Carla presents guest author MJ Rose

Hello, friends! I'm presenting my first guest since I came on board with Running with Quills. I'd like you to meet M.J. Rose, an extraordinary suspense author and one of the most creative people I've ever known. Please welcome her to RWQ and feel free to ask her any questions.

Thanks,

Carla

Great Expectations.

I’m all about being happy so I don’t have great expectations… too often they only lead to great disappointments.

Which is why when I got email in April 08 from Warner Bros TV asking if the film/TV rights to my suspense novel, "The Reincarnationist," were available I passed it on to my agent and didn’t think about it again. I’ve gotten those queries before and they’ve never lead to anything.

Two weeks later, my agent, Lou Pitt called to tell we were in “talks”. "But don't get excited,” he said. “These rarely lead anywhere.”

Keeping my nose to the grindstone, I just kept writing my next novel.

Two weeks later, they made an offer to option the book and after a few back and forth phone calls we agreed to a price. At which point he reminded me not to get excited. “Tons of books are optioned every year but few of them ever go any further than that.”

Keeping my nose to the grindstone, I just kept writing my next novel.

No more info for a few more weeks then Lou called to tell me Warner had sent the book to writer David Hudgins (Friday Night Lights). If he liked it they were gong to ask him to write the pilot. “But you know a lot could fall apart between now and then. So don’t expect much.

The idea was not to do a straight adaptation of my "Reincarnationist" novels (The Reincarnationist, The Memorist and the forthcoming The Hypnotist - due in May) But to use my premise -- past life research at aninstitute being utilized to solve mysteries and to help people deal with psychological traumas.

Keeping my nose to the grindstone, I just kept writing my next novel. And kept writing it over the next few months and David signed on to be the show runner and wrote the script and Warner Bros started shopping it and the studios bid on the pilot and Warner’s made a deal with Fox TV and Lou called to tell me that they were shooting a pilot. Six weeks from Feb – March 09.

Keeping my nose to the grindstone, I just kept writing my next novel. And kept writing it over the next few months and David signed on to be the show runner and wrote the script and Warmers started shopping it and the studios bid on the pilot and Warner’s made a deal with Fox TV and Lou called to tell me that they were shooting a pilot. Six weeks from Feb – March 09.

“But the chances of the pilot getting picked up are tough. Only one in four make it. Lots of pilots are shot and never see the light of a TV screen,” Lou said.

No problem…I was an old hand at this “no expectations” thing by now… though I will admit going down to Baltimore to see the filming was exciting beyond what I’d imagined. A cast and crew of 250 people working for two months based on an idea I came up with. It seemed impossible and I was really humbled by it.

And then on May 15th, all those "nevers" met their match when Lou called. I was in a cab at 23rd and Park ...not that I remember or anything. The cab driver thought that something terrible had happened because I screamed and then started to cry when Lou told me to tell me Fox had picked up "Past Life" and the series based on my novel would hit the small screen sometime in 2010.

That sometime is now. “Past Life premiered after American Idol on Tuesday night at 9(EST) and will now be on Thursdays at 9 (EST) through mid March."

Of course the great expectation thing isn’t over…now they are all telling me that what really matters is that we get picked up for a second season and 50% of shows never do.

So how to handle it? Nose to the grindstone I’m writing my next novel… but every once in a while I stop to pinch myself because if you’d asked me 10 years ago when I self published my first novel, Lip Service, if this is what I expected to happen…I wouldn’t have dreamed it. So much for great expectations.

If you’d like to download a 100 page free sampler of The Reincarnationist, The Memorist and that novel I was writing during all this - The Hypnotist - please visit. http://www.reincarnationist.org/?page_id=444

M.J. Rose is the bestselling author of eleven novels including THE REINCARNATIONIST (2/23/10 in paperback), chosen by Booksense/IndieNext as one of 2007's Best Suspense Novels, THE MEMORIST (3/28/10 in paperback) a People Magazine Book of the Week, and THE HYPNOTIST (4/28/10), of the acclaimed suspense series that looks at how our past lives impact our present lives.