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NOTES FROM THE EMBASSY China's most prominent dissident, astrophysicist Fang Lizhi, had agreed to write his memoirs for Doubleday when the crackdown on China's democracy movement forced him to seek refuge at the American embassy in Beijing in June 1989. During his yearlong imprisonment there, communication with Doubleday was dif cult, but Lizhi did begin to write. Some early chapters were spirited from the embassy to New York, and the book's editor, David Gernert, says they are powerful. ''The book opens with him in the embassy, saying, 'I am a fugitive now,' knowing he faces certain execution if he leaves, and he looks back at his life from that perspective.'' Lizhi, who went to work at Britain's Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics after his release, plans to be in the U.S. for the publication of the book next spring. TO BE THE BEST-SELLER Best-selling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, creator of the ''matriarchal dynastic saga'' (in her agent's words) has a new beat. She has turned from tales of strong, smart females (A Woman of Substance, To Be the Best) to the celebration of a male counterpart. ''I thought, 'There are a lot of people imitating me. I don't want to imitate myself. I'll write about a man,' '' says Bradford. So she promptly created a tycoon named Maximilian West, the hero of her new novel, The Women in His Life. Male or female-it doesn't matter; this novel, like her previous ve, is headed for the top of the best-seller lists.
SWEET FANG Maida Heatter, whose sixth cookbook comes out next month, is famous for all kinds of desserts-but one kind especially. ''People say to me, 'Oh, I don't remember your name, but I remember your brownies,''' she laughs. The doyenne of American desserts (Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts, Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies, Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts, and so forth), Heatter has been known for her brownies since she was a little girl. And her latest epic, Maida Heatter's Best Dessert Book Ever, features a ''different, thick, yummy brownie with a ribbon of cheesecake through it'' called Santa Fe Brownies. ''There's just something about brownies,'' Heatter admits. ''I always carry some in my pocketbook, wrapped in clear cellophane, to give away.''
