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Not a Day Goes By by E. Lynn Harris
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Not a Day Goes By

Best Seller
Not a Day Goes By by E. Lynn Harris
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Jul 18, 2000 | ISBN 9780553752670 | 364 Minutes

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    Feb 10, 2004 | ISBN 9781400075782

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  • Dec 18, 2007 | ISBN 9780307427038

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  • Jul 18, 2000 | ISBN 9780553752670

    364 Minutes

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Praise

“A book that plumbs the depths of love, loyalty and misplaced motives…. Harris is in true form.”–USA Today

“Offers sweet, guilty thrills that leave you longing for more.” –Salon

“E. Lynn Harris…tucks in enough plot twists to keep his readers turning pages late at night.”–The Washington Post Book World

“Harris scores again…. His patented knack for a wry, uproarious resolution is in full flower in this sexual War of the Roses.”–Publishers Weekly

“A love story full of suspense and anticipation.”–Detroit Free Press

“Enough punch to score a KO.”–People

“E. Lynn Harris–the chart-topping author of romance novels about black men–has got it going on…. The secret? Harris’ addictive, Soul Food meets Melrose Place plots, revolving around affluent buppies wrestling with sexual identity, monogamy, and top-flight careers.”–Entertainment Weekly

Author Q&A

Q: Your new book, Not a Day Goes By, zoomed to the top of the national bestseller lists, and most notably debuted in the #2 slot on the New York Times fiction list–a first for an African American male fiction writer. How does that feel?

A: It’s very humbling, and at the same time it’s very rewarding because it shows that all the hard work of my editor, publisher, staff and myself has paid off. It’s also a fantastic feeling to know that the fans rushed to the stores . . . and brought friends with them.

Q: How did you decide to write a book about John Basil Henderson (a character who has appeared in all your novels–and is also a character your fans love to hate) and Yancey Harrington Braxton, the Broadway diva introduced in Abide with Me?

A: I wanted to do something different and my editor, the president of Doubleday, and I came up with the idea to do something special for the summer, a different kind of love story . . . something wicked. Basil and Yancy got together at the end of Abide with Me and I thought it would be fun to see what happened if they pursued their relationship.

Q: Did you know from the start whether there would be a happy or sad ending to this love affair?

A: Yeah, I knew what would happen when I put these two together (not that I’ll divulge that here) but I didn’t know how it would all come about. That was the fun part. I just had to sit back and write and let Yancy and Basil do their thing.

Q: You’ve been asked to write the screenplay for a remake of the classic African American movie Sparkle. Tell us about the new movie and how that opportunity came about.

A: Sparkle is one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s a wonderful love story. I was approached by Deborah Martin Chase, Whitney Houston’s producing partner, who asked me to pitch my ideas for the remake to Kevin McCormick at Warner Brothers. I felt honored just to be asked to present my story ideas. But then they loved it and offered me the job. I can’t give any details yet, you’ll just have to wait for the movie to come out!

Q: Almost a decade ago you left the computer industry to write fiction. How did you muster the courage to pursue your dream?

A: I had a story to tell and I knew I was the only one to tell it. The story played so heavy on my heart that I devoted myself to telling it. It was like I didn’t have a choice. That first book was Invisible Life and it was my passion. I never thought about it becoming a bestseller . . . that would have caused fear and uncertainty. I just concentrated on telling that story the best I could.

Giving up the security of a job was tough but it was also exhilarating because I felt free to do what I needed (and still need) to do: to write. I’d do it for free, and for a long while that’s just what I did. It wasn’t until a few years ago that writing became lucrative as well.

Q: What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

A: Write because you have a story only you can tell. Write with passion. Don’t write for the money or fame because it may not come, and even if it does it’s the writing which brings you joy, not all the other stuff.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: I plan on resting for a while after I finish my tour. Then I’ll pick up my journal, gather my thoughts, and decide what story is next.

Author Essay

When E. Lynn Harris answers the phone for our scheduled interview, I’m bowled over before he says anything more than hello. He has a voice that sounds like melted chocolate tastes — the deep rich tones of a radio announcer made all the more irresistible by a faint southern accent. I’ve already decided that I could spend all day on the phone with him.

But more than the allotted 30 minutes in this bestselling author’s day is impossible. Harris is not only busy with the final touches to his latest novel Any Way the Wind Blows, due out in July, but he’s also working on a memoir, and the screenplay to the remake of the 1976 African-American cult favourite Sparkle. And Ever since Doubleday created an E. Lynn Harris website (www.elynnharris.com) on the publication of his New York Times bestselling novel, Not a Day Goes By, Harris has been deluged by a staggering number of messages from his devoted fans. “Just today, I’ve got 470 e-mails to answer,” he tells me with a chuckle, “and when I’m on tour, it can be thousands a week!” What is remarkable is not the number of e-mails he receives, rather, that he answers them all himself. “It sometimes takes me two to three weeks to answer but everyone gets a reply eventually and I always apologize if it’s late.”

It was Harris’s humble beginnings as a writer that instilled in him an abiding appreciation and respect for the people who make his success possible. In 1991 Harris completed his first novel, Invisible Life, after a particularly difficult period in his own life. He had quit his job selling computer software for a small firm and was diagnosed with clinical depression. “It was hard. I was losing a lot of friends to the AIDS epidemic and I really wanted my life to make an impact.” He started writing Invisible Life as a kind of therapy. “I was always a good letter writer but writing was not an option as a career in Little Rock [Arkansas, where Harris grew up]. Words always struck me as powerful; they could take you to a completely different place.”

When the book was completed, Harris could not get a publisher or an agent. He took to selling the book from the trunk of his car. He focused his efforts on black-owned beauty salons where he felt he might have an audience. Not daunted by the apparent lack of interest from the publishing industry, Harris was convinced that he had written something special by the overwhelming reactions of the people who read the book. After seven months, Harris landed an agent and signed a book deal with Doubleday, who had heard about this self-publishing phenomenon. With over one million copies of his books now sold, Harris knows that his success is thanks to his fans.

After six books, his fans remain just as devoted. One woman who arrived at a signing came with a Tupperware container full of “a whole southern meal,” Harris laughs, “sweet potato pie, fried chicken, the whole thing.” He was wary at first to eat it but succumbed later in his hotel room. The meal was so good that Harris returned the container with a note of thanks. Even more recently, while on a vacation in Vancouver, BC, he and a friend were walking back to their hotel from a restaurant when they stopped to ask a young man waiting at a bus stop if they were heading in the right direction. At first the man answered casually, but then he recognized Harris. “His eyes got as big as plates and he said, ‘Oh my God, you’re E. Lynn Harris.’ So we invited him to join us for drinks and we had a great time. I’ll always remember Vancouver for making me feel so good.”

From people on park benches to the likes of Toni Braxton, Harris’s fan base is so diverse that it’s hard to find a category broad enough for him. In fact, it’s so hard that “What genre does E. Lynn Harris write in?” was the $64,000 question on an episode of the hit TV game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The media have often called his work “African-American romance,” but he prefers to think of himself as an urban chronicler. Harris describes his books as having “a bit of love, a bit of conflict, family and friends.” His stories focus on real-life conflict, triumph and resolution in a funky, upper-class urban setting.

But in the end, the answer to the $64,000 question is … it doesn’t really matter. Whether you call it romance or a recipe for pea soup, Harris’s writing is intoxicating. It’s impossible not to be hooked from the first chapter to the last. The most potent element, aside from his sexy characters and oftentimes laugh-out-loud dialogue, is the glimpse you get at a life that isn’t your own. Reading his books is like looking in people’s windows at night when they have their lights on, or sneaking a peek in the medicine cabinets at a party. You have the guilty pleasure of seeing things that would normally be hidden from view. And according to Harris himself, “I guarantee you a great, great ride when you get there.”


Interview reprinted with permission. Copyright Random House Canada.

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