Sunday, 12 September 2010 08:11
This is proving to be quite a summer for author Tess Gerritsen. The TNT series Rizzoli & Isles, which airs at 10 p.m. EST/ 9 p.m. CST on Mondays with encore presentations, is one of the top rated shows and it has been renewed for a second
season.
She is continuing her book tour for her latest Rizzoli & Isles novel Ice Cold (called The Killing Place in the U.K.) and, of course, planning her next novel.
We caught up with her to ask her a few questions about the TNT series, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.
Q: Although the stars of Rizzoli & Isles -- Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander -- don’t look like the characters as described in your novels, they make these characters work. Why?
A: It's all in the attitude. Harmon has the character of Jane nailed down pat. If she weren't so gorgeous, she would be exactly as I created her. The TV persona of Maura has been altered for TV purposes, something that I can understand. In the books, both women are pretty intense, and Maura is a moody, introspective character. That
A: It's all in the attitude. Harmon has the character of Jane nailed down pat. If she weren't so gorgeous, she would be exactly as I created her. The TV persona of Maura has been altered for TV purposes, something that I can understand. In the books, both women are pretty intense, and Maura is a moody, introspective character. That
might not translate well to TV. Sasha Alexander does a fine job of playing the somewhat Aspergian and brilliant character that's been written for her on TV.
Q: Do you find yourself working an alternative universe as you write the novels yet see the characters on TV at a different point in their “lives”?
A: It is weird, continuing on with the books as I've created them, while a parallel universe spins out on TV. I'm trying to stay true to my books, because these are the characters I started off with, and to change them based on TV's influence would be too weird at this point!
Q: Aside from the characters and plot, what is your favorite detail in the TV series?
A: I love their casting choices. Bruce McGill is brilliant, and Lee Thompson Young has a real intensity as Frost. Also, I'm utterly nuts about the theme music they play during the titles. Since I'm a celtic music fan (I play the fiddle) it was such a thrill to hear that jig played for the first time!
Q: This isn’t your first time having your work make it to the screen. You co-wrote the story and screenplay, Adrift, which aired on CBS as Movie of the Week in 1993, and starred Kate Jackson and Bruce Greenwood. Were you pleased with that?
A: That was quite a different experience, as I was actually involved in writing the script. I thought the finished product was terrific, and I've been a fan of Bruce Greenwood ever since. It was also a revelation to me how much more powerful a scene can be on-screen. I recall writing a scene where the villains hold Kate Jackson's hand overthe burner flame, and she screams. Watching it on screen took that scene to a whole different level of horror.
Q: Has the TV series of Rizzoli & Isles had any impact on book sales? And are you getting feedback from readers?
A: We're just starting to see movement in the backlist. I know that the Amazon numbers have really improved, and I understand that weekly sales of the paperback The Surgeon have more than doubled. I'm hoping that, as more viewers realize there are books behind the characters, that they'll want to explore where the stories came from.
Q: Rizzoli & Isles has just been renewed for a second series. Will be see more novels?
A: I'm working on the ninth Rizzoli & Isles novel now. It should be out next summer.
Q: Do you have any input into the series?
A: Not really. I'm friends with the executive producer and head writer, Janet Tamaro, so I suppose I could email her and bend her ear. But I think they know where they want to go with the series, and they don't need the novelist to give them guidance!
Q: Is there any thing about the TV series that no one has asked but you are dying to tell?
A: The amazing amount of real-world advice they're getting for their stories! They have a Boston PD homicide detective often on-site, advising them on police work, and they have a medical examiner and coroner's assistant helping them with some of the medical details.
Q: How do the characters and their backgrounds as portrayed in Rizzoli & Isles different from your novels?
A: TV-Jane Rizzoli is very close to the book-Jane Rizzoli. TV-Maura Isles is sunnier, friendlier, and less troubled than book Maura Isles. Also, they've given Maura a French boarding-school background and a lot more fashion sense than I ever envisioned "my" Maura having!
Q: Will we see any more Tess Gerritsen work make it to the screen?
A: One can always hope! My long-time dream has been to see "Gravity" make it to screen. The film rights are owned by 20th Century Fox, but so far ... nothing.
A: It is weird, continuing on with the books as I've created them, while a parallel universe spins out on TV. I'm trying to stay true to my books, because these are the characters I started off with, and to change them based on TV's influence would be too weird at this point!
Q: Aside from the characters and plot, what is your favorite detail in the TV series?
A: I love their casting choices. Bruce McGill is brilliant, and Lee Thompson Young has a real intensity as Frost. Also, I'm utterly nuts about the theme music they play during the titles. Since I'm a celtic music fan (I play the fiddle) it was such a thrill to hear that jig played for the first time!
Q: This isn’t your first time having your work make it to the screen. You co-wrote the story and screenplay, Adrift, which aired on CBS as Movie of the Week in 1993, and starred Kate Jackson and Bruce Greenwood. Were you pleased with that?
A: That was quite a different experience, as I was actually involved in writing the script. I thought the finished product was terrific, and I've been a fan of Bruce Greenwood ever since. It was also a revelation to me how much more powerful a scene can be on-screen. I recall writing a scene where the villains hold Kate Jackson's hand overthe burner flame, and she screams. Watching it on screen took that scene to a whole different level of horror.
Q: Has the TV series of Rizzoli & Isles had any impact on book sales? And are you getting feedback from readers?
A: We're just starting to see movement in the backlist. I know that the Amazon numbers have really improved, and I understand that weekly sales of the paperback The Surgeon have more than doubled. I'm hoping that, as more viewers realize there are books behind the characters, that they'll want to explore where the stories came from.
Q: Rizzoli & Isles has just been renewed for a second series. Will be see more novels?
A: I'm working on the ninth Rizzoli & Isles novel now. It should be out next summer.
Q: Do you have any input into the series?
A: Not really. I'm friends with the executive producer and head writer, Janet Tamaro, so I suppose I could email her and bend her ear. But I think they know where they want to go with the series, and they don't need the novelist to give them guidance!
Q: Is there any thing about the TV series that no one has asked but you are dying to tell?
A: The amazing amount of real-world advice they're getting for their stories! They have a Boston PD homicide detective often on-site, advising them on police work, and they have a medical examiner and coroner's assistant helping them with some of the medical details.
Q: How do the characters and their backgrounds as portrayed in Rizzoli & Isles different from your novels?
A: TV-Jane Rizzoli is very close to the book-Jane Rizzoli. TV-Maura Isles is sunnier, friendlier, and less troubled than book Maura Isles. Also, they've given Maura a French boarding-school background and a lot more fashion sense than I ever envisioned "my" Maura having!
Q: Will we see any more Tess Gerritsen work make it to the screen?
A: One can always hope! My long-time dream has been to see "Gravity" make it to screen. The film rights are owned by 20th Century Fox, but so far ... nothing.
PHOTO: Top: Gerritsen; Center: Angie Harmon, Sasha Alexander TNT photo
Wednesday, 08 September 2010 08:56
The popularity of e-books is growing daily and can't be denied anymore.
Will they continue to be decent sellers or even surpass printed books?
Who knows? But it is interesting to see the sales continue. Recent reports are that Laura Lippman's latest novel I'd Know You Anywhere sold more copies as e-books than as hardcover
According to a press release, News Corp.’s HarperCollins reported that in its first five days, I'd Know You Anywhere sold 739 more e-books than the 4,000 hardcovers.
Charles Todd is now offering an e-book short story called The Girl on the Beach and is an original Bess Crawford short story.
Todd's latest novel about World War I nurse Bess Crawford called An Impartial Witness just came out.
The Girl on the Beach is free and will be available through e-retailers through Sept. 14.
Readers who download the short story will get a bonus of an excerpt from A Duty to the Dead, Todd's first Bess Crawford novel published last year.
Two more promotional e-books by Todd are expected to be released later this fall.
Thursday, 02 September 2010 14:38
Like many of us who love mysteries, I have Bouchercon fever. It's a disease that comes around just about this time every year when I start planning and looking forward to Bouchercon, the annual mystery fiction conference.
Of course, I registered myself, my husband and my brother-in-law Peter about two years ago, but there is still time to sign up for Bouchercon, which will be Oct. 14-17.
And the fact that it is in San Francisco is an even more incentive -- the city and the area offers so much to do.
One way I soothe Bouchercon fever -- and this will work for you -- is to start looking at mysteries and crime fiction set in or around the area.
And San Francisco offers so much fodder for wonderful novels and movies.
So, this will be a regular/irregular feature that will continue until Bouchercon starts. By that I mean, I will write these posts when I feel like it.So, first up, let's look at short stories collections.
San Francisco Noir (2005, Akashic Books) Akashic Books could publish Yellow Pages Noir and I would probably be enthralled. Akashic is keeping the short story alive while publishing series of terrific short stories that look at various cities and their specific neighborhoods. Be sure to read David Corbett's "It Can Happen" about a family inheritance in Hunter's Point. and Kate Braverman's funny "The Neutral Zone," a classic tale of love and hate of two bipolar people in Fisherman's Wharf. Domenic Stansberry's "The Prison" is set on North Beach. Eddie Muller, who is Bouchercon's toastmaster, takes us South of Market with Kid's Last Fight, the story of a very long day.
San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics (2009, Akashic Books) Akashic takes us back with classic stories by, among others, Mark Twain, Jack London, Ambrose Bierce and, of course, Dashiell Hammett, who by law must be included in any discussion of San Francisco crime fiction.
San Francisco Thrillers (1995, Chronicle Books) The eclectic collection shows the timelessness of San Francisco. Stories set in the 1900s could easily be set in 2010. Oscar Lewis' true-crime piece "The Phosphorescent Bridal" concerns a controversial trial, but unless you had been told it took place in the late 1800s you might wonder why
you had missed it on TruTV. Dashiell Hammett, course, is here with "Fly Paper." Marcia Muller checks in with an excerpt from "Deception" and Jim Thompson's "Ironside" has a familiar ring. There's also some script from Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." Francis Bruguiere's photos look as fresh as when they first appeared -- in his 1919 book "San Francisco."
