Me Me Me

I am off to Germany again on Wednesday to work with my good friends at Action Concept and won’t be returning until Dec. 16.  So don’t be surprised if my postings here are sporadic. I am in the midst of writing a two-hour movie/pilot that will be shot in English in Berlin. If all goes well, it could go into production as early as this February. So I am off to do some pre-production work and meet with the German network that’s involved.  I’ll tell you more about the movie…and some of the other projects I’ve been working on… if and when they get closer to your TV, movie theater and computer screens (I am also involved in a very exciting, major web project that blends gaming and scripted drama in a new way).

You may have noticed I don’t talk much here about my TV and feature work.  Frankly, I don’t like to talk about specific projects that I am writing until they are in production…and there’s actually going to be  something for you to see. Speaking of which, Bill Rabkin and I wrote an episode of the USA Network series PSYCH that will be airing some time in January…

The second part of Chris Wells’ Q&A interview with me is now up at his site.

There’s a two-part Q&A interview with me up on Chris Well’s Learning Curve blog. Here’s one of the questions…

WHEN CREATING A MYSTERY, DO YOU START WITH THE PUZZLE AND THEN WRAP THE CHARACTERS AROUND IT, OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND?

I
always start with the characters and the obstacles they are facing. I
ask myself what situation can I put these characters in that will
really test who they are? The mystery almost always organically comes
out of that question. If the characters have nothing at stake in the
mystery, if it doesn’t put them in conflict with others and with
themselves, then who is going to care whodunit?

I’m sorry you haven’t seen me much around here, but I am currently in Cologne, where I am writing, teaching, pitching and going on helicopter rides (my friends at Action Concept love their helicopters). Over the weekend,  I was taken out by an experienced race car driver to Nurburgring,  where we drove a BMW M5 on a winding track that’s  considered one of the most demanding in the world.  When I say "we drove," I mean I sat in the passenger seat while he sped at 240+ km around unbelievably tight turns.  I loved it. I thought it was incredibly exhiliratiing. Unfortunately, before I got my turn at the wheel, the car completely crapped out.  Somehow we managed to blow the transmission. We had to push the car into a parking spot, where we waited three hours for a tow truck to take us back to the nearest BMW dealership. It was great fun anyway and I got to see a lot of cool cars. Speaking of cars, I also visited the Daimler-Chrysler HQ in Stuttgart, which was fun, too.

But the best part of my trip so far has been all the conversations I’ve had with German writer/producers and network executives. I think I’ve learned as much from them as they have from me. The exchange of ideas, methods, and philosophies about writing, showrunning,  and the television business has been every bit as exhilirating for me as my high-speed race around the track.

I am leaving today for another two week stint in Germany, where I will be teaching for The Media Exchange and doing some consulting work for Action Concept, the country’s leading producer of action shows and movies (you’ll be hearing a lot more about them, and the work we are doing together, in the coming months). I’ll try to report back here occasionally…but don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me much. Note: While I am away, I am holding all comments for approval before posting them. When I return, I will deactiviate the comment-moderation.

Today, I headed out to the South Pasadena Public Library for the monthly meeting of Sisters-in-Crime, where I read from MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII and was "in conversation" with author Denise Hamilton. We talked a lot about our different approaches to writing, plotting and constructing scenes. We also discussed how to write dialogue that reveals character, the merits of "standalones" vs "series," and how we go about rewriting work. I enjoyed myself, met a lot of friendly people, and only saw three women in the audience fighting sleep, so I consider it a success.

It’s amazing what ten hours of sleep will do for you. I don’t feel like one of the living dead any more, though I did chew off my daughter’s left arm this morning for breakfast.  Afterwards, I caught up with the season finale of DEADWOOD (or, perhaps, the series finale). Damn, what a great show this is. I still can’t figure out, though, what David Milch had in mind for that theatre troop storyline…seems like a complete waste to me. I would have preferred to spend more time this season with the DEADWOOD regulars, like the doctor and Tolliver, than the troop. Gerald McRaney was a revelation as Hearst…it will be interesting to see if he brings any of that newfound gravitas to his work on the new CBS series JERICHO.

I’ve started catching up on my email and snail-mail and discovered that it’s been officially announced by the Mystery Writers of American that I am going to be the chair of the Edgar Awards for 2008.  It basically means that I have to start begging, extorting and blackmailing writers I know to serve as judges. Consider this fair warning, my author-friends…

I’ve also taken a few moments to skim the fanfic debates that raged on my back-blog here while I was away and have, much to my delight and surprise, found far more comments of substance than vitriol (on both sides of the debate).

I have a ton of work to do today…but I think I’m going to follow my brother Tod’s advice and take a day off instead to recharge my completely depleted physical and creative batteries. Deadlines are mounting, but a man needs his rest.