On the same day that Roger Federer lost before the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in 6 years, I took a 3 hour road trip to Sioux Falls, SD. The object of the visit was to meet Lee Child, the writer of the Jack Reacher series. (Previous posts on Reacher and Child are here).
There were about 80 people who showed up at a Barnes and Noble bookstore. Child was scheduled to read a chapter of his book and then sign autographs. We were given strict instructions that he would sign only one book and no videotaping was allowed. We were allowed to take photos.
At about 6pm, Child made his way through the crowd. A tall man, Child is slimmer in person than his photos suggest. I was expecting a fellow more on the lines of Reacher (who is listed at 6'5" and 250 pounds) but the voice was the same that I had imagined Reacher would have.
The first thing Child said was that all the rules that had been placed by his publicist were to be thrown out of the window. He'd sign as many books as we wanted, would personalize the inscriptions, and would be there for as long as it took to sign all the books. Also, he said that he had been on the book tour since March 21st, so there's only so many times he could read the same chapter. So, he proposed a different format: he would talk about the book a little bit and then open it up for questions.
This is what he had to say: (Editor's note: I have written it as close to verbatim as possible based on my memory).
About 61 Hours
LC: Before I take any questions I want to tell you six things about the book 61 Hours.
1) The name - 61 Hours. It came to me one day and that was it. It would not have worked if it was 59 Hours or 62 Hours. It had to be 61 Hours. So, I had a title. The book would cover 61 hours in Reacher's life. I had to ensure that the story was moving forward. There couldn't be any artificiality to the time. I couldn't have Reacher sleep for 23 hours straight.
2) In Echo Burning, the hot weather played an important role. It was another character in the story. I wanted to write a story which had to be set in a cold place.
3) Alistair MacLean was the master at writing thrillers in cold places. His stories usually occurred near the North Pole. I didn't know what Reacher would be doing there so I decided to put him in North Dakota. He'd be on a tour bus that was going towards Mount Rushmore that would meet with an accident, and he would be stuck in a town where the action would take place.
Then I found out that Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota not North Dakota. When people hear the word "South" in a name they usually associate it with a warm place. I did some research and I found out that the coldest day in recorded history in South Dakota was -58 degrees. Six months later, the high was 120 degrees. So, in a span of 6 months there was a 178 degree change in temperature. Also, in 1943 in Spearfish, South Dakota, the temperature increased 49 degrees in 120 seconds due to the chinook winds. It occurred so quickly that all the windows in the town shattered. South Dakota did have drastic fluctuations in temperature and harsh winters so the story could be set there.
Points 4,5, and 6 have to do with the names of the characters.
4) (Editor's note: Long story about people winning chances to have time with Child and 3 of them asking for a character in the next book to be named based on their suggestion) Janet Salter was the mother of one of the guys. The name makes me think: an older woman, probably a librarian, lives in the Midwest, strong principles, idealistic. Okay.
5) The next was a man named Andrew Peterson. I pictured him as a Deputy Chief of Police. Honest. Hard working with a family. Okay.
6) The last was a man who asked that the main lady in the book be named after his wife - Susan Turner. And he said that his wife wanted to have a sex scene with Reacher. That has to be one of the most awkward situations I've been in. I don't want to even go there! Imagine the pressure when I was writing it. Well, those of you who have read the book will know whether the man got his wish or not.
[And then he opened up the floor for questions. I was called upon to ask the first question!]
Q: Without giving away spoilers: which did you think of first - the fact that the bad guy in 61 Hours is vertically challenged or the unique geologic feature that gives him an advantage over Reacher in the book?
LC: It came to my mind the way you read it in the book. When I write a story even I don't know where the story is going, so very little is predetermined. The character being just 4'11" tall came first. Later on in the book when he faces off against Reacher, who we all know is a big man (6'5" and almost 250 pounds) I decided there had to be some way of evening it out and the characters...(Editor's note: the rest reveals a plot element so I am not including it).
Q: How much of Jack Reacher is you and how much is made up? Is his value system the same as yours?
LC: (with a straight face) All the stories are entirely autobiographical. The only change I have made is to tone down the violence!
To answer your question, yes, Reacher's values are the same as mine.
Q: Who would you want to play Reacher in a movie?
LC: I get asked this a lot and I have been warned by my publicist to not take any names. I'll tell you an incident that should explain why. Some time back I was in Australia, being interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald, and the interviewer asked me if Hugh Jackman could play Reacher. I was in Australia, being interviewed by an Australian, about an Australian actor, so naturally I said, "Sure, Hugh Jackman would make a good Reacher." The next thing you know, the story is picked up in the newswire and it is being reported in the US that Hugh Jackman is going to play Reacher! My publicist called me and asked me what I had done. I told her what had happened and she said that over in the US I had caused Jackman and his agent considerable embarrassment as they had to deny the story without even knowing how it was started. Since then, I have made it a point to not name anyone.
But I can tell you this: No matter who eventually plays him, 99 out of a 100 people will hate the choice. Because everyone has their own thoughts and impressions on who Reacher reminds them of. However, you must remember that these are actors. That's their livelihood. The impressions that people have going into a movie are invariably different from the impressions coming out of it. For example, today we cannot think of Dirty Harry as anyone but Clint Eastwood. But, did you know that he was not the studio's first choice? And that while the movie was being made, the production people did not like him in it because they kept imagining how their first choice would have been. By the time the movie was made, the impression was completely different.
Q: Why did you choose to end 61 Hours the way you did?
LC: Okay, by now many of you would know a couple of things so I can safely talk about it (since the publicity for the next book has been officially launched). 61 Hours was the last book in the contract I had with the book publisher and I have seen enough to know that anything can happen in this business. So, if this was to be the last Reacher I wanted to end it the way I did, leaving a doubt whether Reacher lived or died at the end. I have signed a new contract for four more books so there will be at least 4 more in the Reacher series. That was one thing.
Second, in the first few books I used to explain to the reader everything that happened but, by now, I feel the readers can piece together things just as Reacher does. So if you read the last few chapters, you will know what happened to Reacher. All the information is there.
Yes, Reacher survives. If you read carefully you can figure out how he escapes alive. The next book is called Worth Dying For and it picks up soon after this one ends. Reacher is injured but alive and the story is set in Nebraska
(Editor's note: Yaaaaaaayyyyy!!!!!!!)
Q: How long will you continue to write Jack Reacher books?
LC: I have always said that I wanted to match the Travis McGee series (by John D. MacDonald) which has 21 books. I told myself I would write 21 Reacher novels and stop. But that was earlier. When I was 18, 30 seemed like a good number. When I was 30, 40 did not seem that bad. When I was 40, 55 did not seem that bad. Now that I am 55, 70 does not see too bad either. What I am saying is that as long as you keep wanting to read Reacher books I will keep writing them.
I have already thought of how the last book in the Reacher series will end. It will be called Die Alone. I already have the final chapter in mind. Reacher will have to make a choice - either save himself or the person he is protecting. Reacher being who he is, will choose to sacrifice himself. I envision him, gravely injured, making his way back to his hotel room, crawling into the dingy bathtub and slowly bleeding to death.
(Editor's note: Everyone in the crowd groaned loudly when they heard this. NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)
Well, I always tell this story just to hear the audience's reaction. Until I keep hearing it I shall keep writing Reacher books. The day an audience does not care whether he lives or dies, I know it is time to stop.
Q: Have you ever thought of writing stories about other characters or will you only write Reacher books?
LC: When writers publish stand-alone books or start a new series there are a couple of reasons for it. One reason could be that they are tired of the character and want to try something that is closer to their heart. The second reason is that they want to get movie studios to option the books into movies and so they figure if they start another series it is another way to make more money. I have no intentions of doing either. I enjoy writing Reacher books and I am not interested in writing any other series or separate books. The reason is that when a reader picks up a book written by me they are going in with an idea of the type of book it is going to be and are invariably disappointed with a book if it is not the same series because they are comparing it with the other ones.
(Editor's note: Well, there were a lot more questions and answers in the session, but they are either tangential or too generic to be interesting enough to reproduce here. One thing is for sure, in a different world and a different lifetime, if we were friends, we would be great friends. The way he talks and his dry sense of humor are exactly like mine. Seriously!)
On his official 61 Hours book tour blog, Lee Child included a picture of the audience that he took with his iPhone and this is what he had to say about the event.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
(US) Day 10
Sioux Falls, SD
Got up early to do breakfast radio at a downtown facility where four FM stations shared space. Three were on the schedule, but I did the fourth anyway. Hey, why not? Sioux Falls people seem pretty informal.
Then I watched the weather change all day ... hot sun, violent thunderstorms, cold winds. Ate part of a bison for lunch. The evening event was at B&N—big crowd, the best they'd had since Sarah Palin. And why not? We have a lot in common. We both make shit up for a living.
No one gave me a hard time for research inaccuracy—61 Hours says it's cold here in the winter, and the locals say, that's for damn sure.
(C.S. Manish 2010)
There were about 80 people who showed up at a Barnes and Noble bookstore. Child was scheduled to read a chapter of his book and then sign autographs. We were given strict instructions that he would sign only one book and no videotaping was allowed. We were allowed to take photos.
At about 6pm, Child made his way through the crowd. A tall man, Child is slimmer in person than his photos suggest. I was expecting a fellow more on the lines of Reacher (who is listed at 6'5" and 250 pounds) but the voice was the same that I had imagined Reacher would have.
(C.S. Manish 2010)
The first thing Child said was that all the rules that had been placed by his publicist were to be thrown out of the window. He'd sign as many books as we wanted, would personalize the inscriptions, and would be there for as long as it took to sign all the books. Also, he said that he had been on the book tour since March 21st, so there's only so many times he could read the same chapter. So, he proposed a different format: he would talk about the book a little bit and then open it up for questions.
(C.S. Manish 2010)
This is what he had to say: (Editor's note: I have written it as close to verbatim as possible based on my memory).
About 61 Hours
LC: Before I take any questions I want to tell you six things about the book 61 Hours.
1) The name - 61 Hours. It came to me one day and that was it. It would not have worked if it was 59 Hours or 62 Hours. It had to be 61 Hours. So, I had a title. The book would cover 61 hours in Reacher's life. I had to ensure that the story was moving forward. There couldn't be any artificiality to the time. I couldn't have Reacher sleep for 23 hours straight.
2) In Echo Burning, the hot weather played an important role. It was another character in the story. I wanted to write a story which had to be set in a cold place.
3) Alistair MacLean was the master at writing thrillers in cold places. His stories usually occurred near the North Pole. I didn't know what Reacher would be doing there so I decided to put him in North Dakota. He'd be on a tour bus that was going towards Mount Rushmore that would meet with an accident, and he would be stuck in a town where the action would take place.
Then I found out that Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota not North Dakota. When people hear the word "South" in a name they usually associate it with a warm place. I did some research and I found out that the coldest day in recorded history in South Dakota was -58 degrees. Six months later, the high was 120 degrees. So, in a span of 6 months there was a 178 degree change in temperature. Also, in 1943 in Spearfish, South Dakota, the temperature increased 49 degrees in 120 seconds due to the chinook winds. It occurred so quickly that all the windows in the town shattered. South Dakota did have drastic fluctuations in temperature and harsh winters so the story could be set there.
Points 4,5, and 6 have to do with the names of the characters.
4) (Editor's note: Long story about people winning chances to have time with Child and 3 of them asking for a character in the next book to be named based on their suggestion) Janet Salter was the mother of one of the guys. The name makes me think: an older woman, probably a librarian, lives in the Midwest, strong principles, idealistic. Okay.
5) The next was a man named Andrew Peterson. I pictured him as a Deputy Chief of Police. Honest. Hard working with a family. Okay.
6) The last was a man who asked that the main lady in the book be named after his wife - Susan Turner. And he said that his wife wanted to have a sex scene with Reacher. That has to be one of the most awkward situations I've been in. I don't want to even go there! Imagine the pressure when I was writing it. Well, those of you who have read the book will know whether the man got his wish or not.
(C.S. Manish 2010)
[And then he opened up the floor for questions. I was called upon to ask the first question!]
Q: Without giving away spoilers: which did you think of first - the fact that the bad guy in 61 Hours is vertically challenged or the unique geologic feature that gives him an advantage over Reacher in the book?
LC: It came to my mind the way you read it in the book. When I write a story even I don't know where the story is going, so very little is predetermined. The character being just 4'11" tall came first. Later on in the book when he faces off against Reacher, who we all know is a big man (6'5" and almost 250 pounds) I decided there had to be some way of evening it out and the characters...(Editor's note: the rest reveals a plot element so I am not including it).
Q: How much of Jack Reacher is you and how much is made up? Is his value system the same as yours?
LC: (with a straight face) All the stories are entirely autobiographical. The only change I have made is to tone down the violence!
To answer your question, yes, Reacher's values are the same as mine.
(C.S. Manish 2010)
Q: Who would you want to play Reacher in a movie?
LC: I get asked this a lot and I have been warned by my publicist to not take any names. I'll tell you an incident that should explain why. Some time back I was in Australia, being interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald, and the interviewer asked me if Hugh Jackman could play Reacher. I was in Australia, being interviewed by an Australian, about an Australian actor, so naturally I said, "Sure, Hugh Jackman would make a good Reacher." The next thing you know, the story is picked up in the newswire and it is being reported in the US that Hugh Jackman is going to play Reacher! My publicist called me and asked me what I had done. I told her what had happened and she said that over in the US I had caused Jackman and his agent considerable embarrassment as they had to deny the story without even knowing how it was started. Since then, I have made it a point to not name anyone.
But I can tell you this: No matter who eventually plays him, 99 out of a 100 people will hate the choice. Because everyone has their own thoughts and impressions on who Reacher reminds them of. However, you must remember that these are actors. That's their livelihood. The impressions that people have going into a movie are invariably different from the impressions coming out of it. For example, today we cannot think of Dirty Harry as anyone but Clint Eastwood. But, did you know that he was not the studio's first choice? And that while the movie was being made, the production people did not like him in it because they kept imagining how their first choice would have been. By the time the movie was made, the impression was completely different.
(C.S. Manish 2010)
Q: Why did you choose to end 61 Hours the way you did?
LC: Okay, by now many of you would know a couple of things so I can safely talk about it (since the publicity for the next book has been officially launched). 61 Hours was the last book in the contract I had with the book publisher and I have seen enough to know that anything can happen in this business. So, if this was to be the last Reacher I wanted to end it the way I did, leaving a doubt whether Reacher lived or died at the end. I have signed a new contract for four more books so there will be at least 4 more in the Reacher series. That was one thing.
Second, in the first few books I used to explain to the reader everything that happened but, by now, I feel the readers can piece together things just as Reacher does. So if you read the last few chapters, you will know what happened to Reacher. All the information is there.
Yes, Reacher survives. If you read carefully you can figure out how he escapes alive. The next book is called Worth Dying For and it picks up soon after this one ends. Reacher is injured but alive and the story is set in Nebraska
(Editor's note: Yaaaaaaayyyyy!!!!!!!)
Q: How long will you continue to write Jack Reacher books?
LC: I have always said that I wanted to match the Travis McGee series (by John D. MacDonald) which has 21 books. I told myself I would write 21 Reacher novels and stop. But that was earlier. When I was 18, 30 seemed like a good number. When I was 30, 40 did not seem that bad. When I was 40, 55 did not seem that bad. Now that I am 55, 70 does not see too bad either. What I am saying is that as long as you keep wanting to read Reacher books I will keep writing them.
I have already thought of how the last book in the Reacher series will end. It will be called Die Alone. I already have the final chapter in mind. Reacher will have to make a choice - either save himself or the person he is protecting. Reacher being who he is, will choose to sacrifice himself. I envision him, gravely injured, making his way back to his hotel room, crawling into the dingy bathtub and slowly bleeding to death.
(Editor's note: Everyone in the crowd groaned loudly when they heard this. NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)
Well, I always tell this story just to hear the audience's reaction. Until I keep hearing it I shall keep writing Reacher books. The day an audience does not care whether he lives or dies, I know it is time to stop.
(C.S. Manish 2010)
Q: Have you ever thought of writing stories about other characters or will you only write Reacher books?
LC: When writers publish stand-alone books or start a new series there are a couple of reasons for it. One reason could be that they are tired of the character and want to try something that is closer to their heart. The second reason is that they want to get movie studios to option the books into movies and so they figure if they start another series it is another way to make more money. I have no intentions of doing either. I enjoy writing Reacher books and I am not interested in writing any other series or separate books. The reason is that when a reader picks up a book written by me they are going in with an idea of the type of book it is going to be and are invariably disappointed with a book if it is not the same series because they are comparing it with the other ones.
(Editor's note: Well, there were a lot more questions and answers in the session, but they are either tangential or too generic to be interesting enough to reproduce here. One thing is for sure, in a different world and a different lifetime, if we were friends, we would be great friends. The way he talks and his dry sense of humor are exactly like mine. Seriously!)
(C.S. Manish 2010)
On his official 61 Hours book tour blog, Lee Child included a picture of the audience that he took with his iPhone and this is what he had to say about the event.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
(US) Day 10
Sioux Falls, SD
Got up early to do breakfast radio at a downtown facility where four FM stations shared space. Three were on the schedule, but I did the fourth anyway. Hey, why not? Sioux Falls people seem pretty informal.
Then I watched the weather change all day ... hot sun, violent thunderstorms, cold winds. Ate part of a bison for lunch. The evening event was at B&N—big crowd, the best they'd had since Sarah Palin. And why not? We have a lot in common. We both make shit up for a living.
No one gave me a hard time for research inaccuracy—61 Hours says it's cold here in the winter, and the locals say, that's for damn sure.
2 comments:
one of your best posts in a long long time.
makes me want to dust off the cobwebs and find a book by Lee Child to read for myself.
good to see you continue to live the dream!
BF, Thanks. If you are picking up a Reacher book, any would be fine, but I am a little partial towards "Persuader" since that is the first book I read and the one that got me hooked on the series (and is still my personal favorite).
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