Lee Goldberg

LitBlog Coop Controversy

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Publisher’s Marketplace reports that the Litblog Co-op (which includes our friends Sarah Weinman and Mark Sarvas) is generating controversy with their first "Read This" pick, Kate Atkinson’s novel CASE HISTORIES.

In initial"comments" posted by blog readers, at least a few express disappointment with what one co-op member acknowledges was the "biggest" of the five nominated books. Atkinson’s book, published here last fast fall, registered widely within
the mainstream reviewing circles to which the lit-bloggers want to offer an alternative. Our own Book Review Index has logged 18 full-length reviews from top newspapers–almost all quite enthusiastic.

As one poster remarks: "You say yourselves that the LBC’s purpose is to draw attention to ‘the best of contemporary fiction, authors and presses that are struggling to be noticed in a flooded marketplace.’
So how does this novel qualify? It seems like a middlebrow cop out." Another reader concurs with the sentiment: "Nothing against Kate Atkinson, but a Whitbread Award Book of the Year winner whose latest novel is being published by Little, Brown hardly seems to be a choice in keeping with the spirit of the LBC’s self-imposed mission."

My brother Tod Goldberg says it’s definitely the "in" book right now.

I’ve heard lots of good things about this book and may have already told more
important literary types at cocktail parties and readings that I’ve already read
it and simply adored it and was seriously considering sending the author a fan
letter, but the fact is I haven’t, though I intend to.

People on Tod’s blog are hotly debating the choice as well. The gist of the argument is, since the book is already generating a lot of attention, did it really need help from the Litblog Coop? Should the LitBlog Coop have gone further afield and picked a book that’s struggled for  attention? Author Lynn Viehl, for one, thinks so:

Now, I’m a little slow, and kinda confused, so maybe one of you nice
people will explain this to me. We’re supposed to be getting the skinny
on struggling writers, books and presses from the LBC, correct? Um, how is Kate Atkinson struggling, exactly?  Did she like blow all her Whitbread prize money?

Based on the backblog debates on the various blogs, it seems the LitBlog may have stumbled out of the gate with this choice, but the judges are defending their pick. Mark Sarvas says:

Remember, we never said "unknown" fiction … Worthy is the goal, and besides if
we’d have picked some obscure, experimental novel, we’d be pilloried for being
pedantic and elitist.  We only means you can’t please everyone and we’re not
even trying.  We’re confident that those who check out Case Histories
will be glad they did, and the ones who knew it already have future choices to
look to (including the other four summer nominations).

What do you think? Did The LitBlog undermine their own highly-publicized intentions with their first "Read This!" honoree?

Wasserman has Left the Building

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Mark Sarvas at The Elegant Variation talks about editor Steve Wasserman’s era at the LA Times Book Review…and where he went wrong.

The core problem with Steve Wasserman’s tenure as editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review was writ large in his answer to a question I put to him at the recent Los Angeles Festival of Books. I used the occasion of the "Celebrating the Book Review" panel to inquire about LATBR’s propensity for tedious reviews. Wasserman
responded that tedium was in the eye of the beholder, and the piece
that he’d been proudest of running was a "6,000 word essay on the
Spanish Civil War untethered to any existing book."It
is unlikely that most readers of the Book Review – a rapidly
diminishing pool, if my anecdotal evidence is any guide – shared his
delight.

The rest of Mark’s ruminations are worth reading…especially for any candidates up for Wasserman’s job.

Is Richard Wheeler Killing The Western?

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…well, Richard Wheeler thinks so.

So, here I am, writing stories that wreck the genre. Can anyone doubt
it? Soon after I published my first novels at Doubleday, its western
line expired. Soon after I published my novels at Walker and Company,
its western line died. Soon after I published my westerns with M. Evans
and Company, its western line faded away. Soon after I published my
novels with Fawcett and then Ballantine, their western lines croaked.
Soon after I published my sole novel with Bantam, its western line
(except for L’Amour) faded into the sunset. Soon after I published the
last of my novels with NAL, its western line began to wind down. I
understand that soon after my last Pinnacle novel is published, its
western line will be planted in a grave. That leaves only Forge, and
its line is fading fast.

He says he’s done it by writing what the readers don’t want.

My publishers have responded by plastering a cowboy with blazing
sixguns on the covers of many of my novels to conceal the heresies
within the covers, but it did little good. My loose literary ways
trumped the orthodoxies of the western genre, and eventually laid the
genre in its grave, though there is still some residual western fiction
showing up.

His lengthy essay on Ed Gorman’s blog will make you want to go out and read all of his westerns.

Temperance Brennan Comes to TV

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TVTracker reports that FOX has picked up a series version of Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan novels… in a way. The series is actually a blend of the books and the true story of Reichs herself who, like her heroine, as a forensic anthropologist. There have also been a few other creative tweaks made by writer/producer Hart Hanson.  Here’s the logline from TVTracker:

Network: FOX
Genre: Drama
Title: BONES
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Television
Commitment: Series Pick Up (13 Episodes)
Auspices: Hart Hanson
(EP, W-Pilot), Barry Josephson (EP N/W), Kathy Reichs (EP N/W), Greg Yaitanes
(D-Pilot)
Cast: Jonathan Adams, David Boreanaz, Michaela Conlin, Emily
Deschanel, Eric Millegan, TJ Thyne
Logline: When law enforcement calls upon Dr. Temperance Brennan and her team of scientists to assist with murder investigations, she often finds herself teamed with Special Agent Seeley Booth,  a former Army sniper whose mistrust of science and scientists leads them to clash both professionally and personally while solving the toughest cases in the
new one-hour drama BONES.

The NBC Schedule

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Here’s the new NBC schedule, as circulated by TVTracker.  CROSSING JORDAN continues to hang-on, against all odds, but you’ll notice  the schedule doesn’t include LAW AND ORDER: TRIAL BY JURY. Maybe three branded spin-offs is all viewers can handle. Other cancellations include MEDICAL INVESTIGATIONS (which started out hot but faded fast), LAX, THIRD WATCH, HAWAII and AMERICAN DREAMS. SCRUBS and FEAR FACTOR have been held back until midseason.  For more details on the new shows, check out Zap2it.

UPDATE: Dick Wolf isn’t very happy about L&O:TBJ getting the ax. He tells Variety that he’s
"extremely upset and disappointed."

"I
find the decision inexplicable, and frankly, inconceivable," Wolf said
Friday, working on the assumption that the fourth flavor of his
"L&O" brand was dead.

Peacock brass still weren’t saying anything about the show Sunday.

Wolf
said he was "enormously proud" of "TBJ," noting that the casting of
thesps such as Candice Bergen, Annabella Sciorra and Lorraine Bracco
made the skein "A-level television."

"It was a good show. It was the exact formula that made the brand so valuable," he said.

While
there’s no doubt "TBJ" was far from an instant hit, it’s worth noting
that all of the "L&O"-branded skeins have been relatively slow
starters.

The schedule follows on the jump.

Read more

Otto Can’t Stop Going After Cozies

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Otto Penzler just can’t help himself. He’ll use any excuse at all to attack "cozies." He even found a way to use the launch of the International Thriller Writers organization, of which I am a proud member,  as a way to take yet another swipe at the genre and its authors in a New York Sun article:

We all have our prejudices (yes, you too). I admit that if I were on the Best
Novel committee, books with cutesy pun titles would be eliminated before I read
the first page. They may be fun, they may have their charm, but they are not
serious literature and don’t deserve an Edgar. Which is why someone had the
bright idea to create Malice Domestic, a conference devoted to fiction so
lightweight that an anvil on top of it is the only way to prevent it from
floating off to the great library in the sky. Other readers might eliminate
espionage novels, feeling they are not "mysteries," or books with dirty words
and nasty sex scenes because they think these things have no place in a nice
mystery.

A new organization has just started up as a counterweight to the literarily
negligible works honored at Malice Domestic. David Morrell and Gayle Lynds, two
stars of the thriller world, have helped create International Thriller Writers
Inc.

The formation of the ITW had nothing to do with the existence of Malice Domestic, or displeasure with cozies, or a lack of respect for their authors, many of whom I count as close friends. The ITW was created to:

…celebrate the thriller, to enhance the prestige and raise the profile of thrillers, to award prizes to outstanding  thriller novels and authors, and to create opportunities for collegiality within  the thriller community.

Where does it say anything about cozies or Malice Domestic? No where. This is a case of Otto Penzler making up inflammatory bullshit to serve his own prejudices. Otto has his prejudices, that much is clear. Fine. But to smear ITW and its members with them is another matter. The ITW currently has Otto’s column posted on their website, which implies that we endorse his idiotic views that cozies, and those who write them, aren’t worthy of recognition or respect. I hope the ITW leadership will remove his column from the website.

(Thanks to Toni Kelner for the heads-up)

UPDATE 5-17-05 –  I want to applaud my colleagues in the ITW for doing the right thing:  The leadership has left Otto’s column up on their website, but they’ve deleted the inflamatory paragraphs.

The comments were not necessary for the purpose of sharing
information about us that has appeared in the press, so they were
edited out. The posting of the column on the site in the rather obscure press
clippings section was in no way intended to endorse Penzler’s views.

Chair, ITW Web Committee

Hey-o Kayo

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In my travels up in San Francisco, I made sure to pay a visit to Kayo Books, a treasure trove of noir classics and not-so-classics, where I  once again went on a buying binge, stocking up on more Harry Whittington, Marvin Albert, and Wade Miller paperbacks. They also have a huge stock of sleazy sex books and TV tie-ins.  If you’re in SF, and you’re a book lover, you’ve got to stop by.

I also browsed at Stacy’s on Market Street (where I got a signed copy of Kevin Guilfoile’s CAST OF SHADOWS), A Clean Well Light Place For Books on Van Ness (where I got a signed first edition of Isabel Allende’s new ZORRO and ordered a signed copy of Martha O’Connor’s BITCH POSSE) and Barnes & Noble at Fisherman’s Wharf (where I found a signed copy of Elizabeth George’s WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS and Jodi Picoult’s VANISHING ACTS).

Lee on The Road

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Mystery Writing is the focus of this year’s "Writers Journey Conference," June 3-4 at  the Sisters of Assisi Retreat House in San Fernando, California. The event is presented  by the San Fernando Branch of the California Writers Club.  I’ll be speaking along with Jacqueline Winspear, Penny Warner, DP Lyle, and retired cop Lee Lofland. For more information, click here.  

Meet The Saint

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006058688501_sclzzzzzzz_On Saturday, May 21st, at 1 pm my friend Ian Ogilvy will be visiting the Mystery Book Store in Westwood to sign his children’sbook  MEASLE AND THE DRAGODON, his sequel to the delightful MEASLE AND THE WRATHMONK (one of my daughter’s favorite books).  Ian has made a name for himself lately as a novelist in the UK for writing clever novels for adults and children, but he is probably best known as the actor who played Simon Templar in the series RETURN OF THE SAINT(he also guest-starred in a couple very funny DIAGNOSIS MURDER episodes, including the one where Regis gunned down Kathy Lee).  So if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by and say hi… and get a book signed.

SF Chronicle Loves Wasserman

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The San Francisco Chronicle gave Steve Wasserman, the out-going editor of the LA Times Book Review, a nice going-away present this morning: a front-page, Datebook section story ("Editor Who Put West Coast on Literary Map Hangs up his Spurs") along with a commentary by Chronicle Book Critic David Kipen.
Obviously, they are a lot more fond of Wasserman in SF than we are down here in LA.  The folks at LAObserved have an interesting theory:

It was a no-brainer that Kipen would comment on the end of the Wasserman era
(and a surprise that I’m mentioned), but why the newsfeature? I don’t know, but
perhaps Chronicle top editor Narda Zacchino played a role. She started the
Festival of Books while a senior Times editor, and may even have hired Wasserman
at the review, I don’t remember for certain. Wasserman’s first job at the Times
was as the assistant to her husband, Robert Scheer (then a staff writer, now a
non-staff columnist.)

The Chronicle credits Wasserman with “turning the Sunday section into must reading for book lovers north and south, east and west.” They must have received a different edition up there than we did down here. Though Mike Davis, author of the fabulous CITY OF QUARTZ (among others), agrees with them:

"Wasserman may not be my cup of tea, but, objectively, he turned a book
section that most people threw out into undoubtedly the best book review section of any paper in the country. I’m often infuriated by specific reviews, but it is the most exciting book review section in the country.

They only pay passing attention to his detractors, with quotes from my brother Tod and former LATBR editor Digby Diehl.

"Steve Wasserman tried to impress his literary taste on the city of Los Angeles," author and blogger Tod Goldberg said. "But I don’t think it meshed with what people in L.A. were actually reading. L.A. is a company town and that company is Hollywood. I don’t think the review needs to be focused only on Jackie Collins and popular literature, but it needs to find a voice that is both popular and challenging."

The L.A. Times Book Review was launched as a stand-alone section in 1975 under editor Digby Diehl, whose mentor was the paper’s longtime book critic, Robert Kirsch. Though he applauds the vigor of the book festival, Diehl is a critic of some aspects of the Review.

"I’m sure there are many authors who are very grateful to Steve for the kind of books he reviewed, for his emphasis on very serious subjects and his wonderful treatment of a lot of books that wouldn’t get much attention outside of academic reviews," Diehl says. "I just don’t think that’s a good use of space in a Sunday newspaper."

Diehl’s tenure coincided with the birth of chain bookstores, which boosted ad sales for the book review. ("I made well over a million dollars a year for the L.A. Times," he notes.) Today, newspaper advertising from publishers and bookstores has all but disappeared.

The plummeting ad dollars the LATBR generated should speak volumes about how well read the section really is. They may be reading it north and south, east and west, but they aren’t reading it in L.A.

To be fair, though, Wasserman deserves our city’s undying gratitude and respect for creating the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which has truly changed the face of the Southern California Lit Scene. His Book Review may not have been memorable, but the Book Festival is his real legacy…and I, for one, hope it endures for a very long time.