November 12, 2002

JILL A. DAVIS:
THE PBJ INTERVIEW

Author of Girl's Poker Night
Ex-writer for The Late Show With David Letterman
Contributor to Esquire
Proprietor of girlspokernight.com.

There seems to be a lot of autobiography in Girls Poker Night (living in the Boston area, trying to write, moving to NYC, etc).  Is there a lot of true stuff in there?

Girls' Poker Night is a work of fiction, but certainly there is a lot of me in the all of the characters -- at least psychologically. There are actually very, very few incidents which are ripped from the headlines of my life. In fact, the closest I come to borrowing specifically from my own life is in a chapter called Midge - toward the end of the book, and really more because it's a fact is stranger than fictions sort of deal - when an older woman dies while being interviewed by Ruby. That actually happened to me -- my second week working as a reporter -- a woman actually died during the interview. They don't cover that one in journalism school ... and I was just new enough to the job to wonder if this was the sort of thing I might expect to happen on a regular basis.

You wrote for Letterman.  What was the writing room/writing process like on a late night show, Letterman specifically?

It's hard to be very specific, because even though I was there for 5 years, every day was different. Some time is spent writing alone in one's office; and then there was also time spent in a conference room writing with the team of writers. But I also spent a whole lot of time in an editing room, editing remotes. And a lot of time on locations shooting remotes.

To my thinking, the main goal every day was to write as much material as possible -- with the key being that it must be funny, and you must be able to imagine Dave saying it. Really, the job of the writers is just to crank out as much material for Dave to choose from -- since ultimately he's the guy who has to go out and make it all work. So the writing is the easy part in that case -- making it work before an audience is something else entirely. He pretty much can't miss. I mean he's just the best at what he does -- so whatever you write you always know it's landing in the best possible hands.

If your question was really, what was it like to work there? I'd say, it was a great experience. And I learned more about writing and editing there then I'll ever learn anywhere else.

You wrote The Countdown serial for USA Today.com.  How did that gig come about, and did you have it finished or did you write the installments as you went along?

Uh-oh, does that mean it reads like I just wrote it as I went along? No, I wrote it all at once. Split it up into seven parts and then gave it to USA Today. They were nice enough to ask me to write the seven part series. They'd recently reviewed Girls' Poker Night when they'd asked me to write a serialized piece. It was a blast to work on because it's longer than a short story and a shorter than a novel -- so a very nice break for me. And, it was just great to see it nearly immediately online, and to get reactions from readers on a weekly basis. And boy did that $50 come in handy...

What's the best part about writing a popular novel?  The worst parts?

If I'm ever lucky enough to write a popular novel, I'll let you know. The worst part? You don't get to write a popular novel and then complain about it -- it's just really bad manners.

Any funny or scary stories about meeting fans of your book?

This might be more odd than funny: there's a chapter in the book called New Chair -- it's about Ruby witnessing the arrival of her shrink's new chair. I get a lot of e-mail from readers, and New Chair is a chapter I receive a ton of mail regarding. Apparently, nearly every person in therapy has had the experiencing of seeing their shrink's new chair arrive -- that's something I couldn't have predicted.

What are you working on now?  And does talking about your current project dilute it in anyway?  I used to talk a lot about what I was working on if people ask, now I don't talk about it at all.

Well, I'm with you on that one. I'm very superstitious about talking about what I'm writing about. My biggest fear is that not talking about it makes other people think the writer feels they're too self-involved to think anyone would 'understand'. It's not that at all in my case, for me I'm just unsure enough about what I'm writing in the beginning, that I don't want to subject myself or what I'm writing to any kind of rejection. I think I just want to hold onto whatever I'm writing until I absolutely have to let someone read it -- like the good folks buying it, for example. -- I'm writing a novel, by the way. And I have a piece in the December issue of Esquire.

The Esquire 10 Things You Don't Know About Women piece:  can you give male PBJ readers a #11?

#11. Reread number 1...

You have a list of drink recipes at your site.  What's your regular poison?

Well, at the moment, water and pre-natal vitamins. I'm pregnant -- so an occasional non-alcoholic beer is pretty much my big excitement.

OK, so it's the end of the night, and it's the big pot.  It comes down to me and one other guy.  He asked for two cards and raises my bid.  I'm holding two pair, kings and jacks.  What should I do?

Bet it all honey, 'cause you'll always be a winner in my book!

Go back to Professor Barnhardt's Journal