Dark Pursuit Sells Movie Option

I'm pleased to announce that a contract has been signed for the movie option of Dark Pursuit, my stand-alone novel released in the fall of 2008.

Maggie Field of Maggie Field Literary Consulting discovered Dark Pursuit while searching for new novels with film potential. She alerted producer Harry Gittes, who liked the book very much. Gittes has teamed up with screenwriter Chuck Pogue to purchase the option.

Before the contract was negotiated, Gittes and Pogue spent about an hour on the phone with me and my agent, Lee Hough of Alive Communications, talking about their vision for the film. It was a good conversation, and I appreciated the time they took to fill me in on their thoughts. After that conversation, all parties decided to proceed with negotiations.

If you're unfamiliar with the term "movie option," think of it as a rental of film rights for a book. For the specified time of the option, the purchasers tie up the film rights while they create a screenplay and see if they can gain interest in funding the film. If they do, the film rights are then bought outright. If not, when the option runs out the rights revert to the author, who can then option or sell the film rights to someone else.

About Dark Pursuit

Novelist Darell Brooke lived for his title as King of Suspense—until an auto accident left him unable to concentrate. Two years later, recluse and bitter, he wants one thing: to plot a new novel and regain his reputation.

Kaitlan Sering, his twenty-two-year-old granddaughter, once lived for drugs. After she stole from Darell, he cut her off. Now she’s rebuilding her life.

But in Kaitlan’s town two women have been murdered, and she’s about to discover a third. She’s even more shocked to realize the culprit—her boyfriend, Craig, the police chief’s son.

Desperate, Kaitlan flees to her estranged grandfather. For over forty years, Darell Brooke has lived suspense. Surely he’ll devise a plan to trap the cunning Craig.

But can Darell’s muddled mind do it? And—if he tries—with what motivation? For Kaitlan’s plight maybe the stunning answer to the elusive plot he seeks...

Read the first chapter.