I’m heading off to Burbank this morning to tape two episodes of the TV show INSIDER EXCLUSIVE, hosted by Steve Murphy. I’m going to be on with famed criminal defense attorney Thomas Messerau. It seems like an odd-pairing to me. I feel like I should say that I am not guilty and let him do all the talking. Past authors on Steve’s show include Michael Connelly, Danielle Steele, Linda Fairstein, Joseph Wambaugh, David Baldacci, Scott Turow and Jonathan Kellerman, so I am in good company. A few weeks back, I was a guest on Steve’s syndicated radio show and had a great time, so I’m sure things will work out.
Classic Lines
In honor of my friend Richard S. Prather, here are some of my favorite lines from his Shell Scott novels:
“He lay there with his face on the cement, in his own
blood and wastes. Lesson for would be killers: Either don’t miss with your
first shot, or else eat light, go to the john, take an enema, and be ready to
die neat.” Kill Him Twice“She had short mouse-brown hair, rather nice full lips
and gray eyes. But they weren’t pretty eyes. Not dawn gray, slate gray or even
muddy gray. They were sort of Dorian gray.” Always’s Leave’em Dying.“This was one lovely who looked as if she could be
grateful to excess. And some excesses I’m excessively fond of,” Darling, It’s Death“Lita was a gal so female that she made most other
females seem male,” Take a Murder, Darling“It was a woman, a doll, a sensational tomato who
looked as if she’d just turned twenty one, but had obviously signaled for the
turn a long time ago. She was tall, and lovely all over, maybe five-seven, and
she wore a V-necked white blouse as if she were the gal who’d invented cleavage
just for fun. I gawked, and she smiled with plump, red lips, beautiful lips
that undoubtedly had said yes much more often than no…” Always Leave’em Dying“It was one of those rare, completely smog-free days
when you can see Los Angeles from Los Angeles. Often you
can’t find City Hall unless you are in it, but this was one of those mornings
when you spring out of bed nearly overwhelmed by oxygen,”Always Leave’em Dying“I think they lease Rodeo Drive by the carat rather than
front foot,” Kill Him Twice“I have looked upon death and destruction, blood and
split brainboxes and disemboweled oxen. But I have seldom looked upon anything
less appetizing than Aggie fluttering her bald lips at me,” Gat Heat“When an unidentified corpse lands in the morgue, the
real person is long gone to somewhere or other, and all that’s left for the
police and private eyes and others to draw conclusions from is the garbage left
behind, the worm food, the soil conditioner. The gift is gone, so we study the
package, eye the wrappings…” Take a Murder, Darling
Plugging Your Book
I thought I knew a lot about promoting my books online. It turns out I was wrong. I recently received a review copy of Steve Weber’s PLUG YOUR BOOK: ONLINE BOOK MARKETING FOR AUTHORS and while it told me a lot I already knew, he provides plenty of good advice, many useful short-cuts, and lots of real-world examples drawn from all over the web. My only quibble is that he gives too much emphasis to Amazon, their reader reviews, and their sales rankings than I think they merit (Weber wisely urges authors to stay away from hiring a service to boost their Amazon rankings and gives evidence why it’s a foolhardy investment). Quibbles aside, there’s no doubt that his promotional strategies genuinely work…here I am, a blogger plugging his book online.
Inside The Writers Room
Writer/producer Matt Witten talks with Deutsche Welle about the Media Exchange "Writers Room" seminars I’ve been doing with Action Concept in Germany. Matt sums it up pretty nicely:
American shows tend to be pretty fast-paced and vigorously structured,
and the way we structure the action and the conflict for our main
characters has been thought through in ways that are fresh for German
writers, they haven’t necessarily heard it described in these terms. So
it gives them a new way of looking at the writing they’re doing. They
were also intrigued by the fact that in America we have staff writers
who meet every day, and we have a head writer responsible for the
consistency of the show — "the show-runner." These concepts are new in
Germany, where there is no cohesion of writing staff. Instead, episodes
are written by freelancers who turn in maybe just two a year. Another
thing in American TV is that directors don’t have the power to change
the script without talking to the writer.
Diagnosis: DVD
TVShowsonDVD reports that the second season boxed set of DIAGNOSIS MURDER, which includes my first contributions to the show, will be released in June. Our mentor Michael Gleason (creator/EP of REMINGTON STEELE) was running DM during the second season and signed Bill Rabkin and me to write four freelance episodes, one of which turned out to be the season premiere. We were thrilled. But a few weeks later, we got hired as supervising producers on THE COSBY MYSTERIES. So we found ourselves balancing two jobs and two TV icons at once …Bill Cosby by day and Dick Van Dyke by night. We did it and somehow we even managed to write a pilot that year, too. Little did we know that our relationship with DIAGNOSIS MURDER was only just beginning.
Remembering Richard S. Prather
The appreciations for my friend Richard S. Prather are coming in from all corners. Check out what J. Kingston Pierce, Ed Gorman, James Reasoner, Bill Crider, and Steve Lewis have to say.
Author Stephen Marlowe contributes an entertaining essay today on Ed’s blog about what it was like collaborating with Prather on a Shell Scott/Chester Drum novel, an idea cooked up by their mutual agent.
[…]Until then, we had never met. We developed the plot as
we went along, mostly by long-distance phone call. There were telegrams
too, including one that went something like "Body of Hartsell Committee
lawyer found in Rock Creek Park" that must have startled the Western
Union operator.[…]Well, we finished that first draft by writing alternate chapters, as
those of you who read the book may remember, Scott narrating chapter 1,
Drum chapter 2, and so on–to a total of more than eight hundred
pages–enough for three Gold Medal books. Drastic measures had to be
taken.Ever been out to the Coast? Dick asked me by phone. Nope, I
hadn’t. Well, said Dick, come on out and we’ll help each other cut.
How? I said. There was a silence. Maybe, I suggested half-heartedly, I
cut your deathless prose and you cut mine. Maybe, Dick said. Come on
out.So a couple of days later I flew out of Idlewild for LA, and
was met at the airport by Dick Prather and his wife, Tina, in a snazzy
pale blue Caddy."It’s yours while you’re here," Tina said.
"Huh?"
"Well, you see, we’ll work together at the house but we figured you’d
like some privacy, so we booked you a room at a seaside motel.""So the car is all yours while you’re here," Dick explained.
The Prathers were like that–private people but the best hosts I’d ever known.
“Oh, my naughty love, Tod thought. Where could you be?”
My Brother Tod is having lots of fun messing with the fanfic crowd over at Fandom Wank:
Just wanted to pop in to say that, no matter how much you hate Lee or
me, I’ve enjoyed reading all of this and several other posts beneath
this one. You guys are exceptionally funny. That you point out the
general fucktardery of your particular world is something I can get
behind. I’m hooked. Now, will someone write something about me where
I’m involved with Dave Navarro, Carmen Elektra and a dagget from the
original BSG? Seriously. You write it, I’ll put it on my blog. Just
make me skinnier and more handsome than I am.
And they’ve done it. Tod is brilliant.
Woe is Me
Sorry I haven’t been around — jet-lag and technology woes have worked against me. Two days before I left for Europe, my desktop computer crashed. While I was away, my wife reported that my wireless home network crumbled, my Tivo locked up, and the brakes on my car failed. The day I got home, the power adapter for my laptop burned out (better then than on the trip!) and my wife’s laptop belly-flopped. I have spent the last few days fixing all of that…and myself, too (I really got nailed by jet-lag). And yesterday was my birthday, so I took a day off to rest up.
I have since ordered a new desktop computer, a new laptop for my wife, a new power cord for my laptop, reset my router (and added Range Expander to the system), and took my car into the shop. Everything should be humming along again in the next few days. I’m even beginning to feel like myself again. But the price-tag for all of those repairs/purchases is going to be pretty steep. I’d better get to work!
Today I met with the casting director on a new movie/pilot I am working on, paid bills, sorted through the accumulated mail (email and snail-mail), read two scripts for proposed Action Concept projects, and took a ton of clothes into the dry cleaner. Exciting, huh?
Which has left me with nothing really to say for the blog. I’ll be back soon, I’m sure.
Wheeler on a Roll
Congratulations to my friend Richard Wheeler on the starred review from Publishers Weekly on his new book CANYON OF BONES. They wrote, in part:
Spur Award-winner Wheeler adds this splendid 15th
volume to his superb Skye’s West series about
redoubtable mountain man Barnaby Skye…Wheeler is
one of the best western authors around today. He doesn’t rely on epic
battles or gunfights to tell his stories, relying instead on
fascinating characters, vivid imagery, subtle action and carefully
drawn historical detail.