I read somewhere that The Weinstein Company has kept up the film option on your novel, Panic, and is now looking to adapt it into a television series. What do you think of that option? I know some writers, like Craig Johnson, who seem thrilled by how (at least so far) the television adaptation has been done on his books, while other authors like Robert Crais fight adaptations of his books. Do you have any thoughts along those lines?
No one forces me, or any other writer, to sell a film option on the books. If you don't want to run the risk that the filmmakers may adapt your work in a way you don't like, then you don't sell the option. You know when you sell it that they will have to make some changes, just because film and TV are different media than books. Panic, Collision, and now Adrenaline have all been optioned, and are in varying stages of development, and I'm happy about that. It's their movie or TV show, but it's my book. The book is the book, and no adaptation changes that.
What kind of research did you do for this book? Do you have someone in law enforcement or espionage who you are able to show your books to in order to help keep things as accurate as possible?
I travel, a lot, to research the locales for the books. I have professional contacts that I can ask questions of, or show them scenes to vet. You meet a lot of interesting people this way, and as long as you've done your prep work so you're not wasting your time, the experts are usually really happy to help.
Should readers read Adrenaline before this one? I notice you provide some backstory but would you hope readers start with that one or does it matter?
Since The Last Minute is a direct sequel to Adrenaline, yeah, I think readers will get the most out of Sam's story if they read Adrenaline first. I do know of readers in Britain who read The Last Minute first and enjoyed it, and every single one of them that emailed me said they immediately went and read Adrenaline, not realizing they'd read the books out of order. I also wrote a e-book only short story that bridges the time between Adrenaline and The Last Minute, called Sam Capra's Last Chance, which was fun to do. It's not required at all to read it but it was an interesting experiment in e-publishing for readers. But for readers who come to The Last Minute first, I did try to give them information from the previous book without it being pedantic.
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