I was lucky enough to meet with the First Lady Of The JPT (Juicy Page Turner) for a special bloggers tea at the lovely and legendary Hotel Plaza Athenee last week. Ms. Collins was celebrating the release of her latest novel, The Santangelos–featuring Lucky Santangelo, her most popular and enduring character who was introduced to her diehard readers way back in 1981!
I have been fortunate enough to party with the ageless Ms. Collins in the past during two New York Fashion Week events when her last two novels were released. She loves to gossip and during our tea for 20 bloggers last week, she admitted that even though she’s written about how much she hates ageism in Hollywood–and has covered it in her books–it never fails to shock her, especially when it’s a 75 year old guy with a 25-year-old-or-less lady by his side!
Few authors have outsold Collins, who has sold 500 million books worldwide and has had 30 titles on the New York Times Bestsellers List! She still has her trademark chic brown just-below-the-shoulders layered locks and a little leopard print on her ensemble of the day.
Not only do guests at Jackie’s events get to leave with a signed copy of her current book, but they get tons of her older books in softcover and audiobook and exclusive merchandise like compacts and makeup bags featuring JC titles.
She says her success is just about “writing about the world that she knows” (but let me add here that she is a humble person and not a Housewife Of Beverly Hills by any stretch of the imagination). Her long-awaited autobiography as well as a photo book are coming up next and she even has a daughter following in her footsteps as a novelist. She told her blogger crew that her next work of fiction will “star” a plus size heroine that leaves her skinny counterparts in the dust. (Hooray for that!)
No doubt about it, Jackie Collins has her own corner of the publishing world that lets her write about anything that her heart desires–and it is not just “chick lit”! She’s got about 20 per cent male readers these days. For more on this delightful non-diva, go to www.jackiecollins.com. Editor’s note: Jackie sadly passed away a couple of weeks after this event and I will always remember the three times I got to hang out with her in New York City and gossip: she was showing no signs of slowing down at this event and no one had any idea she was suffering from Stage IV breast cancer. RIP, fine lady!
