Webchat with Jack Reacher author, Lee Child: Wednesday 16 November, 9-10pm

[RachelMumsnet]

Jack Reacher fans will be thrilled to hear that author Lee Child will be joining us for a webchat on Wednesday (16 November) evening between 9 and 10pm.

Lee penned his first novel (Killing Floor) at the age of 40 after his career at Granada Television came to an end. Since then Jack Reacher has become a global phenomena with 21 books published and two films with Tom Cruise taking the leading role. This month the latest film Never Go Back, is on general release and the 21st book, Night School, has just been published.

Come and chat to Lee and ask him all your burning questions on Wednesday (16 November) between 9 and 10pm. Everyone who joins will be entered into a draw to win a SIGNED copy of Jack Reacher: Night School.

Hi Lee
Have you ever met anyone even vaguely like Reacher?

My question: when you submitted your first manuscript to a publisher, did you think that it was really good, or did you think it was nearly there and hopefully have enough great stuff in it to pique someone's interest?

(Budding author here who is going down the rabbit hole of the multiple drafts, possibly to avoid actually sending things off....)

@LeonardCohensBackingSinger

My teenage son and I share the same taste in reading and we both look forward to the next Jack Reacher. We often make up plot lines not that they're a tiny bit predicable. I can't imagine there is any financial need for you to produce a new book every year, so what makes you keep writing? Please don't stop!!

Happily yes, I don’t have the financial reason any more but it’s you that makes me keep writing. I think there’s an emotional contact between reader and writer and if you want more, then who am I to say no?!

Hi Lee, I really enjoy your books and you are one of only a few authors that my husband will bother to read. Which has been your favourite book that you have written and with Jack Reacher, did you always know that you would write as many books as you have or did you only plan to do a few?

36 mugs of coffee in a day?!! Crikey, even during dissertation writing all nighters I never got close to that!!

@Lanaorana1

Reacher Creature here - loving you, Hemingway that People Actually Read, thanks forever Mr C. Every sentence you write seem to have its own echo - bliss.

Can you help me with my next job? Yep, that's tonight's big question.

Me: scruffy spinster book editor, Clapham, tiny flat, vast cat. Charity volunteer.

My mate: volunteer too, wrote bestseller by mistake. Horror thriller only for friends then number 1 Amazon for 6 weeks. No 2 on way, motivation = vet's fees.

The Query : Me never done fiction but had better edit this one for friend as he is Proper Author Now. Saves money, dog ancient. So tell us how to work:

1. What’s the most annoying thing your editor ever did?

1. Do you talk with your editor all the time or deliver the whole lot in a jiffy bag in dead of night and turn the phone off?

Thanks so much - now returning to the bliss of yr muscly sentences.

I tell my current editor she can make three points and i will attend to one so she better choose carefully. My previous editor changed a word in the first line of Die Trying from 'Nathan Ruben died because he got brave' to 'Nathan Ruben died because he became brave', so I killed that editor and that's why I have a new one.

@AnnoyedByAlfieBear

We love your books in our house!

How many future plots do you have ideas for at any one time and does if change what you are currently writing?

I make each book up as I go along - so I'm happy if I have ideas for the current one. Next year's can look after itself.

@ToElleWithIt

I've thoroughly enjoyed all of your books. Recently I read Andy Martin's "Reacher Said Nothing" and found it a fascinating insight. How did you find being observed as you wrote? Do you think that Make Me would have ended up a different book had Andy not been there observing the process?

At times, it was a bit oppressive. Other times it was real good fun to have someone discuss it with. Existentially I don’t know whether Make Me would have been a different book if he hadn’t been there, because he was.

@MummysGotMakeup

Hi Lee, I really enjoy your books and you are one of only a few authors that my husband will bother to read. Which has been your favourite book that you have written and with Jack Reacher, did you always know that you would write as many books as you have or did you only plan to do a few?

I think my favourite is Gone Tomorrow - which i felt started really well and then carried on okay.

I hoped that i would write this many - that it would be a job that would last this long but i didn't predict it because you can never predict success in the world of entertainment.

@OlennasWimple

My question: when you submitted your first manuscript to a publisher, did you think that it was really good, or did you think it was nearly there and hopefully have enough great stuff in it to pique someone's interest?

(Budding author here who is going down the rabbit hole of the multiple drafts, possibly to avoid actually sending things off....)

I agree with what I think you're saying - too much revision is a form of procrastination. I felt my first manuscript was pretty good. but I did learn a lot during the editing process. It doesn't have to be perfect, as you say, it just has to catch somebody's attention.

@noeuf

Hello Lee, I really enjoy the books and have read them all - who else do you read? For example I like Harlen Coben because of the characters.

I like Harlan Coben too. He’s a good friend and a funny guy. I will read anybody and am always surprised by random discoveries. I’ve just read a book called The Drifter by Nicholas Petrie - that was really good. It said on the back cover that the character was nearly is good as Jack Reacher – I might agree – especially about the nearly!

@trendytoes

Hi Lee Have you ever met anyone even vaguely like Reacher?

I think we all have. There are lots of people that are really good at a narrow skill set and are perfectly normal in other areas of their life - think about a footballer or even a great lawyer or doctor.

Editors are fools. :)

You know everyone moans Boys don't Read? They read Reacher.

I run a creative group for deprived inner-city kids in S London and that's the first - and only - book I recommend to the young gentlemen pupils. The lads hunt their own Reachers down after that, they're readers and Reachers for life.

@Awks

I remember when I was 17 and lived on my own for the first time. I used to watch The Equaliser with Edward Woodward because it made me feel safe (first time living alone) to think that there was someone who was keeping the streets safe (I know, I know ). Now I'm 50 I feel the same about Jack Reacher, like he's out there, looking out for me.

Also, I LOVE the way you write with really short sentences. It means I never lose track of what's going on. I also noticed you'd stopped writing that he buys his clothes in goodwill as realistically the chance of him getting 6ft5 length trousers in the arse end of the boondocks is slim.

Looking forward to reading the new book and hope dh buys it for me himself this christmas

Awks I was just in Wyoming last week and went into a cowboy store and they had piles of jeans in my size – 32 waist and 36 leg. They even had 32/38 and 32/40 – who wears 32 waist and 40 leg?! That must be some kind of a freak! Those clothes are all over America.

@TrollTheRespawnJeremy

We're Kerry Shale fans in this household and so much prefer his audiobook readings of your books over others.

Do you have a favourite? Which one sounds like Reacher in your head?

Neither of them sound like Reacher in my head. The closest i've ever heard (but this is not exact) would be Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves.

@Lanaorana1

Editors are fools. :)

You know everyone moans Boys don't Read? They read Reacher.

I run a creative group for deprived inner-city kids in S London and that's the first - and only - book I recommend to the young gentlemen pupils. The lads hunt their own Reachers down after that, they're readers and Reachers for life.

They're also popular in prisons - they're used to teach people to read in prisons and also for dyslexia therapies.

Thank you for answering! (First time a MN guest has ever answered one of my Qs!)

Love that you are friends with Harlan Coben - please tell him to bring back more Win

Hi Lee
So great to see you online and answering questions.
Do you ever think Reacher might need to right some wrong kill some cockroaches in France? We never hear about his French roots.
I think the most powerful book for me was Nothing to Lose- such a sense of fear and menace.

@eleventybillion

The thing I love is the enormous attention to very specific, and often very technical, details. They are just as much part of the plot as places, people and things. What gave you the idea to make that part of Jack's character and how much research do you have to do to get it right? Or (whispers) do you just make some of it up? And second question if I may: can you/do you shoot yourself?

I think it characterises Reacher that he has that kind of pedantic and exact knowledge of technical things. I’m pretty sure he’s somewhere on the Asperger's spectrum, not that he knows that. Most of it is based on lifelong curiosity about things - and my own pedantry and probable place on the Asperger's spectrum! Some of it is just made up but if it is stated with great confidence and aplomb, you believe it.

I don’t go that far.

@OlennasWimple

Thank you for answering! (First time a MN guest has ever answered one of my Qs!)

Love that you are friends with Harlan Coben - please tell him to bring back more Win

Should I tell Harlan to bring Win back?

@FawnDrench

I am a big fan of the Jack Reacher books and would like to ask Lee how he decided on the name of the hero himself, and how he decides on the names of the other characters in his books, as their names all seem to "fit" their characters so remarkably well.

Best name of all being Jack Reacher of course...

Reacher's name is a well known story -when i lost my previous job and was home all day, my wife made me go shopping. A little old lady asked me to reach a book off the shelf - my wife said if the writing gig doesn't work out, you can be a reacher in the supermarket.

The other names come from everywhere - Aston Villa managers, random items on news websites, and lots of names come from charity auctions where the prize i donate is the chance to have your name in my next book.

I sometimes see similarities between a character called Matt Helm in 'Death of a Citizen' and Reacher. (I'm thinking of a scene where Helm is walking with his then wife down a mean street and feels her worry because there are some tough guys approaching them. Helm doesn't worry in the slightest because he knows he can take them all - anytime and anywhere. He's just not bothered.)

Have you ever read Donald Hamilton?

@TimTamTerrier

Phillip Winchester should have played Reacher, one of the early Reachers I think, Die Trying would have been an excellent first film. I read them all up to Worth Dying For, after that I heard about Tom Cruise playing him in the film and I just couldn't read any more. The mental image I had was corrupted.

Have you thought about writing a new series about a different character?

No - I'm the guy who writes Reacher. If you're bored with him, there are plenty of other writers to read. And when you're bored with them, come back to me.

We're all individuals but collectively, I think we cover everyone's tastes.

@cozietoesie

I sometimes see similarities between a character called Matt Helm in 'Death of a Citizen' and Reacher. (I'm thinking of a scene where Helm is walking with his then wife down a mean street and feels her worry because there are some tough guys approaching them. Helm doesn't worry in the slightest because he knows he can take them all - anytime and anywhere. He's just not bothered.)

Have you ever read Donald Hamilton?

No I haven't but it sounds good.

What a great webchat. Lee Child, an absolute legend! Really interesting reading your replies to all the questions.
I would like to ask you a question which I’m sure you’ve been asked a million times:-

Tom Cruise, a top actor though he may be, is not 6’ 5”, extremely broad, long-armed & long legged, a blue-eyed, blonde-haired behemoth like Jack Reacher is described in the books. What were your thoughts when Tom Cruise was initially cast as Reacher, and have your thoughts & feelings changed now that you’ve seen the 2 movies?

(By the way, the first movie was tops - can't wait for 'Never Back Down')