It’s a useful habit to develop, when you see an interesting movie or television series title, look it up on the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com. Scroll down to the Writing credits, which are listed directly beneath the Directing credits. This is a great way to discover authors you may not have known about. That’s what I did when I noticed The Stranger (2020) listed on Netflix. The series is based on the novel by Harlen Coben published in 2015.

It’s an excellent series, and unique, because it’s an American story, adapted for a British setting. The main character’s children play lacrosse in the novel, but play soccer in the series. (Apparently, soccer is referred to as football outside North America and the NFL would be called American Football. There’s also the CFL-Canadian Football League-with rules slightly different from the NFL.)

What I appreciate about casting in the United Kingdom is that the characters feel more like someone you might actually live next door to, or work with. There seems to be less stress on how good-looking someone is, and more emphasis on whether the person actually fits the role. Realistic characters, combined with the very real possibility of being the victim of an internet blackmail scam, and you have a story that draws you in. The novel is a page-turner, and the series is hard stop watching.

I was surprised I had never heard of this author before, because Harlen Coben (www.harlencoben.com) has the kind of career many writers dream of. As well as an impressive list of published books, several have been adapted for series by Netflix. Looking up The Snowman (2017) on the Internet Movie Database is also how I learned about Jo Nesbo, a very successful Norwegian author.

I realize that envy isn’t a healthy emotion, but it can be discouraging when making the transition from part-time to full-time writer feels impossible. I suppose the question we have to ask ourselves is: Do I love writing? If you do love writing, then there’s really no reason to stop. My plan is to keep writing until the funeral home employees take me to the crematorium, and I don’t complain about the heat.

Copyright © 2022 by J. Paul Cooper

Note: If you haven’t heard about it yet, there’s an interesting development in the self-publishing industry: Smashwords is being acquired by Draft2Digital. I have two eBooks with Draft2Digital (Hunting Teddy Bears, Jack: a Lady’s Cat) and one with Smashwords (What If? A Collection of Short Fiction by J. Paul Cooper.)