Shamus Award winning novelist Lynn S. Hightower didn’t hesitate to tell me what other authors and fiction can be compared to my debut thriller The Don’s Wife.

“Actually your book is not like The Godfather, which is full of sexist Italian men and is dated. Look for comparisons with books that have strong female leads who might be bad girls. And Mafia clichés are clichés because that is how the Mafia works. The trick is to cover new ground and you are doing that when she takes over the organization. And changes as it happens. And uses men to her liking which I think is rather fun. In fact, maybe you should compare yourself to, say, Sidney Sheldon or Jackie Collins. I think Jackie Collins would be a good comparison”, said novelist Lynn S. Hightower.

While I was surprised at the comparison, I decided then and there I needed to meet Jackie Collins. Her next book signing was at The Grove Barnes and Noble, in Los Angeles on June 2015, for The Santangelos.

Now, I have never read a Jackie Collins book in my life. I knew she had a reputation for sexy stories, and I’ve never shied away from a good sensual book, sexy and detailed to the core. After all, I loved Nabokov’s Lolita, and loved a good Harold Robbins or Sydney Sheldon adventure series involving sex, money and power which made them some of the best-selling authors. Loved the pictures in my mind of all those women passed out around Robbins’ male main characters. Good sex scenes add so much to character’s lives. Doesn’t everyone need to read the juicy stuff between the knives and bullets of war, violence and espionage? And, what about the honey pots?

So, I knew that soon I was going to become as much a devoted fan as all those whom I saw, met and talked with at this book signing. After all I just found out that Sarina Donato who is the lead in my thriller, The Don’s Wife, had just been compared to Jackie Collins ‘Lucky.’

Impossible because there is only one ‘Lucky.’ I had to find out why and how.

I went to her book signing with my NASA man, Jack Rogers, and we had arrived quite early, enough so that when we meandered to the upstairs event room, the books from a previous author signing were just being removed.

The first person I met who was waiting to get his book signed was a young man who said that he owes his entire career to her. Others who were in attendance spoke about how having a Jackie Collins book to read on the side when they were in high school sometimes was the only thing that kept them going. They had become lifelong devoted readers. When one fan went up to the dais to sit down next to her to talk while she signed her books, she said that without Jackie’s books to read, she would never have graduated from high school.

By the time Jackie arrived, the chairs in the audience were filled with people, many of whom had other books of hers in hand for signature. A group of four or five photographers were milling around awaiting her entrance.

And, did she make an entrance. Tall, with her long dark hair swaying to each step she took, she was glamorous and beautifully groomed. Her eyes flashed a confidence which was a result of the fact that she has never had a book of hers go out of print. The stories of wild and virile Hollywood men and wives, Mafia Dons and wild parties were always lascivious, titillating and plot twisting enough to keep any reader’s interest.

She had a pose that was practiced. Dressed in an elegant lavender jacket with silver studs on its lapels and wearing long silver dangly ear rings, she placed her open left hand on her hip with her elbow comfortably spread to the side, and smiled. She turned to her audience and said that she had to take a few photos first. Where were we going anyways?

No spokesperson introduced her, but then she didn’t need one. She started talking to the audience about her characters and how she made sure they were always dressed for the occasion. And, then she emphasized that point by seeing my NASA man’s bare feet with his toes poking out of leather sandals in the front row next to me. She said that the particular character she was referring to would never wear sandals like that. To which, I piped up and said “at least, he (my NASA man) had a pedicure.” I think she liked that I talked back to her.

Then she began asking everyone what should happen next to this character and that character. She wanted to know what her readers thought about how the plots were progressing. She wanted feedback. And, she got it. People loved talking about the stories with her. I enjoyed listening to their enthusiastic banter.

She thanked one man by name for sending her flowers. And, then she recognized another pair of admirers and called them out by name. She knew her fans personally. The crowd was middle aged, but on the young side. Remarkable.

When the time came to stand in line to go sit with her at her table, I was close to the end of the line. I overheard others eagerly tell her how much they loved this book or that book. One fan had five or six books besides the current one that she wanted signed.

When my turn came, I sat beside her. I told her about my editor told me that Sarina Donato, my main character, compared to her main female characters. I said I needed to meet her. She turned and nodded.

My NASA man had been instructed to take pics on his and my iPhones. He did a great job, but then I said I wanted another photo with her for insurance.

Then she said “I’ll have my photographer take one. And, it will be on my website.” I turned toward the camera because I knew from watching all evening that she didn’t ask her photographer to take a photo of everyone to be on her website.

I asked her if she could add my last name, the Sicilian ‘Casella,’ when she signed my copy of her book. She did. She thought that I was very colorful and I said lavender and green are complimentary colors and certainly we both stand out. She said that she takes about nine months to write 500-plus page novel and loves her characters.

“Can’t wait to be with them in her study,” she said.

While her sister Joan liked to party, Jackie loved to write. She said she never knew where her characters would take her.

Since June, I’ve polished off in between my thriller reading, first Sinners, Chances and am currently on Lucky. Her stories are wonderfully outrageous and sexy. Her female characters are compelling and the drama of their own actions and twists of fate propel them on their own journeys. She takes no prisoners. And her male characters aren’t too shabby either. I can pick up a book and start easily where I left off. I love to post-it good sex scenes in books I read. Just ask author Mark Haskell Smith what I did to a copy of his Delicious. But, I might run out of post-its in reading Jackie’s books.

Her latest book, The Santangelos, has short chapters of nine to ten pages each…which keeps the reader moving along.

And meeting her, keeps me moving along. Thank you, Jackie. I was damn lucky to meet you in person.

And, now I can look back on what she wrote to me on my title page of her book in scrolling dark black ink “Stay lucky!”

Read more about Lynn Hightower at lynnhightower.com
Read more about Mark Haskell Smith at markhaskellsmith.com
Read more about Jackie Collins at jackiecollins.com and people.com/article/jackie-collins-final-interview

Little did I know that three months later Jackie Collins would lose her battle with breast cancer. This moment in soft conversation with her about her writing and how she should sign my book would be the last time I could visit with what some called a great ‘bad ass’ writer who took no prisoners with her fiction. I am, lucky.