Greetings from the Grannery Pub in Hay-on-Wye, the Disneyland for book lovers. This tiny village is devoted almost entirely to bookstores. I have shown super-human restraint and have only bought about a dozen books, which I have shipped back to the US by goat and freighter…the package should arrive in six months. This pub is apparently the only place in town with an Internet connection, so I am sitting here, eating an amazing Chicken Pie, catching up on 200 emails and trying very hard not to dribble gravy on my keyboard. Tomorrow it’s off to London and, after three days there, on to Stockholm.
Me Me Me
Life in Lohr
The third Writers Room seminar has ended and, at least from my point of view, was a great success. The writer/producers I worked with here not only enthusiastically embraced the four act structure, but were eager to put it to use in their current series and pilots. Coincidentally, one of the major German newspapers reported yesterday that, with the exception of Action Concept’s ALARM FOR COBRA 11, home-grown German shows are bombing. American shows are thriving here — the highest rated programs on German TV are HOUSE, CSI MIAMI, MONK and CRIMINAL MINDS. The networks believe one reason for the failure of German drama programming is that their series aren’t structured and run the way American shows are. As a result, Pro7/Sat1, one of the biggest networks here, announced yesterday that they would no longer buy any series that isn’t run using the American "showrunner/writer’s room" system. That’s a seismic shift for the German TV industry…and I think my friends at Action Concept can take a lot of credit for that, thanks to their very aggressive efforts over the last six months to convince all the networks here that the "showrunner/writer’s room" approach is the only way to go.
Tomorrow I am off for six days in the UK…where I may or may not have Internet access…and then on to Sweden for another session of "The Writers Room" seminar next Saturday.
I may also have some very good news (for me!) to share with you by then…
To Sir With Love
The third Writers Room "showrunner" seminar got off the ground yesterday here in Lohr, Germany, taught by me and my friend Matt Witten. The way we teach together, it’s less of a lecture and more of a day-long discussion about various aspects of writing and producing episodic television shows. Lots of anecdotes and experiences are shared along the way between us and the students. It was fascinating for me to learn more about the differences between the German television industry and ours — and discovering common ground. Things that are second-nature to us — like the four-act structure — are new concepts to the writer/producers here and it’s exciting to see them embrace it with genuine enthusiasm. We’ve watched and analyzed both good and bad episodes of US television shows, some times stopping after every scene to discuss it. I am having a great time…but it’s also very exhausting to be "on" from breakfast clear through drinks in the bar late at night (in fact, it’s often during the those casual conversations outside of class where the real progress is made). And before crawling into bed, I try to make some progress on my other work. (Thank God they’ve got Diet Coke here!) It will be very interesting to compare and contrast this experience with the one I’m going to have in two weeks when Bill Rabkin and I teach the course in Sweden.
Snow White
Greetings from the Franziskushohe, my friend Hermann’s cozy hotel on a snowy hillside overlooking Lohr, Germany…an idyllic little village where Snow White supposedly lived. My wife tells me that Snow White is a French fable, not German, but apparently the people of Lohr think otherwise. The town doesn’t seem real to me, but you can blame years of movie-going for that. Lohr looks like a Hollywood version of what a German village is supposed to look like. Writer/producer Matt Witten, who is teaching here with me this week, had exactly the same impression.
Right now it’s about 11 am here (2 am back home in LA) and I am sitting in the dining room at a table by the window, watching the snow fall, working on my fifth Monk book and sipping hot Earl Grey tea. (Jet-lagged must have wallopped Matt, because he still hasn’t emerged from his room). If you’d told me a year ago that I would be here right now, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’m trying to get in as much uninterrupted writing as I can before tomorrow when the "students" (professional writer/producers, screenwriters, directors, and at least one actor) start arriving from all over Germany and the real work begins.
The Business Traveler
In the last six months, I think I’ve traveled more than I have in the last six years. Tomorrow I am off to Germany again…this time, with my friend Matt Witten (LAW AND ORDER, HOUSE, etc) to teach writer-producers there how we develop, write and produce TV series here. Then it’s off to Sweden with William Rabkin to conduct the same course for their writer/producers. While all that is going on, I will be spending every free moment writing the next MONK novel and awaiting word on my two pilots…
I’ll try to check in here, too.
Psyched Out
Tonight’s season premiere of PSYCH was written by me & William Rabkin. We haven’t seen it yet. We hope it’s good. Let me know, because I’m at the Mystery Writers of America annual board meeting in New York and won’t see it until I get back on Monday.
Shelf Life
In 1983, I wrote a "My Turn" essay that was published in Newsweek Magazine. Today, almost 25 years later, I got a nice royalty check for a reprint of the essay in the textbook MAKING READING RELEVANT: THE ART OF CONNECTING. This is not the first time the essay has been reprinted. It has actually shown up in scores of textbooks over the years, from MARRAIGE AND THE FAMILY EXPERIENCE to DESIGNING IDEAS: AN ANTHOLOGY FOR WRITERS. And each time it happens, I am stunned. I can’t believe something I wrote in a half hour so long ago has had such a long shelf life.
Mr. Monk and The Ransom Notes
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.
You’ve Heard It All Before
You can find a new Q&A interview with me, filled with information avid readers of this blog already know, online at Storylink, which is an off-shoot of the Writers’ Store and Writers University. Here’s a tantalizing excerpt:
1) What were you doing before you "made it"?
I was a freelance journalist, putting myself through school by writing for publications like American Film, Starlog, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times Syndicate, The Washington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle, among many, many others. I also had a girlfriend who as an editor at Playgirl,
who got me a gig writing sexually explicit letters to the editor for
$25-a-letter, but let’s just keep that between you and me.
A Clear Head
On Christmas Day, I emailed my pilot script to the studio… even though I knew nobody was there to read it. The script is due at the network next week, so I wanted to make sure it was delivered in time for me to get notes on Monday, do a quick revision, and still make our deadline.
Over the last three days, I did something I haven’t done in months: I didn’t write a thing. I didn’t even think about writing (ie plotting the next book or script). I didn’t even write anything for this blog. I couldn’t even summon the interest to read a book or watch a movie or catch up on all the TV shows cluttering my Tivo.
I wanted nothing to do with story.
It felt good. I think I could probably use two more weeks like that, but it’s not going to happen. I have a very busy couple of months ahead of me of writing and business-related travel (to New York, Germany, Seattle and Sweden).
And yet, I also felt strangely guilty… as if I was playing hooky or being irresponsible. Afterall, it’s not like I don’t have more work to do and looming deadlines to meet. But there was nothing pressing on me, not like the deadline for my last MONK novel or for this pilot script. I had the wiggle-room to give myself a couple of free days.
So I cleaned my office, did some errands, and took my family on a spur-of-the-moment trip up the coast to Morro Bay and a first-time visit to the Hearst Castle. I didn’t bring my laptop. I didn’t even bring a paperback book (then again, it was only a day or so, hardly a big sacrifice).
And now I’m back, procrastinating here on my blog, before starting to write again tonight. It’s only been three days and yet, I’m feeling rusty, as if I’ve lost my momentum.
Silly, isn’t it? I have got to learn how to relax a little bit.