Without a Tie-in

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I was part of a panel discussion yesterday at the Writers Guild with
Jan Nash, executive producer of WITHOUT A TRACE. In the midst of the
discussion, she mentioned how difficult it has been coming up with
tie-in novels for her show. Her frustration, she said, was that none of
the books have been able to capture the highly-visual nature of the
franchise…and that in prose, the books come across as simply "a
flat missing persons story" that doesn’t feel at all like WITHOUT A
TRACE. The problem, she said, has been coming up with a way to make the
books as distinctive as the series, to find a story-telling frame-work
that matches the unique flashback gimmick of the show. I don’t know if
her creative frustration with the books has anything to do with the
rumored licensing problems between Warner Brothers Television and Warner Books, which recently shelved the three completed tie-in novels that they commissioned and were planning to release in 2007.

I understand what Jan is talking about. I faced the same issue when I tackled the MONK books. How could I convey the humor and the melodrama when so much of what makes Monk work is visual? I think that I solved the problem by telling the stories first-person from the point-of-view of Natalie, Monk’s assistant. That gave me a framing device that allowed me to "observe" Monk from a distance and, at the same time, add a level of intimacy with the characters that isn’t possible on television. So while my books don’t mimic the experience of watching MONK, they have their own unique voice that offers a fresh experience for fans of the show and one that makes stories stand apart from other mysteries. At least that was my goal.

Hasselhoffed

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My boxed set of the real first season episodes of BAYWATCH arrived from the UK this weekend. I’d forgotten how good the production values were and how truly awful the writing was (and yes, I am talking about my own scripts). The theme song from the first season was Peter Cetera’s "Save Me," and the title sequence was carefully cut to match the song. Cetera’s song is gone and some awful crap by Kim Carnes has been slapped on in its place.  The problem isn’t so much the song, but the fact that the moves in the song don’t match the edits in the main title sequence so it feels out-of-sync, like dubbed dialgoue that doesn’t follow the movements of the actors’ lips. What I don’t get is why they couldn’t substitute "Save Me" with the "I’ll Be There" theme from the syndicated seasons…

Hanging with the Sisters

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I am off to the Writers Guild this morning to host a panel at a day-long Sisters in Crime seminar for published authors on writing television mysteries and adapting books to film. The authors in attendance are curious about how mysteries are written for TV,  how to get their books optioned, and why books often get changed so much in adaptation. My fellow panelists are writer/producers Paul Levine (JAG etc), Jeff Melvoin (ALIAS etc), Javier Grillo Marxuach (LOST etc), Matt Witten (HOUSE etc) and Jan Nash (WITHOUT A TRACE etc). Paul, Matt and I are also published authors, so we know a little something about what the authors in the audience are feeling. It should be a very interesting day.

UPDATE: I just got back and I had a wonderful time. Our panel followed one that included such luminaries as screenwriters Ron Bass and Bryce Zabel (with whom I just spent a week in Germany). My fellow panelists were witty and wise, providing insights, knowledge, advice and plenty of laughter. I also got a chance to meet folks like Anne Perry, Marcia Talley, Libby Hellman, Carolyn Hart and Sujata Massey and see old friends like Rhys Bowen, Robin Burcell and Rochelle Krich. I don’t know about the attendees, but I certainly had a wonderful time.

Sales Echo Short Film

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The LA Times reports today about novelist/screenwriter Terrill Lee Lankford’s short film based on the first chapter of his buddy Michael Connelly’s new novel ECHO PARK. The film has been posted on YouTube and Connelly credits it with giving him his best first-week sales numbers yet.

"I do believe this was a tool in getting people excited," said
Connelly, a former reporter at The Times. "It was on the Internet, it
was on YouTube, before the book was out. It sharpened excitement. So
when the book came out, they were ready to buy it. "

The short film features my friend novelist Gar Anthony Haywood in his first acting role… he proves to be a natural at it, easily out-shining the professionals in the cast with his quiet, self-assured performance. Note to Gar: get a theatrical agent pronto. 

I’ve got to go now. I’m rushing over to deepdiscountdvd.com to get myself a copy of Lee’s HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS.  I wonder why, in all the years I’ve known him, Lee has never mentioned that film before…

TV Writers Abroad

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I just got back from Germany, and part of my trip there was devoted to teaching the principles of American TV writing & producing to German writer/producers and network executives with my friend Bryce Zabel. Today on his blog, Bryce sums up the experience perfectly:

The work was very fun, working for a company that facilitates
interaction between U.S. writers and international clients. The idea
here was to share some of the tricks of the trade the U.S.
television industry has learned in order to crank out orders of 22
episodes a season at a factory-like pace. More on that in future posts,
I’d imagine. Let me just say that if anything is holding back German
television it’s not the energy, creativity or ideas of their writers
but the structure of their system which doesn’t allow them to work
together often enough to achieve the greatness they’re capable of. That
seems to be changing. Everybody I met was extremely bright, talented
and motivated to make a better product so the chances are they will,
soon.

 

Bloodsucking Lesbians

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Author Bill Crider clued me in to AfterEllen’s list of the ten best lesbian vampire movies…essential knowledge for every American.

Yes,
there is a problematic relationship between sexuality and violence in
these movies, and many lesbian vampire flicks are nothing more than
vehicles for the male desire to see hot women biting each other […]the lesbian
vampire is campy good fun for dykes, complete with plenty of heaving
bosoms framed by low-cut gowns held up by, apparently, the sheer force
of evil.

                  

No Complaints

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You don’t see me whine and complain much here, and author John Connolly knows why:

There are good things and bad things about being a writer. In truth,
the good things far outweigh the bad, and the bad are generally things
about which it is churlish to complain.

He’s right. This was the lead-up to him telling the tale of having to fly from South Africa to L.A. to interview Stephen King in New York in front of hundreds of fans and publishing execs.

True, perhaps I tried too hard with some of my questions, and I am
still kicking myself 24 hours later over the fact that I confused the
words "ambiguous" and "ambivalent" in one of my interrogations (I plead
nerves), an error that King corrected without comment. Yet all through
the interview, and for some time afterwards, a small voice in my head
reminded me that this was probably as good as it was going to get. I
was interviewing a writer whom I had long admired, and whom I had long
wanted to interview, in front of a sympathetic audience. This was a
writer whose work I had begun reading before I even entered my teens,
and my boyhood self could never have imagined that, one day, he would
be sharing a stage with this man.

I know exactly how he feels. I feel that way every day, especially when I am in the company of people like David Morrell, Steve Cannell, Stuart Kaminsky, Ken Levine, Janet Evanovich, Michael Gleason, Robert Parker, Donald Westlake, Sue Grafton, Michael Connelly, William Link…the list goes on and on and on. Half the time I am with these writers I’ve admired for so long, many of whom I now count as friends, I am struck by how unbelievably fortunate and privileged I am.

Scrap Tales

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For some time now, Alan Barer has been sharing memories on his blog about our family and his life selling scrap metal with my grandfather Dave in Walla Walla, Washington. Although he’s talking about my family and not yours, I think you’ll enjoy the rememberances as much as I do…and agree that he’s a natural-born storyteller.

One thing Frank did do for me was to advise me never to eat
food at the home of one of our clients who lived at and operated the
city dump in a small eastern Oregon town.

I arrived there late
in the afternoon. The table was set with stew, milk, etc. My host
invited me to join for dinner. Hungry as I was I declined. The next
morning when I arrived to load, the same food was sitting on the table
at room temperature. I also declined the invitation to breakfast.