Me Me Me

Book Fest Day 2

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The day started with Bagels and Goldbergs at the Borders booth, where I signed with my sisters Linda Woods and Karen Dinino.
P4300087_1Steve Cannell stopped by to pick up a copy of THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE, which was pretty cool, since the book couldn’t have been written without him (like me, the hero learns everything he knows about being a PI from watching shows like THE ROCKFORD FILES). I  chatted again with a lot of the folks I mentioned yesterday, as well as Harlan Coben, Gayle Lynds, Kelly Lange, Rochelle Krich, Thomas Perry, Paul Levine, Harley Jane Kozak, Jeff Mariotte, and Bill Fitzhugh, among others. I also caught some more panels, including Carl Reiner’s talk and my brother Tod in conversation with Sarah Vowell (a very funny woman who is not the warmest person you will ever meet) and David Rackoff (as lively, personable and funny off-stage as he is on) in front of a packed Royce Hall auditorium.  It was another great Book Fest and I’m already looking forward to the one next year…

UPDATE 5-1-06: My Brother Tod has a more detailed, and much funnier, wrap-up of the weekend’s events on his eponymous blog.  Reading his post reminds me of a strange bathroom encounter I had (Tod’s big moments all seemed to happen while he was in the can). I walked into the bathroom at "The Green Room" and saw a guy standing in front of a urinal pissing free-style while thumb-typing a message on his blackberry. At the same time, I heard another guy taking calls on his cell while having an extreme bowel episode. I like to think this was a wacky LA moment…but I fear this scene could have happened anywhere. I also had someone say to me at the my Borders signing that his favorite books of mine were "the ones where something happens."

UPDATE 5-1-06b: My sisters Linda and Karen report on the Fest and the super secret buffet for brilliant authors…my Uncle Burl Barer stargazes outside the Borders tent…and my cousin Danny Barer discovers what he’s been missing.

Learning Howdunit

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The Rutland Herald has an article today (from the Columbia News Service wire) about how mystery writers use consultants and, as an example, talks about how Dr. Doug Lyle and I work together. But if you’re a DIAGNOSIS MURDER fan, and haven’t read THE SILENT PARTNER yet, skip the article — there are major spoilers in it.

"I know absolutely nothing about medicine," Goldberg said. "But I do
know how to write a mystery. I craft situations where I need a medical
clue, then I call Doug. I simply couldn’t write these without him."

Lyle
is part of a select group of plot consultants who help mystery writers
bump off characters with scientific exactitude. He shows writers how to
poison people properly, open up a skull correctly for an autopsy and
talk like a homicide detective to make the character believable.

The article also appeared in The Toronto Star and the Indianapolis Star, among many other newspapers.

Book Fest Day 1

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Today, for the first time in 11 years, I was able to casually enjoy the LA Times Book Fest as a "civilian." I had no signings to do, no panels to participate in, nothing to do by browse, listen to the panels, and catch up with old friends.

I chatted at book store booths and at the "VIP" room with T. Jefferson Parker, Barbara Seranella, Michael Connelly, Kirk Russell, Reed Coleman, Jeff Mariotte, Mark Haskell Smith, Leslie Klinger, Patricia Smiley, Bob Levinson, Kevin Roderick, Patt Morrison, Rob Roberge, and 24 writer David Ehrman,  among others. I enjoyed panels on Mystery Writing (with Klinger, Roberge, Seranella and John Morgan Wilson) and writing the Short Story (with my brother Tod and A.M. Homes, among others).

For the first time, I didn’t buy a single signed novel at the fest…just a handful of pop culture non-fiction books — ALIAS SMITH AND JONES: THE STORY OF TWO PRETTY GOOD BAD MEN, GUY WILLIAMS: THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK, and two Taschen books  70s CARS: VINTAGE AUTO ADS  and 60S CARS: VINTAGE AUTO ADS. Compared to past years, that was a meager haul indeed.

Tomorrow promises to be a much busier day, with signings to do at Borders and Mystery Bookstore, and lots of panels I want to attend…

Those Who Can Do Teach

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William Rabkin and I will be teaching another session of our popular "Beginning TV Writing" online course for Writers University in May. There’s still time to sign up and a few open seats are left in our virtual classroom.

In this four week course, two established executive
producers/showrunners will give you an inside look at the world of
episodic television. You will learn—and practice— the actual process
involved in successfully writing a spec episodic script that will open
doors across Hollywood. You will learn how to analyze a TV show and
develop “franchise”-friendly story ideas. You will develop and write a
story under the direction of the instructors, who will be acting as
showrunners… and then, after incorporating their notes, you will be
sent off to write your outline. Finally, you will develop and refine
your outline with the instructors, leaving you at the end of the course
ready to write your episodic spec script…the first step in getting a
job on a TV series.

Dumb Questions and Great Sex

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My brother Tod beat me to posting about some of the dumb questions I got asked at the Palm Springs Book Festival (though I got lots of great questions, too). Here’s one of them (though you’ll notice that Tod remembers it slightly different than I do):

Woman: Did you have to take acting classes to learn how to write dialog?

Me: No, but I’ve also never been a werewolf, a lifeguard, a psychic FBI agent, a 70-year0ld doctor who solves crimes, or the Captain of a submarine in the year 2032. I make stuff up. The dialog comes from the characters. I don’t need to be an actor to know how people talk. I just have to observe and listen.

Woman: Is there a class you can take for that?

The night before the Festival there was a reception for the authors. Only authors were attending (and their spouses, significant others and, in my case, my mother). But there are always one or two clueless idiots at these kind of events who use this as a selling opportunity. A lady came up to me and thrust her apparently self-published book in my face.

Woman:  I’m the author of GREAT SEX AFTER SIXTY. You should read this book.

Me: Do I look sixty to you?

Woman: Well, you will be, won’t you?

Me:  No, I’m planning on using plastic surgery and drugs to remain 44 forever.

Woman: But you’ll still physically be sixty even if you look 44 and you’ll want to have great sex.

Me: There will be a pill for that, too.

Woman: There might not be.

Me: I’ll take my chances.

I couldn’t believe she was still arguing with me. But I was saved by my Mom, who started laughing.

Mom: He’s my son and he looks sixty to you? My God, how old do I look?

At which point the clueless idiot thrust her God-awful book in my Mom’s face and asked her how her sex was… and I dashed across the room to talk to Gregg Hurwitz. Am I good son or what?

Palm Springs Book Fest

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It was a beautiful day for a Book Festival in Palm Springs today. Although the turn-out for the mystery & suspense panels was light for everybody, and I sold maybe two books, I had a terrific time anyway, hanging out with authors Doug Lyle, Theresa Schwegel, Loraine Despres, Kirk Russell, Thom Racina, JJ & Bette Lamb, Taffy Cannon, Eric Shaw Quinn, Barbara Seranella, Nichelle Tramble, Christopher Rice, Gregg Hurwitz, Bill Fitzhugh, and my brother Tod. I even managed to peek in on Chris Rice’s hilarious and informative interview with his mother Anne Rice, which was The Big Event of the Fest and was, predictably, standing-room only. The only downside was the hellacious traffic on the way back to L.A.

My God, reading this post, I feel like I’m channeling one of my Mom’s typical Desert Sun society columns from the 80s and 90s…

My Fan Club President is Impeached

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UPDATE 4-22-2006:  James Kosub appears to have come to his senses and deleted the ridiculous accusations against me that he posted on his blog, so I’ve deleted the post that formerly occupied this space (the comments, however, remain).

Schmoozing in the Desert

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P1010180_1 Tonight I went to the author’s reception for the Palm SpringsP1010178  Book Festival, where I will be appearing in front of all my adoring fans (my Mom, a vagrant, my brother Tod). I had a great time catching up with old friends like Carleton Eastlake, Loraine Despres, Christopher Rice, and Gregg Hurwitz (and his lovely wife). And I made some new friends, like Eric Shaw Quinn and retired SEALS Charles O’Connor and Ross Hengebrauch. My daughter Maddie absolutely loves QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY, so when I spotted Ted Allen, I had to have my picture taken with him. Maddie was blown away. Meanwhile my Mom, Jan Curran, got up close and personal with Tab Hunter. And I’ve got the photos to prove it. P1010179 (First photo is me with Ted Allen, the second photo is my Mom with Tab Hunter, and the third photo is me with Gregg Hurwitz, Eric Shaw Quinn, and Christopher Rice).

Why Couldn’t the New York Times Have Said This?

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I love it when people stay up all night reading my books. This came today from The Shaudy Life:

For some reason, I am awake. It’s 4 in the am, and I am still awake.
Just got done reading Lee Goldberg’s and William Rabkin’s "Successful
Television Screenwriting." Fabulous book!!! Absolutely amazing! I’ve
never read an industry book that I haven’t been able to put down, even
if it’s a topic I’m really interested in. They’ve got humor and wit.
And they’re a little cynical and neurotic, which makes me more
comfortable with being cynical and neurotic, myself. Fantastic book.

Thanks, Nina!

Why I Blog on Amazon

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I have an Amazon blog. It doesn’t take much effort to maintain, since it mainly consists of  "repurposed" material originally posted here. The blog can be read as a stand-alone "Lee Goldberg blog," or my posts can show up, along with those of other authors, in a reader’s "plog" on your Amazon home page.  I get a couple dozen positive "votes" from readers on each new post, but still I wondered if enough people were reading my Amazon blog to make it worthwhile and if  it made any difference in the way people viewed me or my books. Now I know. I got this comment from Karen Oberst, a librarian in Oregon:

We get a lot of plogs, since as a library we order a great deal from
Amazon. However, the only ones I look forward to are the ones by Lee
Goldberg. I so appreciate the backstage look at both the television
industry, and how the writing is done. Thanks, Lee for your informative
posts, and for taking the time to update them so often.

The comment made my day. I never knew that libraries bought books on Amazon. The comment also told me that people are reading the Amazon posts and that maintaining the "Readers Digest" version of this blog over there is doing me some good.