they made a movie at this point, I think the actress is a little too old for the character, unfortunately, because about ten years ago she’d be perfect.  Other suggestions I saw that I agreed would be very good were Rachel McAdams, Amanda Peet (I LOVE her!), Debra Messing, Evangeline Lilly,  and Drew Barrymore. 

These are the actors I would pick for some of the other main characters in casting this series in the movies:

Joe Morelli:  Mark Wahlberg

Grandma Mazur: Cloris Leachman

Ranger: The Rock (I thought definitely Vin Diesel, but he’s too old), or Adrian Paul (I don’t know this actor, but someone suggested him and his look is right for it, I think)

 

Lula: Sherri Shepherd (this is exactly who I picture Lula to be) Not Queen Latifa… she is way too cool to be this character, unfortunately.

 

Vinnie: Jon Lovitz or Steve Buscemi

 

Joyce: Jennifer Esposito or Alyssa Milano (but Joyce is supposed to be blonde)

 

That’s enough.  They had suggestions for the roles of Mr and Mrs Plum, Mooner, and some other characters, but these are the ones I care about being just right.  Lots of suggestions for Joe Morelli, but when I think of Amanda Peet and Mark Wahlberg, my heart races…LOL!

 

I would love to hear other suggestions.

 

 

Another Venture

I can’t believe I’m doing this again.  Long ago, before I was married, when I first moved back home to be with my then fiance, I had three jobs. One was full time at JC Penney, one was part time at a hotel in the evenings, and the other was part time in direct sales for Jewels by Park Lane.  My sister-in-law had just started selling it and roped me in.  I only stuck with it a few months, but I liked the jewelry.

Then, a few years later, I tried AVON.  I gave that up even more quickly.  I never tried very hard.  I worked in an office with about twenty women, so I figured just leaving the book in the break room was enough effort to make some kind of money.  The problem I had was that you had to have a certain dollar amount ordered to get the 50% discount for your own stuff, so when I didn’t, I would buy some things at regular price to get up to that level and then I would order more with my discount.  I ended up spending too much. I still love AVON though.

Next was PartyLite.  I had a show for Pam when she first got into the business.  I year later I had another and decided I’d try it myself.  It was really fun.  I made a lot of friends and enjoyed going to the meetings and conferences.  It could have been really good money if I was better at it though.  I got sick of asking people to book shows.  I’d have a few periods where I had shows one after another but  mostly it was slow going for me.  I found out that my brother was dead the same day as I had the worst show of my four years.  The hostess invited tons of people and they all showed up! She lived on the second floor of her building and I took tons of stuff, lugged it up the stairs, set it all up, did my demonstration, gave the hostess a really nice thank you gift, and got zero orders.  Everyone loved the candles! Nobody bought a single thing.  I had to pack everything up with a smile, lug it all back down the stairs to my car, go home, and find out my brother was dead.  I tried to stay with it for another six months or so, but never got back in the groove.

That was nine years ago… WOW! It doesn’t seem that long.  Pam’s been trying all this time to get me to come back.  For a while she would ask, then she stopped for a while, knowing I was not interested.  I think she knew that if I was, I would let her know.  Every once in a blue moon, when I’d complain about my job, she’d mention PartyLite. I always had a show in January… every year for the past six (I think) years.  I even went to a couple of the unit meetings and regionals, but I never got that itch back.

A few weeks ago Pam called to let me know that she was looking into Jewels by Park Lane.  A few of the higher ups in PartyLite were jumping ship to go with Park Lane.  I guess PartyLite changed over the past few years.  They’ve had a couple new presidents and although there have been improvements in some areas, probably some things either went downhill or just got old.  At any rate, Pam’s interest was sparked when she heard people close to her in PartyLite were selling Park Lane.  Some are selling both, some tried to sell both and were fired from PartyLite, and some just decided Park Lane was the one to do.   When Pam called me, she asked me to join her on a trip to Long Island to go to a Park Lane meeting.  I told her I would be happy to go, but I don’t want to sell anything.  We ended up not going to the meeting due to a schedule confliction, but Pam decided to try it out anyway.  I told her I would do a show for her, of course.  She had her starter show, which I went to and helped her set up a little and stuff.  When I saw the little tote bag that had her entire kit in it, I got thinking.  I could make 30% of anything I sell, I don’t have to invest anything because I’m having a show anyway and if that is $500, it pays for my kit.  If I fail, I’m not out anything.  So, I asked her a couple questions and went home and talked to my husband.  The next day I asked her, “How do I get my kit?”

I’m really excited, but at the same time afraid that I won’t like it.  I had my starter show and everyone likes the jewelry, especially me.  But, it wasn’t $500, so I did end up putting money into it.  I told myself that I will at least stick with it until I make that investment back.  That shouldn’t take long and in the meantime, I may just love it!  I did love PartyLite for about three of the four years I sold it.  I remember saying that if we won Lotto, I would quit my full time job and just sell PartyLite for fun.  After that feeling went away and for the years since then, I would cringe when I thought about selling PartyLite again.  Why am I getting back into this type of business again?  It was that little black bag.