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Monday, September 23, 2002

By Bob Hoover, Post-Gazette Book Editor

Michael Chabon wouldn't shake hands. "It's covered with lollipop," he confessed. His left arm was full of squirming daughter Ida Rose, the 16-month-old owner of the lollipop who wanted to get down on the floor so she could crawl to Mommy.

	Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman were at the Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont yesterday. The couple have three children and another on the way. (Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette)

But Mom Ayelet Waldman was too busy talking about her books yesterday at Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, so Daddy would have to do.

After marrying Chabon, who had two Pittsburgh-based novels under his belt already -- "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and "Wonder Boys" -- Waldman left her assistant prosecutor's job in Los Angeles for motherhood and mystery writing.

Waldman created her "Mommy Track" series last year featuring Juliet Applebaum, a onetime prosecutor, who coincidentally stopped prosecuting criminals to raise her child. She has written three installments.

"A Playdate With Death," her latest, published in early summer, won't be her last, she vowed. "As long as Putnam [her publisher] keeps buying them, I'll keep writing them. Down the road, I can see Juliet staying at an Elderhostel."

Admitting that she feels "a little intimidated" by the shelves of mysteries surrounding her at the Oakmont bookstore, Waldman consoled herself by adding that "mystery readers are voracious readers. They can't get enough."

Waldman also has written what she calls "a more literary novel," tentatively titled "Six-Month Window," slated for publication next year. Also slated for arrival in 2003 is the fourth child of the writing couple who now live in Berkeley, Calif.

Along with Ida Rose are, Sophie, 8, and Zeke, 5.

The pair, who were in town for the wedding of Chabon's stepbrother Saturday, used the opportunity to visit several bookstores around town.

While staying in the background with his daughter while his wife talked about her books yesterday, Chabon was reluctant to discuss the big news in his own career -- he signed on to write the screenplay for the next "Spider-Man" movie.

"I'm really sworn to secrecy about it," he said, but he did reveal that he was brought in after several drafts were not accepted.

"I haven't read any of them. I'm doing my own, which I'm really very thrilled about. It's very exciting to be given the chance to work on "Spider-Man."

Chabon is a comic book aficionado, as evidenced by his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," a tale of two cousins who create a Superman-like hero in the 1930s.

He's completed his screen version of the book for producer Scott Rudin, who brought "Wonder Boys" to the screen two years ago, but with another screenwriter.

"Hopefully, we'll have word of its fate within six months," Chabon said.

The Chabon news was not over. His first novel for youngsters, "Summerland," went on sale Friday. It's a tale of baseball and children, two more things that are dear to the writer.

Scheduled to fly home last night, the University of Pittsburgh graduate regretted that his weekend visit did not include a Pirates game.