My Blog

King City is Here

by

0549 Lee Goldberg POD KING CITY
My new crime novel King City is out today from Thomas & Mercer in digital and paperback…and in audio from Brilliance Audio. I am so excited and more than a little bit anxious about it…because this is my first, standalone crime novel in many years, and a real departure from the books that I have written before.  Here's what it's about…

Major Crimes Unit detective Tom Wade secretly worked with the Feds to nail seven of his fellow cops for corruption…turning him into a pariah in the police department. So he’s exiled to patrol a beat in King City’s deadliest neighborhood… with no back-up, no resources, and no hope of survival.

Now Wade fights to tame the lawless, poverty-stricken wasteland…while investigating a string of brutal murders of young women. It’s a case that takes him from the squalor of the inner-city to the manicured enclaves of the privileged, revealing the sordid and deadly ways the two worlds are intertwined…making his enemies even more determined to crush him.

But for Tom Wade, backing down is never an option…even if it will cost him his life.

Advance Praise for King City:

"Lee Goldberg's King City brings the sensibility of a western to the contemporary crime novel and the result is exhilarating, compelling, and a thrill to read. Tom Wade is an iconic hero with a strong, personal code trying bring order to a lawless frontier…which just happens to be smack in the middle of a dying, industrial American city. He's an unforgettable and deeply compelling character in the most original crime novel to come along in years," –Janet Evanovich, international bestselling author 

“King City is a book that only Lee Goldberg could have written. He’s got the high-velocity prose of a best-seller, coupled with the highly visual elements that make his television writing so compelling. Factor in the terrific characters and some very cogent takes on human nature, and you’ve got a rollicking thriller. King City is a pleasure from start to finish." T. Jefferson Parker, New York Times bestselling author of The Jaguar and The Border Lords 

"King City is Walking Tall, Die Hard, and Dirty Harry all rolled into one. Hard-driving action and all the satisfaction of a well-told story about a righteous man of courage facing seemingly insurmountable odds. You'll love it."-Jan Burke, bestselling author of Disturbance and  Liar

"I could tell you that Lee Goldberg's King City is one of the best reads of the year or that Lee is one of my favorite writers for so many reasons–plotting, character, or his incredible sense of humor–but that might ruin the surprise of reading King City for yourself. Suffice to say that Goldberg is one infinitely readable master of crime fiction, and King City is Lee at his best." –Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of The Cold Dish and Hell is Empty 

"King City like a 1969 Detroit muscle car. It's powerful, nasty, loud, and a heck of a lot of fun. Lee Goldberg is at his atmospheric best here, creating a world so authentic the sights, sounds and smells seem to explode from the pages. Detective Tom Wade is a fast, funny three-dimensional protagonist and following him through the cesspool of King City and its outrageous inhabitants is endlessly entertaining." Paul Guyot, writer/supervising producer of the TV series "Leverage" 

"King City effortlessly blends the archetypal gunslinger of the Old West, riding into the lawless town to clean up the bad guys, with a modern tale of police corruption, urban decay and neglect….It’s a fast-paced exploration of the decline of the blue-collar industrial heartland of America, and the cop who will not stand by and let that happen on his watch. Fans of the late Robert B Parker will delight in King City, which has the same great dialogue and nicely judged wry humour….A sit-down, straight-through read. Superb." -Zoe Sharp, author of Hard Knocks

"With Lee Goldberg's King City you get suspense, romance, humor and shoot-em-up outlaw justice. Picture a mordern day High Noon with an incorruptible cop, Tom Wade, putting it all on the line in a town without pity."  Joseph Wambaugh, bestselling author of The Blue Knight, The New Centurions, The Onion Field and Harbor Nocturne. 

 

Chained to my computer

by

Sorry for the blog silence… I've been chained to my computer lately and writing furiously. I'm hell-bent on finishing my fifteenth and final MONK novel, MR. MONK GETS EVEN, to meet my June 1st deadline, when I will be starting work on an exciting new project that I can't talk about yet.

But I can tell you that Amazon is sending me to New York in June to attend BEA…and tout the release of my new crime novel KING CITY…which comes out next week…and that I will be jetting from the Big Apple to Owensboro, KY, to shoot a DEAD MAN music video of our theme song with the talented folks at Firelight Entertainment Group and attend the International Mystery Writers Festival, which will be screening my shorts REMAINDERED and BUMSICLE on June 16th.

Whew. I'm tired just writing about it all. Okay, back to MONK, enough procrastinating on this blog…

Joel Goldsmith

by

Joel_goldsmith_01I'm deeply saddened to learn that composer Joel Goldsmith died earlier this week after a long battle with cancer. I was fortunate to work closely with Joel on two series — Diagnosis Murder and Martial Law.  

Bill Rabkin and I were big fans of his work, so when we took over Diagnosis Murder in the late 90s, we brought him in to reorchestrate the theme and revamp the score so the series no longer sounded like it was produced in 1964.  He did such a great job for us that when we were later hired to take over Martial Law, we brought him in to create a new opening title theme to replace the original Mike Post theme (which our star Sammo Hung loathed) and score the first episode to set the musical sound for our show.  He alternated scoring duties after that with John Keane and Corey Lerios & John DeAndrea. 

He was easy-going,  extremely creative, and one of the friendliest people I've met in the business. I always looked forward to our spotting sessions and knew he'd give us  cues that not only delivered what we needed, but would add levels to the action, comedy or character beats that weren't in the scenes before.

I'm a big TV theme nut, and we spent lots of time talking about our favorites. Naturally, many of mine — like Police Story and Barnaby Jones – were done by his father, Jerry Goldsmith. It couldn't have been easy for Joel to to follow in his father's considerable musical shadow….and I don't think he ever got the acclaim that he deserved. 

Joel and I lost touch with one another in the years since and I regret that. 

Here's Joel's reorchestration of the Diagnosis Murder theme….and his theme for Martial Law.

Home Again

by

IMG_1280I just returned from a week away, a few days in Bethesda to attend Malice Domestic, and then a quick side trip down to Florida on some business (which I hope to be able to tell you about soon, but top secret for now).

I had an absolutely wonderful time at Malice, where I met some great people and received the Poirot Award which, as you can see from the photo, I guess I am supposed to use to serve tea to Jan Burke, their Guest of Honor. I finally met online friends Debbi Mack and Bill Peschel face-to-face and got to catch up with folks like Penguin/Putnam editors Sandra Harding and Ellen Edwards, and authors like Charlaine Harris (pictured with me on the right), Elaine Viets, Hank Phillippe Ryan, Parnell Hall, Dana Cameron, Elizabeth Peters, Christina York, Sharan Newman, Simon Brett, Chris Grabenstein, and Rhys Bowen.

Rhys was supposed to interview me on stage but tripped and cracked her hip on the first night. Some people will do anything to get out of being on stage with me.  I am pleased to report that Rhys was in her usual good humor despite her injury and, although she had to return home right away, she is recuperating well. She also won an Agatha Award, which I hope too some of the sting out of her injury.  Hank Phillippe Ryan took over for Rhys as my interrogator and we had a grand time.  IMG_1281

One of the highlights of Malice for me was participating with Simon Brett, Jan Burke, and Dana Cameron on Verena Rose's panel about the unusual fan mail we'd received. Simon and Jan read some letters that had the audience, and the panel, roaring with laughter (both pieces of mail, by the way, involved sexual fantasies, a very uncozy subject for Malice!).

On another panel I was on, a reader stood up and said to Halle Ephron: "Your book put me to sleep but I woke up to finish it."

Now there's a great compliment 🙂

And only at Malice would I have overheard snippets like this from authors at other tables as I ate at the Daily Grill on the first night: 

"Shes a great cover artist for animals but she is terrible with food." 

"I can use my own name when I write books about cats or cakes, but not for witchcraft."

"I have three names," another author added. "But I'm thinking of using a fourth for my pottery series."

And I heard another author lamenting that her vintage clothing ghost mystery came out at the same time as another author's vintage clothing ghost mystery, thus undercutting her sales. I have to admit that one surprised me. I  would have thought you could safely write a vintage clothing ghost mystery without worrying about another one being out there…or being published the same month as yours!

I took a few hours off to be a tourist, visiting the usual DC landmarks and the Spy Museum, and bought a few books at Politics and Prose, including one signed by Bill Clinton which, to be honest, I got just for the signature.  

My trip to Florida was great, too. While I did work in Orlando on SeaQuest, I was mostly on set so I still feel like I've never actually spent any time in Florida. And even that was way back in 1995, so it was nice to have a chance to reacquaint myself with the the state. I was able to spend lots of time with an old friend and do a little sight-seeing, too. I loved the beaches and the weather…and was stunned by the opulence and size of the waterfront homes that I saw. There's some astonishing wealth down there.  

Now that I am back, I am hard at work on my last MONK book, the DEAD MAN series, and getting geared up for the promotion of KING CITY, which launches in a few weeks. 

 

Scudder Fans Rejoice!

by

 My friend Mzi.myaxpeld.225x225-75Lawrence Block has taken three of his best Matthew Scudder books — A Long Line of Dead Men,  A Stab in the Dark, and A Walk Among the Tombstones – and brought them back as $4.99 ebooks and republished them in very slick, reasonably-priced trade paperback editions. The digital editions are available from Amazon, B&N and the iBookstore, but you can also get the paperbacks directly from Block's website …and he'll even sign'em for you, too!

The Dr. Kildare Scrapbook

by

51oDYPLXVPL._SS500_If you're hoping to learn anything about the history, development, writing, or production of  Dr. Kildare in radio and television, or simply want an in depth, detailed episode guide, you are going to be sorely disappointed by the DR. KILDARE SCRAPBOOK.  This isn't a book. It's barely more than a brochure. At best, it's a lengthy article…and yet it still lacks any substance. This exceedingly thin (100 pages, including the index) paperback is nothing more than a bare bones episode guide…and even on that level, the summaries are so sparse and devoid of details that it's a major failure. It's also very badly written. For example, here's the first line of chapter one:

As part of its bringing some of its most famous movie series to radio, MGM put the team of Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore from the Dr. Kildare  movies back together for a radio series called The Story of Dr. Kildare.

It only gets worse, and less informative, from there. 

This "book" might have worked as an appendix to an actual book about Dr. Kildare on radio and television, but as a standalone reference work, it's terrible. I am a huge admirer of Bear Manor Media, the company that published this book…so I am not only surprised that that they took this poorly executed, superficial project on, but that they had the chutzpah to charge $14.95 for it in print and $9.99 for the digital edition. Don't waste your money on this one.

“Rejection by publishers no longer has the same power”

by

….that's what author Boyd Morrison says and his recent experience certainly proves it.

Back when the Kindle was in its early days, Boyd's  The Ark was the first, big, self-pubbed bestseller…and was immediately snapped up in by Simon & Schuster in a major, multi-book deal.

At the time, there were many bitter writers in the so called "indie" community who lambasted him for selling out. The anger was stupid, of course, based more on jealousy than anything else. I argued at the time that Boyd was in a win-win situation…in the best of all possible worlds, he'd become a bestselling author worldwide with big publishers behind him, reaching scores of readers he could never have reached on his own. In the worst case scenario, he'd bomb, but would still benefit from the exposure and reach readers he hadn't before. And he could go back to self-publishing…but a deal like this might never come again.

Well, as it turns out, Boyd split the difference. He writes that he was just dropped by Simon and Schuster, who rejected his new book The Roswell Conspiracy, so he's self-publishing it…but that his publishers overseas loved the book and are bringing it out in print.  The upshot is…win-win:

It might seem like I would become a rabid self-publishing advocate because of my situation, but that's hardly the case. My ultimate goal is to get my books to readers in the best possible way. If that's through a traditional publisher, great. I'm thrilled to be with Little, Brown UK because they do a fantastic job publishing my books, from the editing to the book packaging to the marketing and promotion. I have hardworking publishers around the world, with books being released in the next few months in Israel, Germany, Italy, and Thailand. And I'm even still published traditionally in the U.S.: Simon and Schuster will continue to be the publisher of my first four books for the foreseeable future.

But sometimes, as with The Roswell Conspiracy in the U.S., self-publishing is the best (and in this case, only) option. I'll take on all the risk, but I'll also reap the rewards if it goes well. That's the amazing thing about what's happened for authors in the last five years. Rejection by publishers no longer has the same power. What could have been a crushing blow in January was actually just a detour sign, and maybe that new path will turn out to be even better than the route I was planning to take. 

This story just proves that this is an exciting  time to be an author, that we have options we never had before. and that rejection by every publisher in NY can actually be a money-making opportunity. 

Meanwhile,author Mark Terry's experience proves that nowadays a book contract isn't always such a good deal after all.  He writes that  his agent just sent him his latest, quarterly royalty check on two hardcover novels…

the check she received was in the amount of $249.99. She'll take her 15% of this magnificent sum of money and send me the remaining $212.49, give or take. Then I'll automatically take 24% out for the federal government and 4% out for the state government. That'll give me about $153 give or take, to play around with, pay bills, or sob over.

 In comparison, in March I received a royalty check (direct deposit, actually) from Amazon (alone) for $1013. That reflects, I believe, either the month of January's ebook sales or December's. 

In other words, he probably lost money by being published instead of self-publishing.  Until now, I don't think there's ever been a time when accepting a publishing contract rather than self-publishing could be, for some authors, a very costly mistake. 

The way I see it, the ebook, self-publishing revolution sparked by Amazon and the Kindle has been hugely beneficial for authors. Of course there are dark sides,  but so far, the pluses far outweight the negatives.