Maggers Wrote:I just finished FPW's latest RJ short, "Interlude at Duane's." Terrific! Great RJ fixit story.

I can't wait to dig into the rest of "Thriller, Stories to Keep You Up at Night." It's the book about which FPW and others spoke at the Barnes and Noble signing tonight.

The panel at the signing included F. Paul Wilson, Eric Van Lustbader, MJ Rose and James Siegel. An audience member asked an interesting question...which thriller would each of the authors consider his/her favorite? The answers were as varied as the speakers and proved the panel's point that the range of what could be considered a thriller is limited only by imagination.

FPW said "A Tale of Two Cities," not considered a thriller by most. According to Paul, the story arcs of the characters against the dramatic backdrop of rebellion were "enviable."

MJ Rose picked "Rebecca," another unusal take on what could be considered a thriller.

James Siegel's choice of John Le Carre's "Smiley's People" and "Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy" would fall into the more standard thriller fare.

Eric Van Lustbader said "Dracula."

Interesting choices, eh?

Perhaps most dramatic was the loud, vibrant storm that blew up as the group was in the midst of discussion. The lightning flared and the thunder rolled, a perfect scrim against which to watch the panel of thriller writers share their thoughts.

James Rollins, Douglas Preston, David Morrell, Lincoln Child and Lee Child are just some of the 32 authors who've written a short story for the anthology.

I've got some great reading ahead of me tonight.

I'll be posting a few pics taken this evening. Cobalt and her son, Daniel, were there, as was Bluesman Mike.

And best of all, Mary Wilson was there, too. It was great playing catch up with her.

All in all, it was a fun evening.

Scott Hajek Wrote:...The captions for the pics during the panel discussion are hilarious! Especially the politically insensitive comment about those that are follicly disadvantaged.

Maggers Wrote:So maybe my caption was a knock upside the head to that guy.

Maggers Wrote:I must admit, one of those guys asked one of the dumbest questions I'd ever heard, one that could not be answered by the panel because it didn't apply to any one of them, and repeated the question at least 3 times when he wasn't getting the answer he wanted.

First he told us that he was in the movie business, on the tech end. His question was more of a rant and sounded something like this:

"Whenever I go to the movies there's always a tracking shot, taken behind a women walking alone down a street or an alley. I know there's gonna be trouble. Why do they do this? Why is this shot in every movie I see?"

WTF? What does a semi-common shot in films have to do with writing a thriller? What do any of the authors have to do with those shots in films? The panel, to their credit, did not do what my friend and I did, which was to turn to each other and say what is wrong with that idiot and why won't he pipe down. They each tried to answer his question politely, but the bottom line was...we aren't film directors and can't really answer your question.

So maybe my caption was a knock upside the head to that guy.