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FAQs on BOOKS
(And Other Stuff!)
Chances are someone else
asked your question first...check and see!
When
do we see the next Jack Fleming book??
The latest is
Dark Road Rising
now out in paperback. There are often new/used copies at a discount available on
Amazon, eBay and Half-dot-com. Or there IS that big building in town
with all the books you can borrow for free. What is it?
Liberty, Labrador...library! You can ask them to stock a copy on the
stacks.
Also new is The Devil You Know,
which is a between-the-books "sequel" to Bloodcircle.
Why do
you hate fanfic?
I don't! Details
here: http://p-n-elrod.livejournal.com/14707.html
Where
can I get the rest of your books?
Amazon has a number of used copies that come
up for sale all the time, with varying price ranges. There are also used
stores, and you can ask the library to do an InterLibrary
search for you. It’s free! That way you can at least read the story
until you get your own copy. You
can collect them from eBay. Make sure the book's not from a
smoking household if you are allergic. Make sure they show a
picture of the cover or you could get a mangled copy.
Where
are the hard covers of the Vampire Files?
Sorry, there are none to be had for the first
six. They were
always in mass market paperback.
Ace has released the first three in one volume in trade paperback in 2003.
The Science Fiction Book Club now has a hardcover edition of this
available.
There are now trade paperback
collections Vol. 1 & 2 available.
Are you going to write any more books
about Quincey?
I sure want
to! It depends on whether or not the publishers will buy a new
story from me. I could have a whole book finished, but if they
don't think it will sell to readers, they won't buy it to print.
But I'm not a negative person, so I think that another Quincey book is
somewhere in the future for me.
If you want to
lend a helping hand, please feel free to go to Amazon and post a review
about any books you enjoyed. It's FREE!
Now DON'T give away the whole
plot!!! Make your reviews a spoiler-free zone, <G> just let people know what you liked about it!
(There is an infamous review on one of the Barrett books that gives away
a MAJOR plot point. Though it's favorable, they've been asked to
take it down. Still waiting! <G>
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Why don't you make a movie of the Vampire
Files?
I WISH!!! Sorry
gang, but a lowly scribbler of novels has NO control over whether any of
her books ever makes it to the screen.
If I had my druthers, there would have been a Jack Fleming movie out in
1990! (Along with action figures, comic books, T-shirts, a
clothing line, and a spin-off TV series, and I would have a MOST
different life than the one I've got at present!)
The reality is
Hollywood calls you; it's hardly ever the other way around. If some
producer wants to make a film of any of my stuff, he will go through my
agent, who will let me know what's going on.
I have a partial
screenplay of Bloodlist in the works, doing it on spec, which means my
agent sends it around to see if anyone is interested in optioning it, but
novel writing takes up most of my time. Trust me--if any of my books
makes it to the screen, you'll HEAR about it! For now, it is out of
my hands.
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If they made a Vampire Files movie, who would
play Jack?
I think Vincent Ventresca (The Invisible
Man) would be the perfect Jack Fleming. He’s long and lanky and
can go psychotic on an instant’s notice; what an actor! I adore the man!
Vincent Ventresca--Pat's
ideal pick to play Jack Fleming.
And Escott?
I have rather fancied Anthony Stewart Head (Giles on
Buffy the
Vampire Slayer) for that part. He’s a marvelous actor. Yes, I adore
him, too! On the other hand he doesn't have Escott's big honker of a
nose. I'd always visualized Basil Rathbone in the
part.
 But lately it's been Steve
Valentine from Crossing Jordan. He's just got certain
qualities, both physically and in his acting style that would totally
work for Escott. Of course if they set the film in the 1930s he'd
have to cut all that nice hair!
Steve Valentine--Pat thinks he'd make a
very sexy Escott.
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How did you get to be a
writer?
I read everything I could about everything.
You have to do the homework. Get to the 808 section of the library
and read all the books that tell you how to write a book. It will
keep you from re-inventing the wheel. Even Mozart took piano
lessons from his dad before starting to write music.
Then after 10 years of scribbling I finally finished something, sent it
in, and kept sending it until it sold. You have to be really,
really stubborn and keep trying. Just pick up a pen and go to
work. FAQs Writing.
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Will you write any more Jonathan Barrett
books?
Yes, I really would like
to write at least one more Barrett novel, but it won’t be this year! I
can write all the Barrett books I want, but a publisher has to want to
buy them before I can get them in front of
readers.
In the meantime all four books have been
reprinted by BenBella Books! Now there's more Barrett for your buck! I
did rewrites of the novels and added in more pages of stuff as part of
my "final polish" process. This is not material edited out by Ace in the original edition, but all
new stuff. There were areas in the books where more detail was
called for, so I filled in a few areas, smoothing things out.
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Will Jack and Bobbi ever get
married?
You’ll have to ask
them!
Are you married?
I was, but got over it.
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Do you always cast actors as characters in your
books?
Sometimes, but not always. It helps me get a
handle on them, but often a character jumps full-blown into my head and
boots me into writing. I’ve a few of those on the back burner waiting to
appear in books. Mind you, I don’t steal any other writer’s
character—not consciously! When I "cast" someone I look on it like
seeing an actor playing a different part, an inspiration thing. In Art in the Blood if you were looking for Alex Adrian to be a
clone of Avon from Blakes 7, you’d be disappointed. I was
"seeing" how Paul Darrow, the actor who played Avon, would play
the part of Adrian. And it worked! Same thing for those times when I’ve
visualized Basil Rathbone as playing a character in a story. I’d try to
imagine how he would do a scene. It makes the characters marvelously
independent of me! When they act all on their own away from MY ideas, I
know it’s gonna fly and fly high.
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Will you write any more I, Strahd
books?
No. Wizards of the Coast owned that
character and they’re cutting their Ravenloft line. It will likely
always be the 2 novels and the short story in the Tales of
Ravenloft anthology. We had some artistic differences, enough so I
know I am not fond of work-for-hire writing. (That’s any book written in
someone else’s universe, like Star Wars or Star Trek. You
have no control over it and the publisher can mangle your story all they
like. Ouch!) It’s too bad, cause I REALLY loved the Strahd character; it
was such fun to play a bad guy. But I expect bits of him will be back as
characters in other novels using a different
name.
Hasbro, which now owns the series, is
reprinting I, Strahd for another generation which may have missed
it. Can't say as I'm crazy about the cover, but you'll have to
take that up with their marketing department. I just hope the kids
don't think it's a whole new book, find out different, then blame me.
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What scares you?
The evening news and drivers on cell
phones. Pedestrians on cells, too. They never watch
where they're walking, which is usually in front of my car. D'oh!
Do you like Buffy?
YES!!!! And Angel. Amazing characters!
Rupert Giles -- I WANT you, please go to the "Contact Page"
and make contact. We can be stardust!
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What are your favorite shows?
Stargate
SG-1 (I've totally geeked out over this one, gang) there are
others, and you can ask me that if you're buying the beer.
General O'Neill, you are ordered to join
me in the hot tub. I have beer and pizza.
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What are your favorite books?
Mine!
(No self-esteem problems here,
sport. Move along.)
Do you drink blood?
Oh, gimme a break. And pass the
Guinness or a nice cold root beer.
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Do YOU believe in vampires?
Oh, yes, absolutely! (Wink-wink,
nudge-nudge.)
Of course, I’ll have to eat those words if Dracula shows
up on my doorstep.
 But
if he’s got a pizza, a six-pack, and looks like
Richard Dean Anderson he won’t know what hit him!
Hubba-hubba!
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