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Drive By Videos: Now filming at the BK Lounge
July 17, 2008

Author James Rollins was asked to do the novelization of  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Methinks he tends to really get into his characters.

You know, I don't wake up every morning thinking, "Who can I suck into my blog today?"  But sometimes the stars just line up right.  So, when I heard that James Rollins was passing through Milwaukee, I sent out a few emails and viola...a meeting is set up.  Now I really wanted to make it easy for him since I knew he was driving from Illinois and would be passing right by my neighborhood, so I offered to meet him at the freeway exit near my house, at a Burger King.  Yes, only the best for the authors I'm trying to impress.  (And they have senior citizen soda's for only 37 cents!..take that NY!)


Anyway, Jim was at ThrillerFest, but I never got to talk to him because he's a really in demand, busy guy.  And meanwhile, I was wandering into Obama rallies.  You may remember me mentioning Jim as the hilarious MC at the awards banquet who gave an award out for the worst Amazon review.  (Go back and read it if you haven't already, it was so funny I had the Coke out of your nose experience)


James Rollins is a veteranarian who writes thrillers, but he also writes fantasies under the name of James Clemens.  He told the most amazing story of how his first book came to be published and it involved Ron Howard (yes, Opie), Maui, author Terry Brooks, a suit and an agent who doesn't like fantasy.  Way too long for the blog, but now you'll have to search him out and make him tell you all the gory details.

We were supposed to meet for 10 minutes, but we talked over an hour (he had me at "Hello...I read your blog).  So I started thinking how I could cast my net out to snare other authors when they pass by South Milwaukee.  I could even start expanding into McDonalds, KFC, Dairy Queen and maybe even Appleby's (if I can get J.K. Rowlings).


Now you tell me.  What would you do to get an author to sit down and talk to you?  How far would you go?  What have you already done?  Any success stories?  Failures?  Embarrassments?  Do tell...


                                      
Bottom Line:  I just saw a Tractor Beam on E-Bay that I can program to hone in on authors.  It will overtake their steering wheels so they exit on Rawson Ave. and send me a Twitter message when it happens. 

Author James Rollins

Posted by Barbara Vey on July 17, 2008 | Comments (13)