In time honored tradition (a phrase I hear often) I have saved the best part of my excursion for last. As promised in my (much earlier) post today, I would like to share with you my impressions of Lee Child. The dewy glow of perspiration and the trembling paranoia of anxiety attacks aside, meeting him was worth it all.
My goodness, I suppose the best place to start is his entrance. My husband actually saw him first and clued me in. We watched him come up the stairs and slowly skirt the outer wall. He disappeared behind some bookshelves for a moment and then, there he was, not twenty feet from me. He moved in with quiet confidence, a fluid poise. He was stunning. That thought was quickly followed by the realization that he is absolutely more handsome in person than he is on book jackets and web photos. Every anxious cell in my body took a much needed sabbatical. I sat there completely enthralled. His voice was as warm and smooth as a glass of Raynal XO brandy.
His opening lines to our little group (I am not sure how many were there, but I would guess about 40 - 50 Reacher Creatures) were witty and smart, the usual background information any speaker offers a new audience. He told us he was going to do something he never does, read from the book. He said it would be a short seven second snippet. After a while he told us that as some of us might know, he would continue talking and fill the hour unless or until he got some questions. The following repartee was for me, fascinating.
In the course of answering questions, he told us how he originally conceptualized Bad Luck And Trouble and some of the other Jack Reacher novels. He cracked me up when he said, "he loves sleazy places," that was so Reacher! He told us about the gentleman in Little Rock who is a gun collector and has offered his assistance and expertise to Lee. It was interesting, to say the least, when he talked about the downfall of characters after the author falls in love with them. He said he tries to write Reacher in a way that he likes him a little bit less with each story. He tries to avoid creating or encouraging blind hero worship and sugary sentiments because they kill the hero.
We were given a little breaking news on the 2008 novel. Lee's original title had been , Play Dirty, he had to change that due to Sandra Brown publishing a book in September with that very title. The new title for 2008 will now be, Nothing to Lose. The story will take place in Colorado in the vicinity of two small crossroads towns called Hope and Despair. There are a couple of things wrong in Despair. Reacher stumbles on to the scene and off we go.
Those are just a few of the things I learned on Tuesday night. I encourage anyone who can to go to an event like this one. I do hope I'll have the opportunity to do so myself. I feel honor bound to add a disclaimer here. There are no direct quotes from Lee Child here. I did not interview him or ask permission to publish anything he had to say. Just keeping it honest.
So.... Impressions of the man. I came away from the encounter wishing I could get to know the man behind Reacher. It is so easy to think you know someone from, or because, of what they write, but the truth is we don't really know our favorite authors personally. Sadly, most of us never will, and yet that may be for the best. As for Lee, I think he is an extremely confident and elegant man. I would put a wager on his being a generous and compassionate person. In short, Reacher set him up for a long fall, a lot to live up to. I'm sure even Reacher is impressed with the quality of his creator.
Remember, there is always hope.
Betty
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