#1 New York Times Bestselling Author & TV Producer
Matt Witten and I were interviewed in Lohr, Germany by a Serienjunkies, a German website devoted to television. You can read the wide-ranging interview (in English!) over the next several days here and here.
And my book MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU has received some very nice reviews while I have been away from Bookgasm, MyShelf, Gerald So, and Gumshoe Review.
Here is the cover for
MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS. (Click on the image for a larger picture).
Novelist John Connolly just got the page proofs for his new book THE UNQUIET:
It’s always interesting to receive the proofs, as it’s the first time
that I get to see the book as it will look to the public, i.e. typeset,
and no longer simply my manuscript. At that point, a transformation
occurs in the way I view it. It is not just something that I rustled up
on my computer. It’s a book, and I judge it in a different way. I
notice elements that perhaps I did not recognise before. I become more
conscious of themes running through it, and I become aware, for want of
a better word, of the ‘feel’ of the book.
I know exactly how he feels. I just finished going through the proofs for DIAGNOSIS MURDER: THE LAST WORD and I felt as if I was reading someone else’s book. It didn’t seem to have any connection to the "file" I emailed to my editor months ago. I was reading it fresh and I was surprised by some of obvious themes that ran that ran through the book…themes I wasn’t even consciously aware of as I was writing it.
When I read the proofs, I find myself seeing the prose, the characters, and the plot differently than I did in the midst of working on the book. But most of all, reading THE LAST WORD, I was aware of a pace and rythmn to the story that I definitely didn’t feel while I was writing it in bits and pieces, at different times and in different places (L.A., Germany, Palm Springs… and at my desk, on airplanes, in hotel rooms, in waiting rooms, in my car, etc.)
The term "proofs" has a double-meaning to me. Holding the proofs, I have evidence to convince myself that what I wrote is actually a book…it’s the first time the story feels like a book to me instead of work.
HelenKay Dimon reports that Harlequin is releasing a line of NASCAR-themed romance novels in February for women who get hot thinking about race car drivers.
The introductory titles are by Gina Wilkins, Nancy Warren, Debra Webb
and Roxanne St. Clair. The series will consist of four titles every
three months (release dates in February, May, August and November). For
the mathematically challenged – and you know who you are – that’s
sixteen NASCAR titles a year. As I’ve said before, those are likely
sixteen titles per year I won’t read.
Just imagine all the inventive racing metaphors for sex we’re going to see…and clever uses of the words "stick shift."
Forget NASCAR. I’m waiting for Harlequin to launch the Home & Garden Channel line of romances, where women fall madly in love with hunky guys who never tire of visiting open houses and remodeling homes. My wife will be first in line to buy them.
MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU received a rave review from Barnes & Noble’s Ransom Notes newsletter.
While the obvious audience for the Monk novels are fans of the multiple Emmy Award-winning television series, Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu
will appeal to anyone who enjoys lighthearted, comedic whodunits,
regardless of whether they’ve even seen the show. Goldberg’s succinct
writing style — with an emphasis on witty dialogue, laugh-out-loud
hijinks, and nonstop action — will make a devoted Monk fan of anyone
who picks up this surprisingly entertaining read. Rubber gloves and
moist towelettes not included. Paul Goat Allen
My publisher swears they didn’t pay for this. But even if they did, I figure it’s a win-win. Either B&N loved it, which is great… or my publisher is putting some real marketing money into the book, which is also great. So I’m smiling.
Variety reports that The Weinstein Company has drafted mystery novelists Terrill Lee Lankford and Michael Connelly to script the feature film version of the TV series THE EQUALIZER, to be directed by Paul McGuigan.
Connelly acknowledged in a statement that "times have certainly changed
since the days of the television show" but said he and his co-scribe
"plan to build a character that is of these times but to also keep the
heart and soul of the show intact."
It’s highly unusual for studios to turn to novelists to adapt anything, especially something as tricky as turning a TV series into a feature film…so this is a big deal. Lee and Michael must have made a hell of a pitch and knowing them as I do, you can bet it’s going to be a great script.
Meanwhile, ABC has greenlit production on MARLOWE, a pilot that’s a "contemporary update" of Raymond Chandler’s classic LA private eye. Greg Pruss and Carol
Wolper are writing and producing (Anyone remember the last "update" of Marlowe starring Robert Mitchum…and set in London!?)
Here’s a new twist on the fanfic debate: an article in the Daily Telegraph implies that Thomas Harris stole from Hannibal Lector fanfic for his novel HANNIBAL RISING. The article quotes some fanfic passages and compares them to passages in Harris’ new novel.
Trawling through the Lecter fanfic, one comes on other tantalising parallelisms. Six years ago, for example, ‘Leeker17’, on www.typhoidandswans.com
posted a narrative which uncannily forecasts the opening chapters of
Hannibal Rising in its detailed description of how the hero’s parents
and sister met their ends in 1944. So close is it that one might fancy
that Leeker17 had some privileged connection with Harris. Or that
Harris himself, under a nom-de-web, may be the ‘leaker’. Or, like
Blythebee, Leeker17 may just have struck lucky.If
an author picks up and uses something from ‘his’ fanfic is he
plagiarising, collaborating, or merely playing games? One thing’s
certain. Harris won’t tell us.
(Thanks to Sarah Weinman for the heads-up!)
I just got a double-header of good Monk news.
On January 14th, the USA Network is running a Monk Viewer’s Choice
marathon. Fifty thousand viewers cast their votes for their fourteen favorite episodes. Their viewers’ choice for the best-ever episode of MONK airs at 10
pm…and it’s MR. MONK GOES TO MEXICO written by yours truly & William
Rabkin.
On top of that, I learned today that my book MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU was #18
on Barnes and Noble’s overall mass market bestseller list last week.
I’m in the midst of reading the copy-edited manuscript for MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS. My editor has made some trims and I agree with all of her cuts. But I thought you might get a kick out of this deletion:
We passed the turn-off for Buttonwillow & McKittrick, a collection of fast-food restaurants and gas stations right off the freeway. I didn’t know anything about Buttonwillow, except that it probably wasn’t as charming a place as it sounded. But I’d written a report about McKittrick when I was in fifth grade and I was tempted to terrify Monk by telling him what I knew.
It was a pioneer town that was built to serve the people who mined the natural tar that seeped out of the earth. Because of the intense heat and the sticky gunk, the miners worked in the nude. They
wouldn’t bother cleaning up for lunch, they just gather naked and covered with tar, and sit on newspapers in the communal mess hall. At the end of the day, they’d have to scrape each other clean with knives.That was an image that would have haunted Monk but I took mercy on him and kept the story to myself.
The passage may still end up in a future MONK book. I have a file of deleted bits and pieces that were either cut in the writing stage or later during the editorial process. I never throw anything out.
There are a couple of interesting things about Robert B. Parker’s latest Amazon blog post. For one, he’s openly soliciting people to buy the movie option on his Sunny Randall novels (and offers the name and address of his agents)…which I find extraordinary for an author of his experience and success in both the publishing and TV business.
But the really amazing thing about his post is what it reveals about how prolific he is. His last Spenser came out in November. He has a Jesse Stone novel coming out in February, a young adult novel in April, a Sunny Randall in June, and Spenser in October. I figure he must be writing a book at least every eight to twelve weeks. That’s an amazing output…especially for a bestselling author in his late 60s (or is he in his 70s?) who really doesn’t need to work that hard any more.