Category Archives: Writer

I Love Jack Reacher

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Reacher Book Cover

Compliments of Guest Blogger, The Oldest Living Middle-Aged Writer

I love Jack Reacher, a man with no baggage. I’m not speaking metaphorically; he literally carries only a toothbrush and a wallet. When his clothes are dirty, he throws them away and buys new ones. No ex-girlfriends; actually no immediate relatives at all, Jack is the perfect guy. Well, except for the fact that he’s never home.

What makes the enigmatic Jack Reacher and his adventures so readable is the repeated storyline of deceit and malice fomenting in a small town and ensnaring Reacher, an innocent bystander. He then feels compelled to save those in harm’s way and right wrongs until the bad guys are brought to justice. And the end result is Jack Reacher’s justice alone, which is quick and deadly. And then he moves on.

Most people are aware that Jack Reacher is a figment of Lee Child’s imagination (real name Jim Grant). I had the opportunity to meet Lee Child and hear him speak at the 2012 Thrillerfest in New York City. He is witty and humble, and let us in on how Jack Reacher came to be.

It is a well-known story that Grant worked in television production in England until, at age 40, he was found to be “redundant” and jettisoned from the job. He had seven months’ savings and decided to write a book in the thriller genre and get it published before his money ran out.

He began by reviewing the thrillers on the best seller list, his competition. The protagonists had interesting names, so he chose a simple name, Jack. They were tied to cities and jobs, so he gave Jack the entire United States. They were average-sized individuals, so Jack became 6’5”, 250 lbs, with a 50” chest. They had families and responsibilities, so Jack had none. Then he gave Jack a background in the military to fortify him and sent him out to a small town in Georgia.

With the pseudonym of Lee Child, he sent chapters of the partly finished book to a random agent. He heard that it took weeks and even months for an agent to respond. However, the agent responded within days, and requested the balance of the book. Lee Child put the effort into high gear and remarkably at the end of seven months, he had a publishing contract for “The Killing Floor” and a check.

Of course a character in a book can’t exist without a great story and excellent writing to propel him forward, and Lee Child has accomplished that in his series of Jack Reacher books. And in today’s reality, where  justice seems seldom served and tepidly at best, in the fictional world of Jack Reacher, crimes are solved and absolute justice is meted out to the guilty. Very satisfying to this reader.

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Pithy and occasionally irreverent, the Oldest Living Middle-Aged Writer (aka Pat Childers) is a student of classic literature, contemporary writers and writing in general.

Frenchman’s (Crap) Cove

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Pirate 1

 

By Contributing Blogger, The Oldest Living Middle-Aged Writer

 

Many years ago, during my WAA (Writing Avoidance Activities) days, I took three creative writing classes in a row, one I didn’t even register for.  A friend and I decided we would collaborate on an historical romance novel. We figured it should be about 100,000 words, so we could easily knock it out in four months. It would be about a female pirate in the 1800s, sort of between “Frenchman’s Creek” and a bodice ripper.

We then launched a time-intensive search for the perfect names for the lady pirate and the tall, handsome man she would fall in love with. Her name would be Maeve and his would be Claude. The ship would sail out of Charleston, South Carolina. We did extensive research on the ship – it would be wooden with large sails. With these essential details in hand, we began writing.

In re-reading the first page, I discovered that due to missing punctuation or perhaps a dangling participle, the father’s moustache was hugging the rail. Maeve’s startling ultramarine blue-hued speckled eyes were delighting in the wind whipping the sails, and Robert’s leonine sun-drenched yellow mane of hair flapped in the wind. Your teeth are like pearls, he sneeringly said. Gosh, this was harder than we thought. (Apparently, writing a book requires much more than a dictionary and a thesaurus.)

We almost made it to the third page before we gave up.

Not long ago I found a cardboard box in my garage labeled “bad writing.” I’m sure my pirate book was in there along with piles of other poorly written prose. I threw it away without opening it. It takes a lot of really bad writing to get to the good stuff. I should know.

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The Oldest Living Middle-Aged Writer (aka Pat Childers) is a regular contributing blogger who lives in Midwestern flyover country with her dogs, and the occasional sighting of her husband. In between innings of the Cubs game and contributing to this blog, she works on her web site. She can be contacted at pat@pjchilders.com