Me Me Me

Mr. Monk is Out

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No, he's not gay. He's published.

MR. MONK IS CLEANED OUT, the 10th book in the series, is out today in bookstores everywhere.  

This is the last book that's set before the final season of the TV series…and takes place against the backdrop of the global financial crisis. Squeezed for money, the SFPD fires Adrian Monk as a consultant…again (you might recall it happened before in MR. MONK AND THE DIRTY COP). Monk figures he can live off his savings for a while. Then Natalie learns that Monk invested his money some time ago with Bob Sebes, the charismatic leader of Reinier Investments, who's just been arrested on charges of orchestrating a massive $100 million fraud. All of Sebes' clients-including Monk-are completely wiped out.

When the key witness in the government's case against Sebes is killed, Monk is convinced that Sebes did it, even though the man has been under house arrest with a horde of paparazzi and police surrounding his building 24/7.

In a sense, it's a classic "locked room" mystery…with a lot of other mini-mysteries thrown in.

The paperback edition of MR. MONK IN TROUBLE is also out. So that should keep MONK fans entertained until January, when MR. MONK ON THE ROAD…the first book set *after* the final season…is released.

Meanwhile, I am hard at work on MONK #13, tentatively titled MR. MONK ON THE COUCH, and its something of a departure from the whodunit structure of the previous books…but more on that later.

I’m Directing a Little Movie

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The Owensboro Kentucky Messenger Inquirer had a story on July 4 about the short film I'll be directing there over three days in September.The film is based on my short story Remaindered, which was published a few years back in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine .

RiverPark Center officials are excited about the educational opportunities the film shoot will provide local students.

Roxi Witt, general manager of the RiverPark Center, said the film will give theater arts students the chance to participate in a project that they couldn't experience anywhere else.

"Lee is obviously very accomplished," Witt said. "He's also personable and easy to listen to. He's got some great stories, but has a lot of knowledge and is incredibly meticulous."

The movie's cast and crew will all be from Kentucky and there will be film students on the set watching the production…as well as working as grips and helping out with crowd control. I'll also be hosting a few seminars before, during and after production to give the students a glimpse into how TV shows are written, prepped, produced and edited. The finished film will be screened in October at the inaugural NDX Experience Film Festival in Owensboro. 

I owe this wonderful opportunity to my buddy David Breckman, who wrote, produced and directed a short film, Murder in Kentucky over four days during the International Mystery Writers Festival at the RiverPark Performing Arts Center in Owensboro last summer. He also used a local cast and crew. You can see David's movie here.

I had such a good time watching him and the crew at work that I was eager to try it myself, though without the pressure to do it all — write, produce, and screen it — in four days.  In my case, the script was written months in advance, we're taking a few weeks to cast and prep, and then we'll shoot over three days and take about three weeks to edit it.

The original intent was to shoot the movie and screen it at the Festival this summer. But state-funded Festival was postponed due to delays passing the state budget. 

However, thanks to the efforts of Festival organizers Zev Buffman and Roxi Witt, and their enthusiasm for the project, the film is going on anyway as part of a local theatre arts education program the RiverPark Performing Arts Center is involved with.
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I'll be using a lot of the same crew that David did…namely local producers Rodney Newton and PJ Stark…and actor Todd Reynolds, who played the cop in Murder in Kentucky and who will play the cop in mine, too. I think there should be a local ordinance requiring anyone who produces a crime film in Owensboro to hire Todd to play a detective.

I'll tell you more about Remaindered as the project progresses…

If you are interested in reading the short story that inspired the movie, it's in my collection Three Ways to Die, which is available on on the Kindle and it's on Smashwords, too, in every other e-format you can think of.

My Doctor Is In

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There's a new interview with me up at Dr. Doug Lyle's Writer's Forensics Blog. But I should disclose that it's a biased interview…he's an old friend, he's given me medical advice on all of my books and many of my TV scripts, and he's also my doctor. Here's a brief excerpt:

DPL: What’s the hardest part of writing [tie-in novels]?

LG: Capturing the feel of the show, and the voices of the characters, while also kicking things up a notch. You have to offer the reader something more than they are getting from simply watching the show (or the reruns). It’s also difficult, particularly with a long-running series, to come up with stuff that the writers haven’t already tackled.

DPL: You have a new Monk book coming out July 3rd. What can you tell us about it?

LG: The book is MR. MONK IS CLEANED OUT and it’s the last book set before the finale of the TV series. This one is set in the midst of the current national economic crisis. The SFPD has to make draconian cutbacks to save money… so they fire Monk as a consultant. Monk figures he can live off his savings for a while. Then Natalie learns that Monk invested his money some time ago with Bob Sebes, the charismatic leader of Reinier Investments, who’s just been arrested on charges of orchestrating a massive $100 million fraud. All of Sebes’ clients, including Monk-are completely wiped out. Monk is broke…he can’t even afford to pay Natalie. So they end up taking all kinds of odd jobs. Meanwhile, when the key witness in the government’s case against Sebes is killed, Monk becomes convinced that Sebes did it, even though the man has been under house arrest with a horde of paparazzi in front of his building 24/7. I hope people have as much fun reading it as I had writing it!

Mr. Monk and the Nice Reviews

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Mr. Monk und Mr. Monk

Now that the paperback of MR. MONK IN TROUBLE has come out, I've been getting a second wave of nice reviews for the book. For instance, here's a sampling of what Dana Mentink had to say on her blog: 

This book is a combination of satisfying mystery, hilarity and a shade of poignancy which is the flip side of Monk’s OCD. The reader is made aware every so often, that Monk’s gifts do not come without a price and at the core he is a lonely, frightened soul. Because he has Natalie, we can enjoy the fact that he cannot cut a pizza unless he’s brought along his string, compass, T square and level.

The fine folks at Gelati's scoop like the entire book series and say, in part:

The nice part of the novels for me is that Goldberg allows us to get inside the mind of Natalie as she helps Monk through the crisis du jour. Stottlemeyer, Disher, Natalie, & Monk take us on adventure after adventure through the course of the book series. Monk has gone to such locations as Hawaii, France & Germany. I found those installments to be some of Goldberg’s best work with the characters. Monk rarely leaves San Francisco, so I enjoyed the situations the cast of characters endured as Monk was being Monk, going on planes, trains and staying in different hotels (even numbers are a must). I think that through his narrative, Goldberg not only continued the characters’ story lines for us, but enhanced it and made them more enjoyable, believable, likeable and endearing.

And there's this rave of the German edition, MR. MONK UND MR. MONK from Swabian Touring Theatre. He says, in part and roughly translated:

When I heard this book was going back to 1850s, I was a little worried about how it would work. I should not have been. The flashbacks fit in seamlessly with the story and adds a whole new level of humor to the events. As always, the characters are sharp and the humor is wonderful. I laughed loudly and repeatedly. Nevertheless, there were some subtle character moments that made me really see things in a new light.

Thanks to all those bloggers for the great reviews!

Pardon My Interruption

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You may have noticed that I haven't been blogging as much lately. The last month or so has been very busy for me. I finished writing a MONK book (MR. MONK ON THE ROAD), wrote an episode (with William Rabkin) of the new A&E series THE GLADES, came up with the story for my next MONK, did a polish of my adaptation of Victor Gischler's GUN MONKEYS for the Big Name Star who is now attached, edited a book of essays by a dozen authors on tie-in writing to be published by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and I prepared for a number of pitches, two of which still may pan out.

On top of that, I wrote an adaptation of one of my favorite western novels (and it looks like the financing for that might be coming through) and have been preparing to write & direct a short film in Kentucky in September based on my short story "Remaindered" (more about that later). 

Amidst all of that, there was the post-surgery physical therapy three-times-a-week for my arm (that's finally over). 

So blogging has fallen by the wayside and may remain so for a while. But at least I'm not alone… my brother Tod, who used to blog several times a week, hasn't posted anything new since May 23rd.

Tripping Through My Past

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Thanks to John Zipperer's blog, I've been able to time-travel into my past through the articles I wrote for STARLOG magazine in the 1980s. John has been cataloging every single issue of STARLOG's run. Each of his blog posts inevitably brings back memories. There are many interviews that I've done that I've forgotten all about, like the one above with screenwriter W.D. Richter on the set of Big Trouble in Little China and one that I did with George Lucas (how could I forget that?). I am also astonished by how hard I worked. I often wrote three or more articles per month. For instnace, in one issue, I had interviews with  Kurt Russell, Martin Landau, and director Tobe Hooper..and in another I interviewed Bob Gale, Ray Bradbury, and Kim Cattrall. It's also interesting to see the wide assortment of people I talked to… directors, actors, producers, screenwriters, novelists, special effects experts. But it's clear to me that I was more interested in the writing of the movies and TV shows that I covered than anything else. No surprise there. It's also amusing for me to see how many of my UCLA Daily Bruin buddies (William Rabkin, Brian Lowry, Marc Weinberg), girlfriends (Karen E. Bender), and family members (my mom!) I talked into working for STARLOG, too.  

Read Me a Story

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Lee-Cole-Tod Every author should be lucky enough to hear their story read by a professional actor. It makes you appreciate nuances of character, and feel the "beat" of the story-telling, in ways that sometimes doesn't come across on the page.  It's one reason I enjoy listening to the audiobook versions of my MONK books — they feel new to me even though I wrote them.

Tonight I went to WordTheatre's presentation of three short stories: TC Boyle's Three Quarters of the Way to Hell, James Salters' Such Fun, and my brother Tod Goldberg' s Walls. Gary Cole read Walls, Carla Gugino read Such Fun, and Gugino & Adrian Pasdar read Three Quarters of the Way to Hell. Cugino was the stand-out of the three actors, truly enlivening and enriching what she read, particularly in Boyle's story (where she was much stronger than the material she was reading). I am too close to Tod's story to be objective about it, but I thought Cole made some interesting choices, not all of them successful, but he still illuminated aspects of the story that I hadn't seen in the quite same way before, either when I read it or when I'd heard Tod read it. 

That's me, Gary Cole, and my brother Tod in the picture (you can click on it for a larger view, though it's hard to imagine me or Tod any larger than we already are). Cole and I chatted about a bit about MIDNIGHT CALLER — he can't understand why the show hasn't come out on DVD yet. I said there's no logic to how those decisions are made… if there was, utter shit like Dom DeLuise's flop sitcom LOTSA LUCK wouldn't be on DVD. Is there anybody who wants to see Dom DeLuise for God's sake?

Naturally, Michael DeLuise was sitting right behind me.

CSI Goldberg returns

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I had a great time at the Forensic Trends conference, though, to be honest, I only attended the talk that I gave. Before I began my presentation, I made a quick visit to the Hilton men's room…which may be good for relieving your bladder but, as the photo illustrates, won't do much to bolster your self-confidence before you speak to a few hundred people (you can CLICK on the photo for a larger view, no pun intended).
After the conference, I had a very nice dinner with Jim Clemente, a former FBI profiler turned TV producer & consultant (CRIMINAL MINDS, THE CLOSER, etc.). He' s a fascinating guy and a very talented story-teller. I actually met him for the first time two years ago at a forensics conference I spoke at in Pittsburgh.  Meeting people like Jim is one of the big reasons why I agree to all these speaking engagements and teaching opportunities….you never know who you will meet or what might come from those relationships.

I was stunned by how much Las Vegas has changed since I visited three years ago. The skyline is radically different…and yes,I know that's a cliche observation, but it's true nonetheless.

Le Notre bakery is no longer at Paris Las Vegas… c'est triste. I loved that place.

Caesars Palace has had more facelifts than a Malibu trophy wife, but the latest one is very nice. The Forum Shops is still the best looking shopping mall in America, but the shops at the Venetian are a close second. 

The Aladdin is now a Planet Hollywood resort. I visited the former Aladdin Shops, which were once like the Forum Shops but now they are renovating out the character so it will look like any other shopping mall. I went into an ABC convenience store and was surprised to see Extenze and Top Gun, both advertised as a "fast acting male enhancement that can make you larger," on sale beside the Rolaids & Tums & M&Ms. Only in Vegas.

I also visited some of the new hotels — Palazzo is spectacular, Wynn/Encore are gaudy and garish riffs on the Belagio decor, Aria is super sleek and contemporary, and the face-lift at the Mirage is very nice, downplaying the dated gaudiness Wynn seems to revel in nowadays.

The conference was held at the Hilton, which is a decaying dump…not quite as bad as The Riviera, but heading in that same direction. The rooms aren't bad, decor-wise, but the walls are so thin you can hear the people in the adjoining rooms making love, farting, talking on the phone, etc..and if you manage to finally get to sleep, the talking and bitching of the maids and workmen in the hallway will wake you up before 8 am. 

The Hilton pool is no better than what you might find at off-the-highway motel…and the music that blared from the out-door speakers was so loud and distorted that you couldn't hear yourself think, much less read a book. The Star Trek Experience is gone, but not the corner of the casino that's decked out in a science fiction theme. It now serves as a portal to the Vegas Monorail. The Hilton certainly is not the classy, elegant place James Bond stayed at it in Diamonds are Forever anymore…and probably hasn't been for twenty-some years.