Barry Eisler's John Rain is coming to TV

I'm very excited to hear that some of my favorite thriller books, Barry Eisler's John Rain series, is coming to TV. Even more excited because Rain will be played by Keanu Reeves!

For anyone who hasn't read the Rain series (firstly, shame on you!); John Rain is a half American/half Japanese assassin for hire whose specialty is making his hits look like natural causes. The series takes place all across the globe but some of the most atmospheric books take place in Japan where Eisler guides us through the murky underworld of backstreet Jazz clubs.

Reeves will star in and exectutive produce the series and is bringing the team from 87Eleven, who he worked with on Man of Tai Chi, to handle the action scenes. They also worked on The Wolverine. I expect great things!

The next question will be who will play Dox and Delilah!!

For more on the series check out Barry Eisler on Amazon.com

An Afternoon With Lee Child!

An Afternoon with Lee Child!

Just bought my tickets to the Lee Child event at this years Mountains to Sea dlr Book festival! (About ten seconds after I received the marketing email!). I'm a huge Lee Child fan and it was picking up a copy of Echo Burning that brought me back to reading fiction after years away reading nothing but books on Quantum physiscs!

Lee Child Author of the Jack Reacher Series

Back when I was writing The Harder They Fall I listened to a lot of his interviews and in a sense it was his assertion that a book has to grow organically from its writer that allowed me to take my book in the directions it needed to go. There were times when I knew I wasn't following the "rules" of writing thrillers but to stick to what other people said was right would have damaged what I saw as the necessary arc for the story and the characters.

Really looking forward to the opportunity to hear him speak in person and maybe get a chance for a quick chat!

The rest of the festival programme is available here and includes lots of writing workshops for all genres. For those of you also into crime/thriller writing the workshops with Jane Casey are definitely worth a look.