by Clare Langley-Hawthorne
So what ‘rich and famous’ daydreams do you indulge in? If you could be written about in just one magazine what would it be? The New Yorker? Fortune? Sports Illustrated:) ?
So who amongst us hasn’t fantasized about being a rich and famous author? I have to confess to an occasional daydream, usually involving owning:
(a) A penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park
AND…
(b) A house in Mayfair, London
AND…
(c) An Irish castle on a windswept coast
AND…
(d) My very own tropical island
AND…
(e) A villa in Italy.
I don’t ask for much really…
When it comes to fame, though, I have only one goal – and that
is to make it into Vanity Fair magazine – it doesn’t have to be the cover (though how cool would that be!), it doesn’t even have to be a big article (just a side column, snippet or photo would be fine) but for me it is something akin to a rock band’s lust for making the cover of Rolling Stone. I don’t know what it is about Vanity Fair, but if I could make it into one magazine that would be it.
is to make it into Vanity Fair magazine – it doesn’t have to be the cover (though how cool would that be!), it doesn’t even have to be a big article (just a side column, snippet or photo would be fine) but for me it is something akin to a rock band’s lust for making the cover of Rolling Stone. I don’t know what it is about Vanity Fair, but if I could make it into one magazine that would be it.I suppose if I was more erudite I would aim for the New Yorker or some other literary magazine, but I don’t. There’s just something juicer somehow about Vanity Fair and highbrow enough that my family wouldn’t be as embarrassed as if I graced the cover of, say, the National Enquirer…though of course, knowing my luck, that’s just where I would end up if I ever got a whiff of fame (or would that be infamy). The headline would no doubt be something horrid like, Famous Author’s Alien Lovechild Revealed!
Which would serve me right, for playing the fame game…but who can resist indulging in a little harmless ‘what if’?
So what ‘rich and famous’ daydreams do you indulge in? If you could be written about in just one magazine what would it be? The New Yorker? Fortune? Sports Illustrated:) ?
As for daydreams, I’d want my life to be ala Zane Grey–write the manuscript, turn it in to someone else to type up and handle the business side, collect the checks and spend the rest of the time traveling, horseback riding, and being inspired in my mountain home.
As for magazine–good question. I’d say a nice article in Writers Digest would suit me fine. And of course given my writing goals, I’d want to be featured in Arizona Highways too. 😎
BK that sounds like a great idea to me…wouldn’t it be nice just to be able to turn in a manuscript and be done with it! I’d be happy with a nice article in just about any travel magazine:) especially if it justified even more travel!
I’m a bit of a mountaintop loner, a la BK, so the fame side seems like a mixed bag. It would be nice to have someone else pay for the book tour, however!
Hi Clare,
Fun topic. It reminds me of a friend who once said, “Dream big!. If you shoot for the moon you may miss, but you will still end up in the stars.”
However, having seen fame on a day to day basis here in LA I don’t want my face to be recognizably famous. The paparazzi and the tabloids are brutal. Therefore, my successful writer daydream has some anonymity along with the riches. It also includes a second house where I can ski in the morning and write in the afternoon. Tahoe or Chamonix would be nice.
As to magazines – a bunch of nice review anywhere would make me happy.
I’d rather be like the author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, B. Traven. Prolific and mysterious.
I’ve often admired JD Salinger’s approach to book promotion.
Aw guys – don’ you want the papparazi showing up at your house?!:) Just one photoshoot and article in VF would do me…then I wold slink back into obscurity…
Given the opportunity, I would be a media whore. My closest brush with fame was in 1996 when NATHAN’S RUN was first published. I was featured in a number of newspapers and magazines, and my family (including the dog) was pictured in People Magazine.
Since then, not so much. Then again, I haven’t had the entire publicity and marketing departments of a publisher working for me since then either.
Even in the heyday, I was never recognized on the street by a stranger.
I just want to date a model, is that asking too much?
My dream rich-writer-do-I-want fantasy? I don’t really care about fame, as long as lots of people buy my amazing and highly acclaimed thrillers and tell all their friends to and I get to make money at it enough to quit my job.
From that point the fantasy involves no-debt, a big class-C motorhome, a fully paid off 5 acre mini-farm here in Alaska, a dozen chickens, a milk goat, and a stunning view of the mountains, ocean, and trees. Oh…and the occasional trip to wherever warm my wife wants to go in Mid-Winter.
Oh…and all the coconut old fashioned donuts I can while still retaining perfect six-pack abs.
retaining perfect six-pack abs? what is he talking about? He’s never had six pack abs in his life!
…shut up conscience….its my fantasy, not yours
John – People magazine would have been pretty cool and our old dog would have loved to have been in a photoshoot – he hogged the camera any opportunity he could. Basil – sounds like a pretty good dream to me (esp. the bit about the donuts!) and Taylor – there’s nothing too much to ask when it comes to dreams of wealth and fame:) I wouldn’t mind having a very good looking butler thrown into the mix (of course my husband would argue I already have that!)
Oh boy, I’ve never given the magazine question much thought. At this point in my career, I’d take any of them! National Enquirer? What are their submission guidelines?? I guess I don’t really have a dream zine, though any of the mainstream literary ones like The New Yorker would swell my chest significantly. Any place where other, better writers have been published is enough for me.
As for the Fame Game…I’ve had a million dreams. I’d want to have a swank three-story penthouse apartment in New York, a castle in Scotland, and a big fat yacht to take me back and forth. But if I’m being honest, the only one that every daydream involves is me writing for a living. I am a workaphobic, and writing is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. If I could make $30 grand a year writing, sign me up. I don’t need the riches just as long as this is what I’m doing for a living.
Though both would be wicked awesome.