What do these two people have in common?

John Reimringer. Photo by James Peters.

It's long been a popular event in literary circles--an author "in conversation" on stage with someone who can chat knowledgeably with them about their work. Our own GK has hosted a number of these, conversations with Bill Moyers and John Lithgow and Billy Collins and Walter Mondale.

I've seen Anthony Burgess ("A Clockwork Orange") in conversation with the literary editor of the Edinburgh daily newspaper, and Lynne Truss ("Eats, Shoots, and Leaves") in conversation with Sally Williams, the former literary editor of the Star Tribune.

It's intimate and relaxed and can be great fun when the chemistry is right.

The e-mail I got this week announcing an author conversation coming up this fall, however, drew me up short.

John Reimringer, St. Paul author of the Minnesota Book Award winning "Vestments," a serious novel about faith and family and temptation, will be in conversation with ... Molly Ringwald? Did I read that right?

I did. Molly Ringwald, pictured here during her movie-glory-days of the 1980s, is also a writer. Her first book, "Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family and Finding the Perfect Lipstick," was a Los Angeles Times best-seller.

The New York Times describes it as "a lighthearted guide for women ... who want to be reminded of their youthful, carefree selves," and while it might be entertaining to hear John Reimringer in conversation with Molly Ringwald about the perfect lipstick, that's not gonna happen.

Nope. Her new book is a collection of linked short stories, called "When It Happens to You," stories of love, loss and betrayal, according to the Website of her publisher, HarperCollins.

What a curious matchup. How can you not go? It all happens at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 at Common Good Books, 38 S. Snelling Av., St. Paul.