A Writer's Life

Scenes from Book Expo

A corner of the South Hall, the autographing area, the MWA booth...

Scenes from Book Expo

  1. Apparently, THE accessory to have is your own motor-home...just ask Jackie Collins and the softcore writers at Ellora's Cave.
 

2. Strolling the aisles, picking up free books is tough work. What could be more relaxing than a laser-tooth brightening treatment?

 

Live from the floor of BookExpo

I am in heaven here. I have already made three trips back to my car to unload books and galleys...and this is on top of the bounty of books I brought home yesterday. On Friday, I mostly talked to authors, booksellers, sales reps and countless librairians....and gave away a bunch of MONK books at the MWA booth. Today the convention seems to be deluged with desperate, frantically clueless wannabes (how they got in, I do not know). Before the doors even opened, I was practically tackled by a woman who pitched me her book (something to do with elves, angels, past lives, the Clinton "murders" and iraq) even though I told her repeatedly that I wasn'ta publisher or a producer who options books. I was just an author. She wouldn't let up...and then went from me to some other poor soul.
But this was far from an isolated incident ... It has happened to me three times this morning already. A woman who wrote a christain spiritual dog training guide insisted there was a series in it and, when I told I wasn't interested, she told me how a famous producer she went to high school with stole her idea for a TV series (she sent him a short story she wrote that had a dog in it and then he did a show with a dog in it). That same woman then held up an autograph line for 10 minutes telling her life story to the author of a non-fiction book about Blackwater...if he had a gun, he would have shot her. I saw this same thing happen in the line for a famous children's author...a woman got up there and pitched the poor guy her idea for a book and inundated him with postcards, fliers and candy (allof which he threw away the moment she was gone). It's cringe-inducing. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Taking Care of Business

I am going to be at BookExpo at the Los Angeles Convention Center tomorrow and Saturday, signing and giving away copies of MR. MONK IN OUTER SPACE at the Mystery Writers of America booth alongside Max Allan Collins, who will be doing the same with his latest CRIMINAL MINDS novel.

I can't wait to go...the last time I was at BookExpo was twenty years ago in San Francisco, and I still remember how exciting it was get so many free galleys and books. Every major and minor publisher in America is there, promoting their new titles to booksellers. It's like Christmas for a book lover like me. I'm also looking forward to seeing my literary agent and other friends who are out from NY for the event. So there will be lots of schmoozing and trips back to the car to unload galleys...

Attending BookExpo will also be a welcome distraction from anxiously waiting to hear whether or not I've managed to snag a major studio screenwriting assignment that I have been vying for over the last few weeks...I am one of the final candidates now and I should know any minute if I got it. I am trying not to get my hopes up but, as experienced and cynical as I am, I can't seem to help doing it anyway. Maybe its because its a project that is *perfect* for me and that I would have a great time writing. If I get the gig, it's a big assignment that I will have to write very, very fast...so I might be absent from here for a few weeks.

In the mean time, I am hard at work on MR. MONK AND THE DIRTY COP (book #8) and a new spec, which is based on a book I optioned earlier this year.

And I've just learned that Oscar winner Gene Hackman and CSI creator/showrunner Anthony Zuiker will be among the speakers joining me, Bob Levinson, Jesse Kellerman, Heather Graham, Stuart Kaminsky, Rupert Holmes and Mary Higgins Clark at the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro Kentucky, where my play MAPES FOR HIRE will be performed June 12-22.

It looks like, no matter what, June is going to be a very busy, exciting and fun month for me!

Can Dirty Harry be far behind?

Over the last year or so, Rambo, Rocky, John McClane, and Indiana Jones have all emerged from their bungalows at the Motion Picture Home after decades in retirement to do battle in the box-office once again, Geritol in one hand, a syringe full of botox in the other. Now comes the news that Eddie Murphy is returning as Beverly Hills Cop, who was last seen in 1994. Brett Ratner is directing, no writer is set yet.

TV Main Title of the Week

Inside THE MIDDLEMAN

Slice of SciFi has a lengthy and very entertaining Q&A interview with my friend Javier Grillo Marxuach about the development and production of his new ABC Family series THE MIDDLEMAN. Warning: his enthusiasm and glee for TV is infectious.

Actually, the best day was when they had the Harrier jet here. They had like half a jet in the stage and we were climbing in it and doing all that. Yes, it was good. I’m sure that there are other shows where people have a ton of fun and all that, but I’m sure that they don’t have this kind of fun on Law & Order, you know; I can tell you that right now.

FAST TRACK in China

FAST TRACK: NO LIMITS, the movie that I wrote and produced in Berlin this time last year, is opening in theatres in China this week. The first poster is the one they are using to advertise the movie. The second poster is from Japan. I'm hoping the studio can get their hands on a couple for me!

 

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Snore

I should have waited for the DVD...the best way to watch this plodding movie is with a fast-forward button. Don't wait in lines to see it this weekend, see IRON MAN again instead. It's a lot more fun.

Has New York Become too Safe for Mystery Writers?

The New York Times reports that as the city becomes a safer, cleaner place to live, it has become a lot less interesting for mystery novelists to write about.

As New York celebrates the sharp decline in crime — earlier this year the city revealed that the 494 homicides in 2007 were the fewest since reliable police statistics became available in 1963 — the crime writer may be the only New Yorker for whom that drop is not an unequivocal blessing. Just as the breakup of the Soviet Union caused problems for writers whose plots hinged on the dark doings of the cold war, so New York’s crime writers are wondering where to find grist in a far safer city.

IAMTW Grandmaster Donald Bain is wistful for the NY of yesteryear for other reasons.

In January, Mr. Bain was the main speaker at a meeting of the Mystery Writers of America, held at the National Arts Club, opposite Gramercy Park.

At dinner in the club’s high-ceilinged dining room, Mr. Bain, a tall man with a white beard, reminisced about the early ’90s, when his daughter lived on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village. Her apartment building was next to a social club run by Vincent Gigante, a k a the Chin, the mobster whose associates used to sit outside the club, playing cards and drinking late into the night. If one of the men saw his daughter emerging from the subway station a few blocks away, Mr. Gigante dispatched one of them to walk her home safely.

The other writers at the table laughed, but their laughs were tinged with nostalgia for a vanished version of New York that could hand you a scene, just like that.

Straight Talk on Mystery Writing

Winning an Edgar last month had a big impact on acclaimed "literary" writer Susan Straight, who writes about the experience, and the power of mystery writing, in a page two essay in today's Los Angeles Times Book Review. She's writes, in part:

In 1996, while in a Berkeley bookstore signing my novel "The Gettin Place," which links the Tulsa Riot of 1921 and the L.A. Riots of 1992, I met a sociology professor who told me only mystery writers truly delineate and fully imagine America's often overlooked landscapes. He taught a class using only mysteries, and told me mine would be joining the syllabus.

It was one of the most gratifying things anyone has ever said to me, and I felt that way during the Edgars, when I watched the convivial, joking mystery writers pay tribute to one another and realized how many of their books I've loved. The propulsive plots, the dialogue, the intricate detail of murders and clues and geography. What Edgar Allan Poe did -- frighten us while fascinating us, digging deep at the part inside us that we recognize even in those awful characters -- is what mystery writers still do.

[...]Now I look at Edgar's downcast, black-brushed eyes and hope to write something dark and noir again, something to take readers into places and souls where they might never otherwise dare to venture. *

Which WANTED Do You Want?

German screenwriter Torsten Dewi has posted two radically different trailers for the new movie Angelina Jolie WANTED on his blog. One trailer is from America, the other from Russia. Regardless of which trailer you think does a better sales job, they illustrate how you can take the same footage and edit it to convey whatever tone, point-of-view, or feeling that you want.

Things You're Never Told Before Attending a Mystery Convention...

The Comic-Con sent out a magazine this week with some practical advice for attendees, which included:

Holster that weapon, sheath that sword! If you wear a costumer that includes a replica weapon, please keep it attached to the costume. Don't draw it or aim it.

Please don't smell bad. It's a jam-packed show: not the time to skimp on basic grooming.

What's Next? Are Restaurants Going to Charge Us For Dishes and Silverware?

American Airlines is charging domestic travelers $15 for their first piece of checked luggage. USA Today reports:

Blaming extraordinary fuel prices, American Airlines (AMR) said Wednesday it plans for the first time to charge many passengers $15 on top of airfares to check one suitcase on a domestic flight.

If American follows through, many domestic passengers who check two bags this summer will pay $40 extra each way in addition to much higher airfares than last summer.

Sock It To Me

You can read an excerpt from my new book MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY here.

TV Main Title of the Week

That's My White Mama

This spoof is so dead-on...it could actually be a Fox series.

Buying Praise

The following comment from Bill Williams was posted in the back-blog discussion a blog entry of mine regarding an iUniverse author who feels that I've "pissed on her parade" by slamming vanity presses. Her book was positively reviewed by bookreview.com, which is notorious as a place to go to buy positive customer reviews and have them posted on Amazon (I wrote about them back in 2004).

Lee,

I checked with a friend of mine who had a positive review of a book of his posted on the bookreview.com website. He said that he had not paid for the review and it was one that had been cross-posted at Amazon.com by the reviewer. Was my friend lying or can you get a review at that site without making payment?

Bill

I replied:

Your friend is probably telling you the truth. I just looked myself up on Bookreview.com and, lo and behold, found many of my books reviewed there...all by Harriet Klausner.

It seems that Klausner's reviews are cross-posted there as well as on a dozen other sites and blogs. I suspect your friend was reviewed by her as well.

However, her reviews on Amazon are credited to her, NOT bookreview.com. When the bookreview.com reviews are posted on Amazon, "bookreview.com" is usually noted as the reviewer. Bookreview.com reviews are not taken seriously by anyone because of their reputation of being bought-and-paid-for...and thus worthless.

I quote from the bookreview.com site:

"Get your book listed on BookReview.com!

Our Express Review Service guarantees that your book is placed at the top of the reviewers' pile. At a cost of $125 per book, this service guarantees that one of our professional reviewers will read and review your book within 15 business days of receiving it. The review will be posted on BookReview.com as well as Amazon.com and will be eligible to become a BookReview.com Book of the Month. Please send bound books only. No .pdf files or unbound manuscripts.

Once the review is completed, you are free to use any part of it in your promotional materials as long as BookReview.com is credited.

Publishers, Publicists and Literary Agents can click here to check out our Bulk Discount Program.

Do I have to purchase an Express Review in order to appear in your database?

    No. You can submit your book through our regular review channels. We receive hundreds of books each day and can give attention to only a small fraction of them. Simply submitting your book does not guarantee that it will be read and having your book read by one of our reviewers does not guarantee a review. Only purchasing an Express Review guarantees a review.

They also suggest:

Some hints for new authors:

   1. Our reviewers love collecting autographed books. Sign your book before sending it and you'll have a much better chance of getting read.
   2. Please don't send us a loose manuscript. Convert it to Palm Reader format and send it via email if you haven't got a bound version. Or take it to a Kinko's and have them bind it for you.
   3. If you've submitted your book correctly and you haven't seen a review posted after a month, feel free to email us. If you still don't see a review, it is likely that your book didn't inspire the reviewer who chose it. If you'd like us to pass it on to another reviewer, you can email us the request. Remember, we prefer not to post negative reviews, so if we don't like it, we probably won't review it.
   4. If you passionately believe in your book, and you are having trouble getting it reviewed, please check out our New Author Listing and Express Review Service. "

What's interesting is that even though you can buy a review...and in BULK... and get preferential treatment if your book is signed...they still pretend to be objective and unbiased. This is how, in part, they describe themselves collectively in their Amazon reviewer profile:

"[..]We pledge to offer unbiased reviews of books from a variety of publishers on a multitude of subjects and genres. Established in 1996, we also offer Express Review Service and New Author Listings"

Funny, they don't mention when touting their lack of bias that you can buy a review for $125...but that's because they don't see an ethical problem with paying for a review, as they explain in their FAQ:

"Does purchase of an Express Review guarantee a good review?

    No. Our reputation was built on honest, straightforward reviews and we will not compromise our integrity by posting false reviews. Please use our Express Review service only if you believe deeply in your work.

Will anyone know I've purchased a review?

    No. You are paying for the right to go to the top of the review pile. Your review will be as unbiased as any other review on our site, so there is no reason to flag it as a "paid" review."

The writer who emailed me, and criticized my stance on iUniverse, was not reviewed by Klausner...but by Bookreview.com, which would indicate that the review was probably purchased. That said, I suppose there is a slim possibility that the review was not purchased...in which case, I owe her a sincere apology.

The Mail I Get

I got this email today:

Hi,
Who the hell you are indeed!

Happened to come across your website and couldn't believe all the crap you have written about iuniverse. I did publish with them not because I had a choice, but because none of the so called legitimate publishers would take a look at anything that is written by a person like me.   

Why am I bothering writing to you? Because, indirectly, you are raining on my parade. And I do not like it!

It's not my problem that you have a hard time facing the truth. iUniverse is a vanity press, pure and simple.  iUniverse isn't a publisher. They are a printer. They will print anything from anyone as long as the customer has a credit card. You still haven't been published, you have merely gone to the online equivalent of Kinkos to have your manuscript printed in something resembling a paperback book.

Of course you "had a choice."  When genuine publishers declined to publish your manuscript, you chose to pay to have it printed by an online printing company rather than rewrite it, or stick it in a drawer, or move on to something else. 

The fact is, you still haven't been published. You are deluding yourself if you think otherwise. In all likelihood, you will never get anything close to your investment back. That is the reality.

UPDATE: For the heck of it, I looked up the author's POD book. Not only did she pay iUniverse to print it, she also paid bookreview.com to give her a positive review. How sad.

UPDATE 5-17-08: She wrote to me again. She wrote, in part:

What you are stating is from the point of view of someone seeking recognition and making a living from writing. However, there are people like me who do not share your ambitions. As long as my book gets in the library, on the shelve of a bookstore, or is available through thousands of retailers all over the world so people who share my concerns on particular issues can buy my books, I have achieved my goal.

I replied, in part:

That's the fallacy. iUniverse books DON'T get into libraries, on the shelves of bookstores, or into thousands of retailers all over the world. They have no distribution. They are not available in brick-and-mortar stores. Your book can be found at web sites like iUniverse (and who shops there??) and Amazon, though even that will be ending soon, since they will stop carrying POD titles that they don't print themselves. The fact is, 99% of booksellers and libraries won't touch a print-on-demand, vanity press title.

I am glad you are a happy customer of iUniverse...that's great. But that doesn't negate any of the things I have said about them or the vanity press industry...or how they prey on the desperation and gullibility of aspiring authors, whether you want to make a living as one or not.

She also wrote:

All that speculations about my personal circumstances are nothing more than a demonstration of pointless arrogance. I did not sent you an email to seek some sort of validation from you, to ask your advice or to open my eyes to the "truth". It was the  fact that in your obsessive--smart ass attitude towards  iuniverse--you forgot, or failed to make the distinction between the institution and the people who benefit from its existence. It shows certain lack of imagination when one can't separate one from the other. Pissing on people's parade (I have been too generous in using the conventional metaphor) is not the right way to get even with iuniverse or any other 'vanity press'.

 

Thank Goodness, we do not share the same perception of reality, for I do not live in your bubble.

Hell of a Good Book

For book lovers, the pleasure and discovery of browsing through a bookstore's shelves can never be replaced or replicated by visiting an online site.

A couple of months ago, I was browsing through an independent bookstore in Mendocino, California and happened upon HELL AT THE BREECH by Tom Franklin, which was published in 2003 and yet was still stocked on the shelves as a new title. Imagine a chain bookstore holding on to a title that long. I doubt I ever would have discovered the book otherwise.

I finally got around to reading HELL AT THE BREECH in two long, blissful sittings this week, finishing it at 2:30 this morning, invigorated and wishing the book wasn't finished. The experience was like re-uniting with an old lover. The pleasure of reading this fine novel brought back memories of all the hours I'd spent reading good books in my life....huddled in my sleeping bag in a cabin at Loon Lake, sitting on the boardwalk in Capitola, sunbathing on a chaise lounge at my grandfather's place in Palm Springs, lying in the bathtub with my head propped on a wet towel, laying in a hammock with my baby daughter asleep on my chest etc.... and all the associations that came with them, like the smell of suntan lotion, the fresh-caught trout in Nana's smoker, the soap bubbles in the bathtub, the baby lotion on my daughter's skin. A good book can do a lot more than simply entertain and pass the time.

HELL AT THE BREECH is one of those books. It's a wonderfully entertaining book, the best western I've read since LONESOME DOVE, though far be it for any of the critics who raved about it....and there were many...to concede it's a western. The closest anyone came was to refer to it as "historical fiction."

The book is full of vividly drawn, complex characters...violence, humor, and powerful imagery.  There are many moving scenes and darkly funny moments...and many masterful descriptions of people, places, expressions and emotions.  I often found myself re-reading passages just to experience the beautifully-evoked images and moments again...and to marvel at Franklin's prose, wishing I had his talent. It's a book that will make you eager to read another book to recapture that pleasure...and, if you are like me, it will inspire you to write.

The Mail I Get

Here's an example of how NOT to promote your book. I got this email today (I've removed the name of the book to spare the author justified embarrassment):

Dear Lee,

 

First I want to thank you for the opportunity of my book, The XYZ, being reviewed by you. I would be happy to send a copy of my book via UPS. Please forward a physical address where I may send it.

 

My website for the “The XYZ” is www.XYZ.com.

 

I look forward to both your thoughts and review.

 

If you have any questions or further information that you require, please contact me.

Does he really think that anyone would ask for a copy of his book after reading this email? The way he has awkwardly worded this email, it appears as if I have agreed to read his book when, in fact, I have never heard of him.  With writing and promoting skills like his ("thank you for the opportunity of my book"), it's no wonder that he's "published" by Authorhouse, the notorious vanity press... 

For pointers, he should read this    and this.

Sub-Prime Suspect

I finally caught up with the final episode of PRIME SUSPECT. Helen Mirren's performance was exceptional, as always...even more so when you consider what little she had to work with.  The mystery was ineptly constructed, the solution glaringly obvious within the first five minutes of the three-hour, outrageously padded, cliche-ridden bore. PRIME SUSPECT 7: THE FINAL ACT was far from a triumphant end to the once-great series.

Next up for me -- the return of CRACKER in what was also touted as his final case.

My Weekend Reading

I took a little literary vacation last week, taking a breather from my own writing to read the work of others. I read John Hart's DOWN RIVER (which won the Edgar for Best Novel) and Michael Chabon's YIDDISH POLICEMAN'S UNION (which was nominated for the Edgar).

DOWN RIVER was a fine book, and I enjoyed it, but I didn't find the twists all that surprising and cringed every time the hero, Adam Chase, asked someone to "cut to the chase," which was way too often. Even so, it was an interesting and entertaining read...it felt like a literary take on a typical Gold Medal paperback story.

THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN'S UNION was wonderful, wildly inventive, and a pure pleasure to read. It's a police procedural set in an alternate reality in which the atomic bomb was dropped on Berlin, Marilyn Monroe married JFK, and tens of thousands of Jews settled in Alaska while pining for a homeland of their own in Israel.  The story is about a troubled homicide detective (naturally) whose investigation into the murder of a junkie peels back the complex layers of society among the refugee Jews of Sitka. Chabon does an amazing job making his alternative history believable and creating a fully realized world without showing the strain. It's the most refreshingly original, funny, and compelling mystery I have read in years. I loved every page of it and was sorry when it ended.

Old is New Again

Variety reports that ABC has picked up David E. Kelley's American version of the hit BBC series LIFE ON MARS...only without David E. Kelley.

As for "Life on Mars," late Sunday a deal for the show hadn't yet been confirmed -- but now that "Boston Legal" has been given a primetime reprieve, it's believed a "Mars" pickup is close behind. That's because "Legal" creator David E. Kelley also owned the rights to the U.S. adaptation of "Mars." Kelley was looking to depart the project, while ABC was looking to continue it sans Kelley.

Hence, a weekend-long dance that finally appeared resolved by Sunday. "Legal" was back for a fifth season, while "Mars" is expected to continue as a 20th Century Fox TV/ABC Studios co-production. "October Road" exec producers Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg are in line to take over as showrunners.

Nikki Finke pretty much says the same thing on her blog, adding that BOSTON LEGAL is probably going to recast its supporting players yet again. Meanwhile, she reports that the CW has picked up the BEVERLY HILLS 90210 revival...and that Tori Spelling may be joining the cast.

Indiana Attorney General Prosecutes Airleaf

The Airleaf Victims blog reports the terrific news that Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter has filed a lawsuit against Carl Lau, founder of Airleaf and Bookman Marketing, for violating the state's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act by "taking money without providing the promised services in return."

"More than 120 people are named in the lawsuit, including many from Indiana who lost thousands of dollars,” said Carter. “In fact, hundreds more may have lost money. They paid for services. Airleaf did not deliver, and now, those consumers deserve refunds.”

[...]In addition to consumer restitution, the attorney general’s office is seeking civil penalties of up to $5,500 per violation, as well as investigative costs.

The action doesn't go nearly as far as the Airleaf victims would like -- or Lau deserves -- but hopefully it will send a strong message to the vanity press industry, especially those ex-Airleaf execs who have started their own POD-presses.  Writers Beware notes:

Airleaf has spawned several publishing enterprises run by ex-staff--including Fideli Publishing, a fee-based publisher whose marketing packages bear an eerie similarity to Airleaf's, and Brien Jones's Jones Harvest Publishing, which also charges fees for publishing and offers many Airleaf-style services (Writer Beware has gotten some advisories about Jones Harvest's email solicitations, and Mr. Jones has recently chosen to reimburse several Jones Harvest authors who alleged performance problems). If you trace the family tree backward instead of forward, you arrive at the Big Daddy of POD vanity publishing, AuthorHouse, where Brien Jones was employed before he co-founded Airleaf's predecessor, Bookman Marketing. It's a tangled web indeed--which, sadly, is not unusual in the murky world of vanity POD.

Unfortunately, many Airleaf victims haven't learned from their mistake...and have simply moved on to other POD vanity presses, including those run by former Airleaf execs.

The Mail I Get, The Sequel

I got an email the other day from a writer who had come up with a MONK scene he wanted me to read to see if either I, or the producers, would use it in a book or episode. The scene was attached to the email. I deleted the message without reading the scene (for obvious legal reasons). I sent him a note telling him that was what I had done. I also told him that there really isn't a market for individual scenes. He replied:

If it helps at all, I didn't write it with the thought of fiscal renumeration. Would it make any difference to consider it as a friendly collaboration among writers? You can have it. Tweak it, rip it up and start over, whatever. Frankly, with my career just getting off the ground (Some short fiction published, and I have a novel being reviewed by an imprint of Simon & Schuster), even giving this away is beneficial to building my 'name.'

It makes me cringe when aspiring writers think someone is going to be impressed that they sent their manuscript in to a publisher and are waiting to hear from them(ie "under review at Simon & Schuster"). But I let that go and didn't mention it when I replied:

No offense intended, but I have no interest in seeing the scene or any other MONK material you may come up with. And if I may give you some advice, sending unsolicited scenes to authors and producers you don't know is unprofessional and is actually harmful to your reputation.  The best way to build your name is by writing good stories and getting them published or produced...not sending "scenes" to other writers and hoping they will incorporate them into their own work.

 

The Mail I Get

I got this email the other day:

Have you ever heard of "Writers Book Publishing Agency"? That's the name. Seemed a bit generic to me, so I am suspicious. Their web page indicates that they are a reletively new lit agency, and are seeking authors. Having tried to obtain an agent for a year now, they sound too good to bet true. Their client list went like this: Joe, who is an electronic engineer wrote his first book.....etc....etc.  Mary, a housewife, is working on her second novel in which she.....etc.....etc. I know the authors need their privacy - but.......does this not sound suspicious to you?

Of course it does. And it should sound suspicious to anyone with an iota of common sense.

They are a well-known scam that has also gone by the the names "Children's Literary Agency," "The Literary Agency Group, Inc" and "ST Literary Agency," among others. Your first tip-off that they aren't legit should be their name:  "Writers Book Publishing Agency." What reputable agency would call themselves that? Agents aren't book publishers.

If the name of the company wasn't tip-off enough, you'll notice they don't list a single author among their clients, only plumbers, housewives and, well, other suckers.

Writer's Beware lists the "agency" among their top twenty worst agents. You can find out more about them here:

http://www.invirtuo.cc/prededitors/warnlag04.htm

How good does your writing have to be to interest the Children's Literary Agency?

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8286

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8312

http://cs.writermag.com/forums/67920/ShowPost.aspx

http://www.underdown.org/researching-agents.htm

                   

The Power of Frak

Glen A. Larson is a genius. I'm not saying that because he created KNIGHTRIDER, FALL GUY, BJ AND THE BEAR, AUTOMAN, ALIAS SMITH & JONES and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I'm saying it because he created  the wonderfully subversive word "frak"...and got away with it.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA should go down in TV history just for that.

While ground-breaking shows like HILL STREET BLUES were using words like "scuzbucket" and "hairball" to get around the network prohibitions on profanity, Glen gave us "frak" and "feldergarb." No one noticed, or seemed to care, that he gave us words that were clearly stand-ins for fuck and bullshit because it was buried in a goofy, sci-fi show. But now frak has fulfilled all it's awesome, subversive power in the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

There is no doubt whatsoever that "frak" is "fuck." And the writers on the show use it exactly as they would use fuck. Frak this. Frak us. What the frak is going on? Unfrakingbelievable. Frak me...frak me now. Motherfracker.

Used like this, is frak any less powerful that fuck? No. Which is the beauty of it. Every time it's used, it shines a big fucking light on the absurdity of censorship. Because frak IS fuck, and everybody knows it. So what's difference does it really make whether you use either frak or fuck? None. It's a big fuck you to network censors, the FCC, and the idiots who are afraid of language.

And Glen A. Larson, the man behind THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERIFF LOBO, gave us this. Pretty fraking amazing. He should get an Emmy just for that.

Monk Galley Giveaway

I have two extra, bound galleys for MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY which I will be giving away at random.

Here's the deal...post a review of your favorite MONK novel on Amazon and send me a copy of it by June 1st at:  lee AT Leegoldberg DOT com.

I will put the names into a hat and select two winners at random to receive a signed galley. Please be sure to include your snail mail address in the email. Winners will be announced here.

Scribe Awards and How You Can Enter

The Fourth Annual Scribe Awards are now open for submissions. The Scribes, presented by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (www.iamtw.org), honors excellence in licensed tie-in writing—novels based on TV shows, movies, and games. Here are the submissions guidelines:

The Scribe Awards and How You Can Enter

The IAMTW will present SIX AWARDS in THREE CATEGORIES for books (& comic books and graphic novels) published in 2008. We will also honor one "Grandmaster" for career achievement in the field.


SPECULATIVE FICTION (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Supernatural Horror)

BEST NOVEL (original) - A licensed, original novel using pre-existing characters or worlds from a movie, television series, computer game, play, or an existing series of novels (i.e., new novels extending a literary franchise, i.e., DUNE, James Bond, etc.)

BEST ADAPTATION - A licensed novelization based on an existing screenplay, whether a feature film, episodic teleplay, computer game, script, or play.


GENERAL FICTION (Mysteries, Thrillers, Westerns, Suspense, Historicals, Psychological Horror, Romances)

BEST NOVEL (original) - A licensed, original novel using pre-existing characters or worlds from a movie, television series, computer game, play, or an existing series of novels (i.e., new novels extending a literary franchise, i.e. DUNE, James Bond, etc.)

BEST NOVEL (adapted) A licensed novelization based on an existing screenplay, whether a feature film, episodic teleplay, computer game, script, or play.


YOUNG ADULT (All Genres)

BEST ADAPTATION (defined as above)

BEST NOVEL (original) (defined as above)



GRANDMASTER (For Career Achievement)

The Fine Print Regarding The Categories…

 

For a category to go forward, three submissions leading to at least two nominations must pertain. In the case of a category falling short of submissions and/or nominations, entries will be transferred to the nearest appropriate category -- for example, BEST GENERAL (Adapted) category would go into an overall BEST NOVEL (Adapted) category that would include both Speculative and General submissions. 

In the case of BEST ADAPTED (YA) or BEST ORIGINAL (YA), should submissions fall short of the minimal two nominations requirement, entries would shift into either BEST SPECULATIVE (Adapted) or BEST GENERAL (Adapted), depending upon the genre.

In the event a combining of categories becomes necessary in a given year (i.e., BEST NOVEL Adapted) the judging committee is authorized (but not required) to give more than one Scribe, reflecting the combined categories, if the committee members feel such recognition is warranted.

Horror entries have been divided into "Supernatural Horror" under SPECULATIVE and "Psychological Horror" under GENERAL. This is a judgment call the authors and then committee chairs must make, depending upon whether a submitted horror novel is more grounded in reality than the fantastic. Should a committee chair reject a title on this basis, the chair will forward all copies of the submitted book to the appropriate committee chair, and inform the author of the decision.

Should the author already have submitted another title to the other committee, the author will be given the opportunity to choose which of the two titles he or she wishes to have considered (since we have a one-book-per-category submission limitation).

The future of the Special Game-Related Scribes will be decided after this year's Gen-Con. If we decide to continue this award, game-related submissions in the Speculative Original and Adapted Categories will be simultaneously considered by those category judges for the "Best Game-Related" Scribes. A gaming-related book submitted in those categories is simultaneously eligibl