On Tuesday, I left work early to go to an author event - Anthony Horowitz. I've been reading his books for years and I was SO happy to meet him.
If you're not familiar with him, he's the author of the Alex Rider series. Which I adore. I'm a huge fan.
Here he is chatting.
Alex Rider first came out in 2000, now 17 years later the 11th book came out. But he swore he would stop at 10. So for the last five years, there hasn't been any new Alex Rider stories.
Then his publishers asked him to polish up some short stories for publication. And he fall back into the rhythm of Alex Rider's life. We left Alex in a dark place, hoping that he would get better as time passed. He started writing new stories about Alex and this one wouldn't let go. Thus we have book 11 (which is amazing - read my review
here) and book 12 will be out next year (or so).
He had a boring childhood, but he used to play spies with his sister in their neighborhood. They would sneak about the garden and spy on their neighbors.
Anthony Horowitz hated school, but he loved the library. It was the one place he felt happy. He read action adventure stories. He loved James Bond - first the films and then the books. He hated how old Roger Moore was in the last films, he wanted someone much younger and cooler. A light bulb went on, and Alex Rider was born.
He had written kids books about roughly 10 years with mild success. His wife advised him to give up writing, but he wanted to write one more: Alex Rider.
The first book sold double of his previous books and then the series took off. And millions of readers enjoy Alex's adventures.
There's a new TV series in the works, starting with book 2 coming from British TV. I'm quite looking forward to that.
Besides Alex Rider, he's done quite a lot with British television.
It was a really fun night and I'm so glad I finally got a chance to meet him!
