F. Paul Wilson News Blog
Set for publication February 2008
Exciting news for fans of Repairman Jack!
F. Paul Wilson has contracted to write a trilogy of young adult novels based on Jack. The first, Secret Histories, starts with Jack at fourteen years old. Gauntlet will be publishing a signed limited edition of all three, the first seeing release around February (well before the trade edition is released)
Read for the first time Jack's formative years. You'll meet his mother and father, big sister Kate and his bully of a brother Tom. While aimed for young adults, F. Paul Wilson doesn't write down and the book is as enjoyable for adults as it is for teens. And, as you can see from the above description there's plenty of foreshadowing of events that were to overtake Jack as an adult (i.e. An old woman with a dog … making herself known to Jack when he's just fourteen!)
Both Lettered editions (and only the lettered editions) will contain the complete outline as part of the limited edition. Those ordering each of the lettered edition will have first choice at receiving the same edition (and same letter) of the lettered edition for the entire trilogy if you order in January of each year.
Visit Gauntlet's website for more information and purchasing details.
BLOODLINE trailer
This went live 9/17 on MSN, Yahoo, Google, itunes, AOL, etc. Watch it here.
BESTSELLERS 101
It’s no revelation that making the bestseller lists is important for a book and its author. Bestsellerdom influences where the book is placed in stores. More prominent placement means higher visibility, increasing the likelihood of readers picking it up and checking the flap copy and the blurbs, and perhaps reading the first page or two. If they like what they see—another sale. Which increases the book’s chances of staying on the bestseller list.
A bestselling hardcover can look forward to higher advance orders on its paperback edition (with "Bestseller!" emblazoned across its cover), and the author can anticipate higher advance orders on his next hardcover.
All because his book made the bestseller lists.
(This is not the place to delve into the controversy over how bestseller lists are compiled - a long, complicated story - so let’s just assume that the lists are a true reflection of sales during the week in question and proceed from there.)
But bestsellerdom isn’t determined by total sales. It’s determined by velocity of sales during a given week.
For example: Author X and Author Y each have books released on the same day.
Author X sells 25,000 copies that week and Author Y sells 2,000.
Author X makes the bestseller lists; Author Y does not.
Author X sells 15,000 and 10,000 copies respectively over the next two weeks and remains on the bestseller lists. Author Y sells 2,000 copies in each of those weeks and is nowhere near the lists.
Over the next fifty or so weeks, sales of Author X’s book tail off so that by the end of a year he’s sold a total of 100,000 copies. Author Y’s book has gained a certain amount of word of mouth and sells 2,000 a week for the entire year for a similar total of 100,000 copies.
Both have sold the same number of copies, yet X is now a "Bestselling Author!" and Y is not.
Why?
Velocity.
Author X’s book sold a ton of copies during the first weeks after release. That’s known in the publishing world as velocity. It put Author X on the lists, thereby increasing his paperback orders and future hardcover orders.
So when you buy matters, folks.
What’s the take-away here? Simple: If you plan to buy the new Young Repairman Jack novel, JACK: SECRET HISTORIES, buy it during the first week of release (the official publication date is May 27). Better yet, pre-order it from your favorite bookseller, or:
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Each Repairman Jack novel has sold more copies than its predecessor. Let's continue the trend.
HARBINGERS
The paperback should be in the racks now.
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NEW RADIO INTERVIEW
On 8/22 Gard Goldsmith interviewed me on 107.7 FM in Concord, NH:
SOLD OUT
The following titles are sold out:
- "The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium"
- BLOODLINES: The Gauntlet Press limited edition.
VIRGIN
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The limited edition hardcover is almost sold out, but the good folks at Borderlands Press have decided to make the novel available to the non-collector at a fraction of the hardcover price. It's now in trade paperback.
About the book: In the mid 1990s I wrote a novel about the discovery of the body of the Virgin Mary. As I did with vampire lore in MIDNIGHT MASS, I began with the premise that all the Catholic lore about Mary is true except for one thing: She wasn't assumed body and soul into heaven; instead, her body was hidden away in Israel's Negev Desert. The guardian of her remains gets careless over the millennia and, while he's busy elsewhere, the body is discovered and spirited away. This sets in motion a chain of cataclysmic events that reverberates around the world. I had a ball with it, putting all my Catholic background (even though I'm a recovering Catholic, you never forget) into play. I sent it out under my wife's maiden name (Mary Elizabeth Murphy) and gave it a blurb under my own. Even dedicated it to myself: "To my husband, without whom this book would not have been possible."
FALL TOUR - 2007
See Where I'll Be
THE TERY
This novel had its start in 1971 as a novelette called "He Shall Be Jon." I expanded it to novella length for 1978 publication as "The Tery" in BINARY STARS #2. Unfortunately the accompanying Steve Fabian illustrations were muddy messes due to the printing process. I fleshed it out to novel length for the 1990 Baen version.
Last year I did extensive revisions. So here you have the definitive text in hardcover for the first time, with bright, crisp reproductions Fabian's original art, plus new art by Steve Fabian and Courtney Skinner.
You can order the Limited Edition or the super duper Silver Edition from the Overlook Connection.
Order Limited Edition | Order Limited Edition
SEX SLAVES OF THE DRAGON TONG
My homage to pulp fiction - a fun Yellow Peril story with the most lurid title I could think of - is now available from the acclaimed audio series, DARK VOICES. It's read by yours truly and features wonderful background music and f/x by Robert Schaller. The CD comes with a chapbook of the story.
I inserted a number of cameo appearances by famous characters; if you can't identify them you are banned for life from reading anything else I write.
DO-GOODER
Do-Gooder has been published.
Historical note: Years ago I sold film rights to THE TOMB to Beacon Films/Touchstone Pictures. The idea has been to title the film "Repairman Jack" and turn our guy into a franchise character. The project has spent 11 years in development hell, chewing up 6 writers who’ve churned out reams of scripts. This section contains all updates on the Repairman Jack movie project
DECEMBER 2007
Nothing happens in Hollywood during December, especially with the writers on strike.
NOVEMBER 2007
11/6 - email from head of Beacon production saying we probably won't make much progress on a director until after the first of the year.
OCTOBER 2007
NOTHING new to report on the film. Been on the road so much I've talked to no one in Hollywood this month.
SEPTEMBER 2007
I've been so busy writing that I've had next to no contact with Beacon other than to hear they're going to wait till they have a director to announce the star. But someone with excellent sources scooped everybody. BK Akitas learned that it’s going to be Ryan Reynolds and posted it on the website's =Forum= for all to see.
AUGUST 2007
8/28: Suzann says they've decided to wait until after Labor Day. You might have already read the article by now. If it's out and you haven't, go to the NEWS page on the website and (I hope) you'll find it there.
8/16: Suzann tells me they're debating whether or not to hold off on the article until after Labor Day. Seems everybody who's anybody in Hollywood is out of town during August.
8/7: A call from Suzann Ellis, head of production at Beacon. They're planning an announcement in the trades that they've finally found their Repairman Jack - and they're gonna name him. They need some puffery from me on sales figures and popularity, etc. I send them what I can. They're not sure when the article will appear.
JUNE 2007
6/25: Spoke to the head of production at Beacon. They had a meeting with a hot German director last week that they like a lot. They’re going to meet again. Meanwhile, he’s not the only director in their sights.
6/7: Spoke to Beacon today. The star-director-studio package is still being pieced together. Still can’t name names but it continues to move forward.
MAY 2007
5/2: Email from Barry Rosenbush that we have a new HWMNBNUPOD (He Who Must Not Be Named Under Pain Of Death). Beacon’s choice for Jack (HWMNBNUPOD) read the script and wants to play Jack. I still cannot utter his name until he’s signed.
APRIL 2007
4/23: Barry says the script should be going to the prospective star this week.
4/13: An email from Barry Rosenbush telling me who they’re getting ready to go after to play Jack. He then swears me to secrecy. (I’m not being coy here – I’d love to tell you – but this is how the game is played out there.)
4/6: Barry and I have a longish talk. The next step is up to Beacon: whether to put together a director-cast package and take it to a studio, or partner up with a studio first and then put things together. They’ll be approaching "nothing but A-list actors and directors."
4/5: I get a copy of the script in .pdf. Only a few of the changes I wanted have been made, and a thing or two I liked have been cut. But it’s all minor, so I’m shutting my yap. The important thing is that everyone has signed off on the script. No more putzing around with it. That very big step is behind us.
4/3: Barry Rosenbush sent me a copy of the script tweak in Final Draft format, but my Final Draft program won’t open it. Very frustrating.
MARCH 2007
3/28: Chris emailed to say he finished all the notes and the fixed-up script is going into the studio today.
3/13: Called Army Bernstein. He’s happy with the script and happy that I’m happy with the script. With all this abounding happiness, it’s time to move. The question now (as I understand it) is whether to put together a director-cast package and take it to a studio, or partner up with a studio first and then put things together. But the first step will be for Chris to incorporate my notes and Army’s into the script before it gets shown around.
3/7: Sent in 5 pages of nits (mostly nuances and gun stuff) and how I think they can be fixed.
3/6: Barry Rosenbush (who’s in Utah filming "High School Musical 2") asked me to go through it and pick every nit I could find, so that’s what I did.
3/3: I read the script while in Baltimore and I LOVE it. It’s the Jack we know and (I assume) love, folks.
3/2: With the subject line "Repaired Man Jack," Chris Morgan sent me the latest script as I was leaving for Horrorfind.
FEBRUARY 2007
2/28: Word from Chris that the completed script will go in at the end of this week (that means March 2).
2/14: A call from Barry Rosenbush about the latest meeting with Beacon. Everyone is on board with Chris’s changes. They expect his rewrite in early March.
2/8: Email from Chris asking for suggestions for "characters or items to inject for the fans. I told him we need:
- A lady with a dog in the background.
- A large-framed bearded old guy with a cane in the background
- Food stains on Abe, an Entenmann's box on the counter.
- Abe's blue parakeet Parabellum.
- Overflowing, stacked shelves at Abe's. Must feel claustrophobic.
- Dead ferns in Julio's front window.
- "Neat stuff" in Jack's apartment along with the old oak furniture.
- The Semmerling.
(Some of these might be more trouble than they’re worth, but worth a try)
2/5: Here’s a partial list of what screenwriter Chris Morgan intends to do in his revision. (I’ve edited out references that will be meaningless unless you’ve read the previous script.)
1) A Character pass on Jack – Jack will be tweaked throughout the script in most scenes. He isn't the local hero everyone in the neighborhood knows and loves in this draft. Jack will be more morally-ambiguous and "invisible" all around and dirty up some of his actions and his views. And toward that end:
2) A new really fun, vicious intro for Jack that will also serve to introduce the idea of Gia earlier into the script...and will also pay-off in an amusing scene later in the story.
3) A character pass on Kusum – make Kusum less of a diabolical, moustache-twirler, and make him conflicted about the path he has chosen to obtain revenge. Jack and he will have far more in common than before, which makes their struggle more interesting.
4) layer elements from the books into the story – all background, subtle stuff, but meaningful for the core audience of fans.
5) clarify the Rakoshi myth;
6) rewrite the finale: In the final action set piece, it's just a cargo ship.
7) detail how Jack gets the necklace at the end of the script, rather than it just appearing in his hands.
8) smooth out some of the more jarring scene transitions in the script to give it a better flow.
Army Bernstein wanted to know if these were okay with me. I said absolutely. Let’s do it. =Now=.
JANUARY 2007
1/29: Email from Chris – he still hasn’t finished the Diesel script. Swears it will go in this week and then he can start of Jack.
1/12: Email from Chris Morgan saying he’s got the Vin Diesel script just about wrapped up and should be able to have a "Repairman Jack" draft on time.
DECEMBER 2006
12/1: Long phone conversation with Chris Morgan as we walk through the Repairman Jack script. Don’t expect much to happen this month.
NOVEMBER 2006
11/30: Email from Chris Morgan. We set up a time tomorrow night to walk ythrough the changes in the RJ script.
11/29: Barry Rosenbush calls to say that Beacon and Chris Morgan have reached agreement on his rewrite and that he’ll be getting started within the next week or two. They hope to have the final script by the end of the year or very soon after.
We’ll see.
11/21: Spoke to Beacon and they’ve hit a little glitch in getting the final changes into the screenplay. The writer, Chris Morgan, is contracted with another studio to do Vin Diesel’s next movie; the studio suddenly moved up the production date so he’s had to scramble to get it finished before the end of November. Which means he can’t work on the Repairman Jack script yet.
So we wait.
Some more.
Again.
OCTOBER 2006
10/27: Things seem to be progressing but have slowed due to negotiations with Chris’s agent about the rewrite.
10/13: A conference call with the same gang, plus screenwriter Chris Morgan who’s on board for the revisions. Reaction to my comments and changes has been generally positive all week (but that could mean they’re just being polite). They’re looking at Australia to do principle photography with a second unit to shoot exteriors in NYC. Barry says he’ll put together a list of Australian directors. They discuss the possibility of using Weta Digital for effects. We close with Chris saying he’ll go through the script, make notes, and get back to Army next week.
10/9: I spend the morning typing my revisions and additions into the Final Draft file of the script, then send it off to the Beacon gang.
10/8: On the flight home I pore over the script and scribble mucho notos.
10/6: The day of the powwow with Beacon. It's a long one and I'll skip the details.
I leave the meeting feeling pretty good. This is starting to look like it might happen at last. Barry, ever the realist, says, When we’re both sitting in a production test eating catered food and film is rolling and the checks have cleared, then you can believe it’s happening. He’s right, of course.
SEPTEMBER 2006
9/20: Barry Rosenbush calls to say that he’s set up a meeting between with the Beacon honchos for October 6 at 2:30. I’ll report on that next month.
AUGUST 2006
8/18: It’s official: The too-young, well-known actor, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death, (HWMNBNUPOD to his friends) who wanted to play Jack and for whom the part was being retrofitted is now figuratively and literally out of the picture. I have been asked not to name him at this time and I will respect that request. But eventually you will know, I promise.
I received a call from Barry Rosenbush. They’ve started working on a budget for the film, which is a good sign. A certain someone at the studio still has "character issues" about the script. Sheesh. I definitely need a meeting with the studio honchos when I hit the Left Coast in October.
Despite the runaway success of "High School Musical" (he was executive producer) and his intense involvement in the sequel, Barry remains steadfastly committed to bringing Jack to the screen. He’s one of the good guys out there in LaLa Land.
JULY 2006
7/28: Using a 2003 script that’s very close to the novel, Barry Rosenbush has been working with my Hollywood agent to put together an actor-director package for the film. The agency supplied him with a list of their actors 25-30 years old and a list of their action-adventure directors. He had a sit-down with Beacon today. Army Bernstein’s going to take the script and the lists and get back to him in 7-10 days.
7/18: Some disturbing news: Disney / Touchstone (with whom Beacon has a distribution deal) is undergoing a major shakeup. In a decision to skew their output toward more "family-friendly" films, they’re reducing their edgier Touchstone releases to 2 or 3 a year, axing 650 jobs, including president Nina Jacobson. (This is the woman who told M. Night Shyamalan that his script for "Lady in the Water" needed an overhaul. The artiste left Disney in a huff. For those of you who don’t follow movie grosses, "Lady" tanked at the box office. This is one smart exec. Why are they letting her go?)
JUNE 2006
Late June: Well, studio head Army Bernstein seems to have rethought his very hands-on approach to the film and handed the reins back to Barry Rosenbush and Bill Borden. Barry retrieved an earlier, close-to-the-book script from 2003, had it spruced up, and sent it to me for a look. I like it a lot. I’d like to see Kusum a bit more conflicted, but otherwise it’s a non-stop action yarn with lots of crisp, clever dialogue. He’s talking to one of the major talent agencies about putting together a director-star package ASAP.
MAY 2006
5/29: Well, I can’t get a straight story yet, but I’m hearing rumbles that things are in flux at Beacon as far as the Repairman Jack movie goes. Does this mean the new script has been ditched? Does this mean that HWMNBNUPOD is stepping back? Stay tuned. When I hear, you’ll hear.
APRIL 2006
4/21: Joel Fields’s update on the movie (such as he knew) was that everyone seems happy with where the script is and that studio head Army Bernstein is going to meet with HWMNBNUPOD in person within the next two weeks to put the draft into his hands. Then...who knows how long before we get a decision?
MARCH 2006
Late March: Screenwriter Joel Fields delivered the "Repairman Jack" rewrite early – before the end of the month. Maybe we’ll hear something definitive in April. Most likely not.
3/1: I heard from the head of production and from Joel Fields, the screenwriter. Joel met with Army Bernstein, head of Beacon, earlier in the month to go over HWMNBNUPOD’s reaction to Joel’s draft of the script. Then on 2/28 he spent several hours with Army going over notes on the script. He feels they now have a direction for revisions. If all goes well the new version should be in Beacon’s hands in 4-6 weeks.
Joel thinks the script keeps getting better â€" which is not always the case (or even common) in the rewrite / revision process, and generally a good sign.
Or not. Remember, it’s Hollywood.
FEBRUARY 2006
2/1: Spoke to the head of production at Beacon who tells me that Beacon’s headman, Army Bernstein, met with HWMNBNUPOD and got his notes on the script. She was setting up a meeting between scripter Joel Fields and Army in early February to go over the notes. Joel's latest episode for Commander in Chief is filming sometime then and Army's got Firewall stuff going, so it may well be a little later.
Don’t need a crystal ball to see yet another rewrite in the works.
JANUARY 2006
1/4: Barry Rosenbush confirms that He Who Must Not Be Named Under Pain Of Death received the new script before the holidays, but no one knows when he’ll decide.
DECEMBER 2005
12/15: Barry Rosenbush wrote to tell me that Joel Fields has handed in the revised RJ script to Beacon and it’s now in Army Bernstein’s hands. From there it’s supposed to go to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death. (Maybe a happy new year; maybe not.)
NOVEMBER 2005
11/21: Got an email from Joel Fields, apologizing for missing lunch. According to him he’ll have the rewrite done on time.
11/18: On my LA trip I was supposed to have lunch on the 18th with Barry Rosenbush and Joel Fields (respectively the producer and the latest scripter on the Repairman Jack film) but Joel is also a writer for Commander in Chief and had to beg off because of some last-minute script emergency.
So it was just Barry and I at Cafe del Rey by the marina. Gotta love Barry. He’s intelligent and well read and so unHollywood. He says Joel will deliver his rewrite within the next 2 weeks so that He Who Must Not Be Named Under Pain Of Death can read it over the Christmas holidays. I figure we’ll know sometime in January if we’ve got a star. Yoiks.
If he says yes, the movie is a go. If he says no, well . . . who knows? We’ll either be dead in the water or it’s back for another rewrite.
I hate this.
OCTOBER 2005
10/22: Joel Fields’s new script is in. Army Bernstein, head of Beacon, has already given him notes and Joel’s back at work on the tune up. This is startlingly fast for Beacon. I’m gathering that they’re toning down the rakoshi angle and beefing up the Kusum role as an evil man with extraordinary powers. I’m not happy with that, but after ten years I’ve seen so many "concepts" and "angles" come and go that I’ve become uncomfortably numb. I am curious to hear what He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death will think of it when he sees it.
SEPTEMBER 2005
9/13: Heard from Joel Fields who says he’s chugging along on Act 3 (scripts typically have 3 acts) of the Repairman Jack script. Told me he really enjoys working with Jack. (So do I. That’s why I’ve finished #10 and will most likely do 4 more.) Let’s just hope the final product appeals to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death. (Yeah, right, that’ll happen. After ten years of this I know there’s GOT to be a problem that requires another rewrite.)
JULY 2005
7/15: Army Bernstein, the head of Beacon Films, has approved Joel Fields’s much-rewritten treatment for the new screenplay. Which means that Joel is now off writing it. The script is being modified to accommodate He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death. I’m told it’s "still very much in the spirit of the Jack we know and love." Figure 6 to 9 weeks for a draft.
7/6: Someone told me that Hollywood is a place where people have meetings to decide on when to have a meeting. And so, meetings continue between Beacon Films, screenwriter Joel Fields, and HWMNBNUPOD (He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death). That’s all I can talk about now. The glacial progress continues.
MAY 2005
5/22: Everyone at Beacon seems to like Joel Fields’s treatment for his revision of the script. Now we need the head of the studio to sign off on the rewrite and we’re off to the races – again. Hope to have more for you next time.
APRIL 2005
4/14: Barry Rosenbush toldd me that Joel Fields has survived a number of meetings with the Beacon Films gang. Everyone is on the same page (for the moment) and Joel has gone off to write a full treatment of the aspects of the script he is to address – mostly character development.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m "very excited."
MARCH 2005
3/2: Barry Rosenbush informed me that Joel Fields has been hired to rewrite the "Repairman Jack" script.
Joel was in Manhattan in March and we got together on the 9th at a little place in the Flat Iron district. Mostly we talked character. That’s the main reason Joel’s been hired: To flesh out Jack’s character. He seems to have a firm grasp on Jack and I have a good feeling about the work he’ll do.
FEBRUARY 2005
2/2: Dare I say it? I sense . . . momentum.
The hot young star first mentioned earlier ("He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death" -- or HWMNBNUPOD) remains interested in playing Repairman Jack. If fact, he's been spotted around LA wearing a Repairman Jack cap.
HWMNBNUPOD has been meeting with the producers. Beacon has decided (yet again) to find a new writer. Seems Chris Morgan, who did the latest round of revisions (#1,062 thru #1,075) has commitments that won't allow him to complete the script in the window Beacon is working with.
Co-producer Barry Rosenbush informs me that they've settled on a new screenwriter. After the lawyers and agents finish their thing, and after a round of meetings, he'll be able to start tapping the keyboard.
JANUARY 2005
Late January: The target date to start filming in Shanghai is this summer.
(Stop laughing. I don't believe it either.)
DECEMBER 2004
12/18: Nothing new. But then, not much gets done in Hollywood between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.
The hot young star previously mentioned [who shall henceforth be referred to as "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Under-Pain-Of-Death" (or, for those close to him, HWMNBNUPOD)] remains interested in playing Repairman Jack.
Some of you might be concerned about a mid-late twenties actor playing Jack, who's in his mid thirties. Have no fear. This is Beacon Films we're talking about. By the time they get around to exposing some film, HWMNBNUPOD will be just the right age.
12/2: A new development: The Repairman Jack movie was languishing in the wake of the disappointing new script. Now it's building steam again after a young, big-name star has said he wants to be Repairman Jack. (Don't ask me who (if I tell you I'll be killed.) His youth (no, it's not Frankie Muniz - he's not that young) will necessitate some significant rewriting, but his involvement has lit a match under the project.
But this is Hollywood and I've ridden this roller coaster before. Best thing to do is put it on the back burner and not think about it until something happens.