Month: January 2005

Michael Avallone

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The tie-in talk here and on other blogs  has blossomed into several  discussions and remembrances of the late Michael Avallone, author of many tie-ins as well as the Ed Noon detective novels. Here’s a sampling of the what’s being said.

Over on James Reasoner’s blog:

All this makes me think of the original King of the TV Tie-in Novel. Max Allan Collins probably has that title today, but in the Sixties it was Michael Avallone who turned out more tie-in novels (and movie novelizations) than anybody else. The first Avallone novel I ever read, in fact, was a TV tie-in: THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. He also wrote novels for THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E., THE FELONY SQUAD, HAWAII FIVE-0, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, MANNIX, THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY (some of Avallone’s best-selling books, in fact, were Partridge Family novels), and
probably other series that I’m forgetting at the moment. When I read Avallone’s MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. novel (bought brand-new off the paperback rack at Buddie’s Supermarket) as a 12-year-old, I realized
for the first time that a writer could have such a distinctive voice that his work can’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. And I liked that voice well enough so that for a long time after that, I picked up every
Avallone novel I came across.

Over on Ed Gorman’s blog:

My all time favorite Avallone story concerns a piece he wanted to
write for Mystery Scene about his friend Cornell Woolrich. I’d been dealing with Mike for several years so I knew the pitfalls. He wrote me a query letter about the Woolrich piece and I wrote back and said All
right, Mike, but just remember the disagreements we’ve had in the past. Make this piece about Woolrich and not about you.

Couple weeks later the piece comes in and it starts off very well. Here comes Avo up to Woolrich’s shabby little hotel room, they have a beer and talk, and then Avo says, Cornell, I want to interview you.

To which Cornell allegedly says, Mickey, I’m tired of being interviewed. Let’s talk about you.

So, according to Avo, the night turns into a love fest about the genius of one Michael Avallone. The whole freaking piece is Avo talking about himself.

There’s more, much more, to this funny story and I encourage you to visit Ed’s blog and read it.

Meanwhile, over on Bill Crider’s blog:

My own favorite Avo tale is that when he made a list of the Top Ten Private-Eye Novels of All Time, he put two of his own books on it. As I recall, however, he did modestly give Raymond Chandler the #1 position.

I don’t have any stories about Avallone to share, I only met him once at a paperback book show. I did read one of his original novels once… THE SATAN SLEUTH… but I don’t remember a thing about it beyond it’s cheesy title.

Ten Mistakes Times Two

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Thanks to Deborah O’Toole, who pointed me to a helpful article by Pat Holt on the ten mistakes writers often make in their writing without being aware of it. Here the she talks about a particularly irksome  "empty adverb" —


The word "actually" seems to emerge most frequently, I find. Ann
Packer’s narrator recalls running in the rain with her boyfriend, "his
hand clasping mine as if he could actually make me go fast." Delete
"actually" and the sentence is more powerful without it.


The same holds true when the protagonist named Miles hears some
information in "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo. "Actually, Miles had no
doubt of it," we’re told. Well, if he had no doubt, remove "actually" –
it’s cleaner, clearer that way. "Actually" mushes up sentence after
sentence; it gets in the way every time. I now think it should *never*
be used.

Good advice. Now I’m afraid to go back and look at the book I’m writing…

While we’re talking tens, educate yourself on the  ten things an author shouldn’t do, courtesy of  prolific novelist Lynn Viehl. My favorite "don’t"…

7. Post messages on Internet discussion boards where you pretend to
answer a writing question while pimping your books. Every single time
you post.

A Watering Hole for Novelization/Tie-In Writers

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Writing is a lonely business — writing novelizations and tie-ins is even lonelier. There’s no place for writers in the field to gather and talk shop. So I’ve started a private yahoo group for us. If you’re a published novelization or tie-in author and you’d like to join the discussion, please email me and be sure to include a few of your titles in your the note.

Desperate Imitation?

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ABC announced several new pilot projects today, one of them clearly aimed at cashing in on the huge success of  DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. It’s called SOCCER MOMS, a comedy-drama with soap opera elements about a pair of  suburban mothers who team up as PIs — one is an ex-cop, the other a housewife who knows all the neighborhood gossip. And like DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, this was also written & created by a sitcom writer.

This is not the first time this concept has been tried over the years. As recently as two seasons ago, Lifetime produced an hour-long pilot called FOLLOW THE LEADS that had virtually the same concept.  The network passed…and picked up MISSING instead.

Battlestar Galactica

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BattlestargalacticaThe new SciFi Channel revival of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA won rave reviews today from the Los Angeles Times and Brian Lowry at Variety.

Those who don’t frequent Internet chat rooms have missed much of the
off-screen drama surrounding "Galactica’s" voyage, with plenty of overheated
bleating from fans of the original that has gone a long way toward giving sci-fi
nerds a bad name. Fortunately, producers of the new show have mostly tuned out
the static and stuck to their guns, crafting a very adult series whose principle
shortcoming is being almost unrelentingly grim — though not inappropriately so,
given the subject matter.

Lowry says the producers aren’t entirely tuning out the whining from the fans of the original series.

The producers have thrown a bone to die-hard fans by casting Richard Hatch —
Apollo in the earlier version, who has spent years lobbying to revive the
franchise — in the third episode. Hatch plays a political prisoner who leads a
rebellion against the fleet, which is doubtless a small inside joke.

I’m sure the producers are expecting calls from Herbert Jefferson, Laurette Spang and all the other Galactica has-beens in the morning.

TV Tie-Ins

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Author James Reasoner  is discussing TV tie-ins over on his blog.

I won’t pretend to be an expert on this particular sub-genre, but I’ve noticed something in the more recent ones I’ve read: there’s very little physical description of the regular characters and not much background about them, either.

Actually, he’s being modest. Among his many credits are a couple of WALKER: TEXAS RANGER tie-in novels. And, of course, his observation about character description and background details are dead-on. That said, I can’t remember Robert B. Parker spending any time describing Spenser, Susan or Hawk… nor does Elmore Leonard go into a lot of physical description.  Many authors prefer to describe their characters through dialogue and action… to let them be defined by their personalities… and make due with describing only the most general physical features (Tall or short, thin or fat, etc.)

As far as background description goes in tie-ins, most authors are restricted in how far they can delve into the characters, unless they are merely restating backstory that’s already been revealed on the series. The authors are expressly forbidden from breaking any new ground…from straying from the established franchise… which is, of course, a point of some frustration for writers toiling in the tie-in field. It was the hot-topic on a  TV tie-in panel I participated in at WorldCon last year with, among others, CSI tie-in writer Max Alan Collins.

 CsibookOn the panel, the authors of tie-ins (Buffy, Angel, CSI, and Star Trek among them) were upset that they weren’t given more freedom, that the show runners and studios exerted too much control. I was the lone, unpopular voice on the panels arguing for the producers.  If a series is currently in production, its the showrunners perogative to create backstories for the characters, to decide what aspects of their personalities should be explored. The TV tie-in writer is, in many respects, like a freelancer contributing a script to the series.  They shouldn’t start believing the characters belong to them. They don’t.

If we’re talking about a canceled series, the studio has a responsibility to protect the franchise and isn’t likely to let a tie-in writer forge much new ground and stray far beyond the boundaries established in the broadcast episodes. That said, I think the many STAR TREK novels have created a mythology, histories and a time-line that extends beyond that established in the many TV series and movies. But those novels are also closely overseen by the studio licensing department.  And yet, there’s still plenty of room for the writer to have a distinct voice. Reasoner recalls reading one tie-in in particular…

When I read Avallone’s MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. novel (bought brand-new off the paperback rack at Buddie’s Supermarket) as a 12-year-old, I realized for the first time that a writer could have such a distinctive voice that his work can’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. And I liked that voice well enough so that for a long time after that, I picked up every Avallone novel I came across.

I’m lucky with the DIAGNOSIS MURDER novels (which Reasoner was kind enough to praise in a recent posting). Because I was an executive producer and principal writer of the show for many years, I’ve been given complete creative freedom by the studio (which controls the rights and licenses the characters to my publisher). Wakingnightmare I’ve been delving into the characters in far more depth than most tie-ins are allowed to do. In fact, the fifth DIAGNOSIS MURDER book, THE PAST TENSE, is a first-person "flashback" to Dr. Mark Sloan’s very first homicide investigation, allowing me to explore aspects of his personality and his past we never touched on in the TV series.

But I’m currently in talks to write another series of TV tie-in books and I know, going in, that I will not  have anything close to the kind of creative freedom I enjoy with the DIAGNOSIS MURDER novels.

Genre Neutral

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On his lively blog, Ed Gorman tackles  the pros and cons of being a writer who isn’t pidgeon-holed in any one genre.

Well, as I said at a conference where I was one of the speakers: "My
name is Ed Gorman and I’m a nobody in three genres." I’m sure working
under my own name in three genres, especially ones so distinct from
each other, has hurt me. Some of this is financial. I work where I can
sell. But the greater problem is that I’m genuinely fond of suspense,
horror and westerns. I’m not slumming or writing down as I shift from
genre to genre.

He says that every time he’s tried to write something specifically to capitalize on whatever was selling big in the marketplace, he’s failed.

I was once with an agent who said he could make me a big name if only
I’d write a romantic suspense novel under a woman’s name; and so I did.
And when that failed to sell up to expectaion, he said he could make me
a best seller if only I’d write a political thriller under a pen name.
Well, I not only wrote one, I wrote two. And when that failed to sell
up to expectation, he said that he coukl make me a best seller I only
I’d write a very long spin on Rosemary’s Baby under a pen name. And
when that failed to sell up to expectation, I got a new agent who said
write the book you want to write and I’ll get you as much as I can for
it. I’m still with that agent today.

This reminds me of an experience Bill Rabkin & I had when we decided to leave our TV agent at William Morris and started looking for new representation.  Many of the agents we "did lunch" with said that we had to many diverse credits — scifi shows, detective shows, horrors shows —  that we needed to "reinvent" ourselves by focusing on one genre and dropping all the other stuff from our resume. Then we met an agent who looked at our credits and said "Wow, you guys can write anything! " We picked him…and have been with him now for over a decade.

 

Law & Order: The Sitcom

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In last night’s episode of LAW AND ORDER, Elizabeth Rohm left the cast after several seasons blandly portraying a junior prosecutor. The episode, of course, really had nothing to do with her character… they saved her exit for the tag. Most of the time, the cops or ADAs who leave LAW AND ORDER are shot or killed… so I was waiting for her to get plugged on the court house steps. Instead, they went for what will probably go down as the biggest, unintentional laugh of the season.

Law_and_order_1The D.A., played by Fred Dalton Thompson, calls her character into his office and, because she often lets emotion cloud her judgement, fires her. If they left it at that Donald Trump-esque moment, that would have been fine. Instead, they had to go one more beat…

"Is it because I’m a lesbian?" she asked.

The D.A says no, it’s not because you’re a lesbian. She sighs,
relieved, and says I’m glad,  and that was the end of the episode.

The throwaway line was a complete, and uproarious, nonsequitor. Her character’s sexuality, straight or gay, has never come up in all the years she’s been on the show. Nor have they discussed the sexuality of any other regular. So what was the point of the line?  It certainly didn’t come off as drama, that’s for sure. It came off as an unintentional joke.

Good News for Screenwriters Over Forty

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Variety reports that Alvin Sargent, 74, has made a "seven figure deal" to write the screenplays for  SPIDERMAN 3 and SPIDERMAN 4.

The deal caps a spectacular second wind for Sargent, a two-time Oscar winner
who will turn 74 in April and has shown that well-honed character development
skills can make a veteran writer more valuable than the twentysomething
comicbook geeks who usually get these jobs.

Sargent, who began his writing career on television shows like "Route 66,"
won his Oscars for "Ordinary People" and "Julia" and was Oscar-nommed for "Paper
Moon." He is widely credited with whipping a problematic "Spider-Man 2" script
into shape, but he has evolved into the voice of the franchise, in much the same
way his peer Robert Towne has on the "Mission: Impossible" series.

Sargent got sole screen credit on the sequel but also did uncredited rewrite
work on the first film, which was penned by David Koepp.