Talk about a star-studded event!
last night at The Poisoned Pen, the famous Arizona-based bookstore known for hosting signing events for all the big thriller authors, Stephen Coonts, K.J. Howe, and Charles Cumming all stopped by to talk about their latest thrillers.
While Coonts wasn’t there to actively promote a newly released novel, as his most recent book (Liberty’s Last Stand) came out last June, he did shed light on his next thriller. Apparently, the working title for the next Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini novel is The Armageddon File, and Coonts said it should be ready to hit bookstores sometime this fall.
Howe, who is in the middle of a lengthy multi-city book tour for her hard-hitting debut novel, The Freedom Broker, sheds light on how she became a thriller author, and spends a good amount of time detailing real-life K&R (kidnap and ransom) situations–which she studied and learned about, in part, by attending a K&R conference.
Charles Cumming was on hand to promote his latest spy thriller, A Divided Spy. This marks the first American book tour for the British author, and he provided a ton of insight into his characters and even gave fans an update on the movie adaption of his novel, A Foreign Country.
Among the highlights:
6:36 – Howe talks about the moment she realized she wanted to write novels (at the time, she was a medical writer).
8:06 – Howe talks about her upbringing, and how K&R became a topic she was passionate about.
10:22 – The authors discuss The Internation Thriller Writers of America’s (ITW) ThrillerFest, for which Howe (when she’s not writing) is the Executive Director. (To learn more about ThrillerFest, which takes place from July 11-15 this year, click here!)
13:16 – Charles Cummings talks about his experience winning the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for his novel, A Foreign Country in 2012.
16:55 – Charles Cummings offers an update on the movie adaption of his novel A Foreign Country, which will star famed actor Colin Firth. (Spoiler: It’s not being adapted for a six-hour television special.)
20:22 – All the actors talk about their “insider” sources and how they do their research. Coonts, known for his politically charged thrillers, opens by joking about the CIA’s gift shop, a running joke that comes up later on. Howe’s story turns personal when she tells the story of a hostage survivor, named Peter, who she’s become friends with.
29:00 – Coonts talks about how being a thriller writer (or a “professional liar” as he calls it) has opened doors for him with intelligence sources.
37:55 – Howe talks about why K&R has a “lower profile” that other crimes.
42:25 – Coonts discusses Liberty’s Last Stand, and talks about how his former publisher (St. Martin’s Press) was “horrified” when he wanted to write a political book. He then took the book to Regnery Publishing, and said he has two books left on his deal with them.
44:40 – Coonts talk about his next book, which will feature a plot about rigged elections, among other things. The working title is The Armageddon File, and the author said it should come out sometime this fall.
48:21 – All the authors talk about the challenges a thriller authors faces when trying to write a relevant, timely plot.
53:55 – The Q&A portion of the event begins, and fans start asking questions!
(If the video didn’t automatically load, click the link below to watch the discussion in full!)