Readers often ask what inspired me to write Thanatos and The Underworld Saga . I can still recall the moment the idea came to me. I had just finished watching the movie Meet Joe Black starring Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt. In this movie, Death makes a deal with a man (played by Anthony Hopkins) who's not fated to live long enough to attend his sixtieth birthday party. Death offers to extend the man's life until after the celebration if the man helps Death to better underst