Jennifer Weiner/In Her Shoes

SGVN

Oct. 15, 2005

By Kyra Kirkwood

Jennifer Weiner is living my dream life.

I've been a fan of this journalist-turned-bestselling-author long before her "In Her Shoes" became one of this fall's must-see films. Her glacier-sharp wit, tangible characters and literary penchant for all things shoe made her one of my favorite writers to read and study when weaving my own fiction tapestries.

In "Good in Bed," her debut novel, Weiner's main character is a plus-size gal named Cannie, who is humorous and clear-headed, with a firm grasp of self that does not rely on mainlining Fen-Phen and becoming Nicole Richie thin. Weiner tackles motherhood and friendship in "Little Earthquakes," while two sisters who are worlds apart and more alike than they know are the staples in "In Her Shoes."

When I interviewed her before she arrived at Vroman's for a signing of her fourth novel, a witty mystery called "Goodnight Nobody," I tried to reign in my gushing blather in order to come across as a fellow deadline-focused journalist. Stick to the questions, don't mention how much I like her books, don't talk about my fiction attempts, don't sound like a squealing fan. Professional!

Later, listening to my tape recording of the interview, I realized how miserably I failed. But how could I help myself? I'm a fan, and she's the epitome of cool gal pal. Before the second question unfolded, the banter was already conversation-easy. The Philadelphia-based Weiner (and it's "Wyner," not "Weener," as in hot dog) is comfortingly friendly and open, even with dinner to make, Hollywood premieres to attend and a toddler to tend to (and a chatty journalist on the phone). She opens up our chat by revealing that she's sitting on her bed, about to be swallowed up by mountains of previously neglected laundry.

But come on! You've jumped from writing features for the Philadelphia Inquirer to full-time authordom in 2001. And now, Hollywood is a-calling.

"It doesn't whisk you away to another planet where your laundry folds itself, " she laughed as the sounds of an excited two-year-old rang in the background. Her daughter, Lucy Jane. "It's hard. I get stretched the way every working mother gets stretched. The laundry piles up and the dishes don't get done and all that." Despite it all, she adores her East Coast life and flourishing career. "It's been, to use the old clichÈ, a dream come true."

Lately, the dream has been more golden than ever. On Oct. 7, "Good in Bed" opened in theaters nationwide. Staring Toni Collette, Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine, the film performed well at the box office in its opening weekend. For months before the debut, Weiner couldn't believe it was all happening.

"I've seen the movie, but at this point, it can still be a very expensive practical joke," she said.

You'd think once Weiner saw the actors filming in her Philadelphia neighborhood, she'd know this was the real deal. She readily admits that she is star-struck and goes ga-ga at times (perhaps that's why she was awfully patient with meä).

"I met Cameron Diaz and basically couldn't form a sentence," she said with a laugh. But she managed to pull herself together long enough to be included in a shot or two. "I'm in the Italian market scene. You can see meãI'm walking behind Toni Collette." Her sister, Molly, and her grandmother also have cameo roles in the movie. (But Weiner's first love, her 13-year-old Rat Terrier Wendell, didn't get his Hollywood moment. That's OK though. He's happy with his photograph gracing the back cover of "Good in Bed," and being immortalized in print as the novel's dog, Nifkin.)

How did you hand over your literary baby over to the iron jaws of Hollywood and not fear you'd wind up with something virtually unrecognizable? I sometimes worry about what my articles will look like after I turn them over to the higher powers of the editing deskãand these folks are sweet, gentle people who don't eat their young.

"I don't know anything about movies," she said. "I trust the people who are doing this. I know it's going to be wonderful. Even if it's not wonderful, my book is still my book. So I let go. And it worked out really well."

So that's where Cannie, from "Good in Bed," gets her trademark confidence and soul.

Weiner has been reported as saying Cannie is a "much more funny, and much more honest, version" of her. Weiner takes her life and, using it as a blueprint for her fiction, sexes/funnys/dramatizes/enhances/tragedizes it up, exercising the true joy of literary creation.

"My real life is the departure point."

In "Good in Bed," Cannie fights to get her weight down and her ex-boyfriend back, all the while struggling to finally get that screenplay optioned and make peace with it all. Weiner refused to make Cannie be the obligatory "fat girl friend" or a slave to the scale.

"It was the right book at the right time. It really struck a chord. For a long time, there weren't any plus-size women in fiction who weren't the monkey sidekick or the butt of the joke," she said. "I think that people really liked the idea that here was this funny, flawed, smart, fully realized woman getting the happy ending without going through that magical transition: Oh! She's magically a hundred pounds thinner. Now she'll get what she wants."

Many people never figure this inner-happiness stuff out. How long did it take you?

"In writing 'Good in Bed,' it was something I wanted to tell myself more than something I'd internalized completely. But I knew how important it was."

Especially today, when young girls think they have to weigh less than a second-grader in order to be beautiful and successful. Have you checked them out in those glossy weeklies? I think Wendell probably weighs more than half those stars.

"It is such a restrictive view of beauty," Weiner said. "All these girls are thin, thinner, thinnest. And I don't want that to be the message [given to my daughter]äThat's not the real world and the only way to be happy."

In a way, maybe your books are like an anti-venom to all the bias Hollywood spews out. A nice antidote to poisonous ideas that spell out physical "perfection" before happiness. Didn't you say it was tough to even find an actress to play "In Her Shoe's" Rose, who is only a size 12?

"Which I think is a pretty sad indictment of what's happening in Hollywood and the incredible shrinking starlets. If they look thin on screen, they're damn near invisible in person. It's really quite alarming. That's one of the reasons I'll never leave Philadelphia because there's a little more diversity going on here. L.A., I love to visit, but I love to come home."

Home is where she thrives. But not for work. At 1 p.m. each day, Weiner welcomes in the nanny, who watches Lucy while she runs down to her neighborhood coffeehouse for some uninterrupted face time with her laptop. Having a baby really helped put some structure into Weiner's workday, forcing her to set up boundaries and, in the process, crank out quality work.

"I'm really focused and I really enjoy my writing time," she said. "There's nobody grabbing my shirt going "mommy mommy mommy.' I'm always happy to start writing and I'm always happy to finish and go home."

But isn't it hard to switch from being a mom to being a writer, all within the span of ordering caramel macchiato?

"Journalism really helped me because I was good with deadlines, I was good with writing every day," she said. "It didn't feel burdensome to do the things that so many writers find the hardestãsitting down and making yourself do it. That part I was used to."

Tell me about it. Deadlines are deadlines, no matter where you work. Do you ever miss the grind, the thrill of seeing your byline in the morning paper, chasing a story? I once had an editor who told me journalism gets in your blood.

"Whenever something happens in the world, my first instinct is to grab a notebook and go do something," Weiner said, confirming my suspicion that the pen may be put down, but the ink never leaves. "I do miss it."

But seeing your name on a BOOK coverãdoesn't that make up for the missing byline or late-night editing session? I know many journalists (a-hem!) who would sell their front-page stories 50 times over just for one look at their hardcovers in a Barnes and Noble display window.

"It was the dream come true," she said of the first time she saw "Good in Bed" in stores. "It was so thrilling and so discombobulating. I went to the Borders in Philadelphia and stood, lurking, by the new fiction, until somebody picked up the book. Then I swooped down on her. 'If you buy it, I'll sign it.' I try not to do that anymore. But I know my mother goes into bookstores and rearranges [things]. If she's not happy with where my book is, she moves it."

But that's what moms do, right? They're there to watch out for their offspring, give them encouragement and guidance. Unlike many book reviewers, right? How do you handle the criticism, especially when you've been of the other side of the paper before and know how many of these journalists think?

Weiner tells me how, thankfully, many reviews have been good. But "then I would come across the ones that weren't and be crushed, and cry and compose angry letters in my head to the writer about how they totally missed the point."

Now, she tries not to read them. (I wonder if she reads profiles on her? I guess I'll find outä)

"It's just one person's opinion on one particular day. I write the best books that I can. I try not to pay to much attention."

Speaking of paying attention, you seem very fixated on shoes. OK, confess: when did you acquire your shoe fetish, and where's the best place to feed that hunger?

(OK, at this point in the conversation, I was poised at the end of my seat, all ready to bond over Blahniks and Bruno Maglis. But (insert big sigh here), Weiner divulged that she's not only NOT a shoe diva, she has no desire to become one. Since the baby came, Weiner is all about sneakers and comfort, not high fashion.)

But how can that be? Your books are so littered with details of fine footwear, I could almost smell the leather.

"It's just reporting, paying attention, spending a lot of time in Saks looking at shoes, picking them up and touching them and putting them down and having the salespeople look at me like I'm some kind of pervert."

Pervert? Nah. I'd say broke journalist with a love of haute couture, just fondling the edges of a life she can't quite grasp yet. Oh, wait. That would be me last weekendäLet's get back to business. With your fourth book, "Goodnight Nobody," you veered a bit from your usual platform and penned a mystery. This one is about a young mom who moves to Connecticut and uncovers a load of secrets.

"I did want to try something new. It's a change. It was a challenge. I worked really hard on it."

Hmm, it looks like it's got a dash of "Desperate Housewives" in it perhaps? Yummy. I heard you wanted to call it "Momicide." Clever!

"I thought so to. But evidently we're a minority."

So what's next for you? Another novel? More movie deals? Perhaps taking a West Coast writer under your wing and showing her the literary ropes?

"I'm just going to come home, answer the mail and do the laundry. That will take about a month I think."

SIDEBAR:

Check out Jennifer Weiner's website, http://www.jenniferweiner.com/

SIDEBAR:

Jennifer Weiner will be at Vroman's Oct. 20 at 7 p.m., 695 East Colorado Blvd., Pasadena.