Posted on 12/05/2007 3:56:05 PM PST by fight_truth_decay
First, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I’m finally realizing from my emails that this newsletter is received by people all over the world. So, if you don’t know what Thanksgiving is, it’s about eating.
My thanks to everyone who responded to my November newsletter. I’m still reading the last thousand letters, so if anyone offered me money or their villa in Tuscany, and you’re wondering why I haven’t responded, it’s because I haven’t gotten to your letter yet.
Many people are still writing to me on the subject of Alec Baldwin playing the part of John Sutter in the movie version of THE GOLD COAST: First, as it turns out, it’s possible that Baldwin will play the part of the mafia don, Frank Bellarosa. The script, I’m told, features the character of don Bellarosa – not John Sutter – so it stands to reason that Baldwin will play that part. I’ll pass along any updates I get on this subject.
Second, the email comments from everyone who wrote about Alec Baldwin had been running about ten to one against Baldwin playing ANY part in ANY movie. But now I see a swing toward Alec in the last several hundred emails. Many people said that his politics and personal life were irrelevant to his art, and some people, of course, had no problem with his politics, or even his personal life.
Again, I’m just reporting and not taking sides in this.
As for the character of John Corey, who appears in four of my novels, thousands of people over the years have told me that the only possible John Corey is Bruce Willis. I absolutely agree, and as I may have mentioned in the past, Bruce is a Nelson DeMille fan, and we’ve spoke on the phone once. So, Bruce, have your people call my people. The nation wants you to be John Corey.
But as I’ve said, I have absolutely no control over who plays the parts of any of my characters, and that’s just as well. As movie producers and directors love to tell novelists, “I didn’t tell you how to write the book, so don’t tell me how to make the movie.”
Fair enough. And I’ve never meddled in a TV or movie production, or a screenplay based on any of my books, as too many novelists do. As I tell other novelists, “If you don’t want Hollywood to screw up your book, don’t sell the movie rights.”
Moving away from movies, the paperback edition of WILD FIRE is selling like wild fire. And for that, I thank all my readers, and my friends and family who have reluctantly taken my checks and gone out and bought multiple copies in order to bump up the book on the bestseller lists.
I am still writing the sequel to THE GOLD COAST, and I think I’m in the home stretch. I got hung up in November on a sex scene that I couldn’t quite get right, but after some exhausting research, I was able to get it perfect – at least on paper.
THE GOLD COAST sequel, as yet untitled, will be published probably in October 2008.
I received a letter from the CIA asking me where I get my information – this is not a joke – and where I got my background for my CIA character of Ted Nash (bio) . If you’ve followed the Corey novels, you know that Ted Nash is not a very likeable character. It was a nice letter, however, very friendly in tone, and included an invite to visit CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. I was reminded of a funny Thanksgiving card I received that shows a turkey bragging about being invited to the farmhouse for dinner.
Nevertheless, I have accepted the invitation, and I relate this here so that if I go missing…well, you get my point. Sounds like a novel.
This is my last newsletter until April, because I need to finish THE GOLD COAST sequel by April 1, so I’ll wish everyone now a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and happy every other holiday that falls between now and April Fool’s Day.
And as always, pray for the safety of our men and women serving in hostile regions around the world. As a man who spent a year in the jungles, swamps, and rice paddies of Vietnam, I can tell you that the holiday season is the most difficult for the troops serving overseas. Send a letter, or a package, and don’t forget the wounded in the military hospitals.
Sincerely,
Nelson
After much intrique and the reappearance of deceased CIA man and Corey-nemesis Ted Nash, John finally tracks down the only videotape account of the crash, proving what the government has desperately tried to cover up. However, his attempts to confront his detracters with the evidence and a brave eyewitness are thwarted when the "meet" at the Windows of the World Restaurant at the top of World Trade Center North Tower is interrupted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Corey and Kate escape with their lives. Everyone else is supposedly killed in the tower collapses, and the evidence showing the TWA 800 was taken down by a missile attack, is destroyed.
Nash does; however, pops up again when Detective John Corey is contracted by the Government to take on other national security related missions. .
The New York Sun wrote in excerpt:
"The government of the United States has been willing to battle terror in several countries in the Middle East with conventional weapons and forces. It has kept its enormous arsenal of nuclear warheads safely tucked away in silos and on submarines around the world. It appears willing to keep them inactive, as long as no nuclear attack befalls America. If one does, there is a secret government plan to loose a rain of nuclear bombs on Muslim cities in every part of the globe, causing the annihilation of something approaching 200 million to 400 million Muslims. This plan is known as "Wild Fire" and is hard-wired, meaning no president or military leader can stop it once America has been attacked.
Well, that may not be true, but it is the premise of the new thriller by Nelson DeMille, "Wild Fire" (Warner, 519 pages, $26.99), and it is utterly plausible. Mr. DeMille, as usual, has done a thorough research job, added a bit of secret information, combined it with a staggering creative intelligence, and topped it with a sharply witty sensibility to produce one of the best thrillers of the year."
The 9/11 Commission called the 2001 terrorist attacks "a result of the government's "failure of imagination."
Greg Bear, Sci-fi writer, comments: "Writers offer powerful imaginations that can conjure up not only possible methods of attack, but also ideas about how governments and individuals will respond and what kinds of high-tech tools could prevent attacks."
"To save civilization," Ringworld author Larry Niven says: "We do it in fiction. Why wouldn't we want to do it in fact?"
If you like the Nelson Demille's political thriller series; Vince Flynn (who has also visited with the President and consultant on TV series 24), Ted Bell, and Brad Thor are good reads.
cool!
no, no, NO! Harris Yulin would be absolutely fantastic as Frank. He even auditioned in a way, here.
How do you get on the mailing list? ... I love his work. As a matter of fact, I thought Ted Nash might have had a hand in the latest NIE. /kidding, at least partially
Never mind, I answered my own question by going to this thread’s source link. Look for the link to sign up for the newsletter.
Love his books and Gold Coast is one of my all time favorites. He also graduated from my alma mater....Hofstra.
At his Web site he says Columbia has The Lion’s Game in development for a 5 part TV miniseries. So ... who will be the bad guys, neo-nazis? neo-cons? amish? memonites?
mark for later
Sense of humor, I dare say; as in smart a$$ comments that John Corey hands down from time to time. Corey needs to show humor as a psychological coping strategy considering the life and death scenarios he finds himself in.
Thanksgiving day is about food and sharing an over abundance of it. I venture to think most Americans sitting at the dinner table are not discussing the Pilgrims and their shared "cook out" with the Indians. The historical importance of this day of giving is discussed in classrooms, on a stage with 1st graders dressed in colonial attire and/or story books shaped like turkeys read to the kiddos.
Thanksgiving, conceptionally good definition of "sharing the gravy".
It was with anticipation that I got his new book "Wildfire" out of the library. It is totally unreadable, meant for the moonbat half of the United States and other such people. It is breathtakingly stupid, postulating the right wing conspiracy capitalist moguls behind the made up war against radical Islam.
I got to thinking he must have become a "truther" somehow.
Did I mention it was a horrible book?
The Lion’s Game, loved that book!
I think he wrote it on the fly, or had someone else write it for him, does he have a teenage son? LOL
“does, there is a secret government plan to loose a rain of nuclear bombs on Muslim cities in every part of the globe, causing the annihilation of something approaching 200 million to 400 million Muslims. This plan is known as “Wild Fire”
Reminds me of the verse from the Bible...”and I will send a fire upon those that dwell safely in the coastlands>”
thanks for the history lesson, mate!
I do not think my history lesson would receive a passing grade...was more about the mindset of most on Turkey Day.
The film is better for it. Load up the film with “faces” and actors (cameo appearances) and the first weekend might pull in a few millions but sinks quickly. thereafter.
There’s always a better seasoned actor out there. Comes into play: can the cast members work with that actor; as Baldwin’s leading lady in London quit, Lohan held up a film shoot for rehab...those are disruptions that cost the investors of any project time which is money. In Your Face Baldwin knows there is a conservative (even though Gold Coast is not a political thriller) following of Mr. DeMille’s books, what better place to elevate the middle finger in expletive —”I will always have work no matter whom I choose to publically belittle and abuse”. Historically, going into a film the book is most often better.
Yulin was the image of Frank that I held in my mind when reading the book. Your big name comment holds up for most but perhaps Bruce Willis is the exception that proves the rule.
However, can think of a few outstanding actors who give their all as an exception to that "multiple" rule--
Helen Mirren, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Giovanni Ribisi --true chameleons
These are real actors, not just stars.
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