IT fantasy author
JASPER FFORDE
WHY HIM? If the late Douglas Adams (The HItchiker's Guide to the Galaxy) wrote crime fiction, it might read a lot like The Eyre Affair, the whimsical brainy debut from Fforde that's made him an overnight smash in England and a burgeoning cult fave Stateside. His heroine, Thursday Next (punny names and witty wordplay are Fforde's forte), investigates crimes in a historically screwy, sci-fi England, where the Crimean War never ended, time travel is ho-hum, and folks can literaly get caught up in a novel; in Affair, Thursday chases the bad guy into Jane Eyre. "I liked the idea that books could be like film sets - you could blunder around and chase things," says the UK native, who used to make a living in the movies (crew credits: The Saint and Entrapment).
INFLUENCES Adams, Lewis Carroll, Kurt Vonnegut.
INSPIRATIONS Vivaldi and the Bee Gees.
WORST ADVICE "If you want to get published, look at the best-seller list and write what sells."
NEXTLost in a Good Book, the second in the Thursday next sereis (due january), in which our heroine finds herself working within - how fitting - Great Expectations.
