Apparently it's not from lack of interest. Sue Grafton is adamant that she'll never allow her hugely popular series of novels, starting with "A is for Alibi" and leading letter-by-letter up to her most recent, "V is for Vengeance," be turned into films.

"Hollywood can't believe writers aren't panting for the money and the recognition -- the glamor of film -- but I wrote in Hollywood for 15 years and believe me, I'm cured," she said in an interview posted on her site, SueGrafton.com.

When her early literary efforts stalled, she turned to writing made-for-TV movies in Los Angeles. It was a brief and mostly undistinguished career that yielded just a dozen titles, most notably an adaptation of Agatha Christie's "A Caribbean Mystery" in 1983 and the 1985 picture "Love on the Run" starring a very young Alec Baldwin.

But Grafton continued writing novels at the same time, and when her alphabet series finally started to catch on -- after the release of "G is for Gumshoe" -- she was able to focus solely on the books.

She has lamented the lack of power and respect given to writers in Hollywood, who are forced to work with (or perhaps for) a group of non-writers appointed by the studio. "You're treated like a clerk whose job it is to type up everybody else's notes," she says on her site.

So opposed is Grafton to the idea of having her books' protagonist, private detective Kinsey Millhone, portrayed on screen, that she's made her children promise to never sell the rights after her death, threatening to haunt them if they do.

"We've taken a blood oath, and if they do so I will come back from the grave, which they know I can do," she said in an interview with January Magazine.

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