Hearing this afternoon that Sports Illustrated had a new issue coming out soon with Cub’s phenom and NL MVP Kris Bryant on the cover, I visited the Barnes & Noble website to get the phone number to a store here in town in my sort-of neighborhood. I had to ask Jeff the Magazine Guy over there to save me a copy, as my mom has come to appreciate the handsome talent named Bryant, and certainly I needed to add it to my cache of World Series memorabilia. The Cubs are only World Series champions for one year at least, after all.

While on the B&N website, a blurb flashed by under the navigation menu that showed a book cover, and next to it, a sort-of familiar face.

There he is- Andrew McCarthy. He’s written and selling a book.

McCarthy was a heartthrob in the late 1980’s to teen girls of my time. An actor in St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink, and Mannequins, among other popular films of my growing up years, it turns out that McCarthy became a writer after putting aside his first career. He’s written travel documentary for National Geographic, and has also appeared in Slate and the Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal, turning out a wide range of pieces over the years.

Well, there now he is- having written his first novel, which hits the market next week.

I’m always amazed at how some people can produce, AND be interesting, AND be profitable writing stories that create fans. Especially when it is someone who crosses over from another career.

Jealousy! Fist-shaking! Grrrrr.

And yet, I am also always curious how these new and fascinating stories come to be written and well-received. After all, as it says in Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun.” Isn’t every plot a rehash?

I guess not.

As Doug Henning said on a Saturday Night Live episode in 1985, “Well, there’s always room for beauty – in the world of magic, Joe! … For magic is the spirit of illusion. And illusion can be magical. Like this!”

Good on you, Mr. McCarthy. Good luck on your book release.