Second honeymoon

Franz Wisner’s book is the true tale of a Corona del Mar man abandoned at the altar, who decides to take his beloved brother along on his prepaid honeymoon.It had been a long day of traveling when brothers Franz and Kurt Wisner found themselves where no vagabonds want to be: stuck in a customs office trying to negotiate their Saab over the Syrian border.

They had spent a half an hour passing out $20 bills to make their way into the office of the head official, a stoic fellow who seemed irritated the pair had interrupted his viewing of the 2000 U.S. presidential debate between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Sensing an opportunity, Wisner slowly rose and grabbed a picture of himself posing with Bush, taken at a fundraiser during his former corporate days at the Irvine Co.

The official, apparently a Bush fan at the time, was so impressed that he sent the men through, waiving the exorbitant fees required to take a car into the country.

“That trick doesn’t work in Syria any more,” Franz Wisner joked Tuesday. “At the time we also carried a picture of Al Gore. We were bipartisan vagabonds.”

Colorful stories like this make up Franz Wisner’s book “Honeymoon with My Brother,” the true tale of a Corona del Mar man abandoned at the altar who decides to take his brother along on his prepaid honeymoon.

That trip turned into whirlwind world tour for the pair, who trekked across the continents for years, romancing women in the Czech Republic and chucking their guidebooks in Vietnam for a taste of culture.

On Oct. 20, the pair will be appearing at the Huntington Beach Central Library to promote the book and talk about how their journey around the world changed their lives.

“It felt good to shed everything,” Franz said, recalling how he sold his beachside home and sports car to help pay for the trip. “I spent my whole life accumulating. You get into that upward climb and it starts to become addicting; it’s a pattern that’s hard to fight. This trip helped me to begin to shed those layers. To realize the importance of the simple life.”

Before his life-changing trip, Franz Wisner worked as a lobbyist for the Irvine Co. His brother Kurt was a self-proclaimed slumlord in Seattle.

Franz said his almost-marriage to the woman identified as Annie in his book was his attempt to complete his “perfect life,” or so he thought.

Just three days before the big event, she broke things off, crushing his heart and sending him into a tailspin that sent him traveling around the world, spending any free moment talking about his ex.

“A lot of people ask me, ‘Do you still love her?’” Franz said. “Of course I do. Without her there would be no ‘Honeymoon with my Brother.’ It would just be ‘Honeymoon with My Wife,’ and no one wants to read that.”

Although it took months to get a publisher to buy the book, within weeks of publication “Honeymoon with my Brother” became a hit. And the two were to be on “Oprah” and “The Today Show.”

They scored a photo shoot in Vanity Fair, cover stories in countless newspapers across the country and a big movie deal with Sony Pictures to adapt “Honeymoon with my Brother” into a feature film.

Now they both work full time on projects related to the book, which is in its eighth printing. Franz handles much of the creative side, and Kurt sets up book club meetings and does the behind-the-scenes work.

“We really like doing book clubs and public groups,” Franz said. “What’s driven the book is word of mouth. Media really brings us nice exposure, but it’s the readers that really give it legs.”

Since the book has premiered, Franz has met a new leading lady, actor Tracy Middendorf, and the two were recently married. That’s left Kurt with a monopoly on the fan mail and groupies. He said he recently got a letter from a Canadian woman informing him that they were a perfect match because she had no debt, no kids and more than $500,000 in the bank.

“I wrote her back and asked her if they were Canadian or American dollars,” he said.

The pair also plan to write another book together, this one a nonfiction piece about love and romance in the developing world. Franz said he just got back from a few months in Botswana, studying marriage proposals that often involved dozens of heads of cattle.

Kurt spent a few months in Brazil, learning about the local courtship customs.

“I’ve probably interviewed over 100 people -- it’s the way I like to travel,” he said. “I wouldn’t spend as much time in gay bars in Rio if I didn’t do this.”

And even years later, Kurt said he’s still not sick of hearing his brother talk about his ex-fiancee or inspiring people to pick up and go.

“The rewarding thing is when you receive the e-mails and they say that they’re going to call their brother to go travel, or connect with a friend and take a trip to another country,” he said.

“It may seem overwhelming at first, but I tell people to not get caught up worrying that you need all kinds of money. If you stick to third-world countries, you should be all right.”20051014inwzpeknDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Franz Wisner, right, author of “Honeymoon with My Brother,” will appear at the Central Library with his brother Kurt on Thursday.