Sharon Krum

Tom Webster is a dreary nobody; nice enough, but neither a head-turner or a hell-raiser, until he’s given the opportunity to become an uber-celebrity.

The assignment: A major magazine gives Tom 30-days in which to make himself famous, using any, and they mean any, means necessary.

The pay-off: Fame, glory, and $100,000.

When the assignment spins out of control, Tom takes a wild ride on the celebrity machine with a B-list film actress who wants to be working on Shakespeare in the Park rather than her buxom physique, her slimy agent, his best friend, (who happens to have stolen his wife), a boss desperate to capitalize on Tom’s celebrity, and a fame obsessed magazine editor who wants a finished article from Tom above all else. As his level of fame escalates, Tom becomes trapped in his own lies and the cult of celebrity – while everyone around him grabs their fifteen minutes. And then, just when everything seems perfect, Tom will make the decision of his life- turning the tables on the paparazzi, the hangers on, and his scheming counterparts.

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kirkus review
"A sassy, entertaining confection, a sweet zing at the Culture of Celebrity that follows a dour financial writer's self-created launch into the ranks of the beautiful people-and the amusing, if predictable consequences."
Publishers Weekly
"I am forty-three years old and have failed to make a dent in anyone's life": so says Tom Webster, the narrator of Krum's knowing, cynical debut about the shallowness of fame in America. Texas native Tom is now a New York City business writer whose wife left him a year ago for his best friend, Jake. Though he may be lost, he doesn't think of himself as a loser. He's obsessed with history John Wilkes Booth, in particular and can't manage to stay mad at Jake. Then an extraordinary thing happens to this ordinary man: a glossy magazine offers him $100,000 to write an expos‚ of overnight fame. His mission is to somehow make himself famous in 30 days, after which he must expose himself as just a sham in the tell-all article he's supposed to pen. To that end, Tom enlists the help of B-list actress Alexandra West, who wants to be taken more seriously and who is willing to allow Tom to use her even as she uses him. Soon their Marilyn Monroe-Arthur Miller relationship is in the tabloids and people Tom's intimates, the media, the general public certainly begin to react. As things spin out of control and Tom's surreal new existence encourages him to lie, the question becomes whether or not success will spoil Tom Webster. There's lots of filler here as well as Australianisms on the part of native Australian Krum that someone somewhere should have adjusted Tom often sounds more like Bridget Jones than a Texas transplant. There are no stunning revelations, but the end result is an agreeably smart and amusing story about what most sensible people already know: fame in America is not necessarily based on merit.
Booklist
Poor Tom Webster leads an everyday life. After his wife leaves him for his best friend, Jake, Tom falls even lower on the boredom scale. When approached by a quasi-intellectual magazine to prove that anyone can become a celebrity, even ordinary forty-something Tom Webster, he signs away his dull (although private) life to mix with the famous. He convinces Alexandra West, a Pamela Anderson-type actress, into meeting publicly. But the arrangement more than satisfies Alexandra, as she is looking to acquire more serious and less scantily clad roles, and soon the public begins to see beyond her looks as she and Tom become an item. Of course, this set-up doesn't work out the way that Tom hopes, the admiration he receives from his coworkers is temporary, and his private life vanishes. But, despite a predictable plot, Krum's sharp, funny dialogue and good characters keep readers wondering what will happen next.
Michelle Kaske

writer

The Thing About Jane Spring

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Walk of Fame

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