Monk Books

This is my last night in NY, where I am working with the staff of MONK on an episode that Bill Rabkin and I will write for the upcoming season.

As I’ve said before, the episode is very loosely based on my novel MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE.  We pretty much have the beats of the story/mystery nailed. So today, as a group, we fleshed out the emotional through-line, fine-tuned some of the clues, and choreographed the details of the comic "set pieces."  Tomorrow morning we’ll polish up the details a bit more and then I’ll hop on a plane back to LA. On the flight, I’ll probably work on MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU, my third MONK novel. 

After this trip, I have an even clearer sense of the subtle ways my "literary" Monk differs from the "TV" Monk.  Many of those differences have to do with the nature of the two mediums — how stories are told in books vs. television.  But the biggest differences was my decision to tell the stories from Natalie’s POV.  The Monk we’re seeing in the books is Natalie’s Monk, and is therefore shaped by her character and her view of the world. The Monk we see on TV isn’t from any one character’s perspective…it’s from our individual perspectives as viewers.

Speaking of the MONK novel, I had breakfast today with my editor and publisher, who tell me the book is doing very well. I have a feeling they will be greenlighting more MONK novels very soon… I’ll certainly know, one way or another, before MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII comes out in June.

I’ve just learned that MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE is #40 on the Barnes & Noble mass market bestseller list this
week and #5 on the B&N mass market mystery bestseller list.

Meanwhile, our episode for MONK is developing nicely. We’re having such a good time working on the story with Andy Breckman and his terrific writing staff.  The story has only passing resemblance now to MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE. The episode won’t even have the same title as the book and I’m fine with that. I think it’s worked out for the best — had we done a straight-forward adaptation, anyone who read the book after seeing the episode would have thought it was a novelization. Now the book can continue to stand entirely on its own and so can the episode.

I spent the day out in Summit, NJ working with the MONK writing staff on our next script for the show.  It is so much fun cracking a story with them — you spend the whole day laughing (a stark contrast to, say, plotting a story on MISSING).  These guys have way, way too much fun. It’s a shame all shows can’t be like this.

The script began as an adaptation of my novel MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE but, for a number of reasons, is evolving into something very different and, I think, very funny. By the end of the week, my writing partner Bill Rabkin and I should be heading back to L.A. with an approved outline and the go-ahead to script.

What’s really weird for me is working on the MONK script by day, then returning to my hotel room to work on the MONK book by night.  I’m telling stories about the same character, but in two very different mediums.

I’m squeezing in a little socializing while I’m here — dinner with my literary agent on Wednesday, breakfast with my publishers on Thursday, and dinner on Thursday with my old friend Terry Winter, an exec producer on THE SOPRANOS. He’s come a long, long way since we worked together on THE COSBY MYSTERIES and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FLIPPER.

I had a great time today at Mysteries to Die For, where I participated in a lively panel discussion about book critics with Dick Adler (of the Chicago Tribune) and Dick Lochte (of the LA Times  and also an acclaimed mystery novelist in his own right), bookseller Richard Brewer, and authors Bob Levinson, John Shannon, and Terrill Lee Lankford. The funniest comment came from a woman in the audience. When she reads a book that sucks, she sends it to prison.  She doesn’t give it Goodwill, or donate it to the library, or even toss it in the trash. No, she puts the book in a padded envellope and sends it to her local prison. At least she doesn’t make the authors do hard time. 

The panel event was followed by a discussion/booksigning for MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE.  Boths were well-attended and a lot of fun. I really enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces (like Teresa Murray of the MONK FUN PAGE and Mark Baker, diehard DM fan and Amazon book critic) and meeting so many new people. I should write books more often!

There’s a writer’s room blog up on the MONK site now. The first post is from Jonathan Collier, who wrote last week’s episode "Mr. Monk and the Fashion Show."

Two more flattering reviews have come in for MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE. One of the reviews is from the Monk Fun Page, the biggest and best Monk fan site on the web, and the other is from novelist Ed Gorman,   founder of Mystery Scene magazine. I want to thank them for all the nice things they said. It made me feel great, particularly since today is one of those dreary days where the words are coming slowly and I’m convinced that all those fanficcers are right — I am a talentless hack.