Variety reports that Michael C. Hall of SIX FEET UNDER has signed to star in Showtime’s pilot for DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER, based on the acclaimed novels by Jeff Lindsay. The SIX FEET UNDER connection doesn’t end there… Michael Cuesta, a regular director on the HBO series, will helm the DEXTER pilot. Dexter is a Miami PD forensics expert who also happens to be a serial killer.
Mystery Writing
Cannell Cops Award
On Sunday, the Southern California chapter of the Mystery Writers of America honored Steve Cannell with the Marlowe Award, celebrating lifetime achievement in the mystery field. Past winners have included William Link, Dennis Lynds, Sue Grafton and Blake Edwards.
It was great fun…and I got a chance to catch up with authors Nathan Walpow, Bob Levinson, Harley Jane Kozak, Terrill Lee Lankford, and Michael Mallory (to name a few) and to talk shop with fellow TV scribes Tom Sawyer and Paul Levine (who has a new book out and who, incidenally, was instrumental in getting Steve’s first book sold).
Steve was, as usual, charming and funny and self-deprecating. It’s amazing to me that a man as successful as he is can come across as such a regular guy. I’ve known him for years (and worked with him on COBRA and HUNTER and hired him as an actor on DIAGNOSIS MURDER) but he has that remarkable ability to make even someone who has just met him feel like his oldest friend. He’s also quick to share the credit for his success with the writers he’s worked with… and he did it again today…singling out people like Patrick Hasburgh, Frank Lupo and David Chase.
He told the story today of how he sold his first book, explaining why it was a surprising and humbling experience for him after his unparalleled hot-streak in TV. After Steve spoke, Harley interviewed him and managed to get him to tell some anecdotes I haven’t heard before (and I thought I’d heard them all!).
Although a lot of nice things were said about Steve and his career during the ceremony, I think Paul Guyot’s letter (which was read by James Lincoln Warren at the podium) summed things up the best:
MWA’s Listed of Accepted Publishers
I got his email today:
My mystery novel XYZ is being published by Publish America. Can I become an active member of the Mystery Writers of America?
I’m afraid not. Publish America is not recognized as a legitimate publisher by the MWA. You can visit the MWA site for more info. In the meantime, here is the current list of publishers accepted, and not accepted, by the MWA for Active Membership.
(You’ll find the list on the jump)
No Rewrites, No Editing
I remember reading an interview with Robert B. Parker somewhere where he said he doesn’t go back and rewrite his work…he just bangs it out and moves on. Apparently, his books aren’t edited by his publisher, either. Bill Crider posts the evidence.
From Appaloosa,
p. 266: "The room was quiet and
noisy."p. 238: "Bragg took a tan leather case out of his inside coat pocket. He offered a cigar to Bragg and
me."
I Hate Mysteries
Well, I do today. I’m struggling with some clues in my latest MONK novel and it’s hell. I’ve been in this position hundreds of times (literally) and it never gets any easier.
God, I wish I could write a "mainstream" novel. It must be so nice to just tell a story without having to weave in a puzzling mystery to solve…
I suppose it could be argued that all great novels include a mystery to be solved and clues to the solution along the way… but those are mysteries of character. It’s not easy coming up with those puzzles either. But in a good whodunit, you need to have the mysteries of character and a murder/crime puzzle as well.
It’s especially difficult if you’re writing a long-runing mystery TV or book series, because you’re also struggling not to repeat yourself, not to use any of the tricks or clues you’ve used in the past. So the more successful you are, the harder it becomes.
End of whine. Back to work.
My Hero, The Serial Killer
Variety reports that Showtime has ordered a pilot from writer James Manos for a TV series based on Jeff Lindsay’s novel DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER. The series would follow the exploits of a Miami Police Department forensics expert who also happens to be a serial killer. There’s a series you’d never find on CBS.
“A Heavily Subsidized Hobby”
Think of this as a companion piece to the "Day in the Life" post here a few days back. Author Harley Jane Kozak talks today about money, contracts, and the work-a-day life of a writer.
I was offered a contract this week. Actually, I was offered two. After a year of writing “on spec” as we say in Hollywood, that was pretty exciting news. It’s not that I made no money this past year; there were those first two books, and I still get residuals for the acting work I did in my previous life (another six bucks for that 1986 Highway to Heaven episode) but it’s safe to assume that I spent a lot more than I took in. Would that I could say the same about calories.
So, when I sold a short story to Ms. Magazine, and was offered a two-book deal from Doubleday on the same day, I called my husband at work to tell him the good news.
“Great!” he said. “How much?”
I told him.
Silence on the other end of the phone.
I could hear him mentally dividing the book advance by two (two books in two years), then subtract taxes and agent’s fee, then add up babysitting costs, marketing and promotion . . .
“Can you ask for more?” he asks.
The Made Men of Mystery Fiction
There’s a phenomenon in mystery/thriller fiction… I call it "The Made Men." These are authors who wrote several terrific books…a string of career-making, break-out, wonderful books which have made them icons/leaders/celebrities in the genre…but have been writing mediocre (or worse, far worse) books for the last few years. And yet, each new book from one of these authors is treated as if it’s another masterpiece, and the hyperbole used to describe the author and his work gets grander with each new release.
Are reviewers in a trance? Are readers under a spell? I don’t know. But I must be one of the few who didn’t get hypnotized.
My theory is that for some special authors, once you reach a certain status in sales and critical acclaim, from that point on you are untouchable. You are a genre "Made Man" (though this applies to female authors as well) and seemingly no matter what you write, you are held in the same high regard by critics and readers alike. I recently read the latest book by one of these authors and am dumbfounded that anybody could have ranked it as a masterpiece…or even particularly good. It certainly didn’t come close to matching his previous work (by the way, just because I say "his," don’t assume I am talking about a male author). So why all the praise? Made Man, that’s why.
Am I way off base? Or am I simply a lousy judge of good writing? Or is it sour grapes on my part? Or am I on to something here? Your thoughts are welcome.
Self-Promotion vs Self-Destruction
I received this spam email today from Richard Brawer. The subject heading was: "New Book from MWA Member."
Hi
Everyone,I’d like to introduce you to David Nance in his latest case,
"MURDER ON THE LINKS", a mystery set at the Jersey shore, in Monmouth
County.Book Jacket:
The body of a prostitute is found tossed into
the woods bordering the fifth hole of a posh golf club. The same day a penny
stock promoter and the daughter of a New York mobster are found murdered in a
mansion in the wealthy community of Elberon, New Jersey. Peer into mob
infested stock brokers scamming worthless paper to naïve investors, and into the
deviant world of the rich with their kinky sexual appetites as David Nance roots
out the murderer from among the members of Spring Brook Golf and Country
Club.Read excerpts of Murder On The Links and all the books in the
David Nance Mysteries Series at: www.rbrawerbooks.comORDER FORM: MURDER
ON THE LINKS is only offered through the mail from HFFO, Inc. Please print out
this form:
I think this email is a perfect example of how NOT to promote your book. Beyond being impersonal, there is no hook, no angle, no grabber. Nothing that would persuade you to do anything except hit the delete key.
If you are going to send out a spam email, the least you should do is make every possible effort to make your solicitation an attention-grabber, something that hypes your book and makes people want to read it (especially if your book, like this one, is self-published and only available through mail-order).
Let’s start with the subject heading: "New Book from MWA Member." That’s supposed to mean something? That’s supposed to intrigue me? New books come out from MWA members every day. Your subject heading is your headline, your banner, your movie marquee… it should entice the reader to open the mail, not delete it. (I only opened this one because I had a feeling it would make a good blog post).
But he compounds the error by making the first line of his email an utter snooze: "I’d like to introduce you to David Nance in his latest case, "MURDER ON THE LINKS", a mystery set at the Jersey shore, in Monmouth County."
Why would anyone bother to read further? I’ve read time-share sales invitations that are more exciting. Sadly, the rest of the email is just as perfunctory and dull.
Where’s the salesmanship? Where’s the enthusiasm? Where’s any reason whatsoever to read the email…much less the book? Whether the author realizes it or not, the email reflects on him and his book. If the email is flat, dull, pointless and lazy, it implies the book probably is, too.
Rather than promoting his book, I think Richard Brawer has done the opposite…he’s driven people away.
Temperance Brennan Comes to TV
TVTracker reports that FOX has picked up a series version of Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan novels… in a way. The series is actually a blend of the books and the true story of Reichs herself who, like her heroine, as a forensic anthropologist. There have also been a few other creative tweaks made by writer/producer Hart Hanson. Here’s the logline from TVTracker:
Network: FOX
Genre: Drama
Title: BONES
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Television
Commitment: Series Pick Up (13 Episodes)
Auspices: Hart Hanson
(EP, W-Pilot), Barry Josephson (EP N/W), Kathy Reichs (EP N/W), Greg Yaitanes
(D-Pilot)
Cast: Jonathan Adams, David Boreanaz, Michaela Conlin, Emily
Deschanel, Eric Millegan, TJ Thyne
Logline: When law enforcement calls upon Dr. Temperance Brennan and her team of scientists to assist with murder investigations, she often finds herself teamed with Special Agent Seeley Booth, a former Army sniper whose mistrust of science and scientists leads them to clash both professionally and personally while solving the toughest cases in the
new one-hour drama BONES.