#1 New York Times Bestselling Author & TV Producer
You can’t miss this — David Hasselhoff’s "Secret Agent Man" video. I laughed all the way through it, because I know that’s really how he sees himself. Back when I was doing BAYWATCH, he told me all about his efforts to star in a new version of PETER GUNN. He felt he was perfect for the role because he "embodied it."
(Thanks to Sara for the link)
There’s an article in today’s Los Angeles Times talking
about how Lions Gate Television, my former employer on MISSING, manages to make
a profit on their cable television shows.
But by employing financing formulas it has used to make and distribute
such profitable, low-budget movies as "Madea’s Family Reunion" and the
"Saw" horror franchise, Lions Gate not only covered its costs on
"Weeds" but also cleared what industry analysts estimate was about
$100,000 per episode of pure profit.[…]By cobbling together money from license fees, income from international
sales, state and local tax rebates and subsidies, Lions Gate has at
least broken even from day one on all nine of its shows — a rarity in a
business where most network shows begin in the red.
It’s interesting stuff. The TV
division is run by the impossibily energetic Kevin Beggs, easily one of the
brightest, friendliest, and most creatively supportive execs I’ve ever worked with. It’s nice to see him
getting the recognition he deserves.
Last night, my local chapter of the Mystery Writers of America had a summer party at author Bill Fitzhugh’s house in the valley. We all sat outdoors in the warm night air under big, shady trees and strings of Christmas lights. Bill made three different kinds of gumbo and an array of tasty shrimp and crab appetizers, proving that if things ever cool down for him in publishing and radio, he can always open a restaurant.
I caught up with lots of folks, including authors Denise Hamilton, James Lincoln Warren, Diane Pugh, Gary Phillips, Theresa Schwegel, and Christa Faust, who told me all about her novelization of SNAKES ON A PLANE.
Christa once wrote a 95,000 word FRIDAY THE 13th original tie-in novel in six weeks, and without ending up in the I.C.U., which I find pretty darn amazing. She has a tattoo of a vintage typewriter on her belly. I didn’t see it there, but she told us about it, and I found a picture of it later on her website. Christa told me some horror stories about the brutal deadlines and low pay in the tie-in biz…then again, she loves telling horror stories of all kinds. She wore a dress covered with skulls that fascinated the kids at the party.
Denise Hamilton and I talked a lot about conventions — she’s already looking forward to Bouchercon 2007 in Anchorage. We also talked a lot about dogs. We mystery writers are an exciting bunch. Denise and I are getting together in September "in conversation" for a Sisters-in-Crime event. I promise that that conversation will be more thrilling, suspenseful and erotic. She’s hard at work on a new stand-alone novel that’s due soon.
The lovely and charming Theresa Schwegel insists that winning the Edgar hasn’t changed her, but I don’t recall her insisting that people kiss her hand and refer to her as "your highness" before the award. I didn’t mind. I don’t think she has a typewriter on her belly.
As the night went on, I told the story about my broken arms once and the story about the Naked Bookseller twice. If I am going to keep going to these author gatherings, I am going to need some fresh material. We left around 9 pm when my daughter started to nod off…she had a full day of swimming, swimming, tae kwon do testing, swimming and swimming.
Bill gave everyone generous "To Go" bags full of gumbo and rice on the way out, so my lunch today isn’t going to include another trip to The Habit where, oddly enough, I bump into Bill every so often.
It was a great party. I hope Bill does it again next year.
UPDATE 7-11-06: Christa blogs about the party.
Tami, Monk fan extraordinaire, sent me this photo from a Barnes & Noble in Las Vegas. It seems to me that MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII is getting much bigger play at most B&N stores — twenty or more copies prominently displayed — than the first MONK book did. I hope they sell!
The ITW has put together a four-minute video, shot and edited by David Hewson at the convention, and posted it on YouTube. The video features short interviews Lee Child,
Zoe Sharpe, David Morrell, Steve Berry, Gayle Lynds and Heather Graham
among other. Don’t blink or you’ll miss the shot of me signing books with Erica Spindler at the start of the video.
Author M. Diane Vogt took these Thrillerfest pictures of me with Lee Child and my daughter Maddie with R.L. Stine and kindly passed them along (Click on the photos for larger images). 
The scariest thing about RL Stine was that he was wearing all-black when it was 110 degrees outside. He probably lost 30 pounds just walking from his car to the convention center.
My latest Natalie Blog is now up on the USA Network site.
The other night, just for the heck of it, I invited Monk out to dinner with Julie
and me. That meant, of course, that we had to stop by his apartment on
the way to pick-up a set of dishes and silverware that he could bring
with him to the restaurant in a special, padded picnic basket.
I’m a big Robert B. Parker fan. That said, BLUE SCREEN is probably one of his worst books. For one thing, it’s a Sunny Randall novel, his weakest series and a bland imitation of Spenser. And like most Sunny Randall novels, it’s a meandering, uninvolving story that feels as if he was making it up as he went along (at least he only used the phrase "we’d be fools not to" once in this book and not as the end of a chapter for a change). Parker has his PI working for a self-involved celebrity (something he’s done several times with Spenser and once before with Sunny), which only adds to the "been there/done that" feeling that pervades this listless book.
But what ultimately makes BLUE SCREEN more than just a disappointing book in a so-so series is that Jesse Stone, the hero of his third ongoing series, is teamed up with Sunny in this story and neutered in the process. Which is a tragedy, because the Jesse Stone books have been (with the exception of SEA CHANGE) Parker at his very best, harkening back to his early Spenser novels. They’ve also provided the basis for a trio of terrific Tom Selleck TV movies.
The Jesse Stone character in BLUE SCREEN is cringe-inducing. Then again, just about everything in this book is cringe-inducing, from the cutesy banter to the endless attention given to Sunny’s dog (I won’t even go into the cameo appearance by Susan Silverman). Unfortunately for us Jesse Stone fans, the book seems aimed at merging the two series into one, something I hope Parker will reconsider. We’d be fools not to.
Fleshbot posted this great girl-with-a-gun photo by Forrest Frazier. It screams "Book cover!" to me…sort of a Robert McGinnis painting come-to-life.
For the most part, it’s all the same faces and all the same shows in the Emmy nods this year. I was really hoping that BATTLESTAR GALACTICA would get the recognition it deserves…but the conservative Academy members just aren’t ready to embrace a genre show (as far as I know, BUFFY was largely ignored by the Academy, too). I’m sure it’s the name of the show that makes them cringe and the fact that there are space ships in it. A show with a name like "Battlestar" can’t possibly be worthy of an Emmy statuette for anything except special effects…right? And what about DEADWOOD?
The best drama nominations went to GREY’S ANATOMY, HOUSE, THE SOPRANOS, 24 and THE WEST WING. No surprises there (though they are certainly all deserving of the honor). But c’mon, is there some obscure Emmy rule that THE SOPRANOS and THE WEST WING have to be nominated every year? Those two shows have received accolades again and again… yes, we know they are great shows. It sure would be nice to shake things up a bit and acknowledge other great shows… like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and DEADWOOD.
That said, I am thrilled to see my friends Terry Winter (SOPRANOS), Howard Gordon (24), and Matt Witten (HOUSE) up for statuettes and to see Tony Shalhoub getting another not for his great work on MONK.