More Bonding in Chicago
Suzyklein
Sometimes my job is really fun!
LAKELINES by Susan Klein
Miss October Joins Mr. 007 at Next Book Signing
When Raymond Benson was commissioned as the new James Bond author three years
ago, it was a dream come true for the lifelong 007 fan. Now the Buffalo Grove
writer gets to live out another fantasy thanks to the British master spy.
Two of Playboy's airbrushed beauties, Miss October 1994 Victoria Zdrok and Miss
July 1998 Lisa Dergan, will step off the pages of the men's mag to accompany
Benson at his next book signing engagement. The threesome will be among
celebrity guests appearing at Glamourcon, an un-convention celebrating pin-up
art, to be held Saturday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday,
October 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Rosemont's Clarion Hotel. Dergan is
scheduled for Sunday only.
While guaranteed to draw attention to Benson's work, the appearance by Zdrok
and Dergan is more than a gratuitous publicity stunt. The pair makes their
"literary" debut in Benson's latest 007 short story, "Midsummer Night's Doom,"
to be published in the 45th anniversary issue (January 1999) of Playboy
magazine.
The story takes James Bond inside the Playboy Mansion and features, not nly the
two real-life Playmates--Russian-born Zdrok as the bad girl and Dergan as 007's
ally--but the hutch-master himself Hugh Hefner.
This is not Benson's first...er...exposure in the girlie magazine. In early
1997, Playboy published his first 007short story, "Blast from the Past,"
re-establishing the link the magazine enjoyed decades ago with Bond's creator
Ian Fleming.
The magazine has since published excerpts from Benson's first Bond novel, "Zero
Minus Ten," and from his second book, "The Facts of Death," released earlier
this year to solid reviews.
With his able-bodied recruits Zdrok and Dergan at his side, and 49 additional
Playmates on hand, Benson expects to survive the rigors of the adults-only,
two-day glamour fest. He'll be autographing issues of Playboy magazine and
copies of all his Bond books, including his novelization of the 007 movie,
"Tomorrow Never Dies."
Between such demanding promotional events, the former computer game designer
and family man is at work on "High Time to Kill," his third Bond novel set in
Nassau, Brussels, England, and the Himalayas. Travelling to the exotic locales
featured in his spy adventures is yet another hardship 007's write-hand man is
forced to endure.
A dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.
(Lakeland Newspapers--October 9, 1998)
--Suzy