On Other Blogs

Brain Dead

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It seems like everybody is apologizing lately for not keeping up their blogs.  Author Duane Swierczynski, for instance, blames the book he’s working on and Tess Gerritsen blames the beautiful Maine weather. Me, I’m just brain dead. I finished my 8th DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel last week and it feels lke my brain has been wrung out and left dry of any ideas, even for a blog post. So, in lieu of coming up with anything clever for my blog today, I’ll steal some cleverness from others.

My brother Tod found a novel way of dealing with some hate mail, Ken Levine has some good advice for industry outsiders with pilot ideas, and it’s nice to see one of my favorite authors, Daniel Woodrell, is finally getting some attention (my friend Denise Hamilton also gave his latest book a rave in Sunday’s LA Times Book Review).

Parker Blogs

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Robert B. Parker has launched his own Amazon blog. His most recent post is full of interesting TV & movie news:

In October will come Hundred Dollar Baby
(Spenser), in the Spring will appear a Young Adult novel called The
Edenville Owls (my first try at this), and in the fall of 07 will come
Jesse Stone again (High Profile). We start shooting the next Jesse
Stone movie, Seachase (Tom Selleck as Jesse),  this October, and it
will be on CBS sometime during the 06/07 season. When I know, I’ll tell
you. Incidentally I think Tom has absolutely nailed the role. Ed Harris
is developing my western novel, Appaloosa for a feature film. He plans
to star (as Virgil Cole) and to direct. So far he has Viggo Mortenson
attached (Everett Hitch) and Diane Lane (Allie). I’m very pleased with
the casting choices, and have a lot of confidence that Harris will get
the movie made (as you may know, most movies don’t get made). He should
be wonderful in the role. I’ve seen the script and it seems flawless.
Stay tuned.

Mr. Monk Basks in the Glow

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Three more bloggers have given MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII kudos. Gerald So says:

Mr, Monk Goes to Hawaii is an
ideal summer read, a rambling tale to match an exotic setting. Several
side mysteries show Monk’s quirks as seen by the more practical
Natalie, yet Goldberg keeps a confident hand on the story, eventually
putting every strand in place just as Monk and his fans would have it.

Meanwhile, the folks over at MyShelf enjoy seeing things from Natalie’s POV:

Natalie’s point of view provides an unexpected and delightful twist. Goldberg nails Monk’s intriguing and complex character. Natalie and Monk’s interactions are laugh-out-loud funny. Find
Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii and take a humorous trip through murder and deceit!

Cynthia Clark at Future Mystery Magazine says: 

        You don’t have to be a fan of MONK or to have ever watched an episode
        on television to enjoy this fast paced, witty, quirky, yet charming suspense.
        Mr. Goldberg has once again captured the nuances and idiosyncrasies of
        Mr. Monk and of OC (obsessive compulsive) sufferers. Mr. Goldberg makes
        us laugh as he takes us on Monk’s wild Hawaiian ride solving numerous
        crimes. Only Monk could find a paradise like Hawaii to be a health risk,
        and barbaric — roasting a pig in the ground? Mr. Goldberg gives us just
        enough clues to let us be MONK if we dare….I read this book in one sitting
        and loved every moment of it. I felt the tug of heart strings with Mitch
        and Trudy. I laughed, I was sad, I plotted who done it, but mostly, I
        loved it! An excellent escape, a great read.

Our Worst Script

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Ken Levine writes today about the worst script he and his partner ever wrote.

In 1993 my writing partner, David Isaacs and I did a short run series
for CBS called BIG WAVE DAVE’S starring Adam Arkin and David Morse. It
ran that summer, got 19 shares, kept 100% of MURPHY BROWN’S audience
and was cancelled. At the time CBS had starring vehicles in the wings
for Peter Scolari, Bronson Pinchot, and the always hilarious Faye
Dunaway so they didn’t need us.

We were given a production order
of six with three back-up scripts. We assigned the first two back-ups
to our staff and planned on writing the third ourselves. When the show
was cancelled we put in to CBS to get paid for the additional scripts.
They said fine, but we had to turn in the completed scripts. Gulp!

Bill Rabkin and I had almost the exact same experience on SEAQUEST. We’d already turned in the outline for for episode 14 when we got cancelled. But in order to get paid for the teleplay, we had to write it. We did it in one day, while we were packing up our office. I still live in fear that some sf fan will stumble on a bootleg draft at a scifi convention, post it on the net, and people will think we actually write that bad. I’m in Germany now, or I’d post an excerpt. I’ll try to remember to do it when I return.

 

Nightlife Afterlife

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Variety reports that DreamWorks Pictures is developing a feature film version of my friend Thomas Perry’s novel NIGHT LIFE, which will be written by Ehren Kruger (THE RING) and produced by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (ALIAS, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3).  The book is about a female serial killer who changes her identity after every murder and is pursued by a female detective.

In other book-to-film news, Ed Conlon’s book BLUE BLOOD is the basis for a new Fox TV pilot, to be written by Neil Tolkin and directed by Brett Ratner. The proposed series will be about a Harvard grad who becomes a rookie NYPD police officer.

New Hope for the Dead

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TV Critic Chuck Barney reports that the flop WB sitcom pilot NOBODY’S WATCHING, which got a lot of hype and thousand of hits when it was "mysteriously" posted on YouTube, has received an order for six scripts from NBC. The network will produce some original "webisodes" while they ponder whether or not to order the series.   You can expect to see a lot more busted pilots "mysteriously" showing up on YouTube now…

Mr. Monk and the Paperback Critic

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Chicago Tribune critic Dick Adler has started a blog to cover all the
paperback mysteries that he isn’t able to squeeze into his regular
column. Here’s his review of MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII…

A surprising number of my friends and relatives love the Monk
TV series so much that they ask me to get them signed copies of Lee
Goldberg’s books based on it. Judging by this latest outing, where the
weird cop follows his assistant, Natalie, on holiday, they’re on to a
good thing. Goldberg makes Adrian Monk much more interesting than the
TV version: the twitches are less obvious, the outcomes much less
predictable. Even (or especially) the secondary characters are more
interesting and have sharper dialogue.

Thanks, Dick!

Celebrity Blogs

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Today the always hilarious Ken Levine takes a look at Celebrity websites and blogs. Among his observations:

Melanie Griffiths’s website is just plain creepy. It chronicles her
romance and rehab, accompanied by music that Norma Desmond would find
too over-the-top. She also writes letters to her inner self. Many not
delivered because no one’s home.

Latest entry in Gwen Stefani’s journal: “We’re back. Sorry it has been
so long. We’ll start updating the site more often.” It’s dated May 2.