An Evening with Steve Berry

Steve Berry is one of my favorite thriller writers. His novels are fast paced, suspenseful, and always center around an historical figure or artifact. Berry is currently on tour for his newest novel, The Charlemagne Pursuit and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to hear him speak last week. I've had his new novel on my shelf since December and usually I read his novels as soon as they are released, but unfortunately I have fallen behind and haven't had a chance to read this one yet. The Charlemagne Pursuit is another novel in Berry's Cotton Malone series and this one features a mystery surrounding Charlemagne. I was glad to hear Berry speak because it gave me some new insight into the character Cotton Malone. I've always said that the name Cotton drives me nuts, but apparently there is a story behind the name, and Berry will tell us that story...eventually. I have also said that I have a hard time picturing Cotton in my head. Someone in the audience asked Berry if movie rights have been sold to his books, and if so, who would he cast as Cotton. Berry said that movie rights have not been sold, but if he had to cast Cotton, he would pick someone like George Clooney. Berry has at least two or three more adventures planned for Cotton and said that he plans to keep the series from becoming predictable by "changing Cotton's world." I'm not entirely sure what he meant by this, but I think we saw the beginnings of this in his last novel, The Venetian Betrayal, with the creation of new countries or federations. Berry also mentioned something new he is trying with fellow thriller writer James Rollins. Rollins is similar in style to Berry, and although they write for different publishing houses, when Rollins's next paperback is released in May, it will contain the first chapter of Berry's next book The Paris Vendetta. When Berry's book is released in paperback, it will contain the first chapter of Rollins's next book. I love hearing authors speak because it's so interesting to hear about how they write, their research process, their editing process, etc. It's different for every author, but it's so amazing how much work they put into their writing.