PC #42: Bonkbuster Novelist JJ Salem Talks The Strip, Classic and Current Primetime Soaps

He's been called the literary love-child of Sidney Sheldon and Jackie Collins. On today's episode of Pop Confidential, Jamey Giddens and Luke Kerr welcome author JJ Salem, whose steamy new novel The Strip drops Nov. 8 from St. Martin's Press. The Strip, a companion novel to Salem's USA Today Best Sellling novel Tan Lines, brings back troubled rock goddess Billie Shelton, who has been reformed at the hands of a controlling husband and now sells out casino showrooms in Las Vegas. Billie's best friend is Kristen Fox, a popular chick lit novelist, who has a series on HBO based on one of her raunchy reads. Then there's the two womens' therapist, Jennifer Payne, a marriage and family counseling expert, trapped in her own loveless marriage. When high-priced male gigolo Cam Lawford enters their orbit, these three women find their lives forever altered.

When Salem isn't dishing his new novel, he's talking with the PC guys about the recent TV development boom for classic pot boiler novels, with ABC planning an adaptation of Judith Krantz's Scruples and NBC rebooting The Valley of The Dolls. Could Salem possibly be working on a primetime sudser of his own? You'll have to download the interview to find out.

The talented writer also dishes about the current crop of primetime soaps he's enjoying, from ABC's Revenge to The CW's Ringer. He also shares his love for classic primetime soaps like Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing, all of which he writes about on his own fun blog Bonkbuster Diaries. Any fan of glossy soaps and/or raunchy beach reads should get a kick out of this interview!

Follow JJ Salem on Twitter and visit his official website for more on his must read books.

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