I met Chris when he was in Montana researching his book Coyote Blue.
He told me this story:
He was an unpublished writer and had just finished his first novel, Practical Demon Keeping. He was working as a waiter in a restaurant. He had an agent flogging his book and even though he hadn't gotten a publisher yet, Disney was interested in film rights. So it's a busy lunch at the restaurant and Chris gets a call. His agent says: "They've offered $400,000 but I think they'll go to 5. What do you want to do."
And Chris sees that he has four orders up and can't think and tells the agent to do "whatever will work."
He basically delivers the orders with $100,000 standing in the balance.
I just think that's an amazing reversal of fortune story...