My Blog

Dune Talifans

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Novelists Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert, authors of the bestselling post-Frank Herbert DUNE novels, discuss on their blog some of their bizarre encounters with "talifans":

They started appearing as soon as our first DUNE prequels were announced, vehemently opposed to *anything* new
      connected to DUNE, regardless of whether the novels were based on Frank Herbert’s own notes, regardless of whether
      Frank had asked his son to write additional DUNE novels with him before his death. We can certainly understand
      many devoted fans being protective of their favorite universe, and we can understand their initial skepticism.
      Frank Herbert was a genius, against whom few writers in history can measure up. We felt the fans were showing
      their passion and dedication, and Brian and I worked as hard as we could so as not to disappoint them.

Unfortunately, their tactics soon became apparent. Even before HOUSE ATREIDES
      was published, before review copies were ever distributed, these "Talifan" got together and posted 60
      one-star reviews on amazon.com. None of them had read the book, but that didn’t stop them from trashing it with
      quotes like "This can’t possibly be good, so it has to be terrible" and "I don’t even need to read
      this book to know how bad it must be."

But Talifans can be found throughout "fandom," as Kevin and Brian are well aware.

You’ll find the same sort of rude nastiness on
      the Star Trek boards, on Robert Jordan boards, on X-Files boards. The behavior of a small group of unpleasant fans
      has driven virtually every Star Wars writer to avoid participating in online discussion groups. [My favorite
      ridiculous posting from a Star Wars fan board: "I absolutely hated the first thirteen books in Kevin J.
      Anderson’s series, and I hate the fourteenth one even more!" Any rational person would say, If you hate it so
      much, why keep reading? Go to a bookstore — you’ve got plenty of choices if you don’t like my work.]

The problem is, they hate *everything.*

Early Christmas Present for Me

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Monkrevised_1
Today my author’s copies of MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIRE HOUSE arrivedMonkhawaii on my doorstep. I still get a thrill every time I see one of my books for the
first time…ah, that new book smell.  I love it. The book includes a teaser excerpt from MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII, which comes out in July and has my name so small on the cover that you’ll need a magnifying glass to spot it.  Coincidentally, today I also finished writing the outline for MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU, the third book in the series. 

One of the things I’ve discovered with these books is how hard it is to be funny in an outline…unless you go into tremendous detail, include sample dialogue, and practically write the entire scene, which I am unwilling to do. So the outlines come across rather flat. I have to trust that everyone who has to read the outline and approve it will see the potential for comedy within the situations I’ve set up. The nice thing is I have two MONK books behind me already, so they know I will come through on the humor even if the outline isn’t a laugh fest.

Mostly what I do on the MONK outlines is get across broad stroke of the plot, leaving out the specific clues and jokes — knowing I will come up with them as I write. The finished book inevitably differs from the outline, but the basic spine of the story always remains the same.

I hope to start writing MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU around the first week of January to make my mid-March deadline…and then I start work on DIAGNOSIS MURDER #8, though I have no idea what that one will be about yet.

King Kong

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I haven’t seen KING KONG yet — but Ken Levine has.

What movie did the reviewers see? It was at least an hour too long. The
first hour. Wait for the DVD, skip to “they arrive” and start there,
keeping your finger on the ff button at all times. Trust me, by the
giant insects you’ll be pressing it as if it were a morphine drip.

We were told this was Peter Jackson’s homage to movies. We weren’t told it was his homage to all of them.

I think I’ll wait for the DVD.

Remembering THE FIFTH CORNER

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Bob Sassone over at TV Squad fondly remembers the short-lived (two episodes and out) 1992 series THE FIFTH CORNER, which starred Alex MacArthur and Kim Delaney.

Here’s another show that was ahead of its time. I can really picture
this on the air now, as an unfolding mystery that gets a lot of online
attention, fan sites, and speculation, like Lost or Alias.

Like most of America, I never saw THE FIFTH CORNER. The familiar concept was straight out of a 1950s Gold Medal paperback: a guy wakes up in bed with a dead woman beside him and has no memory of who he is or how he got there. Hijinks ensue. But Bob isn’t the only one who fondly remembers the show. One of the background extras on the series writes on his website about copping a feel from Kim Delaney.

His Night with Rob

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Novelist Craig Clevenger talks on his blog about meeting author Rob Roberge for the first time at Men of Mystery in Irvine last month and discovering some connections they never knew they had.

I stood outside the lobby, mad dialing to find a friendly couch in
L.A. and figure out how to get to the train station via the bus (not as
easy as it sounds… getting by on public transportation in Orange County
is akin to buying a television in Soviet Russia). Rob Roberge passed me
once again on the way to his car.

“Need a ride somewhere?”

“Only if you’re going to L.A.”

I
did, he was, so we went. A major act of faith on both parts, given we
had to ask each others’ names again as we hit the freeway. Idle banter
ensued, of the SoCal variety…

…"I grew up around here.”

“Yeah, where?” [Rob asked]

I told him.

“My wife, Gayle, grew up there, too,” he said.

“What’s her last name?”

He told me.

Shit.

Holy shrinking planet, Batman.

17
years ago. Rum and Coke. Someone’s back yard party in the summer. A
band tearing through their set in order to finish before 10:00 p.m.,
when OC’s finest drop their doughnuts and start swinging…

BADGE a Bestseller

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Someone just sent me this list of December bestsellers from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association:

Hardcovers
1. CONSENT TO KILL by Vince Flynn
2. SPECTRES IN THE SMOKE by Tony Broadbent
3. THE LINCOLN LAWYER by Michael Connelly
4. GRAVE SIGHT by Charlaine Harris
5. THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE by Lee Goldberg
6. SHROUD OF THE THWACKER by Chris Elliott
7. DELETE ALL SUSPECTS by Donna Andrews
8. FALL OF THE PHILANDERER by Carola Dunn
9. DERMAPHORIA by Craig Clevenger
10. THE FIREMAKER by Peter May

FYI, the number one paperback on the list is SOLOMAN AND LORD by my buddy Paul Levine, so he’s buying when we have lunch next week.

UPDATE 12-22-05: I have reason to doubt whether this list is accurate. The email I received reproduced an Independant Mystery Bookseller Association bestseller list that was reprinted in the December newsletter of the Aliens and Alibis Bookstore. However, the December IMBA bestseller list doesn’t actually come out until January…so where did this list come from?

I’ve contacted Aliens and Alibis, and they aren’t sure where they got the list that they published. I’ve enlisted some friends of mine at various mystery book stores to help me figure out whether this is an early IMBA list, another individual bookstore’s bestseller list, or whether it’s a Christmas shopping list someone dropped on the sidewalk somewhere. I’ll let you know what I discover.

More Moore

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Variety reports that BATTLESTAR GALACTICA showrunner Ron Moore has signed a rich deal with NBC/Universal.

Deal calls for Moore, who exec produced the first season of HBO’s "Carnivale"
before joining "Battlestar," to create and develop series, with an emphasis on
sci-fi-themed projects.

He’s already set up the NBC fantasy skein
"Pen and the Sword" and "Warehouse 13," a quirky one-hour for Sci Fi Channel.
Moore also will continue to steer "Battlestar," which kicks off the second half
of season two Jan. 6.

"Pen and the Sword" revolves around a young man at a temp agency who comes to
realize the building he works in is a portal to a sort of medieval alternate
reality. Show will follow the man as he slides between worlds, trying to unravel
the connection between the two — i.e., verbal spats between colleagues in one
dimension are sword fights in the other.

"It’s definitely something different for a broadcast network," Moore said.
"At its heart, ‘Pen and the Sword’ is really the story of this guy and his late
father, who was somehow involved in the office."

For Sci Fi, Moore will oversee "Warehouse 13" from writer Brent Mote. Project
concerns a pair of government officials banished to a storage facility in North
Dakota where they spend their days cataloguing artifacts and other odds and ends
collected by the government over the years. Unbeknownst to them, every item has
a backstory, pulling them into fantastic and supernatural quests each week.

"It’s ‘Northern Exposure’-esque and more comedic than anything else I’ve seen
on Sci Fi," Moore said. "What interested me was that it was a fun concept
anchored by real characters."

 

Trevanian Dies

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Bill Crider pointed me to the sad news that the novelist known as Trevanian (aka Rodney Whitaker) has died.

The author used at least five different writing names but was best known as
Trevanian, The New York Times said. He died Wednesday of chronic heart disease,
his agent told Saturday`s newspaper.

In addition to the ‘Eiger Sanction,’ Trevanian`s international best sellers
included 1979`s ‘Shibumi’ and ‘The Loo Sanction’ in 1973. His 10 known published
books sold more than 5 million copies and were translated into at least 14
languages.

I remember when I was a kid reading SHIBUMI and thinking the sex scenes were really hot, particularly the one where the hero made love to a woman by stroking her with razor blades (which included an author’s note not to try this technique at home unless you were well trained in the erotic arts. Sadly, I dropped out without getting my diploma).

New Years Resolutions for Writers

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Novelist Joe Konrath posts his Professi0nal Writer Resolutions for the new year. They work for me, too.

  • I will keep my website updated
  • I will start a blog
  • I will schedule bookstore signings, and while at the bookstore I’ll meet and
    greet the customers rather than sit dejected in the corner
  • I will send out a newsletter, emphasizing what I have to offer rather than
    what I have for sale, and I won’t send out more than four a year
  • I will learn to speak in public, even if I think I already know how
  • I will make selling my books my responsibility, not my publisher’s
  • I will stay in touch with my fans
  • I will contact local libraries, and tell them I’m available for speaking
    engagements
  • I will attend as many writing conferences as I can afford
  • I will spend a large portion of my advance on self-promotion
  • I will help out other writers
  • I will not get jealous, will never compare myself to my peers, and will
    cleanse my soul of envy
  • I will be accessible, amiable, and enthusiastic
  • I will do one thing every day to self-promote
  • I will always remember where I came from

Of course, not all of these resolutions really apply to Joe. He keeps his site and blog update, can speak well in public, and attends every writing conference held from here to Tehran. He forgot the big resolution though…

Write.

The Best of the Goldbergs

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My brother Tod continues his "best of…" theme today, picking his favorite posts from some of our family’s many blogs. But he doesn’t really answer the big questions…why do so many members of our family feel the need to share their opinions with the world? What makes us think anybody really cares? Are we doing it merely to advertise a product or service (our books, art work, businesses, etc)? Or is it raging ego? Or is it a very public way of keeping in touch with one another?

Or is it a logical outgrowth of who we are? The fact is, I come from a media-oriented family. My father was an TV news anchorman. My Mom is a journalist and author. My Uncle was a popular FM disc jockey for many years and now writes true-crime books. My brother is a novelist and an English professor (yeah, he’s a prof now). My sisters are artists and published authors. I’ve been a journalist, author and TV writer/producer.  Is it really any surprise that we all have blogs?