Romance On The Air
Local novelists Jan Greenberg and Karen Katz will be glued to
the screen as their novel Something Borrowed, Something Blue
has its television premiere.
SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
together that we decided to try
fiction," explained Greenberg, a
University of Illinois English ed-
ucation graduate who found an
agent after selling her own first
novel to a publisher.
Greenberg had decided to use
a pseudonym to keep in line with
other romance novelists and to
protect her privacy. When she
teamed with Katz, the two want-
ed to go under one name because
they thought it would be easier
for readers to remember and
find.
The two also established a
comfortable working plan that
lets them build on each other's
ideas.
"We write together word by
word, line by line, day by day,"
said Katz, a Wayne State Uni-
versity journalism graduate who
has edited floral, engineering and
banking publications. "One day
one of us is at the keyboard, and
the next day the other one is."
Although they start out with
a plot idea, they often adjust the
action as they go along.
"It wouldn't be any fun if we
knew everything that was going
to happen," Greenberg said. 'We
have to have surprises for our-
selves."
Katz brought a glamorous
bridal perspective to their first
novel. On assignment for a trade
periodical, she spent a week at
the White House covering the flo-
ral preparations for Tricia
Nixon's wedding.
"We write very visually," Katz
said. 'We see the scenes as we're
writing them. We're not very ex-
plicit about the romantic scenes
since we're more interested in
the relationships than the me-
chanics."
The duo's most recent book
came out last November. Catch
Me If You Can is about a kid-
napped Miss America being
sought by her sister and her best
friend. Greenberg, who has
penned more than a dozen books,
has an independent novel corn-
ing out this spring — Just This
Once, a historical romance.
Because Greenberg often
works on more than one book
during any given time frame, she
arranges her schedule according
to deadlines, still allotting some
time each day for all of her cur-
rent projects. "It's more fun work-
ing with a partner," Greenberg
said. 'There's not the same fear
of getting stuck because we keep
bouncing ideas off of each other,
and that always
leads to something Ken Howard and
new."
Connie Sellecca
in Something
This weekend,
Borrowed
the writers' hus-
bands, teen-age Something Blue.
,
children, family
and friends will help celebrate
the film at a party hosted by the
women, who have been lured by
television.
"We're working on another
novel, but we're also starting to
work on some screenplay ideas,"
Greenberg revealed.
qt.
PHOTO BY DANIEL LIPPI TT
an Greenberg and Karen
Katz, accustomed to sitting
together in front of a com-
puter screen to write suc-
cessful books, are about to sit
in front of a television screen to
watch their first romantic nov-
el in a film version.
The pair, working with the
pen name Jillian Karr, are ex-
cited and curious about TV's
Something Borrowed, Something
Blue, which will be shown at 9
p.m. Tuesday, March 11, on CBS
(Channel 62).
Starring Connie Sellecca, Ken
Howard, Twiggy Lawson and
Ricky Paull Goldin, the made-
for-TV movie was written by
Karol Ann Hoeffner and Carol
Starr Schneider after Greenberg
and Katz sold the motion picture
rights to their novel.
While it's known that the nov-
el about four brides with secrets
has been changed to a script
about three brides with secrets,
the original writers can't wait to
see if other alterations have been
made.
"We're thrilled that it's a
movie and have no misgivings
about any changes," said Green-
berg, who began writing novels
on her own before meeting Katz
and continues with her inde-
pendent projects using the name
Jill Gregory. "It will be wonder-
ful to see our characters on TV."
The novelists also thought it
was wonderful when Something
Borrowed, Something Blue was
excerpted in Cosmopolitan and
translated for international dis-
tribution.
Greenberg and Katz met
about 15 years ago, when they
were taking their then-toddlers
to preschool at Adat Shalom. Af-
ter their children started asking
religious questions, they decid-
ed to put their writing back-
grounds to work and come up
with a book of answers.
What Does Being Jewish
Mean, in its sixth printing, was
a collaboration with Rabbi E.B.
Freedman, who had been known
by Katz as someone who could
relate to young people.
"We had so much fun writing
Jan Greenberg and Karen Katz: From the printed page to the small screen.