Grisham gave an interview to discuss his new book on Thursday, September 20 during which he also talked about the weekend’s event “A Conversation between John Grisham and Hillary Clinton.”

He said he came up with the football-abroad idea for “Playing for Pizza,” scheduled for release Monday, while in Italy working on his book “The Broker.”

The quarterback, Rick Dockery, plays football at fictional Davenport South High School and at the University of Iowa before his NFL career bottoms out during a painful playoff loss as a backup quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.

Grisham said Iowa references in the book – including mentions of Des Moines and Council Bluffs – were mostly random.

“I don’t really throw darts at the map, but you look at the map, and Iowa is always there in the center,” he said.

The day before “Playing for Pizza” is released nationwide, Grisham will moderate discussion at the Clinton event.

You can read more about Iowa’s connection to best-selling author John Grisham’s latest book, “Playing for Pizza,” as well as his thoughts about writing, traveling abroad and more in an interview with The Des Moines Register on Tuesday, September 25.

Read John Grisham’s thoughts on war and George W. Bush

“Playing for Pizza” is on sale from September 24, 2007, buy now from Amazon.

Source: DesMoinesRegister.com