:00:00. > :00:00.Europe but some say it is not enough. We will bring you more
:00:00. > :00:00.headlines at the top of the hour but right now, it is time for me the
:00:00. > :00:08.author. Sloan Crosley used to work
:00:09. > :00:10.in publishing in New York, Then she started writing comic
:00:11. > :00:15.essays and published two bestselling collections, one called
:00:16. > :00:19.I Was Told There Would Be Cake. Four years ago, she quit
:00:20. > :00:21.the day job to write full-time. Her first novel, The Clasp,
:00:22. > :00:25.is the result. It is part comedy of manners,
:00:26. > :00:30.part treasure hunt, set in New York, Florida, Hollywood and
:00:31. > :00:33.a New Yorker's version of France. The New York Times called it
:00:34. > :00:52.highly comic, highly affecting. Sloan Crosley,
:00:53. > :00:55.you made your reputation writing nonfiction, a kind of humorously
:00:56. > :00:59.highlighted non-fiction. Why did you want to write a novel,
:01:00. > :01:03.why switch? It didn't feel that much
:01:04. > :01:08.of a switch. I had always wanted to write
:01:09. > :01:10.a novel. I wrote a pretty terrible novel
:01:11. > :01:12.in my early 20s Not even in the adorable,
:01:13. > :01:21.after my death way. And I wanted the freedom
:01:22. > :01:24.of getting to make things up again. At least when you are writing essays
:01:25. > :01:29.you have the prop of what really It is quite a challenge creating
:01:30. > :01:33.an entirely fictional It is also a real estate issue,
:01:34. > :01:43.which is essays only take up But the novel you have to
:01:44. > :01:52.continue to attend to every day. You are responsible for everything,
:01:53. > :02:01.for every decision, the entire world,
:02:02. > :02:03.but eventually it builds on itself. You saw to forget you are the 1
:02:04. > :02:07.who did the cue ball break, who They met at college
:02:08. > :02:13.and are now around 30, they are reaching difficult times
:02:14. > :02:16.in their lives where they are no longer young and they have to come
:02:17. > :02:19.to terms with real life. But you do have some things you
:02:20. > :02:23.brought in One of the key ones is the French
:02:24. > :02:37.writer Guy de Maupassant and a short Which is tremendously important,
:02:38. > :02:42.just explain it in the context of the story. What I did first of all
:02:43. > :02:46.is I had always enjoyed novels that were about other forms of art, you
:02:47. > :02:51.have a novel that is about opera and a novel that is about painting. This
:02:52. > :02:55.is a novel that is about the short story. So I'm due to these three
:02:56. > :02:59.characters with this short story, what it is about essentially is a
:03:00. > :03:04.woman who borrows a necklace from her rich friend, loses it, decides
:03:05. > :03:09.to replace the necklace the next day and then falls into debt, at the
:03:10. > :03:11.very end of the story after her life is fallen into disrepair, the woman
:03:12. > :03:21.runs into the wealthy woman who runs into the
:03:22. > :03:28.necklace and the wealthy Roman says it it was class, it was fake. It is
:03:29. > :03:33.a story that is quite tragic and it has a fable quality about be careful
:03:34. > :03:36.what you wish for. It is all for naught, and maybe the things that
:03:37. > :03:41.you want are not the things that you want. All three of the characters
:03:42. > :03:46.are chasing after. Is, and loosely follow the plot of the short story.
:03:47. > :03:55.But it is a comedy. Your book is a comedy. Your book is a very
:03:56. > :03:59.entertaining comedy, looking back on the kids college days, there is an
:04:00. > :04:03.absolutely ghastly wedding in Florida, then about halfway
:04:04. > :04:08.through, you reduce what Alfred Hitchcock would call a McGuffin, an
:04:09. > :04:15.excuse for a plot. Take them off on a treasure hunt to France, which has
:04:16. > :04:19.a slightly theme park France, entertaining. Why not just stick
:04:20. > :04:28.with the social comedy. Why the need for plot? In a way can the story is
:04:29. > :04:32.about the accession about wanting to have an accession. Live session with
:04:33. > :04:36.wanting to have something that has meaning that is not just
:04:37. > :04:43.navel-gazing, people sitting around in a bar, do we need that? I don't
:04:44. > :04:49.think so. How to give them the adventure that they are secretly all
:04:50. > :04:54.seating. The goonies travel adventure in this road trip through
:04:55. > :04:59.Paris and France. And I wanted to take that sort of coming of age too
:05:00. > :05:04.late story that we see these days and make it visual and actually give
:05:05. > :05:09.them something to latch onto. And so, the necklace that they go after,
:05:10. > :05:15.that they are looking for in the book, mean something different to
:05:16. > :05:20.each of them. In the way, it is a symbol of sincerity, his symbol of
:05:21. > :05:25.actually them, having something real in their lives that may or may not
:05:26. > :05:31.turn out to be fake. You spent many years as a publishing publicist in
:05:32. > :05:40.New York, writing bestselling essays. You brought publicist along,
:05:41. > :05:45.she brought me. She is the wonderfully named citizens segment
:05:46. > :05:51.of Penguin books. Explain to me, had going on these tours, is different
:05:52. > :05:58.from your perspective as to when you were sitting in Citizen's seat? I
:05:59. > :06:03.think especially for novelist and fictional writers, nonfiction, it is
:06:04. > :06:09.the same reason, there is a bit of East to it because you have the
:06:10. > :06:14.crutch, of the world. So a certain percentage of the narrative is not
:06:15. > :06:18.your full, right? And for fiction to promote fiction, you had to
:06:19. > :06:22.constantly have the confidence that you know what you wrote, that you
:06:23. > :06:30.are not a frog. You did this, it is OK. It is really hard, to do that. I
:06:31. > :06:34.have an appreciation for authors that are sitting in this seat more
:06:35. > :06:39.than I probably used to. Did you sit where citizen is sitting? Yes but
:06:40. > :06:44.neighbourly crudely put a camera on me! Did you sit there and think that
:06:45. > :06:49.you could answer the question better? No, will you do have some
:06:50. > :06:53.perspective, there is a reason why authors don't write their own press
:06:54. > :06:57.releases, the worst thing I used to always say, what made a difficult
:06:58. > :07:02.author, was then not knowing what they wrote. But in general it is a
:07:03. > :07:07.difficult process, authors are not built for it the way that musicians
:07:08. > :07:11.are built for it. Where performance is part and parcel of what you
:07:12. > :07:14.signed up for, signed up for not just recording something, but just
:07:15. > :07:20.playing it in your garage but having it in public. Most other art forms
:07:21. > :07:27.are the same way, I think it is just us, and maybe the painters in a room
:07:28. > :07:31.together, ill-prepared for public appearance. If you can make it
:07:32. > :07:34.through that process for any kind of modicum of grace and humour, I
:07:35. > :07:39.always feel those are really good authors. You seem to be doing OK.
:07:40. > :07:44.Thank you for having me.