16 - The Prince George Citizen - Monday, April 15,1991 Entertainment SIXTH STEAMY BEST-SELLER LAUNCHED THE FAR SIDE By GARY LARSON Krantz gets formula down pat by LINDA DEUTSCH LOS ANGELES (AP) — When she first hit best-seller lists a dozen years ago with her steamy novel Scruples, Judith Krantz thought it was a fluke, a magical mid-life gift that would never come again. “I was in shock for two years,” she says of the book sales bonanza that set the publishing world on its ear. **I put one foot in front of another and did what a person does on a 16-city book tour when you have a No. 1 best-seller. But I didn’t know what I was doing.” Now, launching her sixth book, Dazzle, another in the sex-and-glamor sagas that have made her famous, the acclaimed queen of escapist pop literature recalls her first overnight success as fondly as a first love affair. She still wears the golden cuff bracelet from her husband, producer Steve Krantz, to commemorate the Scruples publication. And although she has since sold books and mini-series for millions, Krantz still savors the memory of her first $50,000 advance. Scruples was published two days after her 50th birthday and, for this former freelance magazine writer and Beverly Hills wife and mother, a new life had begun. When she hit the best-seller list, she ran out and impulsively bought a pair of diamond earrings. “I took refuge in the one thing I was : sure of — shopping. ... It had never occurred to me there was money in this,” she says of her . book writing. And it had never occurred to her that she could make a major pur-: chase without her husband’s approval. "It’s one of the basic things most women can’t do — they can’t write a big cheque without asking their husbands. It’s very satisfying for a woman of my generation to write a cheque without asking anyone.” * But there was life after Scruples, ;and Krantz, fearful of being swallowed by fame’s dizzying whirl, ‘retreated to her typewriter. "I started another book so I had ,a feeling of being grounded,” she Isaid. "I started Princess Daisy as soon as possible. It returned me to ;a routine of working.” * She was still uncertain that success would last. •‘ “I never took for granted that I would write a second book and I I never envisioned that one day you 'and I would be sitting here and I would have written six books,” she says over lunch in her bright, flowered Beverly Hills home. Her second book made publishing history. Paperback rights were lauctioned for $3.2 million, then :the highest price ever for reprint ;rights. ; Her subsequent books, Mistral's •Daughter, I’ll Take Manhattan, and •Till We Meet Again, were scooped •up by faithful readers and by television. ‘ But there was a downside to Krantz’s success; the critics ; snubbed her. "I took criticism in the press as someone snatching money out of the mouths of more deserving writers,” she recalls. "They didn’t understand that if publishers make , money on best-sellers they can afford to work with other authors. They had profits from my books that they could put into risk taking.” This onetime Wellesly College $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $'$ V- WAGERS CASINO | At Holiday Inn J George St. Super Libera! Rules! OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 6 p.m.: 2 a.m. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Judith Krantz admits sex Is a English major knows she is not writing serious literature. "I think I write about things that are serious in the lives of my characters but not in a serious way. My style is not a serious style. It’s a playful style.” Sex is a key ingredient in Krantz key Ingredient In her books. books, and Dazzle contains more explicit sex scenes than ever, including a lesbian episode. Why does she focus so heavily on sex? “I like to write about it,” she says matter-of-factly. "I love to write erotic, sensuous scenes. I FAMOUS PLAYERS HOT TICKETI TUESDAY I ROBERT 'T DE NIRO I m [ETfinSl nargF Guilty By Suspicion _________________ pugwq EVES: 7:00 A 1:00 PH. B.C. Warning: Some very coarM language. “A Total Knockout! The New York Observer -Rex Reed ‘MflROTHW . Mm C >01*1000 KMC (»«* WINNER OF ACADEMY AWARDS BE3T PICTURE EVES: 7:001.9:05 P.M. (fifSfi) B.C. Warning: Some very coarae language, occasional suggestive scenes. A ONE SHOW 7JO P.M. B.C. Warning: Some violence, occasional nudity and suggestive scenes. A U E V E N SEAGAL OUT JUSTICE a tim( «m> a»