|
|
"Colorful, fiendish. Good entertainment. Could be a heck of a movie." ---Publishers Weekly
"A timely story...filled with recognizable people." |
"Hidden Agenda"Jonelle Patterson has everything a woman could want: a loving family, a beautiful home, and a solid position as a CNN correspondent. She also has something Barry Keller, the most powerful man in newsmaking, wants: an impeccable public image and enough star quality to carry them both to the most influential heights of the new millennium. With Jonelle on Keller's Network ONE team, they can make more than news -- they can make history. And they do. But her meteoric rise to success may be blinding her to someone else's ambitions.
Soon Jonelle is everywhere the biggest stories are -- but the stories are too big, too many, and too deadly. As politicians, religious leaders, and celebrities are routinely targeted around her, a sinister pattern emerges -- and an unsuspecting Jonelle is the only common denominator. With more than her career hanging in the balance, television's rising star is about to be put to a most dangerous test. |
|
HIDDEN AGENDA – MY POLITICAL THRILLER! I sold the book to my editor at Dutton this way, on a one line pitch: "The Firm, set in television." And the end result could be summed up that way. But it's a hell of a lot more than that. It's a DC thriller about putting a woman in the White House in 2008, a condemnation of the hypocrisy of some windbag conservative religious leaders, and a book that, though written before the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, really takes a step past that into the realm of the unbelievable-but-true. I moved to DC the year before I wrote it (it wrote itself in 6 weeks actually), and wanted to be a Beltway thriller. My partner, Mark Larson, really was inspirational on this one, and helped enormously with the setting (since I was still new to this town). I used real people and real situations as much as possible because I wanted to instill a sense of reality into the story. It's fun too that it takes place in my neighborhood (Dupont Circle) and is very recognizable to anyone who knows Washington well. Got nice letters from the Clintons, the Gores, Barbara Walters, Cynthia McFadden, and others who are used as real people in it. There was a chance at a big movie sale here, and Howie Sanders, a top agent at UTA, thought he'd have it sold in a week. Warner reluctantly turned it down only because they'd just done a movie about the media, and didn't want another so soon. The others said no out of fear, which surprised us. Timing was the culprit. Disney then was going through problems because of the Tibet/Dalai Lhama situation and we heard again and again that the Christian Right was too powerful, that no one would distribute this film. Some well-known film makers said they loved it, and regretted passing. I wanted to offend and outrage, and I guess I did, but it cost a movie sale. I just couldn't find a group more sinister and terrifying than the extreme right wing (Mafia has lost its bite). Thing is, the book isn't anti-Christian at all, quite the opposite–the Christian girl wins out! And real values, good Christian values and decency, reign. Oh well, Hollywood would probably have ruined it anyhow. But I always keep my hopes up for a movie, since the story is very cinematic. I'm told it's a big hit in Bulgaria, of all places, which published a version complete with a weeping woman on the cover along with chains and a burning cross. It sold very well here as well, and continues to do so, thanks to people like you.
Buy an autographed copy of HIDDEN AGENDA!
|