The Glimmer of an Idea: A Guest Post by Elinor Lipman
Big-hearted and hilarious, Every Tom, Dick & Harry is a dazzling story chronicling one woman’s whirlwind journey through inheriting her family’s real estate business — and ruffling more than a few feathers along the way. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Elinor Lipman on writing Every Tom, Dick & Harry.
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Every Tom, Dick & Harry: A Novel
Every Tom, Dick & Harry: A Novel
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Hardcover
$24.99
$27.99
From the author of Ms. Demeanor—one of the most beloved comedic writers of our time—comes a charming, laugh-out-loud tale of love and criminality, a pitch-perfect romantic comedy.
From the author of Ms. Demeanor—one of the most beloved comedic writers of our time—comes a charming, laugh-out-loud tale of love and criminality, a pitch-perfect romantic comedy.
I started Every Tom, Dick & Harry with just the glimmer of an idea, and then—the way I’ve written all my novels—I crawled forward one sentence at a time.
In this case, the glimmer was asking, “How about a woman who runs an estate sale business?” Then: Who is she and how old? I didn’t want her to be very experienced or terribly successful because it’s more fun for me to fix what’s wrong with the lives of the characters I love. Did she inherit the company? No. Her parents would hand over the reins. Would they move away or hover? It turned out they did both.
And what would I name this second-hand company? I crowd-sourced that question on Facebook. Suggestions poured in. I chose “Finders, Keepers”…then, in typical seat-of-the-pants fashion, I decided half-way through the book that my protagonist, Emma (age 32), needed something more ”Zeitgeist-y.” I mused about this while having drinks with friends. “Estate of Mind?” one offered. (His state college alma mater liked to use “state of mind” in their newsletters, he explained.)
“Bingo!” I said.
From that same Facebook outreach, a woman who ran estate sales in real life responded. Did I need any insider info? I did. We emailed and talked. I loved her wry, not always sympathetic take on clients and their stuff, a point of view that became Emma’s.
My own estate sale experience is as a customer. I was delighted to walk into the kitchen of the late opera superstar Beverly Sills to discover that we both had the same hand-painted Italian dishes. (I now have thirteen plates, up from ten.) I also bought her electric teakettle, her egg slicer, a throw pillow with an astrological theme, and wooden napkin rings. Several years later, at the posthumous estate sale of a woman whose taste I shared, I bought a serving plate, three bowls, and what became my favorite coffee mug. It was those exact things, from that stranger’s house, that made me think, Yes, this is what my next novel will be about.
Every Tom, Dick & Harry is set in the fictional college town of Harrow, Massachusetts where I’d also set The Way Men Act (1992). Calling the town “Harrow” won’t fool anyone. I lived there for 25 years (real name, Northampton, Massachusetts), and if that wasn’t a big enough clue, I didn’t disguise the names of the surrounding towns (Hatfield, Agawam, Holyoke, Springfield, Amherst).
It wasn’t long before I had to give Emma (spoiler alert) a sweetheart. Enter Luke Winooski, a high school classmate. Now as Harrow’s chief of police, he was obliged to drop by on official business to reprimand her for violating a town ordinance. They took it from there.
And I can’t say why I gave Emma a housemate (Frank, 62, her father’s widowed best friend) except I don’t fight against ideas that fly into my head. Frank finds late-in-life, overdue love. Was that my plan, multiple happy endings? Not from the get-go. But if I have a brand, that could be it.
