A Writer's Life

Pre-Pre-Published

Today I went out to Summit, NJ to visit MONK creator/showrunner Andy Breckman and his staff. They aren't exactly keeping a low-profile in town, as proven by the picture on the left of their building (click on the picture for a larger image). On the train ride out there, I came up with the plot for MONK #8 which, much to my relief, Andy liked. We talked for an hour or two about the murders for the book and then I sat in to hear the beats for the 100th episode -- it's g0ing to be a great one.

I returned to Manhattan in time to attend the MWA's Agents & Editors party, where I ran into Mel Berger, who was my first agent ever, and chatted for a bit with a woman who loves me, which is always a thrill.

At the party, author Twist Phelan told me that she'd met a woman today who introduced herself as a "pre-pre-published author" and said she was attending the Crime Writing conference to meet an agent.

"What does 'pre-pre-published' mean?" Twist asked.

"I have an idea for a book but I haven't started writing it yet," she said.

"And that's how you plan to introduce yourself to agents?"

"Yes," the woman said.

Twist said don't, and went on to tell her just how stupid calling herself  "pre-pre-published" was. That was definitely a new one on me.

If I Were a Rich Man

I flew to New York on Monday on Virgin America which, once again, was like flying in a synagogue. The plane was full of  orthodox Jews, though at least this time they didn't give  me a Bar Mitzvah (or whatever the ceremony was they performed for me on my last NY flight...and no, it wasn't a circumcision. Been there, done that). I had a wonderful dinner at Elaine's last night with writer, producer and bon vivant David Black and today the two of us did a panel together for the MWA's "Crime Writing University." Tonight I went to the booksigning for BLUE RELIGION, the MWA anthology, and   
schmoozed with Megan Abbott, Harry Hunsicker, Jason Pinter, Paul Guyot (who is in the picture with me), Michael Connelly, Lee Child, SJ Rozan, and many other authors. Tomorrow I'm getting together with the folks at MONK to talk about my next book...and then will attend the MWA's Editors & Agent's dinner.

TV Main Title of the Week

Davis Wins SFWA Presidency

International Association of Media Tie-in Writers member Russell Davis won the Presidency of the Science Fiction Writers of America in a landslide victory. This is very good news...and gives him the mandate he needs to make a lot of over-due changes.

We Are Family

The Goldberg siblings were out in force signing our latest books at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Tod and I were signing at the Mystery Bookstore while my sisters Linda Woods and Karen Dinino were over at the Borders booth. As usual, women threw their underwear at Tod and me while my sisters were deluged with cakes made by their fans. The cool Goldberg kids are wearing shades. Afterwards, Tod  hid out from Dr. Laura, who has been emailing him since he besmirched her on his blog, while my sisters were busy stalking Julie Andrews, who was taking the necessary precautions. I took the high road and had a cheeseburger with my daughter.

Never Sing Never Say Never Again

The Rap Sheet clued me into the recently "rediscovered," rejected theme for the 1983 Bond movie NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN sung by Phyllis Hymann and composed by Stephen Forsyth. To be honest, I don't think it's any better than the bland Lani Hall/Michel Legrand tune (performed in the video below) that the producers ended up using... but you can decide for yourself.

Writer Beware

Victoria Strauss has an excellent post up today on her Writer Beware blog with great advice for aspiring writers about what to look for before signing with a small press. It's a must-read for those considering signing with a POD press.

J.T Ellison also offers up some good advice today on How To Avoid Scams over on the Murderati blog:

The biggest problem new writers are faced with is desire. You've worked so damn hard, have slaved away writing your book, and you WANT to get it out to the reading public. We understand. We were there once too. But DO YOUR HOMEWORK! There are several easy steps you can take to ascertain whether the offer you've been approached with is legitimate. Because that's the problem with scams. The veneer of legitimacy can be shiny and obscuring.

Book Festing

I just got back from day 1 of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I look forward to this event all year and, despite my vows to cut back on my book buying at the Fest, I always end up making several trips back to the car to unload my goodies...which included signed books by Richard Russo, Peter Carey, Richard Price, and Tana French and lots of architectures books. I ran into many old friends at the Festival today, and last night at the Mystery Bookstore party... authors like Lee Lankford, Paul Levine, Michael Connelly, Dick Lochte, Cara Black, Mark Haskell Smith, Naomi Hirahara, Bill Fitzhugh (who was on the way to an opening of a musical based on his novel PEST CONTROL) Bob Levinson (who I will be hanging out with in Owensboro Kentucky later this month), Loraine Despres, Thomas Perry, Denise  Hamilton, and Susan Straight. I also chatted for a while with Lisa Lutz, Susan Kandel, and Rita Lakin.

Tomorrow, my brother Tod and I will be signing at 11am at the Mystery Bookstore which, as fate would have it, is the same time our sisters Karen and Linda will be signing at Borders...and then Monday I head off to New York for Edgar Week.

But  I won't have my MONK book hanging over my head during the trip. I sent MR. MONK IS MISERABLE to my editors yesterday. On Wednesday, I'm having breakfast with MONK creator Andy Breckman to discuss my next MONK novel...I'm hoping to come up with a vague idea for it on the flight to New York.

More Praise for HOLLYWOOD & CRIME

Jon Breen at ELLERY QUEEN MYSTERY MAGAZINE has given the short story collection HOLLYWOOD & CRIME a rave review, singling out my story "Jack Webb's Star:"

Show business has long been a favorite criminous setting, and in recent years more mysteries than ever have explored the worlds of film, stage, television, music, magic, stand-up comedy, and other categories of performance. Prolific anthologist Robert J. Randisi’s Hollywood and Crime (Pegasus, $25) gathers original stories by such formidable writers as Michael Connelly, Bill Pronzini, Terence Faherty, Stuart M. Kaminsky, and Dick Lochte. Among those with the strongest entertainment industry backgrounds are “Murderlized” by Max Allan Collins and Matthew V. Clemens, a fact-based 1930s tale in which Moe Howard of the Three Stooges investigates the mysterious death of former stage partner Ted Healy; Robert S. Levinson’s “And the Winner Is,” about the 1960 Academy Awards, gangster Mickey Cohen, and the bitter rivalry of columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella O. Parsons; and best of all, "Jack Webb’s Star," Lee Goldberg’s hilarious contemporary tale of a struggling TV writer, his commercial actress wife, a traffic school led by an unfunny stand-up comic, and Joe Friday's star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.

Thank you, Jon!

No Romance for Plagiarist And Her Publisher

The Charlotte Observer reports that Penguin/Putnam has dropped romance author Cassie Edwards due to, and this is a phrase I have never heard before, "irreconcilable editorial differences." The differences have to do with Edwards' lifting text from other people's books and claiming it as her own, a practice brought to light in meticulous detail by the blog Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels.

In a phone interview in January, the author told The Associated Press that she indeed "takes" material from other works, but said she didn't know she was supposed to credit her sources. She then asked her husband to get on the phone. Charles Edwards said the author got only "ideas" from other books and did not "lift passages."

They Never Learn

The Martinsville Reporter-Times reports that the FBI and the U.S. Postmaster have launched a joint investigation into the business practices of Airleaf Publishing/Bookman Publishing, a notorious vanity press scam that went bankrupt last year. Let's hope this is just the beginning of a national crackdown on the deceptive practices of the vanity press industry.

But its hard to feel any sympathy for the Airleaf victims. Any reasonably intelligent person could have seen that Airleaf (and its previous incarnation Bookman Publishing) was a sham.  Even if the aspiring authors were too blind with desperation and naivete to see the scam for themselves, a simple Google search would have turned up plenty of resources (including my blog and others) that talked about the company's many deceptive practices and false promises.

They made a dumb, costly, and humiliating mistake.

So you'd think that now the Airleaf victims would know better than to ever get involved with a POD vanity press again.

Well, you'd be wrong.

Incredibly, many of them are once again writing checks to vanity presses, including Bonnie Kaye, who founded the Airleaf victims blog and whose relentless efforts are largely responsible for Airleaf's fall and the subsequent federal investigation.

She's now a customer of CCB Publishing, a print-on-demand vanity press that she calls her "new publisher."  CCB's former Airleaf clients include John Krismer, who has written a book that reveals this:

Few realize a New World Order plans to replace our constitution with a Single World Government, nor that our Federal Reserve Bank is privately owned and is not subject to oversight by Congress or the President.

[...]George H. W. Bush, the undisputed “Overlord” of the Shrub Dynasty, in his State of the Union Message in 1991 said: “What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea – a new world order.” Did We the People ever agree to this treasonous act of turning over our nation’s sovereignty to a Single World Government?

Uh-huh. This is the kind of unpublishable swill that the vanity press industry thrives on. Is it any wonder he has written a check to another POD printer?

I applaud Kaye for going after Airleaf and bringing the company down...but she's still foolishly writing checks to a POD vanity press and deluding herself into thinking that she's "published." By doing so, and praising the company to other Airleaf customers, she's perpetuating the myths that the vanity press industry thrives on. How sad.

But that's not the worst of it.

Some other former Airleaf clients have become customers of Jones Harvest, a vanity press that is run by former Airleaf employees!  Those  particular Airleaf customers aren't victims at all. They are brain-dead morons.

TV Main Title of the Week

Reviving the Blacklist

Today WGA members received an email from Patric Verrone, our Guild president, regarding the small number of writers who decided to go "financial core" during the strike. I have a great deal of respect for Patric, and I wholeheartedly supported the strike, but I found the wording, intent, and underlying message of the email offensive, particularly this:

[...]there were a puny few who chose to do otherwise, who consciously and selfishly decided to place their own narrow interests over the greater good. Extreme exceptions to the rule, perhaps, but this handful of members who went financial core, resigning from the union yet continuing to receive the benefits of a union contract, must be held at arm’s length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are – strikebreakers whose actions placed everything for which we fought so hard at risk.

He went on to include a link to a list of those writers, who number less than two dozen.

Patric's letter, and his rallying cry to scorn those writers, harkens back to one of the darkest chapters in entertainment history for writers -- the blacklist.  In my view, Patric is asking us to engage in that same, despicable behavior... to exclude these writers from work opportunities because of their political views. While I strongly disagree with what those writers did, I resent the Guild asking me to blacklist them because of it.

The writers who went financial core objected to the strike but at least they followed the rules to express their dissatisfaction. I can respect their courage and integrity if not their views. They didn't hide in the shadows, saying one thing ("I support the strike!") and doing another (writing scab scripts for a daily soap). They stood up and were willing to be held accountable for their actions.

I would, at least to some degree, understand Patric's suggestion if he was talking about the people who actually scabbed...who toiled in secret, writing scripts for shows while the rest of us were walking the picket lines and losing our incomes.  Go after the scabs, expose them, fine them, throw them out of the Guild. I am all for that.

But tarring-and-feathering the writers who went financial core, and suggesting that we not hire them, is wrong.  The boards of the WGA West and East should be ashamed of endorsing this wrong-headed action and supporting this offensive letter.

UPDATE: The complete text of Patric Verrone's letter, and a spirited debate about it, can be found at Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily.

UPDATE: WGA members Craig Mazin and John August share their opinions about the letter.

UPDATE 4/22/08: Nikki Finke reports that the AMPTP has filed an unfair labor practices charge with the NLRB over the WGA's letter. The AMPTP statement reads, in part:

By publicly naming names and encouraging people who have the power to hire writers to keep them "at arm's length," and saying they must be "judged accountable" it is clear the WGA leadership is seeking to deny employment to these writers in the future. That is a direct violation of federal labor law, and as the employers of those writers we have a responsibility to defend them and the rule of law in this case.

I don't condone the AMPTP's motives for filing the charges, but their statement is absolutely right and I hope the NLRB slaps the WGA with stiff sanctions for this. For the first time since I joined the WGA, I am ashamed of my Guild and its leadership. The WGA Board needs to apologize for what they have done.

UPDATE 4/26/08:  I have now heard from three board members, two of whom said that they were blindsided by the letter. They told me that the Board had voted to release the names of the fi-core writers, but they had no idea that the membership would be told not to associate with them. I am hoping that there will be a clarification and/or apology to the membership following the next board meeting.

You Can't Tell a Book By It's Cover

SLEEPING DOGS by Ed Gorman proves the old adage that you can't tell a book by it's cover. He has been stuck with the ugliest St. Martin's cover since my book, BEYOND THE BEYOND. It's a damn shame, because his book deserves more thoughtful packaging-- a LOT more. It's a biting, fast-moving, darkly funny mystery set inside a Senatorial campaign. The hero is Dev Conrad, a political consultant who knows how to play the game and is growing increasingly uncomfortable with the lies, hypocrisy, and self-delusion inherent in his job.

Ed not only gives us an inside look at the dark side of campaigning, he also offers a good puzzle, too, where the "bad guys" are fully fleshed-out characters who aren't that much different than the "good guys." And after countless books about tortured cops, PIs and forensic scientists...not to mention an endless number of amateur sleuths...Dev Conrad is a fresh, unconventional protagonist. The timing for this book couldn't be better...but, based on the cover treatment, I fear the publisher isn't in a position to take advantage of the opportunity.

As an aside, I am awed by Ed's versatility...he writes westerns, whodunits, thrillers, procedurals and now political novels...all with equal skill. I wish I was that flexible.

An End Run Around Public Domain

Richard Wheeler reports that some literary heirs have found a way to undermine public domain -- they trademark the name of the author, as Zane Grey's estate has done with his name.

What the trademark accomplishes is to make it impossible for anyone to publish a Grey novel that has fallen into the public domain unless the publisher licenses the name of the author from the heirs. Oh, you can print the public domain material, all right; just don’t put the author’s name on it.

I wonder if this has ever been tested in court? If not, it probably will be soon.

Me Everywhere

I've got a busy signing and speaking schedule coming up...

You can find me at the Mystery Bookstore in Westwood, CA on Friday, April 25th,  for their pre-Los Angeles Times Festival of Books party. And then I'll be signing on Sunday, April 27th, at 11 a.m., at the Mystery Bookstore's booth at the Festival.

On Monday, April 28,  I am interviewing producer Donald Belisario on camera for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Archive of American Television, and then I am hopping on a plane to New York, to participate in the Mystery Writers of America's Crime Fiction Seminars  and to take part in the Edgar Awards.

In late May/early June, I'll be signing at Book Expo in Los Angeles, alongside Max Allan Collins, but I'll have more details about that as we get closer to the event.

And finally, I'm going to be traveling to the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky on June 17-22 to see my screenplay "Mapes For Hire" (based on my book THE MAN WITH THE IRON ON BADGE) performed on stage "live radio"-style with a full cast, sound effects and music.  Here are the performance dates at the Berry Theatre in Owensboro:

• Friday, June 13 - 2pm
• Sunday, June 15 - 2pm
• Wednesday, June 18 - 7:30pm
• Sunday, June 22 - 4pm

For ticket information, click here.

TV Main Title of the Week

Towards the Finish Line

I'm in the final stretch of writing MR. MONK IS MISERABLE, which is due on April 30th...which is why I haven't been contributing much here lately. No sooner  do I turn in that book than I have to start thinking about MONK #8. All I know about that one, after two books mostly set in Europe, is that it will take place in and around San Francisco.  Beyond that, I've got nothing. I'm sure something will occur to me, probably while I am on my way to New York next week for the Edgar Awards, where I will be seeing my publisher, editor and agent.

But before I go, I've got a couple of meet-and-greets this week with two A-list production companies,  thanks  to a spec script I wrote that these execs really liked but, for whatever reason, wouldn't buy. They liked the writing and the sensibility enough to want to meet me, which is good, but the meetings are always a little awkward. There's no way to really prepare for them. They aren't structured, like a pitch, though I'll gladly share a few ideas if I'm asked what I'm working on. It's more casual and free-form, with no clear agenda. But make no mistake about it, you are pitching. You're pitching yourself as a person.

A meet-and-greet is an opportunity for the executives to put a face to your name, get a sense of how you think, and decide whether or not they'd like to work with you some day. Nothing may ever come of the meet-and-greet...or weeks, months or years from now it might occur to the exec to bring me in on particular project or rewrite that matches my "sensibility." I've had a few jobs come to me this way over the years...like writing the Dame Edna movie (which, sadly, was not produced), so I am always open to meet-and-greets.

If anything comes from one of them, I'll let you know. Okay, enough procrasatinating, back to MONK!

The Verdict is In

There's no question about it.  Paul Brownstein is the best producer of DVD boxed sets in the industry and he's proved it once again with PERRY MASON: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, which includes twelve episodes (featuring future stars like Ryan O'Neal, Robert Redford, James Coburn, and Burt Reynolds) and is loaded with special features that, on their own, are well worth the purchase price. The extras include the original audition/screen tests for Hamilton Burger and Perry Mason, two Charlie Rose interviews with Raymond Burr, and a late 1950s episode of "Person to Person" in which Burr gives viewers a tour of his L.A. home. As if that wasn't enough, they've also got interviews, featurettes, and the "Perry Mason Returns" TV movie. I wish they'd included an episode of  THE NEW PERRY MASON, starring Monte Markham, for the hell of it.  If you you're a TV geek like me, you're going to love this boxed set.  I also strongly recommend Brownstein's amazing GUNSMOKE, DICK VAN DYKE SHOW and WILD WILD WEST sets.

STINGRAY: THE COMPLETE SERIES, the Steve Cannell series that starred Nick Mancuso, arrived in my mailbox today from Amazon in Canada, which sells it for half as much as Amazon stateside ($22 vs $44!). It's a quirky series that I loved when it aired and that is probably not as good as I remember it, but I'll let you know.

Sad News

Stanley Kamel, who portrayed Dr. Kroger on MONK, died yesterday of a heart attack. Besides being a very talented and versatile actor, he was also a very nice man. I worked with him long before MONK on an episode of the early 90s FOX series LIKELY SUSPECTS. He played a restaurant owner with an indecipherable accent. Much to my delight, when I met him again over a decade later at a MONK rap party, he not only remembered the LIKELY SUSPECTS role...he even remembered his lines! He will be missed.

(That's Stanley with my daughter Maddie at last year's wrap party).

Killing Castro

Hard Case Crime is reprinting a long-lost Lawrence Block novel called KILLING CASTRO. It's a book Block wrote under a pseudonym fifty years ago. And if this excerpt doesn't whet your appetite for more, you don't have a pulse:

The taxi, one headlight out and one fender crimped, cut through downtown Tampa and headed into Ybor City. Turner sat in the back seat with his eyes half closed. He was a tall, thin ramrod of a man who was never tense and yet never entirely relaxed. His hair was the color of damp sand, his eyes steel gray. His lips were thin and he rarely smiled. He was not smiling now.

The stub of a cigarette burned between the second and third fingers of his right hand. The fingers were yellow-brown from the thousands and thousands of cigarettes which had curled their tar-laden smoke around them. He looked at the cigarette, raised it to his lips for a final drag. The smoke was strong. He rolled down the window and flipped the butt into the street.

Night. The street lights were on in Ybor City, Tampa’s Latin quarter. Taverns winked seductively in red and green neon. Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Negroes walked the streets, congregated around pool halls and small bars. Here and there butt-twitching hustlers were rushing the season, looking to catch an early trick before the competition got stiff. Turner watched all this through the taxi window, his thin lips not smiling, not frowning. He had bigger things on his mind than corner loungers or early-bird whores.

He was thirty-four years old, and he was wanted for murder.

What's amazing about it is that he was so good from the get-go, long before he would achieve all his well-earned honors and accolades.

Inside the Writers Rooms

Two showrunners, Javier Grillo Marxuach and John Rogers, are giving aspiring a screenwriters an inside peek, literally and figuratively, into their writers rooms for MIDDLEMAN and LEVERAGE. It's great stuff. Today, John explains the process behind plotting their stories. (The picture is of the MIDDLEMAN staff, with my friend Javi on the far right).

Indulging My Inner Geek

I'm a big BATTLESTAR GALACTICA fan and I was eager to catch-up on the season premiere...but I have to say, it left me underwhelmed. The stuff with Baltar was fun, but I found the rest of the episode plodding. Plus, I was nagged by some big issues that went unaddressed. For one thing, 600 people are killed in the opening moments of the show...and are never referred to again. This is a massive loss of life and yet it isn't discussed...the characters are too busy whining about their feelings about Starbuck's return or, in the case of a handful of characters, the realization that they are Cylons. Which brings up another issue...in the first couple of seasons, a lot of time and angst were devoted to Boomer's "human-Cylon" baby. Well, now that we know the Chief is a Cylon, too, that means his baby is also a cross between a  human and a Cylon.  Doesn't that make his child every bit as important to the humans and the Cylon's as Boomer's child is/was? And if Six can "feel" the presence of the other Cylons in the fleet, why can't Boomer?

Statistics Everywhere

There were lots of interesting statistics in Publishers Weekly today relating to retailing and Print-On-Demand.

According to a Bowker study, the Mystery Genre is what Americans read most, accounting for 17% of all books sold. Science Fiction accounts for 5.5%, General Fiction snags 3%, and Horror scares up 2%.  The same study also found that chain bookstores account for 33% of booksales while the Internet sells 21%.

A study by the Association of American Publishers found that total industry sales rose 3.2% in 2007 to $25 billion. The largest gain is among adult hardcovers, which are up 7.8%. The "largest overall gains in the year came from the smallest segments." They note that ebook sales jumped 23.6% and audio books rose 19.8%.

PW editor Sara Nelson notes in her column that Amazon accounts for slightly more than 10% of online sales. She doesn't seem  particularly worried about the company strongarming POD presses to use Booksurge, their POD service. She observes that big publishers use POD "only sparingly," that there remain many other venues of POD sales, and that lawyers she has contacted don't see the grounds for an anti-trust suit.

And in a news brief, Lightning Source has partnered with On Demand Books, the company that makes the Espresso Book Machine that prints novels for readers on the spot. So far, there are a grand total of seven machines in operation...not exactly a major force in book retailing.

TV Main Title of the Week

Home Again

I just returned home from speaking at the 8th Annual Forensic Science and Law conference at Duquesne University and I had a fantastic time. It was billed as a "national symposium on the intersection of forensic science and culture" and it was unlike any conference I've attended before.

That's because most of ones I've been to have had to do with some aspect of mystery writing or the TV business and were attended by TV writers, novelists, entertainment industry executives, aspiring writers, and mystery fans. In other words, people like me.

But this conference was primarily attended by forensic scientists, prosecutors, medical examiners, criminalists, FBI agents, and students in various fields of forensics, investigation, and criminal law. I was honored and intimidated to be in such distinguished company. I was worried that what I had to say was not only irrelevant, but that they must have invited me by mistake.

I learned so much at this conference, and it started at the airport. I shared a limo into Pittsburgh with prosecutor-turned-author Robert Tannenbaum and for an hour we had a lively discussion about national politics and some high-profile criminal cases.

I dropped off my suitcase and the hotel and rushed to a  reception at the University for the conference faculty, where I stood out in the crowd...because I was the only goof in an untucked shirt and jeans. I was embarrassed about being so sloppily dressed but being from "Hollywood," I got away with my it.

I was glad to spot a familiar face in the bunch -- my friend author Jan Burke was sitting in the back of the room, chatting with Dr. Katherine Ramsland, assistant professor of forensic psychology at DeSales University and Judge Donald E. Shelton, who teaches criminal justice at Eastern Michigan University. I joined their discussion and, once I got some food and Diet Coke in me, I relaxed a bit and decided to start introducing myself to strangers.

I'm glad I did. I had some fascinating conversations with James Starrs, professor of law and forensic sciences at George Washington University;  forensic artist Karen Taylor, and FBI agent James Clemente, who profiles serial killers and who does some consulting for Andrew Wilder, a writer/producer on CRIMINAL MINDS (who, to my amusement and relief, showed up later wearing jeans and an untucked shirt, too).

Before the reception was over, I spoke with Mark Safarik, a former colleague of Clemente's in the Behaviorial Analysis unit who is now a consultant to law enforcement, and I had a chance to meet the host of the conference, Dr. Cyril Wecht.

I left the reception even more concerned about what I was doing there. These people actually knew things...I just make stuff up. I worried about whether I'd be laughed off the podium...especially when I saw how large the conference hall was and the hundreds of people in attendance, including a delegation of forensic scientists from China.

I attended Robert Tannebaum's keynote address, then went back to the hotel, where I had drinks with Dr. Doug Lyle and before going to bed early (I'd had to get up at 4 a.m L.A. time that morning to make my flight to Pittsburgh).

The next morning, I went down to hotel restaurant for breakfast and shared a table with Mark Safarik, who enthralled me with stories from his law enforcement career. But he also made me feel a lot better about my presentation that morning. Seeing how interested and amused he was in what I had to say about writing, and incorporating forensics into story, made me feel much more confident and less awkward about being there.

As it turned out, my presentation went very well. I shouldn't have worried and, with that task behind me, I was able to just sit back and enjoy the rest of the conference. I was fortunate to be able to spend a lot more time with the folks that I've already mentioned (particularly Clemente, Safarik, Ramsland and Taylor), but I also to have lengthy conversations with forensic toxicologist Dr. Micheal Reiders, criminal law professor and former Deputy D.A. Tamara F. Lawson, as well as many other experts and dozens of forensic science students. Safarik, the former FBI behaviorial analyst, told me it was one of the best conferences he'd ever attended.

At the closing night dinner for the faculty, Doug Lyle and I got a chance to talk for a few minutes with Dr. Baosheng Zhang, Dean of Beijing's China University Institute of Evidence Law and Forensic Science. For Dr. Zhang, the conference seemed to be an eye-opening experience, particularly when it came to the discussion of the impact of popular culture (the "CSI" effect) on the criminal justice system and the media's interaction with investigators and prosecutors. Unfortunately, just as we began to talk about how things are different in China, he got called away into another discussion by a member of his delegation. Doug and I wondered if it was happenstance  that we were interrupted, or if it was a polite way of avoiding discussing a touchy subject.

All in all, I was kept very busy and didn't get any writing (or blogging) done at all. But I'm not complaining. I made a lot of friends, heard some fascinating presentations & discussions, and was asked by one of the attendees to speak at another forensic conference later this year. So I am sure that in the long run this experience will be good for my writing...if not for the book  I am currently rushing to finish.

NBC Fall Schedule

NBC has already announced their fall schedule  -- nearly two months earlier than usual. Variety reports that there are some surprises: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE will do a live, prime-time edition on Thursdays, THE OFFICE is hatching a spin-off, and the long-running series SCRUBS and LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT are missing from the schedule (and are presumably cancelled). New drama series include the revamped KNIGHTRIDER, MY OWN WORST ENEMY (starring Christian Slater), CRUSOE (a new take on Robinson Crusoe), and the Tom Fontana-produced series THE PHILANTHROPIST.

You can find the full schedule after the jump.

Going Away...Again

I am off to Pittsburgh tomorrow to speak on Friday at Duquesne University's Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law's eighth annual "Where Fact Meets Fiction" conference. I'll be joined by my friend Doug Lyle, author of  FORENSICS AND FICTION, as well as Robert Tanenbaum, Jan Burke, Linda Fairstein, CSI producer David Berman, CRIMINAL MINDS producer Andrew Wilder, 48 HOURS producer Gail Zimmerman, FORENSIC FILES producer Kelly Ann Martin, and a long list of judges, criminalists, cops, FBI agents, scientists and scholars.  This should be interesting, because I know nothing about forensics and only slightly more about writing.

Scribe Award Nominees Announced

The Second Annual Scribe Awards, presented by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, acknowledges and celebrates excellence in licensed tie-in writing -- novels based on TV shows, movies, and games.  The IAMTW is proud to announce this years nominees for the Scribe Award.

BEST GENERAL FICTION ORIGINAL

CSI NY: DELUGE by Stuart M. Kaminsky
MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS by Lee Goldberg
MURDER SHE WROTE: PANNING FOR MURDER by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain
CRIMINAL MINDS: JUMP CUT by Max Allan Collins

BEST GENERAL FICTION ADAPTED

AMERICAN GANGSTER by Max Allan Collins (nominee & winner)

BEST SPECULATIVE ORIGINAL

LAST DAYS OF KRYPTON by Kevin J. Anderson
STARGATE ATLANTIS CASUALTIES OF WAR by Elizabeth Christiansen
STAR TREK: Q&A by Keith R.A. DeCandido

BEST GAME-RELATED ORIGINAL (SPECIAL SCRIBE AWARD)

HITMAN by William Dietz
FORGE OF THE MINDSLAYERS by Tim Waggoner
NIGHT OF THE LONG SHADOWS by Paul Crilley

BEST SPECULATIVE ADAPTED

RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION by Keith R.A. DeCandido
52: THE NOVEL by Greg Cox
30 DAYS OF NIGHT by Tim Lebbon

BEST YOUNG ADULT ORIGINAL

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: THE DEATHLESS by Keith R.A. DeCandido
GOODLUND TRILOGY: VOLUME THREE: WARRIORS BONES by Stephen D. Sullivan
NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE CREW #10: TICKET TROUBLE by Stacia Deutsch & Rudy Cohon

BEST YOUNG ADULT ADAPTED

TWELVE DOGS OF CHRISTMAS by Steven Paul Leiva (nominee & winner)
The Grandmaster Award honors a writer for his extensive and exceptional work in the tie-in field. This year's honoree is ALAN DEAN FOSTER.

Foster's books include his ground-breaking novelisations in 1975 of the STAR TREK animated series and his subsequent novelisations of the first three ALIEN films, BLACK HOLE, STARMAN, OUTLAND, PALE RIDER, ALIEN NATION and, of course, STAR WARS (writing as "George Lucas"). He is also the author of scores of original novels as well as the story for the first STAR TREK feature film.

The Scribe Awards will be given at the Comic-Con Convention in San Diego in July. The Special Gaming Scribes will be awarded at Gen Con Indy in August.

The IAMTW is dedicated to enhancing the professional and public image of tie-in writers...to working with the media to review tie-in novels and publicize their authors...to educating people about who we are and what we do....and to providing a forum for tie-in writers to share information, support one another, and discuss issues relating to our field (via a regular e-newsletter, our website, and our active discussion group). Our members include authors active in many other professional writer organizations (MWA, PWA, WGA, SFWA, etc.) and who share their unique perspectives with their fellow tie-in writers. Our name itself is a declaration of pride in what we do: I AM a Tie-in Writer. You can find out more about the IAMTW at our website.