Writers Tricks of the Trade ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 | Page 7

the movie industry which led to my first
publication in the prestigious Designer’s
West Magazine, a slick publication consid-
ered one of the top interior design maga-
zines of its time.
We were approached to do a story
about a unique floor made from packing
crates. One would assume that would be
something funky with stampings, but not in
this case. Our custom floor fabricator was
contracted to hand mill every piece, sand
the wood to take of any marks and expose
the unique grains of multiple types of
woods. It turned out that some were so ex-
otic they could not be identified. He applied
a beautiful multi-step stain and sealer. The
result was elegant and distinctive enough
to capture the interest of the editor.
We were elated. Publication in this
magazine with a mention of our biog-
raphies and location of our design studio
would be priceless for our credibility. Pho-
tographers were sent out to photograph us
sitting on crates on the expanse of floor.
Time passed and we counted the days to
publication. Then the awful realization hit!
We weren’t writers, and therefore had no
manuscript to submit. We were going to be
a laughing stock in the industry. Pariahs to
Designers West Magazine when we missed
the deadline.
My partner Carol and I sat in my living
room one evening close to the submission
deadline commiserating and drinking wine.
The more wine we drank, the more misera-
ble we were, until suddenly a genius idea
struck. We wouldn’t do a “techie” article.
Ours would be done like a noir mystery,
called “The Case of the Disappearing
Crates.”
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
We’d had just enough wine to have fun
with it. We assumed the editor would reject
it, but the article would fulfill what we
agreed to do. We finished it that night and
submitted the next morning, then waited
for the inevitable rejection.
Instead, the editor Carol King, called
and said, “We’ve never had an article like
yours. I love it.” It ran in the August 1978
issue, and there was no greater thrill than
seeing our article in a magazine on news-
stands. I wrote under Elaine Pransky (my
first name and married name) until 1983. I
the one with black hair sitting on the floor.
When I held the first copy in my hands,
I knew was a writer. I wrote several more
articles for that magazine and even had and
inside story and the cover of the September
1978 issue.
M ULTIPLE C AREERS
P AGE 2
S PRING 2019