Killing Castro

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Hard Case Crime is reprinting a long-lost Lawrence Block novel called KILLING CASTRO. It’s a book Block wrote under a pseudonym fifty years ago. And if this excerpt doesn’t whet your appetite for more, you don’t have a pulse:

The taxi, one headlight out and one fender crimped, cut through
downtown Tampa and headed into Ybor City. Turner sat in the back seat
with his eyes half closed. He was a tall, thin ramrod of a man who was
never tense and yet never entirely relaxed. His hair was the color of
damp sand, his eyes steel gray. His lips were thin and he rarely
smiled. He was not smiling now.

The stub of a cigarette burned
between the second and third fingers of his right hand. The fingers
were yellow-brown from the thousands and thousands of cigarettes which
had curled their tar-laden smoke around them. He looked at the
cigarette, raised it to his lips for a final drag. The smoke was
strong. He rolled down the window and flipped the butt into the street.

Night.
The street lights were on in Ybor City, Tampa’s Latin quarter. Taverns
winked seductively in red and green neon. Cubans, Puerto Ricans and
Negroes walked the streets, congregated around pool halls and small
bars. Here and there butt-twitching hustlers were rushing the season,
looking to catch an early trick before the competition got stiff.
Turner watched all this through the taxi window, his thin lips not
smiling, not frowning. He had bigger things on his mind than corner
loungers or early-bird whores.

He was thirty-four years old, and he was wanted for murder.

What’s amazing about it is that he was so good from the get-go, long before he would achieve all his well-earned honors and accolades.

Indulging My Inner Geek

I’m a big BATTLESTAR GALACTICA fan and I was eager to catch-up on the season premiere…but I have to say, it left me underwhelmed. The stuff with Baltar was fun, but I found the rest of the episode plodding. Plus, I was nagged by some big issues that went unaddressed. For one thing, 600 people are killed in the opening moments of the show…and are never referred to again. This is a massive loss of life and yet it isn’t discussed…the characters are too busy whining about their feelings about Starbuck’s return or, in the case of a handful of characters, the realization that they are Cylons. Which brings up another issue…in the first couple of seasons, a lot of time and angst were devoted to Boomer’s "human-Cylon" baby. Well, now that we know the Chief is a Cylon, too, that means his baby is also a cross between a  human and a Cylon.  Doesn’t that make his child every bit as important to the humans and the Cylon’s as Boomer’s child is/was? And if Six can "feel" the presence of the other Cylons in the fleet, why can’t Boomer?

Statistics Everywhere

There were lots of interesting statistics in Publishers Weekly today relating to retailing and Print-On-Demand.

According to a Bowker study, the Mystery Genre is what Americans read most, accounting for 17% of all books sold. Science Fiction accounts for 5.5%, General Fiction snags 3%, and Horror scares up 2%.  The same study also found that chain bookstores account for 33% of booksales while the Internet sells 21%.

A study by the Association of American Publishers found that total industry sales rose 3.2% in 2007 to $25 billion. The largest gain is among adult hardcovers, which are up 7.8%. The "largest overall gains in the year came from the smallest segments." They note that ebook sales jumped 23.6% and audio books rose 19.8%.

PW editor Sara Nelson notes in her column that Amazon accounts for slightly more than 10% of online sales. She doesn’t seem  particularly worried about the company strongarming POD presses to use Booksurge, their POD service. She observes that big publishers use POD "only sparingly," that there remain many other venues of POD sales, and that lawyers she has contacted don’t see the grounds for an anti-trust suit.

And in a news brief, Lightning Source has partnered with On Demand Books, the company that makes the Espresso Book Machine that prints novels for readers on the spot. So far, there are a grand total of seven machines in operation…not exactly a major force in book retailing.

Home Again

I just returned home from speaking at the 8th Annual Forensic Science and Law conference at Duquesne University and I had a fantastic time. It was billed as a "national symposium on the intersection of forensic science and culture" and it was unlike any conference I’ve attended before.

That’s because most of ones I’ve been to have had to do with some aspect of mystery writing or the TV business and were attended by TV writers, novelists, entertainment industry executives, aspiring writers, and mystery fans. In other words, people like me.

But this conference was primarily attended by forensic scientists, prosecutors, medical examiners, criminalists, FBI agents, and students in various fields of forensics, investigation, and criminal law. I was honored and intimidated to be in such distinguished company. I was worried that what I had to say was not only irrelevant, but that they must have invited me by mistake.

I learned so much at this conference, and it started at the airport. I shared a limo into Pittsburgh with prosecutor-turned-author Robert Tannenbaum and for an hour we had a lively discussion about national politics and some high-profile criminal cases.

I dropped off my suitcase and the hotel and rushed to a  reception at the University for the conference faculty, where I stood out in the crowd…because I was the only goof in an untucked shirt and jeans. I was embarrassed about being so sloppily dressed but being from "Hollywood," I got away with my it.

I was glad to spot a familiar face in the bunch — my friend author Jan Burke was sitting in the back of the room, chatting with Dr. Katherine Ramsland, assistant professor of forensic psychology at DeSales University and Judge Donald E. Shelton, who teaches criminal justice at Eastern Michigan University. I joined their discussion and, once I got some food and Diet Coke in me, I relaxed a bit and decided to start introducing myself to strangers.

I’m glad I did. I had some fascinating conversations with James Starrs, professor of law and forensic sciences at George Washington University;  forensic artist Karen Taylor, and FBI agent James Clemente, who profiles serial killers and who does some consulting for Andrew Wilder, a writer/producer on CRIMINAL MINDS (who, to my amusement and relief, showed up later wearing jeans and an untucked shirt, too).

Before the reception was over, I spoke with Mark Safarik, a former colleague of Clemente’s in the Behaviorial Analysis unit who is now a consultant to law enforcement, and I had a chance to meet the host of the conference, Dr. Cyril Wecht.

I left the reception even more concerned about what I was doing there. These people actually knew things…I just make stuff up. I worried about whether I’d be laughed off the podium…especially when I saw how large the conference hall was and the hundreds of people in attendance, including a delegation of forensic scientists from China.

I attended Robert Tannebaum’s keynote address, then went back to the hotel, where I had drinks with Dr. Doug Lyle and before going to bed early (I’d had to get up at 4 a.m L.A. time that morning to make my flight to Pittsburgh).

The next morning, I went down to hotel restaurant for breakfast and shared a table with Mark Safarik, who enthralled me with stories from his law enforcement career. But he also made me feel a lot better about my presentation that morning. Seeing how interested and amused he was in what I had to say about writing, and incorporating forensics into story, made me feel much more confident and less awkward about being there.

As it turned out, my presentation went very well. I shouldn’t have worried and, with that task behind me, I was able to just sit back and enjoy the rest of the conference. I was fortunate to be able to spend a lot more time with the folks that I’ve already mentioned (particularly Clemente, Safarik, Ramsland and Taylor), but I also to have lengthy conversations with forensic toxicologist Dr. Micheal Reiders, criminal law professor and former Deputy D.A. Tamara F. Lawson, as well as many other experts and dozens of forensic science students. Safarik, the former FBI behaviorial analyst, told me it was one of the best conferences he’d ever attended.

At the closing night dinner for the faculty, Doug Lyle and I got a chance to talk for a few minutes with Dr. Baosheng Zhang, Dean of Beijing’s China University Institute of Evidence Law and Forensic Science. For Dr. Zhang, the conference seemed to be an eye-opening experience, particularly when it came to the discussion of the impact of popular culture (the "CSI" effect) on the criminal justice system and the media’s interaction with investigators and prosecutors. Unfortunately, just as we began to talk about how things are different in China, he got called away into another discussion by a member of his delegation. Doug and I wondered if it was happenstance  that we were interrupted, or if it was a polite way of avoiding discussing a touchy subject.

All in all, I was kept very busy and didn’t get any writing (or blogging) done at all. But I’m not complaining. I made a lot of friends, heard some fascinating presentations & discussions, and was asked by one of the attendees to speak at another forensic conference later this year. So I am sure that in the long run this experience will be good for my writing…if not for the book  I am currently rushing to finish.

NBC Fall Schedule

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NBC has already announced their fall schedule  — nearly two months earlier than usual. Variety reports that there are some surprises: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE will do a live, prime-time edition on Thursdays, THE OFFICE is hatching a spin-off, and the long-running series SCRUBS and LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT are missing from the schedule (and are presumably cancelled). New drama series include the revamped KNIGHTRIDER, MY OWN WORST ENEMY (starring Christian Slater), CRUSOE (a new take on Robinson Crusoe), and the Tom Fontana-produced series THE PHILANTHROPIST.

You can find the full schedule after the jump.

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Going Away…Again

I am off to Pittsburgh tomorrow to speak on Friday at Duquesne University’s Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law’s eighth annual "Where Fact Meets Fiction" conference. I’ll be joined by my friend Doug Lyle, author of  FORENSICS AND FICTION, as well as Robert Tanenbaum, Jan Burke, Linda Fairstein, CSI producer David Berman, CRIMINAL MINDS producer Andrew Wilder, 48 HOURS producer Gail Zimmerman, FORENSIC FILES producer Kelly Ann Martin, and a long list of judges, criminalists, cops, FBI agents, scientists and scholars.  This should be interesting, because I know nothing about forensics and only slightly more about writing.

Scribe Award Nominees Announced

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The Second Annual Scribe Awards, presented by the International
Association of Media Tie-in Writers, acknowledges and celebrates
excellence in licensed tie-in writing — novels based on TV shows, movies, and
games.  The IAMTW is proud to announce this years nominees for the Scribe
Award.

BEST GENERAL FICTION ORIGINAL

CSI NY: DELUGE by Stuart M. Kaminsky
MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS by Lee Goldberg
MURDER SHE WROTE: PANNING FOR MURDER by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain
CRIMINAL MINDS: JUMP CUT by Max Allan Collins

BEST GENERAL FICTION ADAPTED

AMERICAN GANGSTER by Max Allan Collins (nominee & winner)N221557

BEST SPECULATIVE ORIGINAL

LAST DAYS OF KRYPTON by Kevin J. Anderson

STARGATE ATLANTIS CASUALTIES OF WAR by Elizabeth Christiansen
STAR TREK: Q&A by Keith R.A. DeCandido

BEST GAME-RELATED ORIGINAL (SPECIAL SCRIBE AWARD)

HITMAN by William Dietz
FORGE OF THE MINDSLAYERS by Tim Waggoner
NIGHT OF THE LONG SHADOWS by Paul Crilley

BEST SPECULATIVE ADAPTED

RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION by Keith R.A. DeCandido
52: THE NOVEL by Greg Cox
30 DAYS OF NIGHT by Tim Lebbon

BEST YOUNG ADULT ORIGINAL

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: THE DEATHLESS by Keith R.A. DeCandido
GOODLUND TRILOGY: VOLUME THREE: WARRIORS BONES by Stephen D. Sullivan
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NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE CREW #10: TICKET TROUBLE by Stacia Deutsch & Rudy Cohon

BEST YOUNG ADULT ADAPTED

TWELVE DOGS OF CHRISTMAS by Steven Paul Leiva (nominee & winner)
The Grandmaster Award honors a writer for his extensive and exceptional
work in the tie-in field. This year’s honoree is ALAN DEAN FOSTER.

Foster’s books include his
ground-breaking novelisations in 1975 of the STAR TREK animated series
and his subsequent novelisations of the first three ALIEN films, BLACK
HOLE, STARMAN, OUTLAND, PALE RIDER, ALIEN NATION and, of course, STAR
WARS (writing as "George Lucas"). He is also the author of scores of
original novels as well as the story for the first STAR TREK feature
film.


The Scribe Awards will be given at the Comic-Con Convention in San
Diego in July. The Special Gaming Scribes will be awarded at Gen Con Indy in August.

The IAMTW is dedicated to enhancing the professional and public
image of tie-in writers…to working with the media to review tie-in
novels and publicize their authors…to educating people about who we
are and what we do….and to providing a forum for tie-in writers to
share information, support one another, and discuss issues relating to
our field (via a regular e-newsletter, our website, and our active discussion group).
Our members include authors active in many other professional writer
organizations (MWA, PWA, WGA, SFWA, etc.) and who share their unique
perspectives with their fellow tie-in writers. Our name itself is a declaration of pride in what we do: I AM a Tie-in Writer. You can find out more about the IAMTW at our website.