Books

Michael Gruber is Robert Tanenbaum, the Sequel

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Jules Older writes in San Francisco Magazine this month that he was a huge fan of lawyer-turned-novelist Robert Tanenbaum’s thrillers, often re-reading favorite passages again and again. But Older was more than a little shocked to discover the author he admired wasn’t Tanenbaum at all…but his cousin and ghostwriter Michael Gruber (a story I’ve talked about here before). Tanenbaum didn’t write his own books.

Gruber says that though the arrangement was financially rewarding — they split the earnings fifty-fifty — it felt increasingly wrong. Says Gruber, "We started getting very gnarly around 1998 with the 11th book, ACT OF REVENGE." Was it envy that led to the breakup? "No, I wasn’t envious; I was kind of sorry for him. He took total credit for books he did not write."

Gruber says felt his teeth grinding when he heard his cousin telling a radio interviewer how terribly difficult it was to be a hugely successful lawyer, a teacher, a mayor, and a brilliant writers all at the same time. "Especially since he wasn’t."
…Which one is the scoundrel? Tanenbaum for pretending to be the only writers? Or Gruber for spilling the beans?

I think it’s Gruber, who knew going into the deal what being a ghostwriter means. All ghost writers grind their teeth when they hear the person they are ghosting for take all the credit. But that’s the deal and he knew it. Gruber claims in the article that he’s not the one who revealed the secret, that one of those intrepid, hard-driving investigator reporters from Romantic Times broke the story:

"[She said] I understand you are the author of Robert Tanenbaum’s novels’ and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s true.’"

He could have said no, or no comment. Instead, he chose to reveal the truth. But all of this means little to Older, who is more concerned about the quality of their books in the wake of the scandal. Older says the Tanenbaum books now are amateurishly written and bland. Gruber’s solo books are, Older says,   hot, wild, smart, sexy and intriguing, but tinged with the supernatural.

Tanenbaum really doesn’t have the chops for first-rate fiction and Gruber’s enchantment with the supernatural isn’t my idea of an asset…if I ran the world, the Beatles would have reunited. Simon and Garfunkel would have reunited. And Gruber and Tanenbaum would still reunite. Lost that clunky dialogue! Cast out those convenient demons!

Gross Points

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It pays to be the co-author of a James Patterson novel. Publishers Weekly reports that frequent Patterson collaborator Andrew Gross has signed a lucrative three-book deal with William Morrow.

The first book in the trio, and Gross’s single
credit debut, The Blue Zone is planned for a 2007 release. The three
titles, which were acquired in a world rights deal from Simon Lipskar of Writers
House, are hoped to be the beginning of a new franchise headlined (instead of
sub-headlined) by Gross or, as William Morrow senior v-p and publisher Lisa
Gallagher put it, "the beginning of a long and prosperous partnership." Morrow
isn’t certain how or if Patterson’s name will appear on the cover of Gross’s
first solo effort.

They can put Patterson’s name on the cover of my next book if they want.

Agent Pleads Guilty

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The Albany Times Union reports that agent Martha Ivery, who also ran a sham self-publishing company, has admitted to defrauding scores of aspiring authors out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Ivery admitted guilt to 15 counts of mail fraud in connection with taking money
from would-be authors. She also pleaded guilty to one count of credit card fraud
and one count of bankruptcy fraud, all felonies, in U.S. District Court in
Albany.

Ivery, 57, has not been offered a plea bargain. She faces up to 20 years in
prison on the mail fraud charges, 10 years on the credit card charge, and five
years on the bankruptcy charge. Ivery also could be fined as much as $250,000.

"There would be no defense on this case and it would be prudent on her part
to change her plea," said Ivery’s attorney, Richard Mott of Albany. "She
realizes the proof would be overwhelming … she wishes to demonstrate to the
court she has full contrition."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Capezza said he also was looking for restitution.
Prosecutors say she took as much as $700,000 from 200 writers.

Ivery defrauded prospective authors from 1997 to 2002, prosecutors said. She
presented two different identities: publisher of Press-TIGE Publishing Co., and
Kelly O’Donnell Literary Agency Inc.

After hooking authors by advertising in Writer’s Digest magazine and on the
Internet, the O’Donnell agency represented the authors and led them to the
publishing company. Fee requests kept coming, but books were rarely published.

Ivery’s company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in 2002, but she
then created another business, New Millennium Publishing House Inc. She is
scheduled for sentencing April 28.

A.C. Crispin, a science fiction writer who works with the scam-busting site
www.writerbeware.com, said the organization started watching Ivery six years
ago.

"This case, unlike the other ones we followed, really got personal," said
Crispin, a Maryland author. "She made death threats to us, and stalked us
online. I plan to go to the sentencing."

Author AC Crispin and all the others at WritersBeware should be congratulated for the wonderful work they do on behalf of writers everywhere. It takes guts to be as unrelentingly vigilant as they are ferreting out publishing scams  — and without the recognition and appreciation they deserve for their volunteer efforts.

Let’s hope this case serves as a warning to the publishing scammers who seem to be all over the Internet these days, taking advantage of the deseperation and gullibility of aspiring authors.

Here’s are three  simple ways to avoid being suckered by a publishing scam:

Never pay to be published.
Never pay an agent (they make their money by taking a commission from your sales).
Never pay a reading fee.

Unfinished Greene

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Graham Greene’s treatment for NO MAN’S LAND, a film script he never wrote, and his unfinished short story THE STRANGERS HAND, are being published together in one volume early next year by the University of Texas. The Wall Street Journal reports that NO MAN’S LAND was written in the period between Greene’s novels THE HEART OF THE MATTER and END OF THE AFFAIR and that the pages have lanquished for over thirty years in the University’s archives. I can see the academic interest in Greene’s movie treatment and unfinished story…but is there any real entertainment value in it for readers?

Sticking to the Character

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I got this email query today:

I have a question about novels based on tv shows.   When you write a
novel based on the tv shows how do you keep the characters lives from developing
beyond what has happened on the tv show?  Or do their lives develop differently
from their lives on tv?   Does that make sense? 

The short answer is that I worked hand-in-hand with the producers of  MONK to make sure my books are running on a parallel course, development-wise. And if I do create some new backstory (as I have done to some degree), that it’s acceptable to the creator of the show and consistent with what that have done or intend to do.

For more detailed informati0n on how tie-ins are written, check out the many articles at the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers website.

Wisdom from Joe

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As usual, author Joe Konrath has some excellent advice for writers. Today’s lesson:  "Avoid Plodding Plotting."

The fact is, readers don’t want your hero to be happy. At least, not
until the end. They want angst, conflict, ruined dreams, dashed hopes,
impossible situations, neuroses, struggle, heartache, near death
experiences, ruined lives, and pain.

All you need to know about plotting is twofold.

  1. Give your characters goals.
  2. Don’t let them reach those goals.

He goes on to give some excellent examples of how to pull this off.

Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse

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The USA Network has gone all-out celebrating the Jan. 3 release of my book MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE. Today they’ve launched a terrific website devoted to the books, which includes a really cool presentation of an excerpt from the book, a dozen streaming video interviews with yours truly, and a bio with all the sordid details of my life including my years as sous chef at McDonalds and my professional reawakening as tantric sex instructor.  I wish all my books got this kind of promotion.

Sex Sex Sex

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Sex_1Novelist Tess Gerritsen talks about the difficulties of writing sex. She offers a lot of great advice, but the bottom line is:

Ask yourself, as a writer, what your love scene is supposed to accomplish. If
it’s just to show that your hero is a normal guy having sex, that’s about as
interesting as watching him eat bologna sandwiches. No, the best sex scenes are
those that accomplish something far more profound. They offer us a deeper
understanding of character, or show us emotional awakening or healing.

I agree with her. She was brave enough to share an example from one of her books to prove her point, so I will, too. This one comes from MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE:

I guess
something I learned from “Mannix” was true. Being a private eye really is an
aphrodisiac to women. Carol had never attacked me like that before.

I’m afraid the surprise and excitement were too much, because I came in about three minutes. But I
don’t think Carol minded; it calmed me down and allowed me to concentrate real
hard on getting her off. And believe me, it took my complete attention.
Pleasing a woman, especially Carol, isn’t easy and with me, at least, there’s a
lot of potential for embarrassment and humiliation.

She rewarded me for all
my hard work with a nice, squealing, writhing orgasm that nearly broke my nose
on her pubic bone, but I didn’t mind. I even jumped in, literally, to enjoy the
last few squeals of it with her.

It was so dark, and things happened so fast, she never saw my cuts and bruises, so she mistook my
occasional groans of pain for pleasure.

Carol fell right to sleep afterwards.

Between the sex, the pain, and the things on my mind, I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have
liked. But I get laid so rarely, I’m willing to sacrifice just about anything
for it, especially sleep, when I usually dream about having sex anyway.

While the scene is explicit, more by implication than actual description,  it’s not about the choreography or body parts. It’s about attitude and character — or, at least, I hope it is. To me, that’s how you get around the pitfalls of writing the sex scene, unless the point of the scene is to arouse the reader.

By the way, I’ve written my share of awful sex scenes. I honed my "craft" in college. My girlfriend was an editorial assistant at Playgirl and she got me a gig writing sexually-explicit  "Letters to the Editor" for the grand sum of $25-a-letter (Gasp! You didn’t know they were fake? You probably think Penthouse letters are real, too).  I actually had a lot of fun writing them (often in class, which got me some strange looks from the people around me)  and it helped me learn to write in different voices for different characters. Plus the letters got my girlfriend all excited, but that’s another story…

Blog Suicide?

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A few days ago, author Sandra Scoppettone  blogged about her editor, Joe Blades, leaving Ballantine and her anxieties about it.  This prompted an anonymous commenter to warn her that her very candid blog posts could be damaging to her career. Sandra angrily fired back. Soon, the ugly little argument spilled over to  other   blogs. Now Galleycat has picked up on the catfight, so-to-speak, and it will mushroom from there…

Unfortunately, it illustrates that even someone who’s been in the
business as long as Scoppettone has (and whose influence on two
different genres continues to be felt) can sometimes let things go all
too haywire. And it further illustrates the power of blogging in the
publishing world — because you never know who’ll be out there reading,
passing judgment, and jumping to conclusions.

The blog skirmish brings up an interesting issue — how honest should you be on your blog? I have to admit I cringed a bit at some of Sandra’s posts, and at my friend Paul Guyot’s surprising candor about the ups-and-downs of his pilot experience, and at my cousin regularly trashing her employer. Sure, it makes good reading and can be cathartic for the author  — but is it self-destructive? I don’t know. I just know I don’t want to find out for myself.

I’ve been very careful here not to talk about the shows I am working on (except to hype them when they air), or the executives and producers I am working with (or hope to work with), or authors/writers I work and socialize with (unless it is to hype their latest work).  I  rarely name individual producers, writers, editors or executives. I talk in general terms, for the most part, or about personal experiences that are safely in the past. 

I’m clearly not shy about expressing my opinion — but I’m careful about it. I don’t hesitate to criticize fanfiction, self-publishing scams, the RWA, or people searching the Internet for Lindsay Lohan’s nipples  — those are safe. But, for example,  you won’t see me trashing a producer, a studio, a network, or a major publishing company.

I think some bloggers forget that they aren’t writing a private diary — it’s like a column in a newspaper. You have no idea who is reading it or how your words are being passed around. Blogging is fun, but my career is far more important.

Post-Partum Depression

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I just completed my 7th DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel, "The Double Life," which will be published in Sept. 2006, and delivered it to my agent. While it’s a great feeling to finish a book, it also leaves this big void. The book has been such a big part of my days, and my thoughts, for the last few months that it’s strange not to have it there any more. But I’m not taking much time to  rest. I delivered this DM early — 30 days ahead of my deadline — so that means I’ll have a little more time to plot and write the 3rd MONK novel, "Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu," and can enjoy the holidays without having to worry about scrambling to finish a book.