It’s not my book.
I didn’t write it but it almost feels like I did.
Illeana Douglas did say it’s okay if I feel somewhat proprietary about Connecticut in the Movies, though, her new book (her second) which was published this week, several years after the idea for the book came to the popular actress early on in the pandemic.
Illeana with a fresh copy of Connecticut in the Movies
Partly raised in Connecticut, the star of Grace of My Heart, Cape Fear, and To Die For bought a house there near her mother’s, a bit of a fixer-upper akin to Cary Grant’s and Myrna Loy’s in the classic screwball comedy Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House, and started writing.
Having been a film historian for TCM for years, too, as well as the granddaughter of Hollywood legend Melvyn Douglas, she knew movies and Connecticut equally well!
Sometime later, she was looking for a proofreader and her friend Kliph Nesteroff, the perceptive author of the brilliant history of comedy, The Comedians, an Internet acquaintance of mine who had once sent me a big box of nifty collectibles (Like Soupy Sales coloring books!) he didn’t want to take when he moved to the US from Canada, remembered that I had sent him a number of corrections for his blog and an ARC of his book. Kliph asked if I would be interested and then connected us via email.
Illeana asked for my number but never called.
After a couple of months, I presumed she had decided to pass on me. Then one day her name popped up on my Caller ID but she said she was calling someone else and had the wrong number. I explained that I had been expecting her call for a while and she remembered, apologized, and we talked for a while.
Next thing you know, I was hired!
She sent me her manuscript, with strict guidelines…at first. As I got into it, and we began exchanging regular emails and phone calls, a trust developed and I ended up as her copy editor, as well as a sounding board, a researcher, and helped with the book’s design. I even pieced together a 700-page advance reading copy pdf which was sent around to various people such as Leonard Maltin, Michael McKean, and Ronan Farrow for blurbs.
After nearly a year of us working together and bonding, the book was sent off to the publisher. We expected that to be it for our involvement but there was still more work she was expected to do and my sounding board gig continued on.
But one look at it makes it all worth it. The book is here and it’s gorgeous! It’s larger than we expected, nearly 400 pages with a great mix of mostly color movie stills, posters, and photos taken personally by Ms. Douglas, who is just as talented a photographer as she is an actress or writer.
Illeana is going to be doing public appearances for Connecticut in the Movies for the rest of the year, including events in Chicago and Los Angeles. Also, she’s already started work on her next book, and I’m scrambling to finish up several assignments and projects of my own so I’ll be ready to jump in and help when she needs me.
You gotta love the Internet!
Order your copy HERE!
