[Update: Never mind.]

Well, I’m kinda surprised to be announcing this so soon, but Variety has already broken the story, so…I Hunt Killers cover

Yes, like the title says: It appears that my upcoming novel I Hunt Killers is destined to be coming to a TV screen near you!

The Variety story has most of the details, and I don’t have much to add, except on a personal level. Am I completely shocked to have had this happen months before the book even comes out? Um, yes. Am I excited? You betcha.

Will it be exactly like the book?

Not a chance in hell.

It’s TV. There are going to be changes made. AND THAT’S OK.

Lookit (I always wanted to say “lookit”): If I wanted a 100% completely faithful adaptation of my novel on TV, I would have to start my own network. And life is too short for that. Which means, yeah, that they’re not going to do this exactly the way would do it. But as I said above: That’s OK. I never planned on adapting my own book to TV in the first place! I am perfectly happy to let them take a shot at it and see what happens. Their enthusiasm is pretty infectious, I have to say.

Some of you may ask, “Why would you even let them do this unless they promised not to change anything?” And I suppose that’s a fair question. I thought long and hard about this, and here’s where my thinking eventually brought me:

I write books. I don’t write TV shows or movies. I write books. My job and my passion is to tell stories in prose and have as many people as possible read those stories. If someone makes a TV show or a movie based on one of my books and it isn’t a faithful adaptation, that doesn’t hurt my book. My book is still safe on your bookshelf. Or on your Kindle.

However… The mere existence of a TV show can be a boon to a book. For example, HBO’s True Blood is a great show based on a terrific series of novels. But as a fan of the novels will readily tell you, the show deviates quite a bit from the books. Still — a lot more people have discovered those novels now as a result of the show, despite that distance from the source material. So it’s really a win-win all around. Great books, great TV, lots of happy viewers, and lots of happy readers.

So I hope that, come April 2012, you guys will join me in welcoming to the literary world one Jasper “Jazz” Dent, son of the world’s most notorious serial killer, and a kid trying to figure out just what his destiny is. If a TV show happens to follow, well… That’s cool, too, and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming him again. 🙂

My heartfelt thanks to everyone at WBTV Development who loved the book so much, and most especially to my agent, Kathy Anderson, my Hollywood agent, Jody Hotchkiss, and my entertainment lawyer, Tom Collier.

(And, yeah, I can’t believe I have a Hollywood agent and an entertainment lawyer, either.)