Jeffery Deaver on Ian Fleming

The June 10 Houston Star-Telegram is carrying a nicely-done piece about Carte Blanche author Jeffery Deaver’s experiences with the world of Ian Fleming.

A lifelong fan of the literary James Bond after reading his first Fleming novel at the tender age of eight, Deaver says the excitement he felt from those books is one of the reasons he wanted to be a writer. After receiving an invitation from Ian Fleming Publications to write a (one-off) 007 adventure, he “took all of five seconds” to jump on board.

Photo © Associated Press

Carte Blanche, in updating the Bond saga to the right-this-minute post-9/11, post-7/7 world, has rung some changes on the character and his world that we’ve since heard about. He and the publishers also decided that Deaver would retain his own authorial style…

…that he would not attempt to write the book mimicking Fleming’s style.

“Sebastian [Faulks] is a brilliant literary writer and he pulled if off very well in his book… “But I would not presume to do that. Nor do I have the talent to do that.”

David Martindale’s article also lists some of the author’s favorite Fleming things: Favorite Bond novel, Favorite Bond moment, and favorite Bond villains and girls. You’ll have to read Jeffery Deaver attains double-o status as new Bond writer to learn which.

Published in the US by Simon & Schuster, Carte Blanche drops this coming Tuesday, June 14. Watch the HMSS Weblog for pointers to the reviews and reactions from the US-based critics, as well as our own humble editor’s thoughts.

Hawaii Five-O season 11 DVDs coming out in September

The DVD set of season 11 of the original Hawaii Five-O series is coming out in September, according to the CBSstore.com Web site. It will ship ON SEPT. 20.

As we’ve mentioned before, season 11 features a number of former spy actors, including series star Jack Lord (the original film Felix Leiter), ex-007 George Lazenby, former Man From U.N.C.L.E. Robert Vaughn and Ross Martin, who played Artemus Gordon on The Wild, Wild West. The season 11 set was originally supposed to be out in April.

A tip of the hat goes to Mike Quigley’s Five-O/Five-0 fan Web site, where we spotted the information.