I got this email today from my brother Tod about my buddy James Kosub, worldwide President of the Lee Goldberg Fan Club:
You’ll be happy to know that the man who once lambasted you for writing
tie-ins, is now trying to get a job…writing tie-ins. I fucking love that guy!
I had to check this out for myself. Sure enough, Jim is sniffing around for tie-in work:
I sent an email to a gentleman at Black Flame
today, inquiring about possible work on the media tie-ins his imprint
produces… The way I figure it is this: go where the work is… It’ll be a challenge, I’m sure. It’s always easier to work with
wholly original material than with licensed properties, but it’s a
credit and a paycheck, and that’s what matters.
This struck me as an odd switcheroo, coming from a man who once described me as follows:
"For a man who makes his living writing television show
pastiches for those who cannot summon the intellectual wherewithal to tackle
original mystery fiction, he’s painfully full of himself…"
I wish Jim the best of luck in his endeavors to become as painfully full of himself as I am. If you would like to find out more about the tie-in field, I invite you to visit the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and browse through their wealth of articles on the subject.
Lee: James has outsmarted you in one way — he’s managed to set up his web site so that whenever you link to jameskosub.com and I try to click on it, the following error message appears:
“Redirection limit for this URL exceeded. Unable to load the requested page. This may be caused by cookies that are blocked.”
I have no idea how he does that, but I guess he REALLY doesn’t want your readers visiting his web site!
Someone should send Black Flame some of Big Jim’s past comments about their work, like this:
“Now that I’ve finished Stephen King’s lackluster latest, I’ve moved on to something I never thought I’d actually read: a Friday the 13th media tie-in.
I spotted Hate – Kill – Repeat on the shelf at the library and figured so long as I wasn’t supporting the tie-in industry with my dollars, it’d be worth checking it out. The writing is passable (and sometimes not) but the concept is intriguing enough to warrant the time spent reading it.
Black Flame, a publishing house out of Britain and associated with wargaming juggernaut Games Workshop, has some sort of licensing deal with New Line Cinema, and has churned out a few of these kinds of tie-ins of late. I tried to read the one for Jason X and was almost immediately turned off by the horrid, horrid prose. So far Hate – Kill – Repeat is an improvement, though it’s not the kind of thing that’s going to win any awards.”
That will be sure to get Big Jim a job (snicker! snicker!)
Lee Goldberg heard: “Your writing of tie-ins SUCKS!”
What Big Jim Kosub said was: “I’m writing for the BUCKS!”
Clearly, a case of bad cellular…..
Well . . . this is interesting. Kosub called James Reasoner a money grubbing prick just because he agreed with another person that professional writers are more likely to send stories to a paying market. If he’s now willing to write for a market just because it pays, what does that make him?
Sue,
I just tried the links and they still work…for the moment, anyway. I’m sure my buddy Jim, worldwide President of the Lee Goldberg Fan Club, will disable the links soon. He’s not fond of the light and tends to scurry away when caught in it. He’s shy.
But I’m looking forward to seeing his video submission to Book Millionaire.
Lee
Big Jim actually called James Reasoner (one of the most gentlemanly and kind writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting) a “money grubbing prick”? Or is that a paraphrase?
I’m glad I read that opening AFTER I ate.
Actually “Greedy money grubbing prick” were Kosub’s words on his blog about James Reasoner.
When I told our youngest daughter about this, she wanted to know where the money was. James just looked at her and said, “I guess I’m not very good at it.”
Guess Big Jim doesn’t like being called Big Jim……
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From His Blog, 3/30/06
“My name is James. And as Steve Harris’s character on Heist put it, I am to be called James: “Not Jim, not Jimmy and never Jimbo. James.”
I have never understood those who fail to grasp even the basic forms of address that are appropriate between strangers, acquaintances, friends and lovers. I don’t address people by the familiar when we aren’t familiar, and I expect similar consideration from others. If I wanted to be called Jim or any other variation on my name, then I would introduce myself as such. I don’t.”
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Lee, I’d like you to start writing a spec script based on all this. The title should be They Call Me MISTER Kosub…
He called me anti-Semitic and “a piece of work” on his blog, for reasons that I can’t fathom. Now if he stays true to form…
Does Chuck Barney at the Contra Costa Times have Lee Goldberg on speed dial? You’re quoted again, in yesterday’s article on Grey’s Anatomy: Show’s real Grey area
Chuck actually asked me about GREY’S ANATOMY when he interviewed me about THE SOPRANOS. I guess he was thinking ahead to his next article…
Lee
I don’t know why the press is calling Lee Goldberg for his opinion. He’s a nobody. They shoud be calling Big Jim Kosub.