A Q&A with the Houston Chronicle

There's an interview up today with me on the Houston Chronicle's Bookish blog. This is just a small part of an extensive Q&A I did with Mike Yawn, a professor at Sam Houston State University, and I'm hoping a longer version appears down the line. Here, he asks me a question I get frequently at readings:

MY: What about the future.  Are you shopping these books to film producers?

PD: I do have a film agent who is fairly active.  We’ve had producers approach me about “The Poacher’s Son,” but nobody who I have had a lot of confidence in.  And that’s one thing about my experience with the movie business: I want a movie that’s not going to embarrass me.

MY: Have you talked to Stephen King about that?

PD: (Laughs) Well, I am sure he’d like to go back in time and rethink some things.  One of the challenges, I think, is that the business just isn’t interested in making low-key suspense films.  They’re doing comic-book heroes, toy franchises, and those sorts of things.  I’m hoping, however, that as the books pile up, someone will look at them and say, “You know what this reminds me of?  ‘Justified,’ or one of those cable series that are so well done.  There’s a lot of smart drama that’s occurring on television, and I can see this on AMC or FX.  I’d love to see that.

I can always hope that someone in Hollywood stumbles on the series one of these days. Obviously, I am biased, but I can see it working well.

I'll be appearing in Houston with my friend and fellow chronicler of game wardens, C.J. Box, on August 6 at Murder by the Book.

My Night at Hotel ZaZa

I begin my new post at MaineCrimeWriters.com with these words:

I am writing this post in a balcony suite at the Hotel ZaZa in Houston, Texas. My room overlooks verdant Hermann Park and the city skyline. In a few hours I will be reading and signing copies of my new novel, Bad Little Falls, at one of the nation's premier mystery bookstores, Murder by the Book.

What follows is a reflection on the (fleeting) luck that got me to this place in my career, but also some predictions about the future of author book tours during this tumultous era we are living through. Check it out.