Acknowledging excellence in this very competitive field, the IAMTW’s Scribe Awards honor licensed works that tie in with other media such as television, movies, gaming, or comic books. They include original works set in established universes, and adaptations of stories that have appeared in other formats and that cross all genres. Tie-in works run the gamut from westerns to mysteries to procedurals, from science fiction to fantasy to horror, from action and adventure to superheroes. HALO, Elementary, 24, Star Trek, Mike Hammer, Star Wars, Shadowrun, Doctor Who: these represent just a few.
The Scribe Award winners will be announced at ComicCon San Diego in July. The exact day, time and location of the Scribes Panel including the award ceremony will be announced shortly.
IAMTW thanks everyone who sent entries, all wonderful, for consideration. Congratulations to the following nominees:
BEST ORIGINAL NOVEL – GENERAL
Elementary:The Ghost Line by Adam Christopher
Kill Me, Darling by Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins
Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: Desert Falcons by Michael A. Black
24: Rogue by David Mack
BEST ORIGINAL NOVEL – SPECULATIVE
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers by Jonathan Maberry HALO: Last Light by Troy Denning HALO: New Blood by Matt Forbeck Pathfinder: Forge of Ashes by Josh Vogt Shadowrun: Borrowed Time by R. L. King Star Trek The Next Generation: Armageddon’s Arrow by Dayton Ward Star Trek Seekers 3: Long Shot by David Mack
ADAPTED NOVEL – GENERAL AND SPECULATIVE
Backcountry by D. E. McDonald
Batman:Arkham Knight by Marv Wolfman
Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder
MANOS – The Hands of Fate by Stephen D. Sullivan
Star Wars: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden
SHORT STORIES
Mike Hammer The Strand “Fallout” by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
Shadowrun: World of Shadows “Swamp of Spirits” by Jason M. Hardy
The X-Files: Trust No One “Back in El Paso My Life Will Be Worthless” by Keith R. A. DeCandido
The X-Files: Trust No One “Dusk” by Paul Crilley
The X-Files: Trust No One “Non Gratum Anus Rodentum” by Brian Keene
The X-Files: Trust No One “Statues” by Kevin J. Anderson
AUDIO
Dark Shadows “Bloodlust” by Alan Flanagan, Will Howells and Joseph Lidster Dark Shadows “In the Twinkling of an Eye” Penelope Faith Doctor Who “The Red Lady” by John Dorney Doctor Who “Damaged Goods” by Jonathan Morris PathfinderLegends: “Mummy’s Mask: Empty Graves” by Cavan Scott
The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (www.iamtw.org) has announced the nominees for the 2014 Scribe Awards, recognizing the excellence in the field of media tie-in writing… the best thriller novels, mystery novels and science fiction novels based on movies, TV shows and games.
The winners will be announced, and awards presented, in July at the San Diego Comic-Con.
The 2014 Scribes Nominees:
Best Adaptation (Noveliization)
Man of Steel by Greg Cox 47 Ronin by Joan D. Vinge Pacific Rim by Alex Irvine
Best General Original
The Executioner:Sleeping Dragons by Michael A. Black Murder She Wrote: Close-Up on Murder by Donald Bain Leverage: The Bestseller Job by Greg Cox Leverage: The Zoo Job by Keith R. A. DeCandido Mr. Monk Helps Himself by Hy Conrad
Best Speculative Original
From History’s Shadow by Dayton Ward Supernatural: Fresh Meat by Alice Henderson Supernatural: The Roads not Taken by Tim Waggoner Fringe: The Zodiac Paradox by Christa Faust Kenobi by John Jackson Miller
Best Short Story
“Savior” by Michael Jan Friedman
“Redemption” by Robert Greenberger
“Locks and Keys” by Jennifer Brozek
“Mirror Image” by Christine M. Thompson
“So Long, Chief” by Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane
“The Dark Hollows of Memory” by David Annandale
Best Young Adult
Kevin by Paul Kupperberg Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 by Stacia Deutsch The Croods by Tracey West
Best Audio
Dark Shadows – 33. The Phantom Bride by Mark Thomas Passmore
Dark Shadows – 37. The Flip Side by Cody Quijano-Schell
Blake’s 7 The Armageddon Storm – by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
Today my seriesThe Dead Man joined Pretty Little Liars, Vampire Diaries, and the works of Kurt Vonnegut among the many “franchises” in Amazon’s Kindle Worlds, their fanfiction publishing program. Now anyone can write, publish and sell Dead Man stories and novels on Amazon…and earn significant royalties.
I know what you’re thinking. Is this the same Lee Goldberg who has been railing against fanfiction on this blog for years?
Yes, indeed.
My problem with fanfiction has always been that it is copyright infringement… that people are ripping off characters and stories that they don’t own without the permission or involvement of the creators or rights holders.
Well, now Amazon has cleverly solved that problem.
Everyone who writes in the Amazon Kindle Worlds are doing it with the consent of the rights holders…and both parties, the fanfiction writer and the rights holder, are profiting from the relationship. In fact, the Amazon Kindle Worlds are more akin to tie-in writing than fanfiction (but I’ll have more on that in a few days, when I do a Q&A interview here with the executive in charge of Amazon’s Kindle Worlds).
You can find out more about how you can contribute to The Dead Man Kindle World here. In the mean time, you can read the very first Dead Man Kindle World title… Joseph Nassise’s Eater of Souls.
It wasn’t easy for me to walk away from writing the Monk books. After 15 novels over seven years, I’d become very attached to the characters. Monk, Natalie and the rest of the gang were always on my mind because I was always writing the books. But I decided it was time for a change (little did I know I’d soon be writing THE HEIST with Janet Evanovich!) And when I let my publisher know I was leaving, they told me they’d like to continue the series without me. They asked if I could recommend someone to pick up where I left off. I strongly recommended my friend Hy Conrad, a writer-producer on MONK and a terrific mystery plotter. He already knew the characters inside-and-out and had written some of the most beloved episodes of the TV series. I knew the characters would be in very good hands with him, no matter what direction he decided to take the books. And that, of course, was the first, fundamental issue he had to deal with, as he explains in this guest post…
When it was announced I was taking over these novels, Monk fans started contacting me in droves, all asking the same question. Was I going to reboot the series, like a Batman or Spider-Man franchise, or just pick up where Lee Goldberg left off?
To be honest, I never thought of rebooting. To me, the Monk characters are real. On the show, the other writers and I took Monk and Natalie to a certain place in their lives. Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, Lee continued to expand them, smoothing out little bumps and creating new ones. I didn’t want to mess with that reality.
In the new books, some things will naturally be different, because Lee and I are naturally different. For example, his Natalie knows a lot about architecture. Mine, not so much. His Monk is more obsessed with numbers and symmetry. Mine is a little more phobic. I tried to insert some pop references into Natalie’s voice. But the show never did many pop references and it doesn’t come naturally to me.
In many ways, Lee strengthened the Monk franchise. For one thing, he knows San Francisco and the wonderful character of the town. We wrote the show in Summit, New Jersey, and, while we did have a San Francisco map, it was pinned on the far wall and no one wandered over there very often. I’ll try to do improve on our atmospheric quality, I promise.
The same goes for forensics accuracy. Lee had called on a cadre of experts to make sure his details were right. Despite our own police consultant, the Monk writers tried not to burden ourselves with too many facts. At one point, the production team called to tell us our formula for bomb making was ridiculous. We replied, “Do you really want us broadcasting how to make a bomb?” That shut them up.
The good news is that we were sticklers for logic. We may not have known bomb making, but we insisted that the logic of every story always worked. For example, when Monk was in a life-threatening predicament in Act Four, which he usually was, we knew we had to send Stottlemeyer in there to save the day. In a lot of TV shows, the writers never ask, “Well, how did Stottlemeyer know Monk was in trouble?” We did. And sometimes it would take us a full day to answer the question.
The other good news is that I was with the show from beginning to end, for all eight years. I was the mystery guy, while everyone else had come from the world of comedy. Along the way, I think I had some influence on the way Monk talked and interacted. In other words, he wound up a little bit like me, which makes writing for him a pleasure.
When I first told Monk creator/executive producer Andy Breckman that I was doing this, his response was, “Great. You can use some of the Monk stories we never got to do.”
Mr. Monk Helps Himself is one of those stories. I brought it into the writers’ room during season six. We played around with the idea until it morphed into something totally different—Mr. Monk Joins a Cult, guest-starring Howie Mandel. That’s how it happens in a roomful of writers. There are dozens of great plots, half thought through, buzzing around in our collective memory.
I have to admit it’s nice to finally have the last word in what mysteries Monk solves and how he reacts. I’ll try not to abuse the power.