Where Are the Female Thriller Writers?

Today's NY Times had an article of the pitfalls of bringing the thriller novel to the screen. Naturally this is fallout from the problems in bringing the Da Vinci Code (now abbreciated everywhere to DVC) to the screen. Brown's novel, and other thriller's are seen as "cinematic", but something gets lost in translation. In short, it don't work. Of all the novels listed for possible filming, nary a one was written by a woman. I guess the gentler sex still isn't into torture, gratuitious violence, improbable plots and all those good things. Still, a few females do write thrillers. Maybe they aren't cinematic enough? The Thriller Writer's conference will meet next month in Phoenix should you wish to go and pose the question. Ah yes, the Valley in June, hottest I ever was!

This week's New Yorker has an hilarious laugh-out-loud roll-on-the-floor review of the DVC movie. There must be an unannounced contest to produce the funniest, most scathing review. The NYTimes did a great pan, as did the Wall Street Journal, but the New Yorker bests them all. I start to feel a little sorry for Dan Brown, who of course, is laughing all the way to the bank as the old saying goes. Still, it must be mortifying to have one's novel panned so viciously.

Does anyone feel sorry, by the way, for Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay? In my years in corporate America, I saw a lot of ignorance, stupidity, avarice, and all the wonderful traits that made Enron great. Among the things I learned: an adjustment to the GL (general ledger) can fix most any financial problem and executives only hear what they want to hear and will deny that anyone told them "the bad news." The profits of one division will be eviscerated to make a pet division look good financially. In the interest of getting the systems to play nicely together (read: no one has to do any work), profitable parts of the business, parts actually bringing in income, may be casually jettisoned. But I digress.

I've honed a new query letter for WOM, (World of Mirrors) a new one page summary, and a new eight-page synopsis. Looking for likely agents. Discovered one of my prime candidates had already rejected book. So it goes.

Aloha,

Grapeshot