Filmed mostly here in Melbourne and further up on the Queensland Coast Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's The Pacific will attempt to do for a platoon of marines what the excellent Band of Brothers did for the 101st Airborne in World War 2, i.e. tell their story from the beginning right through to the end of the War. The trailer has an interesting vibe of Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line about it, which I thought was better by a long way than Spielberg's own Saving Private Ryan. A combination of TTRL and Band of Brothers could be really good. They've been showing longer previews of this series here in Australia but the only one I could find online is the HBO one on YouTube.
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I'm an Irish novelist currently living in St Kilda, Australia
"Hardboiled charm, evocative dialogue, an acute sense of place and a sardonic sense of humour make McKinty one to watch."
---The Guardian
A couple more books, a few birthdays, some shuffleboard then a period spent in the digestive tract of earthworms, followed by molecular breakdown, the sun boiling into space, the heat death of the universe, atomic decay, perpetual darkness, a trillion years of nothingness and then, if we're lucky, brane collapse, a new singularity and a new Big Bang.
About Me
I'm an Irish novelist currently living in St Kilda, Australia
You can read a review of my latest book, The Cold Cold Ground, in The Guardian, here. You can peruse the review from the Irish Independent, here or the review in The Times, here. The Glasgow Herald's verdict is here and The Sydney Morning Herald chips in, here. Not to be outdone The Irish Times weighs in, here and the Irish Sunday Independent adds its two cents, here. If you want to know what all the fuss is about you can be a good chap and get The Cold Cold Ground on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Audible.com or at your local bookshop.
Followers
More about me
I was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. After studying philosophy at Oxford University I emigrated to New York City where I lived in Harlem for seven years working in bars, bookstores, building sites and finally the basement stacks of the Columbia University Medical School Library in Washington Heights.
In 2000 I moved to Denver, Colorado where I taught high school English and started writing fiction in earnest. My first full length novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was picked by Booklist as one of the 10 best crime novels of the year. The sequel to that book The Dead Yard was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 best novels of 2006 and won the Audie Award for best mystery or thriller.
In mid 2008 I moved to St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia with my wife and kids. My last book Falling Glass was Audible's Best Mystery or Thriller for 2011. I've just published a new novel for Serpents Tail called The Cold Cold Ground.
In 2000 I moved to Denver, Colorado where I taught high school English and started writing fiction in earnest. My first full length novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was picked by Booklist as one of the 10 best crime novels of the year. The sequel to that book The Dead Yard was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 best novels of 2006 and won the Audie Award for best mystery or thriller.
In mid 2008 I moved to St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia with my wife and kids. My last book Falling Glass was Audible's Best Mystery or Thriller for 2011. I've just published a new novel for Serpents Tail called The Cold Cold Ground.
WORK IN PROGRESS:
All Hail McKinty!
"If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland he would have written The Cold Cold Ground."
---The Times
"Hardboiled charm, evocative dialogue, an acute sense of place and a sardonic sense of humour make McKinty one to watch."
---The Guardian
"A literary thriller that is as concerned with exploring the poisonously claustrophobic demi-monde of Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and the self-sabotaging contradictions of its place and time, as it is with providing the genre’s conventional thrills and spills. The result is a masterpiece of Troubles crime fiction: had David Peace, Eoin McNamee and Brian Moore sat down to brew up the great Troubles novel, they would have been very pleased indeed to have written The Cold Cold Ground."
---The Irish Times
"McKinty is a big new talent."
---The Daily Telegraph
"McKinty is a gifted man with poetry coursing through his veins and thrilling writing dripping from his fingertips."
---The Sunday Independent
"McKinty is a big new talent."
---The Daily Telegraph
"McKinty is a gifted man with poetry coursing through his veins and thrilling writing dripping from his fingertips."
---The Sunday Independent
"Adrian McKinty is fast gaining a reputation as the finest of the new generation of Irish crime writers, and it's easy to see why on the evidence of The Cold Cold Ground."
---The Glasgow Herald
"McKinty is a storyteller with the kind of style and panache that blur the line between genre and mainstream."
---Kirkus Reviews
"McKinty's literate expertly crafted crime novel confirms his place as one of his generation's leading talents."
---Publishers Weekly
"McKinty crackles with raw talent. His dialogue is superb, his characters rich and his plotting tight and seemless. He writes with a wonderful and wonderfully humorous flair for language raising his work above most crime genre offerings and bumping it right up against literature."
---The San Francisco Chronicle
"McKinty keeps getting better. He melds the snap and crackle of the old Mickey Spillane tales with the literary skills of Raymond Chandler and sets it all down in his own artful way."
---The Rocky Mountain News
"The first of McKinty's Forsythe novels, "Dead I Well May Be," was intense, focused and entirely brilliant. This one is looser-limbed, funnier...so, I imagine, is the middle book, "The Dead Yard," which I haven't read but which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the 12 best novels of 2006, along with works by Peter Abrahams, Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy and George Pelecanos."
---The Washington Post
"McKinty, who grew up in Northern Ireland, has an ear for language and a taste for violence, and he serves up a terrifically gory, swiftly paced thriller."
---The Miami Herald
"There's nothing like an Irish tough guy. And we're not talking about Gentleman Gerry Cooney here. No, we mean the new breed of bare-knuckle Irish writers like Adrian McKinty, Ken Bruen and John Connolly who are bringing fresh life to the crime fiction genre."
---The Philadelphia Inquirer
"McKinty's writing is dark and witty with gritty realism, spot on dialogue, and fascinating characters."
---The Chicago Sun-Times
"If you like your noir staples such as beautiful women, betrayal, murder, mixed with a heavy dose of blood, crunched bones, body parts flying around served up with some throwaway humour, you need look no further, McKinty delivers all of this with the added bonus that the writing is pitch perfect."
---The Barcelona Review
"I really enjoyed [Dead I Well May Be’s] combination of toughness and a striking literary style. Both those things are evident in Hidden River. McKinty is going places."
---The Observer
"This is a terrific read. McKinty gives us a strong non stop story with attractive characters and fine writing."
---The Morning Star
"[McKinty] draws us close and relates a fantastic tale of murder and revenge in low, wry tones, as if from the next barstool...he drops out of conversational mode to throw in a few breathtaking fever-dream sequences for flavor. And then he springs an ending so right and satisfying it leaves us numb with delight and ready to pop for another round. Start the cliche machine: This is a profoundly satisfying book from a major new talent and one of the best crime fiction debuts of the year."
---Booklist
"The story is soaked in the holy trinity of the noir thriller: betrayal, money and murder, but seen through with a panache and political awareness that give McKinty a keen edge over his rivals."
---The Big Issue
"A darkly humorous cross between a hard-boiled mystery and a Beat novel."
---The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"A roller coaster of highs and lows, light humour and dark deeds, the powerful undercurrent of McKinty's talent will swiftly drag you away. Let's hope the author does not slow down anytime soon."
---The Irish Examiner
"A virtual carnival of slaughter."
---The Wall Street Journal
"McKinty has once again harnassed the power of poetry, violence, lust and revenge to forge a sequel to his acclaimed Dead I Well May Be."
---The Irish Post
"A pacey, violent caper in which McKinty vividly portrays [Belfast's] sleazy, still-menacing underbelly."
---The Sunday Times
"McKinty writes with the soul of a poet; his prose dances off the pages with Old World grace and haunting intensity. It's crime fiction on the level of Michael Connolly with the conviction of James Hall."
---The Jackson Clarion-Ledger
"The Bloomsday Dead is the explosive final installment in a trilogy of kinetic thrillers."
---The New York Times
"Adrian McKinty has garnered nothing but praise for his first two books. The third in the trilogy The Bloomsday Dead should leave no doubt that he is a true star. Fast moving and highly engaging this is a great book. McKinty just gets better and better."
---CrimeSpree
"Until The Dead Yard's relentless, poignant ending you'll turn these pages as quickly as you can."
---The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"McKinty's Dead Trilogy has been praised by critics, who call it "intense," "masterful" and "loaded with action." If your reading pleasure leans toward thrillers offering suspense, close calls, wry wit, sharp dialogue, local color and sudden mayhem, you wont do better."
---The Sacramento Bee
"Le Fleuve caché d'Adrian McKinty impressionne par la richesse et la diversité de son ton et de son écriture, passant avec aisance du lyrisme ample de la nostalgie de l'amour perdu au rythme saccadé du narrateur sous l'emprise de l'héroïne. Ce livre rare et maîtrisé est une réussite bien digne de la Série noire."
---Le Figaro
Eine eigentlich simple Story, die natürlich bereits als Grundlage für Hunderte Bücher und Filme diente, macht Adrian McKinty zu der mitreißenden Odyssee eines jungen Mannes, der in der Lage ist, sich seiner Umwelt anzupassen wie jene Kakerlaken, die er in seinem Harlemer Appartement jagt, studiert und sowohl angewidert awie anerkennend entkommen lässt. Nicht umsonst 1992 angesiedelt, ist Der sichere Tod der kongeniale Kommentar zum Wesen der Neunziger.
- Jochen König, krimi-couch.de
"McKinty - that guy is a friggin genius."
---Ken Bruen
"McKinty is a cross between Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyan, the toughest, the best."
---Frank McCourt
"McKinty is an exciting new talent."
---Ed McBain
"Daddy's book is really boring."
---Sophie McKinty (aged 2 1/2)
"McKinty is a storyteller with the kind of style and panache that blur the line between genre and mainstream."
---Kirkus Reviews
"McKinty's literate expertly crafted crime novel confirms his place as one of his generation's leading talents."
---Publishers Weekly
"McKinty crackles with raw talent. His dialogue is superb, his characters rich and his plotting tight and seemless. He writes with a wonderful and wonderfully humorous flair for language raising his work above most crime genre offerings and bumping it right up against literature."
---The San Francisco Chronicle
"McKinty keeps getting better. He melds the snap and crackle of the old Mickey Spillane tales with the literary skills of Raymond Chandler and sets it all down in his own artful way."
---The Rocky Mountain News
"The first of McKinty's Forsythe novels, "Dead I Well May Be," was intense, focused and entirely brilliant. This one is looser-limbed, funnier...so, I imagine, is the middle book, "The Dead Yard," which I haven't read but which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the 12 best novels of 2006, along with works by Peter Abrahams, Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy and George Pelecanos."
---The Washington Post
"McKinty, who grew up in Northern Ireland, has an ear for language and a taste for violence, and he serves up a terrifically gory, swiftly paced thriller."
---The Miami Herald
"There's nothing like an Irish tough guy. And we're not talking about Gentleman Gerry Cooney here. No, we mean the new breed of bare-knuckle Irish writers like Adrian McKinty, Ken Bruen and John Connolly who are bringing fresh life to the crime fiction genre."
---The Philadelphia Inquirer
"McKinty's writing is dark and witty with gritty realism, spot on dialogue, and fascinating characters."
---The Chicago Sun-Times
"If you like your noir staples such as beautiful women, betrayal, murder, mixed with a heavy dose of blood, crunched bones, body parts flying around served up with some throwaway humour, you need look no further, McKinty delivers all of this with the added bonus that the writing is pitch perfect."
---The Barcelona Review
"I really enjoyed [Dead I Well May Be’s] combination of toughness and a striking literary style. Both those things are evident in Hidden River. McKinty is going places."
---The Observer
"This is a terrific read. McKinty gives us a strong non stop story with attractive characters and fine writing."
---The Morning Star
"[McKinty] draws us close and relates a fantastic tale of murder and revenge in low, wry tones, as if from the next barstool...he drops out of conversational mode to throw in a few breathtaking fever-dream sequences for flavor. And then he springs an ending so right and satisfying it leaves us numb with delight and ready to pop for another round. Start the cliche machine: This is a profoundly satisfying book from a major new talent and one of the best crime fiction debuts of the year."
---Booklist
"The story is soaked in the holy trinity of the noir thriller: betrayal, money and murder, but seen through with a panache and political awareness that give McKinty a keen edge over his rivals."
---The Big Issue
"A darkly humorous cross between a hard-boiled mystery and a Beat novel."
---The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"A roller coaster of highs and lows, light humour and dark deeds, the powerful undercurrent of McKinty's talent will swiftly drag you away. Let's hope the author does not slow down anytime soon."
---The Irish Examiner
"A virtual carnival of slaughter."
---The Wall Street Journal
"McKinty has once again harnassed the power of poetry, violence, lust and revenge to forge a sequel to his acclaimed Dead I Well May Be."
---The Irish Post
"A pacey, violent caper in which McKinty vividly portrays [Belfast's] sleazy, still-menacing underbelly."
---The Sunday Times
"McKinty writes with the soul of a poet; his prose dances off the pages with Old World grace and haunting intensity. It's crime fiction on the level of Michael Connolly with the conviction of James Hall."
---The Jackson Clarion-Ledger
"The Bloomsday Dead is the explosive final installment in a trilogy of kinetic thrillers."
---The New York Times
"Adrian McKinty has garnered nothing but praise for his first two books. The third in the trilogy The Bloomsday Dead should leave no doubt that he is a true star. Fast moving and highly engaging this is a great book. McKinty just gets better and better."
---CrimeSpree
"Until The Dead Yard's relentless, poignant ending you'll turn these pages as quickly as you can."
---The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"McKinty's Dead Trilogy has been praised by critics, who call it "intense," "masterful" and "loaded with action." If your reading pleasure leans toward thrillers offering suspense, close calls, wry wit, sharp dialogue, local color and sudden mayhem, you wont do better."
---The Sacramento Bee
"Le Fleuve caché d'Adrian McKinty impressionne par la richesse et la diversité de son ton et de son écriture, passant avec aisance du lyrisme ample de la nostalgie de l'amour perdu au rythme saccadé du narrateur sous l'emprise de l'héroïne. Ce livre rare et maîtrisé est une réussite bien digne de la Série noire."
---Le Figaro
Eine eigentlich simple Story, die natürlich bereits als Grundlage für Hunderte Bücher und Filme diente, macht Adrian McKinty zu der mitreißenden Odyssee eines jungen Mannes, der in der Lage ist, sich seiner Umwelt anzupassen wie jene Kakerlaken, die er in seinem Harlemer Appartement jagt, studiert und sowohl angewidert awie anerkennend entkommen lässt. Nicht umsonst 1992 angesiedelt, ist Der sichere Tod der kongeniale Kommentar zum Wesen der Neunziger.
- Jochen König, krimi-couch.de
"McKinty - that guy is a friggin genius."
---Ken Bruen
"McKinty is a cross between Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyan, the toughest, the best."
---Frank McCourt
"McKinty is an exciting new talent."
---Ed McBain
"Daddy's book is really boring."
---Sophie McKinty (aged 2 1/2)
Who's been dropping by
What's Next For Me?
A couple more books, a few birthdays, some shuffleboard then a period spent in the digestive tract of earthworms, followed by molecular breakdown, the sun boiling into space, the heat death of the universe, atomic decay, perpetual darkness, a trillion years of nothingness and then, if we're lucky, brane collapse, a new singularity and a new Big Bang.
Me & the Mrs in our survivalist bunker
Adios and thank you for stopping by....
Humiliation, unhappiness, discord are the ancient foods of heroes---Jorge Luis Borges
The measure of a writer isn't success, but how hard he tried to do what he knew he couldn't do---William Faulkner
I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen---J G Ballard
I read the dictionary once . . . It turns out that the zebra did it --- Steven Wright
Times are bad. Children disobey their parents and everyone is writing a book---Cicero
Made in Ireland
49 comments:
I took endless abuse from friends ten years ago when I fell into the TTRL fan club while they all gave Saving Private Ryan their stamp of approval.
What's interesting is when you watch the credits for TTRL - you see an endless list of actors, Viggo Mortensen, Billy Bob Thornton, Mickey Rourke, among others who apparently shot hours of footage which never appeared in the final cut. Always hope for the DVD I guess.
The Pacific theatre has been shortchanged as far as WWII movies go. I liked Band of Brothers quite a bit, although I don't think watching it will extend your lifespan as some of my friends do. I remember reading a debate between Oliver Stone and a historian about the merits of Ambrose's work. I think it was in a book about the authenticity of historical films - Stone, unsurprisingly, didn't think Ambrose was all he was cracked up to be, and to be honest I found myself agreeing with some of that Stone said. I agree, hopefully The Pacific will have more than a bit of Malick.
Looks pretty good. My better half is a huge WW2 buff and will be very excited about this -- he loves Band of Brothers and TTRL. I'm a little skeptical about Spielberg but will hold off on any judgment until I see the series.
Matt
SPR was spoiled not just by the sentimental bookends but also by the silly story. Good visuals and camera work and acting but the screenplay was like a B picture from 1951.
TTRL gets better with every passing year. Great visuals and a great central story. I remember watching Ebert complain that soldiers dont philosophise like that. I think thats a common misconception of elites. My little bro who's been in two actual shooting wars always talks to me about how smart, thoughtful and professional the people he works with were. Even conscripts can have existential crises especially when people are dying all around them.
Holden
It'll be nice to see the Pacific theatre get the treatment it deserves.
When John Wayne showed Sands of Iwo Jima to the marines he was booed. And although Eastwood did his best I dont think Flags is a particularly good film.
It will be interesting to see how this comes off. The 5 minute trailer I saw here has a worrying amount of home front/Dear John stuff that makes me a bit nervous.
One John Wayne/WWII film which still holds up for me is They Were Expendable. Wayne's the second lead after Robert Montgomery, some of John Ford's best work.
Mstt
Havent seen it. I like The Quiet Man though.
Going back to Mickey Rourke I remember reading an interview with him before his current comeback where he said that the stuff he did on The Thin Red Line was far and away the best stuff he had ever done in his career.
One of the men who leads this discussion group I go to on Mondays was a friend of Malick's at Harvard. I am trying to dredge up the story of what happened to him that took him down the road from Harvard summa cum laude in philosophy to Hollywood director. I see on Wikipedia that Oxford did not agree with him as well as it did with you, Adrian, but I really don't remember the other details of his story that my friend related.
I didn't see Thin Red Line, but of all the war movies, that would be the one I would want to see .
Seana
What happened to him at Oxford?
I like TTRL very much. In a lot of ways it simply follows the book.
Days of Heaven and Badlands stand up very well too. I was a little disappointed with The New World but I still liked it. Its easy to square my taste in films like The New World or The Passenger or L'Avventura or The Draughtsmans Contract with my hatred of Avatar which also is slow moving. The difference is that those are good films and Avatar isnt.
Well, the Oxford part is easily available on Wikipedia--that's not the story I have a vague memory of. But basically, he fell out with his thesis advisor Gilbert Ryle over a thesis about the concept of the world in Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Wittgenstein and left without getting his doctorate.
I liked New World quite a bit--it was ambitious in the right way. I always like people retelling stories we blithely think we know and showing us that we don't because we haven't actually thought about it at all.
I liked The Draughtsman's Contract too, though it has been ages since I saw it.
Haven't seen the others, I don't think.
I just watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on television the other night and thought it was abominable. A friend at work told me that I should have just stuck to the graphic novel, but I think I may have wrecked that for myself too.
It's great to see HBO still spending this kind of money on this kind of project.
The trailer is good. I don't mind the homefront/Dear John stuff so much.
My father-in-law spent the war mostly in what we used to call Burma wth the RCAF. Often Canadians and Australians and other colonials got sent in first, cannon-fodder and all that, though it doesn't often make it into the movies (although it used to be common in Hollywood war movies that some star played a Canadian so they could get him in the action before the US actually joined).
When we try and do it ourselves it's usually too earnest and too depressing to get much audience. Even I couldn't bring myself to go see Paschendale.
Uncharacteristically off-topic, I was on another blog that was dissing Bono and recommended your blog, Adrian, to the masses. The blog is Balloon Juice, by the way.
I'm not letting you know this so that I can collect more Adrian McKinty green stamps, but thought you might want to know what the deal is if you start getting an influx of reader peeps. I think that's the technical term.
Seana
Well I was lucky enough to read League before seeing the film so it wasnt ruined. League II is actually better I think so you could start with that.
I think its lucky for us that Malick went into movies not philosophy. And lucky too that he came back after twenty years of silence.
John
I'm not a fan of WWI movies either. Whats the point? Its just a big, pointless slaughter. We all get it - the soldiers were naive but brave and the generals callous and unimaginative.
The Somme is the one that gets remembered in Northern Ireland. The Ulster Division was completely slaughtered on day 1 of the battle.
Sheiler
The NYT had a Q&A yesterday with one of its senior editors. I wrote in asking why they didnt allow comments anymore on Bono's editorials. My comment was not used.
Speaking of comics, Garth Ennis is continuing a sublime war series, Battlefields. He did a terrific job with War Stories for Vertigo, worth picking up, and this is even better. I've scoured the internet for sample issues, but can up empty.
A couple of samples though:
http://downloadablesuicide.com/2009/10/01/garth-ennis-battlefields-the-tankies/
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=1947
Adrian,
I think they decided not to touch your question since there seem to be a lot of people who really don't like Bono (other than the lot of people who really do).
I liked Saving Private Ryan, so much that I seem to watch just about every time it's on. The acting, the writing, the action were all great I thought. And Upum's redeeming himself at the end is pretty priceless.
The Pacific should be good, looks good. I'm acutally pretty psyched about the new Spartacus series starting this month on the Starz network. HBO tends to make really good series, namely Oz and Rome.
It's sort of hazily coming back to me that what our discussion leader was talking about was that 20 year silence. This all came up right before the New World came out and my very shaky recall on this was that either this or Thin Red Line put Malick in some sort of crisis. I get the sense that he's the kind of director that puts his lifeblood into a project, so you can see how it might be at some personal psychic risk.
I liked All Quiet on the Western Front when I read it in high school. And Vera Brittain's memoir about her early life, which was not as a soldier but as a wartime nurse and an Oxford friend of many of the brilliant but doomed young men who went, is supposed to have made a very involving Masterpiece Theater series. I read it but didn't see it.
I also liked the book A Very Long Engagement. The movie was faithful, but somehow didn't quite capture its essence.
Liam
Man I gotta disagree with you about Saving PR. All that blubbering in the cemetery at the start and the end completely ruined it for me. A little sentimentality goes a long way.
I also wasnt impressed with the lact two thirds of the picture. They find Ryan - mission over. Oh he wants to stay and fight the SS. Tough. Its war son and there's this thing called the chain of command, you're coming with us.
Withdraw from the town blow up the bridge and you get the same result with zero deaths.
Yes the stuff with Uppum was good.
Seana
Re Dogfish from the other post. I just got a nice six pack of their IPA. Truly outstanding stuff. Perfect with any kind of rich food.
I think the silence came between Days of Heaven and TTRL. I'm not at all sure what it was all about. Days of Heaven is one of the few films where I like Richard Gere.
Matt
Garth Ennis is good.
Hey did you ever read Mark Millar's Superman Red Son? I love the concept, but the story could have been slightly more focused.
Sheiler
I think they think Bono is cool and down with the kids. I really believe thats their take.
I will look for Dogfish in the future, but I am going to look closer to home for Uncommon Brewery's stuff. I am curious about their redwood ale, and even more so about their bacon ale.
I had some bacon ice cream last year, and have to say that despite my skepticism, it was very, very good.
Apparently 2010 will be the year of bacon.
Mill Street Brewery in Toronto has a pretty good coffee beer.
Coffee beer, though intriguing, sounds a bit at cross purposes with itself. But then, so does Irish coffee and that works.
Although it occurs to me, somewhat belatedly, that Irish coffee may be a kind of slur.
Yeah, there was a little too much blubbering in cemetery, I'll agree with that. Ryan didn't wanna follow the chain of command, but somehow Tom Hanks' guys are got really cool with it really quick. Maybe it was the Edith Piaff that swooned them into submission.
Seana
I tried Chilli ice cream for the first time last year and that works a treat.
John
The year of bacon? Finally something I can get behind.
Liam
Would have been possible to have a movie at the same pitch as the first twenty five minutes of SPR?
Admittedly probably not, but still you have done a better job with the story.
Speaking of better job with the story, the wife and I were out getting some groceries and came across the movie 50 Dead Men Walking. It's about this guy who's approached by British Intelligence to go undercover in the IRA and mayhem and carnage insue. Sound like anything you know?
Either the writer doesn't do much reading, or they totally stole your story hoping no one would recognize it.
Liam
Aye but then you could accuse me of stealing from Liam OFlaherty's 1920's novel The Informer. So these things go around and come around you know?
I just wish somebody somewhere somehow would see the potential of Dead I Well May Be as a film. But apparently not.
Y'know, before I knew you and DIWMB was probably my favorite book, I found on that web that is was going to be made into a movie. But then all the sudden, it wasn't. I know that had to be a huge letdown. Somebody saw the potential, but then I guess they took and fell flat on their face. I have to tell you that I was disappointed, so I know you were.
Liam
Gutted mate, gutted. A movie would have changed everything. Now DIWMB isnt even in print and I cant get a publisher for my new stuff. It really sucks.
Adrian, is the story still optioned or are you free to do what you want with it, moviewise? Because if it's not too entangled, I still think there's a lot of hope for a movie coming out of this. And it would be a great one in the right hands.
Are you still Bob? Surely he has his publishers. Is this for the Dark Energy story?
Liam
Nope Dark Energy is in the can, but I just got a big thumbs down about another idea from a couple of presses. They liked the idea (or so they said) but the sales numbers for Fifty Grand were so poor they saw me as a bad investment.
Seana
They have until, I think, May but nothing is going to happen.
Probably not before May, no. But DIWMB is perfect for film treatment, so don't give up hope. Well, actually it probably is just as well if you do, because of the vagaries of the film industry, but I still think it will be filmed some day.
Surely there's another press who's interested. It may not be the big dogs for now, but somebody will want to put your stuff out there. What's the new gig about?
Liam
Its out with a couple of small presses but no replies yet.
Cant really talk about the idea but I thought it was a good one.
I wish it was the 80's when publishers and editors still took chances and didnt mind if a book or two lost money on their list. Now everyone plays everything safe.
Yeah, the industry is tough. I've gotten the burnout from it a couple of times. Well, I know your stuff is going to get picked up so I'll look forward to reading it when it comes out.
Liam
It might be a long, long wait.
Well, by this spring I'll have my first publishing gig. The first chapter of my newest crime novel will in the #42 issue of Hardboiled crime magazine. It's not huge, but it's a start. The chapter is on my blog if you get a minute and wanna take a peek.
I really do look forward to your next book. I know I've told you about 50 times before, but DIWMB is whole reason I'm writing crime now.
When DIWMB does hit again, plenty of people will be waiting. I grab every
used copy I can, in the meantime.
Also, details on The Pacific:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43640
Matt
Might be a smart move. Some dude is selling new paperbacks on Amazon for 45 dollars. Kinda wish I'd thought of that when I had a box or two lying around.
I've never even heard of A.A. Gill before this mention. Seems I wasn't missing much.
No, I'll read through to the end. It isn't boring, just perplexing. By the way, the reading group is liking it from what I've heard so far. I really hope I don't end up in the position of being the lone detractor. Although judging by this post, I guess you know what that feels like.
Uh, I ended up on the wrong thread. But while I'm here, I'll say that hoarding those DIWMB seems like a good idea, but on the other hand, I kind of think it's better if they're out there in the world circulating.
Not lending out my signed copy though.
Seana
What a schmuck. I had a box of 20 that I gave away when I moved from Denver. 1000 bucks right there.
No, if they were just going to sit in some storage shed in Denver, they are probably doing you more good out in the world.
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