A Writer's Life

Mr. Monk and the Promo

My short story "Mr. Monk and the Seventeen Steps," an excerpt from my January 2011 novel MR. MONK ON THE ROAD, will be published in the December issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, which will be out in October. The editors of the magazine asked me to make a trailer for the short story. Don't ask me why. I think they were drunk. I must have been, too, because I went ahead and made it.

 

The Glades

Bill Rabkin and I wrote Sunday night's episode of the hit summer series THE GLADES on A&E. Our episode is called "The Girlfriend Experience" and I hope you enjoy it.  Our next episode, "Booty," is shooting now and will air sometime in September.

The Triumphant Return Of The Goldberg Brothers Band...Plus A Rabkin

From my brother Tod's blog...

Yes, the rumors you've heard are true: My brother Lee and I are putting the Goldberg Brothers Band back together for a limited engagement summer tour. We'll be playing all of our hits, a bunch of the B-sides you used to love, the songs with the backward masking and, of course, we intend to do our patented Hot August Night show where we cover, in full, Neil Diamond's original live album of the same name. And despite Lee's late career marriage to Cher, his weight gain and the time he spent in prison for cutting a fan with his glass-beaded shirt, folks I swear he still rocks. It all starts this coming weekend and then all of August will be spent hitting some pretty major county fairs, parks with well-lit gazebos (Pioneer Park in Walla Walla, I'm talking to you!) and then one final night at the Cow Palace. Scorsese is filming that one for a concert film.

We'll be joined by William "Billy The Axe Man" Rabkin for a few dates, too, so keep your radio tuned to your favorite AM rock station for the details. 

Here's where we'll be this coming weekend:

Saturday, Aug. 7th, 1pm

Mysteries to Die For

2940 Thousand Oaks Blvd.

Thousand Oaks, CA 91362

Lee will be signing his new Monk book (his 109th, I believe), Bill will be signing his new Pysch book, and I'll be signing my new Burn Notice book.

 Saturday, Aug. 7th, 4pm

The Mystery Bookstore

1306 Broxton Avenue

LA, CA 90024 (that's Westwood Village)

Same as above, but we'll have perfected our jokes and witty banter from the previous event. 

 Sunday, Aug. 8th, 1pm

Mystery Ink

7176 Edinger Avenue

Huntington Beach, CA 

Just me and Lee this time. Bill has a parole hearing that day. This is a new store, so there's a good chance it will just be me and Lee and no one else, really. So if you've ever wanted to have a private conversation with us about, you know, whatever weird shit happens to be on your mind, this is your chance.

 

Remaindered Cast

We've cast my short film REMAINDERED, which I wrote and will be directing in Owensboro, Kentucky in early September, thanks to Zev Buffman, Roxi Witt and all the other terrific folks at the RiverPark Performing Arts Center. 

Eric Altheide is Kevin Dangler, a once-bestselling author trying to get back to the top... 

Sebrina Siegel is Megan, his adoring fan (perhaps too adoring)

And Todd Reynolds is Detective Bud Flanek, Owensboro's answer to Columbo (as he also was in my buddy David Breckman's film MURDER IN KENTUCKY). Robert Denton and Lisa Baldwin play supporting roles. I can't wait to start working with these terrific actors, who were found thanks to the tireless efforts of our casting director Lori Rosas and our producer Rodney Newton.

I'll be keeping you updated on the production of the movie here and on the Remaindered Production Blog...and the Remaindered Facebook group. 

Mr. Monk Gets The Scoop

The folks at Gelati's Scoop like MR. MONK IS CLEANED OUT a lot. They said, among other things:

Lee Goldberg’s gift of humor is, I think, the main ingredient in making this series of novels work at such a high level. Taking such every day mundane situations or objects (like a bottle of water), and weaving them into a well-crafted novel that is moving and insightful from start to finish is no small undertaking, but he succeeds novel after novel. Mr. Monk Gets Cleaned Out is a fun summer read. It took the pain of missing the series out for me right away

Curiosities, the Curious Book News blog, also liked the book. They said, in part:

This highly entertaining tale takes place in San Francisco before the events of the show's final season It adroitly explores the obsessive-compulsive behavioral problems of the brilliant but flawed detective.[...]This is great fun if you were addicted to the popular television show - you don't even have to read others in the series to enjoy it.

Thanks to both blogs for the great reviews!

Mr. Monk Gets Some Love

Bill Crider blogged today about MR. MONK IS CLEANED OUT, a book that I am pleased to say that he enjoyed. He wrote, in part:

I keep thinking that Goldberg is going to run out of situations or new ways for Monk to react to the world, but he seems to be endlessly inventive. I found myself laughing out loud more than once in the course of the book. Monk's relationship with Natalie advances, too. I'm not saying anything more about that, but the relationship between them gets more complex with each book. This is fine entertainment, and I'm already looking forward to the next book.

Thanks, Bill!

Mr. Monk is Out

No, he's not gay. He's published.

MR. MONK IS CLEANED OUT, the 10th book in the series, is out today in bookstores everywhere.  

This is the last book that's set before the final season of the TV series...and takes place against the backdrop of the global financial crisis. Squeezed for money, the SFPD fires Adrian Monk as a consultant...again (you might recall it happened before in MR. MONK AND THE DIRTY COP). Monk figures he can live off his savings for a while. Then Natalie learns that Monk invested his money some time ago with Bob Sebes, the charismatic leader of Reinier Investments, who's just been arrested on charges of orchestrating a massive $100 million fraud. All of Sebes' clients-including Monk-are completely wiped out.

When the key witness in the government's case against Sebes is killed, Monk is convinced that Sebes did it, even though the man has been under house arrest with a horde of paparazzi and police surrounding his building 24/7.

In a sense, it's a classic "locked room" mystery...with a lot of other mini-mysteries thrown in.

The paperback edition of MR. MONK IN TROUBLE is also out. So that should keep MONK fans entertained until January, when MR. MONK ON THE ROAD...the first book set *after* the final season...is released.

Meanwhile, I am hard at work on MONK #13, tentatively titled MR. MONK ON THE COUCH, and its something of a departure from the whodunit structure of the previous books...but more on that later.

I'm Directing a Little Movie

The Owensboro Kentucky Messenger Inquirer had a story on July 4 about the short film I'll be directing there over three days in September.The film is based on my short story Remaindered, which was published a few years back in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine .

RiverPark Center officials are excited about the educational opportunities the film shoot will provide local students.

Roxi Witt, general manager of the RiverPark Center, said the film will give theater arts students the chance to participate in a project that they couldn't experience anywhere else.

"Lee is obviously very accomplished," Witt said. "He's also personable and easy to listen to. He's got some great stories, but has a lot of knowledge and is incredibly meticulous."

The movie's cast and crew will all be from Kentucky and there will be film students on the set watching the production...as well as working as grips and helping out with crowd control. I'll also be hosting a few seminars before, during and after production to give the students a glimpse into how TV shows are written, prepped, produced and edited. The finished film will be screened in October at the inaugural NDX Experience Film Festival in Owensboro. 

I owe this wonderful opportunity to my buddy David Breckman, who wrote, produced and directed a short film, Murder in Kentucky over four days during the International Mystery Writers Festival at the RiverPark Performing Arts Center in Owensboro last summer. He also used a local cast and crew. You can see David's movie here.

I had such a good time watching him and the crew at work that I was eager to try it myself, though without the pressure to do it all -- write, produce, and screen it -- in four days.  In my case, the script was written months in advance, we're taking a few weeks to cast and prep, and then we'll shoot over three days and take about three weeks to edit it.

The original intent was to shoot the movie and screen it at the Festival this summer. But state-funded Festival was postponed due to delays passing the state budget. 

However, thanks to the efforts of Festival organizers Zev Buffman and Roxi Witt, and their enthusiasm for the project, the film is going on anyway as part of a local theatre arts education program the RiverPark Performing Arts Center is involved with.  

I'll be using a lot of the same crew that David did...namely local producers Rodney Newton and PJ Stark...and actor Todd Reynolds, who played the cop in Murder in Kentucky and who will play the cop in mine, too. I think there should be a local ordinance requiring anyone who produces a crime film in Owensboro to hire Todd to play a detective.

I'll tell you more about Remaindered as the project progresses...

If you are interested in reading the short story that inspired the movie, it's in my collection Three Ways to Die, which is available on on the Kindle and it's on Smashwords, too, in every other e-format you can think of.

The Goldbergs Are Everywhere

 My brother Tod and I both have new books coming out next week. Mine is my tenth original MONK novel, MR. MONK IS CLEANED OUT  and Tod's is his third original BURN NOTICE adventure, THE GIVEWAY. You can read the opening chapter of Tod's book here. 

My Doctor Is In

There's a new interview with me up at Dr. Doug Lyle's Writer's Forensics Blog. But I should disclose that it's a biased interview...he's an old friend, he's given me medical advice on all of my books and many of my TV scripts, and he's also my doctor. Here's a brief excerpt:

DPL: What’s the hardest part of writing [tie-in novels]?

LG: Capturing the feel of the show, and the voices of the characters, while also kicking things up a notch. You have to offer the reader something more than they are getting from simply watching the show (or the reruns). It’s also difficult, particularly with a long-running series, to come up with stuff that the writers haven’t already tackled.

DPL: You have a new Monk book coming out July 3rd. What can you tell us about it?

LG: The book is MR. MONK IS CLEANED OUT and it’s the last book set before the finale of the TV series. This one is set in the midst of the current national economic crisis. The SFPD has to make draconian cutbacks to save money… so they fire Monk as a consultant. Monk figures he can live off his savings for a while. Then Natalie learns that Monk invested his money some time ago with Bob Sebes, the charismatic leader of Reinier Investments, who’s just been arrested on charges of orchestrating a massive $100 million fraud. All of Sebes’ clients, including Monk-are completely wiped out. Monk is broke…he can’t even afford to pay Natalie. So they end up taking all kinds of odd jobs. Meanwhile, when the key witness in the government’s case against Sebes is killed, Monk becomes convinced that Sebes did it, even though the man has been under house arrest with a horde of paparazzi in front of his building 24/7. I hope people have as much fun reading it as I had writing it!

Mr. Monk and the Nice Reviews

Now that the paperback of MR. MONK IN TROUBLE has come out, I've been getting a second wave of nice reviews for the book. For instance, here's a sampling of what Dana Mentink had to say on her blog: 

This book is a combination of satisfying mystery, hilarity and a shade of poignancy which is the flip side of Monk’s OCD. The reader is made aware every so often, that Monk’s gifts do not come without a price and at the core he is a lonely, frightened soul. Because he has Natalie, we can enjoy the fact that he cannot cut a pizza unless he’s brought along his string, compass, T square and level.

The fine folks at Gelati's scoop like the entire book series and say, in part:

The nice part of the novels for me is that Goldberg allows us to get inside the mind of Natalie as she helps Monk through the crisis du jour. Stottlemeyer, Disher, Natalie, & Monk take us on adventure after adventure through the course of the book series. Monk has gone to such locations as Hawaii, France & Germany. I found those installments to be some of Goldberg’s best work with the characters. Monk rarely leaves San Francisco, so I enjoyed the situations the cast of characters endured as Monk was being Monk, going on planes, trains and staying in different hotels (even numbers are a must). I think that through his narrative, Goldberg not only continued the characters’ story lines for us, but enhanced it and made them more enjoyable, believable, likeable and endearing.

And there's this rave of the German edition, MR. MONK UND MR. MONK from Swabian Touring Theatre. He says, in part and roughly translated:

When I heard this book was going back to 1850s, I was a little worried about how it would work. I should not have been. The flashbacks fit in seamlessly with the story and adds a whole new level of humor to the events. As always, the characters are sharp and the humor is wonderful. I laughed loudly and repeatedly. Nevertheless, there were some subtle character moments that made me really see things in a new light.

Thanks to all those bloggers for the great reviews!

Glen A. Larson

My 4 1/2 hour video interview with legendary TV producer Glen A. Larson is now up at the Archive of American Television site. It's also up on YouTube, were I snagged this introductory clip:

The Man with the Iron-On Badge Kindle-fied

"As dark and twisted as anything Hammett or Chandler ever dreamed up [...] leaving Travis McGee in the dust." Kirkus, Starred Review

 My favorite, and most acclaimed book, THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE, is now available in a Kindle edition. Up until now, this Shamus Award-nominated novel has only been available in a hard-to-find, out-of-print, hardcover edition.

It's about Harvey Mapes, a 26-year-old security guard who spends his nights in a guard shack outside a gated community in Southern California, reading detective novels, watching reruns, and waiting for his life to finally start. He gets the chance to become a "private eye" when a homeowner asks Harvey to follow his wife. The only problem is, Harvey has learned everything he knows about detective work from mystery novels and “Magnum PI” reruns. Harvey quickly discovers that the difference between fiction and reality could be fatal.

Here's just a sampling of the critical response:

"Approaching the level of Lawrence Block is no mean feat, but Goldberg succeeds with this engaging PI novel." Publishers Weekly 

“A wonderfully fresh voice in the mystery genre, Goldberg will delight fans of Janet Evanovich and Robert Crais,” - Rick Riordan, author of "Percy Jackson & the Olympians"

"Lee Goldberg bravely marches into territory already staked out by some fierce competition--Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block, the early Harlan Coben--and comes out virtually unscathed." The Chicago Tribune

"Goldberg has a knack for combining just the right amount of humor and realism with his obvious love for the PI genre and his own smart ass sensibilities. THE MAN WITH THE IRON ON BADGE is a terrific read. Goldberg is the real deal and should be on everyone’s must read list." Crimespree Magazine 

"The Man With The Iron-On Badge is a quick, fun read with a satisfying and unexpected ending. Harvey Mapes is a hero I hope we see in a sequel." -- Phillip Margolin, author of "Gone But Not Forgotten"

Breasts Breasts and More Breasts

Hot, naked breasts, swollen and aching to be touched by your lips.

That's just one of the delights that the Assistance League of Ventura County is offering at their 15th Annual Authors Luncheon.

We're talking chicken breasts, of course, which will be among the luncheon items offered at the event, which is being held at the Marriott Residence Inn at Oxnard River Ridge on Mon., Feb. 8.

I'll be speaking along with authors Lisa See, Zippora Karz and Diane Worthington. Borders will be selling all of our books at the event. Registration starts at 9:15 a.m., with the program beginning at 10 a.m. Lunch will be served, and a no-host bar will be available. The cost is $50, of which $29 is tax-deductible. Reservations are due by Sat., Jan. 30.

Proceeds from the fundraiser will be used to fund scholarships for five Ventura County college students.

The Assistance League, one of the county’s oldest philanthropic organizations, has been serving the children of Ventura County for 56 years.

Call (805) 643-2458 for more information.

Mr. Monk and the Thrill of it All

Chris Well at The Thrill of It All has given MR. MONK AND THE DIRTY COP some love. He says, in part:

Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop is a real-deal whodunit that will have you turning the pages as Monk puts each clue in its proper place. But at its heart, this isn't just a another book where Monk works through his OCD long enough to solve a murder mystery -- it's also a book that challenges some of our preconceptions about the relationships Monk has with Capt. Stottlemeyer and with Natalie. By the end of the journey, we've learned something about these people -- and they've learned something about themselves. Whether you're a fan of the TV show or not, Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop is a gem for any fan of mystery fiction.

Thanks Chris!

Mr. Monk and the Troublesome Review

Alan Cranis at Bookgasm has flattered me with a rave review for MR. MONK IN TROUBLE. He says, in part:

Once again, Goldberg expertly sails along the fine line of character quirks that make Monk so infuriating, and yet so endearing. His obsessions with order and cleanliness are on full display here. As usual, they are enough to make you want to give up on him completely and leave him to his scrubbing and reorganizing (as the long-suffering Natalie has often done). But, again as usual, Goldberg balances these irritations with enough reassuring humor and sheer crime-solving fun that you find yourself cheering for Monk by the conclusion.

But, wait — there’s more! The author includes several excerpts from Guthrie’s recollections of Artemis Monk and the crimes he solved in the old days of Trouble. These serve as full-fledged short stories within the novel — a sort of “Monk in the Old West” bonus, every bit as entertaining and fun as the present-day story itself.

Thanks, Alan!

Mr. Monk and the Bon Mots

I'm pleased to say that two more positive reviews for my MONK books have come in. One is from book critic Debra Hamel, the creator of the incredible Twitterlit feed (which tweets memorable first lines from books), who really liked MR. MONK IS MISERABLE. She says, in part:

As usual with this series, Mr. Monk is Miserable offers readers a winning combination, a good mystery wrapped in humorous dialogue and occasional bits of pathos. I am impressed by how consistently enjoyable the Monk books are.

My friend Ed Gorman got a few chuckles out of MR. MONK IN TROUBLE. He says, in part:

Lee Goldberg's story is rich with lore about the old Gold Rush in general and mining towns in particular. It is equally rich in Monk lore. I can't think of any other mystery character who makes me laugh out loud as often as Monk does. And in the current novel Monk is loopier than ever. Thank God.

Thanks Debra & Ed!

Book Fest Revisited

I just discovered that audible.com is selling a recording of my panel discussion with authors Stephen J. Cannell, Craig Johnson, Jan Burke, and Robert Dugoni at last years Los Angeles Times Book Festival for $5. I haven't heard it yet, but people said nice things about it and I'm sure it will kill the time pleasantly next time you're stuck in a traffic jam or if you're burning calories on a treadmill. 

Mr. Monk and and the Epinion

 Mark Baker at epinion has given MR. MONK IN TROUBLE a thumbs-up. He says, in part:

I often found myself laughing out loud or at least chuckling and smiling as I went through the book. But it isn't all laughs. Mr. Goldberg always does a great job with these characters, and he allows us several moments that are very touching and even enlightening about them. They continue to be real people very recognizable to fans of the TV show.

[...]I have enjoyed these books so much, I don't completely feel like I've lost Monk yet.

Thanks, Mark!

Kindle Virtual Stocking Stuffers

 You've bought a Kindle as a Christmas present for that special someone. Now all you need are some good, cheap books to take it for a "test read." Look no further, my friend. My 2004 novel  THE WALK is now available in a $1.99 Kindle edition. Here's the dust jacket copy:

It's one minute after the Big One.  Marty Slack, a TV network executive, crawls out from under his Mercedes, parked outside what once was a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, the location for a new TV show. Downtown LA is in ruins. The sky is thick with black smoke. His cell phone is dead. The freeways are rubble. The airport is demolished. Buildings lay across streets like fallen trees. It will be days before help can arrive.

Marty has been expecting this day all his life. He's prepared. In his car are a pair of sturdy walking shoes and a backpack of food, water, and supplies. He knows there is only one thing he can do ... that he must do: get home to his wife Beth, go back to their gated community on the far edge of the San Fernando Valley.

All he has to do is walk. But he will quickly learn that it's not that easy. His dangerous, unpredictable journey home will take him through the different worlds of what was once Los Angeles. Wildfires rage out of control. Flood waters burst through collapsed dams. Natural gas explosions consume neighborhoods. Sinkholes swallow entire buildings. After-shocks rip apart the ground. Looters rampage through the streets.

There's no power. No running water. No order.

Marty Slack thinks he's prepared. He's wrong. Nothing can prepare him for this ordeal, a quest for his family and for his soul, a journey that will test the limits of his endurance and his humanity, a trek from the man he was to the man he can be ... if he can survive The Walk. 

"Harrowing and funny..."
—Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 

"Lee Goldberg's hard-to-classify but not-be-missed The Walk, set in the aftermath of a major Los Angeles earthquake, pokes fun at the TV industry in the midst of disaster..."—Jon Breen, The Year In Mystery and Crime Fiction, 2004  

There are also a bunch of my previously out-of-print novels available now on the Kindle, including MY GUN HAS BULLETS, BEYOND THE BEYOND,  and my very first book .357 VIGILANTE, all priced at $1.99.

Mr. Monk and the Strong Start

The hardcover of MR. MONK IN TROUBLE and the paperback of MR. MONK AND THE DIRTY COP were both off to very strong starts in sales last week. TROUBLE hit #9 on the Barnes & Noble mystery hardcover list and #35 on the Borders hardcover bestseller list. Meanwhile, DIRTY COP hit #38 on Borders mass market mystery bestseller list,  #3 on the B&N mystery mass market list, and  #31 on B&N's overall mass market bestseller list. Thank you so much, Monk fans!

"Mr. Monk In Trouble" in Bookstores Today

 My ninth original "Monk" novel, MR. MONK IN TROUBLE, is arriving in hardcover in bookstores everywhere today. This book was especially fun for me to write. It gave me a chance to dabble in westerns, something I've always enjoyed reading but, until now, had never tried writing before. The story in MR. MONK IN TROUBLE bounces between the 1850s and present-day, between Monk's ancestor Artemis Monk (an assayer in a California Gold Rush town) and the Adrian Monk that we know and love.

I did a lot more research than I usually do for a Monk book. I took a week-long road trip through some California gold rush towns, took a bunch of pictures, then read a lot of books on the Gold Rush and frontier life in general, and mining techniques in specific. Once I got down to the actual writing, I imposed on the kindness of novelist Richard Wheeler, who has written some of the best westerns ever, to read some early drafts of the western sections to make sure that I wasn't embarrassing myself. I am tremendously flattered that he enjoyed the final result. He left this comment on my blog the other day:

I read Mr. Monk in Trouble virtually nonstop and enjoyed every page. Lee Goldberg knows that the richest humor veers close to pathos, and that is one reason the novel succeeds so well. Who but Monk would hand out wet wipes to Trick-or-Treaters? Natalie is greatly put-upon by her boss, but responds with stoicism, humor--and love. Some of the fun here is that the book takes us into the past, where Monk's ancestor Artemis is an assayer in a mining district and deals with goldrush scalawags and swindlers with the usual Monkian genius. This is much more than entertainment

I am so glad that he liked it and I hope that you will, too. And if you missed MR. MONK AND THE DIRTY COP when it came out last summer, now you can grab the paperback. Here's what some of the reviewers had to say...  

"After seven previous tie-in novels, it's safe (if not fairy obvious) to say that nobody knows the world of obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk better than novelist Lee Goldberg. But that doesn't mean he's become lazy or complacent. As MR. MONK AND THE DIRTY COP shows Goldberg is willing to take chances with the firmly established characters, and is still able to provide plenty of laughs and well-crafted entertainment." Alan Cranis, Bookgasm

"Sharp character comedy combined with ingenious and fairly-clued puzzle-spinning. [...]Don't miss Lt. Disher's hilariously non-sensical variation on Sherlock Holmes' 'eliminate the impossible' dictum." —Jon Breen, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

I've enjoyed all the Monk novels. Monk is my all-time favorite comic detective and Lee Goldberg has honored him by writing some of the finest tie-novels ever conceived. These have a richness of incident and backstory and place that give them real depth. And for me MR. MONK AND THE DIRTY COP is the best one yet." —Ed Gorman

FAST TRACK Webshow

Here's the edited version of the live, interactive FAST TRACK: NO LIMITS webshow I did a couple of weeks ago with actors Erin Cahill and Andrew Walker, automotive technical consultant Sam Barer, and callers/chatters from all over the world. I hope you enjoy it! 

Fast Track Webcast

 We had a few technical glitches on our first live, interactive webcast...and weren't able to record the FAST TRACK portion of the show. So we're doing it again this Sunday, Oct. 18, at 6 p.m. I'll be joined by FAST TRACK stars Erin Cahill and Andrew Walker. If you would like to watch, or participate by chat, here's the link. If you would like to join us on camera, via webcam, please send your Skype username to info AT expandedentertainment.com or forward it to me at lee AT leegoldberg.com and I will get it to them.

The Lee Goldberg Show

If you missed my live, interactive webcast last week, now you can catch the archive version. I've posted the first half of the show, where I talked about MONK with my special guest David Breckman (writer-producer-director of MONK), in three parts on YouTube or you can download it here. Unfortunately, there were technical problems at the studio and the second half of the live show, where I talked about my movie FAST TRACK, wasn't recorded.

.357 Vigilante #3: White Wash

After inexplicably holding up the book for over a month, Amazon has finally made available the Kindle edition of my long out-of-print novel .357 VIGILANTE #3: WHITE WASH.

Now ALL of the VIGILANTE novels I wrote back in the mid-1980s have been released, including the never-before-published fourth book, which got caught up in the publisher's bankruptcy. (All the books are also available at Smashwords and Scribd for those of you with other e-readers or who would like to download a PDF)

Here's the back-jacket copy on WHITE WASH:

A Clock Is Ticking -- And the Hands Are Dripping Blood! 

A red-leathered sadist with a hunger for black victims is talking the streets of Los Angeles -- leaving a trail of rapes, tortures and mutilations, which threaten to engulf the city in racial violence. And he's calling himself...Mr. Jury. 

Now vigilante Brett Macklin, the real Mr. Jury, is hitting the killing ground with just seventy hours to hunt down the deadly impostor and clear his name. All he has to do is take on an army of fanatical white supremacists, stop a news-hungry reporter from digging too deep into his past, and save a tough black cop from being buried alive. Time and luck are running out. 

"As stunning as the report of a .357 Magnum, a dynamic premiere effort [...] The Best New Paperback Series of the year!" West Coast Review of Books

Post-Game Wrap Up

I just got back from EB Live Interactive Webcast to promote my MONK books and the DVD release of my movie FAS T TRACK.  It was the first time Expanded Books has tried to pull off this feat --  a live web broadcast integrating text chats, live Skype webcam calls, in-studio hosts, pre-recorded clips, music, graphics, and virtual sets. And they asked me to be their guinea pig. 

Although there were a few technical glitches, made worse by my fumbling attempt at being a host, I thought it was a lot of fun. And scary, exciting, and embarrassing. My guests were MONK writer/producer/director David Breckman (who was in studio with me) and FAST TRACK star Andrew Walker and technical advisor Sam Barer (both via Skype webcam). My other guests were the people who called in by Skype webcam during the broadcast. I felt a little like an inept Ted Koppel, talking to people "face to face" in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Montreal...while also taking questions sent by "chat" (though my chat monitor kept blacking out). 

I have no idea how it turned out...I am supposed to be getting a copy of the show soon and I will post it here. My wife says it was a little rough, and at times I was fumbling, but overall it was fun and it seemed like we were all having a good time, and that compensated for the technical glitches.  I'm eager to hear what you thought of it. 

But what I found most exciting was the potential of this new technology. It's possible now for someone to have their own live talk show on the Internet...with guests from all over the world on camera ...and with the full participation of the virtual audience in ways television doesn't allow (the closest comparison is talk radio). And for a fraction of a TV budget. 

It will be interesting to see what happens after Expanded Books works out the kinks....they could really be on to something here beyond promoting authors and their books.

Murderous Musings

Author Jean Henry Mead interviewed me for the Murderous Musings blog and got me to blather on and on about myself and my books, something I hardly ever get a chance to do with my blog, my twitter page, my Facebook page, my... well, you get the idea. Here's an excerpt:

Lee, when did you realize you were a writer?

I've always known. When I was ten or eleven, I was already pecking novels out on my Mom's old typewriters. The first one was a futuristic tale about a cop born in an underwater sperm bank. I don't know why the bank was underwater, or how deposits were made, but I thought it was very cool. I followed that up with a series of books about gentleman thief Brian Lockwood, aka "The Perfect Sinner,” a thinly disguised rip-off of Simon Templar, aka "The Saint." I sold these stories for a dime to my friends and even managed to make a dollar or two. In fact, I think my royalties per book were better then than they are now.

More on Interactive Webcast

The folks at Maverick Entertainment have created this ad for the Oct 4, 6 p.m. interactive webcast, where I will be talking, and taking your questions, about the movie FAST TRACK and my MONK novels (Click on the image for a larger view). I'll be posting more details here over the next few days on how you can participate.

Mr. Monk and the Librarian

Gerard Saylor, librarian at the ND Fargo Public Library in beautiful downtown Lake Mills, Wisconson, really likes MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY and my buddy Scott Phillips' COTTONWOOD as you can see in his YouTube review, recorded in the soon-to-be-demolished library annex.

Live Author Chat/Interactive Webcast with Me

I'll be hosting a Live Author Chat/Webcast on Sunday, Oct 4 at 6pm PST...talking about my latest MONK book, MR. MONK IN TROUBLE & the Oct. 6 DVD release of my movie FAST TRACK: NO LIMITS. The cast of FAST TRACK is also scheduled to participate. But best of all, ANYONE ANYWHERE can join in by going to: 

http://live.expandedbooks.com/lee-goldberg 

Or you can talk to me, and everyone else who is watching, VIA WEBCAM...all you have to do is send an email first, with your Skype username, to: 

info@expandedbooks.com

Expanded Books will connect you via Skype so you can participate in the show....and be seen by people all over the world. 

Live Author Chat is a new service from Expanded Books that uses cutting-edge video streaming and television technology to broadcast author chats in real time, via the web. Each chat is a fully produced and customized live webshow where up to four people can communicate with each other simultaneously via video webcam while many more participate via chat and tens of thousands

 worldwide can watch. The conversation happens in real time, while the Expanded Books team directs the show from their studio in Los Angeles. You can expect a lively conversation between me at home, fans on webcams, and chat participants, while the directorial team switches between the four multiple webcams, book covers, clips from MONK & FAST TRACK, and much more. I hope you'll watch...or, better yet, take part in the fun!

UPDATE 9/26/09: We are doing a live test run of the broadcast this Sunday, Sept. 27 at 4 pm PST. Here's the link:

http://live.expandedbooks.com/channels/3/with_player. 

You are welcome to log in ...or send your Skype username to info@expandedbooks.com to participate by webcam.

Harvey Mapes Isn't Forgotten

I was stunned today to stumble on Ed Gorman's unexpected tribute to my novel THE MAN WITH THE IRON ON BADGE. He says, in part:

Iron-On is a book that will keep you laughing and smiling all the way through. If you have any affection for the private eye novel, this book should be required reading because in addition to gently spoofing the form it is a story so rich in character and story twists it's truly masterful.[...]But more than the comedy, the beautifully designed plot and the snapshots of La La Land--more than any other element in the book, it's Harvey's voice you'll remember. There's a workaday universality to it that gives the novel its wit and insight and truth.

Thank you, Ed. I'm truly flattered. It is my favorite book of all the ones that I've written. I hope that it's published in trade paperback someday...and does well enough to justify a sequel.

.357 VIGILANTE: #4 KILLSTORM

 KILLSTORM, the long lost fourth novel in the .357 VIGILANTE series...never before published, now available for the first time anywhere in this special Kindle Edition.

Brett Macklin faces his greatest adversary yet -- a ruthless, professional hit woman, seductress and master of disguise who launches a campaign of terror and bloodshed against him, pushing the vigilante to the emotional and physical breaking point, unleashing a bloody killstorm on the L.A. streets.

"As stunning as the report of a .357 Magnum, a dynamic premiere effort [...] The Best New Paperback Series of the year!" West Coast Review of Books

THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK

The adventures of Brett Macklin, the .357 VIGILANTE, were published by Pinnacle Books in 1985 as part of their popular line of "men's action adventure novels," which included such classics as THE DESTOYER, THE EXECUTIONER, THE PENETRATOR, and THE DEATH MERCHANT, to name just a few.

The first three books in the .357 VIGILANTE series were enormously successful. The movie rights were sold to New World Pictures. The fourth book, KILLSTORM, was only a few months away from publication in 1986 and a fifth novel was in the works...when Pinnacle abruptly went out of business.

For years, the .357 VIGILANTE books were locked up in a protracted bankruptcy proceeding before the rights to all the books, including the unpublished manuscript, finally reverted back to me.

Now, for the first time anywhere, KILLSTORM is finally "in print," twenty five years after it was written....

THE OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

.357 VIGILANTE

.357 VIGILANTE #2 MAKE THEM PAY

.357 VIGILANTE #3 WHITE WASH

and

.357 VIGILANTE: DIE, MR. JURY...all four books in one volume.

.357 VIGILANTE: DIE, MR. JURY

All of my out-of-print .357 VIGILANTE novels, including the never-before-published fourth novel KILLSTORM, have been compiled into one Kindle edition --- .357 VIGILANTE: DIE, MR. JURY. 

This is the complete saga of Brett Macklin, a one-man army fighting a war on terror on the streets of Los Angeles in the mid-1980s...

.357 VIGILANTE #1

.357 VIGILANTE #2: MAKE THEM PAY

.357 VIGILANTE #3: WHITE WASH

.357 VIGILANTE #4: KILLSTORM

"As stunning as the report of a .357 Magnum, a dynamic premiere effort [...] The Best New Paperback Series of the year!" West Coast Review of Books, 1985

You can also find the compilation on Smashwords and Scribd in multiple e-formats.

.357 Vigilante Returns....

I admit it...I've got the Kindle fever...and I've got it bad. I don't mean reading books on the Kindle, I mean creating Kindle editions of my out-of-print books. The idea of making easy money from stuff that was buried in boxes in my garage is too good to resist (thank you, Joe Konrath!).

So the 1985 "men's action action novel" .357 VIGILANTE #2: MAKE THEM PAY by Ian Ludlow is now available as a $2.99 Kindle edition. Here's the scoop on the book:

"As stunning as the report of a .357 Magnum, a dynamic premiere effort [...] The Best New Paperback Series of the year!" West Coast Review of Books 

 Brett Macklin is justice -- a one-man judge, jury and executioner, wiping out the L.A. street scum that the police can't catch, that the law can't hold -- dealing sweet revenge from the barrel of his .357 Magnum. Now Macklin's target is Wesley Saputo, child porn kingpin and murderer who has slipped through the courts time after time, only to kidnap, rape and kill again...and again. Macklin's mission: locate and brutally destroy Saputo before he finds another little girl blue...

This Kindle edition includes a special Afterword essay, "Hot Sex, Gory Violence: How One College Student Earns Course Credit and Pays His Tuition," which was originally published in Newsweek magazine and that explains the origins of the ".357 Vigilante" series and the "Ian Ludlow" pseudonym.

I've found the manuscripts for the other two books in the series, as well as the unpublished fourth novel, and will upload them over the coming weeks.

UPDATE: Here are some blog reviews of MAKE THEM PAY...from Chadwick Saxelid, S. Michael Wilson,  and Marty McKee.

I'm Going Kindle Crazy

I've just posted another old, out-of-print book of mine on the Amazon Kindle Store...my 1991 paperback Unsold TV Pilots: The Greatest Shows You Never Saw, which was the basis for the hour-long ABC special "The Best TV Shows That Never Were" and the hour-long CBS special "The Greatest Shows You Never Saw. It is now available in a special $2.49 Kindle edition. Here's the book jacket copy:

“The Best Bathroom Reading EVER," - San Francisco Chronicle

"A must-browse for media freaks.” —USA Today

“Irresistible and enthralling.” —Hartford Courant

“Full of fool’s gold and genuine TV treasures.” —The New York Post

This lively and entertaining book looks at the three hundred best and worst TV series ideas—known in the industry as "pilots"—that never made it to primetime. From the adventures of a Samurai D.A. to the antics of an invisible alien baby, Lee Goldberg details the greatest shows you never saw.

The paperback was originally published by Carol & Company and was an abridgment of my fat hardcover  "Unsold Television Pilots 1955-1989," which contained over 2000 pilots. Maybe some day I'll get around to making that big book into a Kindle edition, too.

My REVIVALS Revived...And Revived Again

My 1993 book TELEVISION SERIES REVIVALS is back... in trade paperback (as I mentioned last week) and now in a Kindle edition. I have no idea if Kindle users are interested in non-fiction, TV references books...but I figured I had nothing to lose by finding out. If it looks like they do, I may make my book UNSOLD TELEVISION PILOTS available for the Kindle, too, though that might actually take some time and effort on my part.

You Can Be a Kindle Millionaire, Part 7

Can you tell a book by its cover?

The original, St. Martin's Press cover for my 1997 novel BEYOND THE BEYOND was horrible. It was a giant penis bursting out of a TV set against a piss-yellow background. I'm not kidding. You can see it here. I know for a fact that it killed sales. I was sent on a national book tour and everywhere I went, the booksellers said "we can't stick that book in our window, there's a penis on the cover!"

So when I did the Kindle edition, I asked my talented and wildly creative sister Linda Woods, a professional artist and author (Journal Revolution: Rise Up & Create! Art Journals, Personal Manifestos and Other Artistic Insurrections), to design a new cover in the same style as the one she designed for the Kindle edition of my first book, My Gun Has Bullets (which also had a horrible St. Martin's cover when it was first published). BEYOND THE BEYOND is a sequel to MY GUN HAS BULLETS, so I thought some consistency was a good idea. Isn't that what branding is all about?

But while the Kindle sales for MY GUN HAS BULLETS have been brisk, the sales for Beyond the Beyond are flat. The culprit? I think it was the cover...again. It mayhave looked too much like the cover for My Gun Has Bullets and might have been confusing people into thinking it was the same book. 

So Linda has tweaked the cover for me. It's the one on the right. It will be interesting to see if a new cover makes a difference... 

Then again, maybe it's the book that sucks!

You Can Become a Kindle Millionaire, Part 6

Here are my Amazon Kindle sales figures and royalties for July as of today at 5:49 pm. All the titles are priced at $1.99, except for THREE WAYS TO DIE, which sells for 99 cents (Click on the image for a larger view):

I sold 444 copies of THE WALK and 54 copies of THREE WAYS TO DIE in June. If sales continue as they are, I'll fall a little short of those numbers this month (and far short of the Kindle sales enjoyed by Joe Konrath and John August, the authors who inspired me to do this). Even so, it's found money for an out-of-print book and a collection of three, previously-published stories.

Encouraged by even those small numbers, and with nothing at all to lose, I added Kindle editions of my out-of-print novels MY GUN HAS BULLETS on 7/14 and BEYOND THE BEYOND on 7/17.  It's too soon for me to draw any conclusions about how they are selling.

Why I Wrote BEYOND THE BEYOND

This article originally appeared in Mystery Scene Magazine back in 1997. I thought I'd repost it here to mark the publication of the Kindle edition. 

An awful lot of people in the television industry see shrinks. Those who don't, write novels.

Well, that's my theory, any way.

I figured it was either write a book, or go into psychoanalysis. Writing a book seemed like a better alternative, since you can actually make a few bucks while you sit and whine about how crazy the business is and what the craziness does to you.

I wrote my first novel, My Gun Has Bullets, while writing/producing a really terrible, syndicated action show. In that book, a good, decent cop named Charlie Willis is gunned down by a lunatic TV star on her way to a sale at Neiman-Marcus. To cover up the crime, the studio buys him off by making him the star of his own action series. But things go bad when someone loads his prop gun with real bullets and he kills his guest-star. I trashed everything and everyone that drove met nuts about the TV business...and there was a lot, having written and/or produced such series as Hunter, Baywatch, Spenser: For Hire, Cosby Mysteries and Diagnosis Murder, to name a few.

I felt a lot better after I wrote the book.

But I didn't get around to writing the sequel, Beyond the Beyond, until a couple years later, when I became a writer/producer on SeaQuest. Within weeks, I was getting email death threats from deranged fans, including one lady who was enraged weren't consulting her for advice or staying true to the "fanfic" (fan-written, self-published fiction). Another lady, calling herself an "Admiral in the United Earth Oceans," was convinced one of the characters in the show was in love with her.

Of course, it reminded me of what the actors and writers on Star Trek must go through (which I knew well, since many of my friends have worked on the show). And that reminded me that a spin-off of Star Trek was the cornerstone of a new television network. And that made me think about the whole Star Trek phenomenon...and the emergence of new TV networks...and the consolidation of media empires.

Before I was a TV producer, I worked as a reporter covering the entertainment industry beat for Newsweek, Starlog, American Film, Electronic Media, and Los Angeles Times Syndicate, among many others. During that time, I wrote extensively about the birth of the Fox Network and was the first person to break the story that Paramount was reviving Star Trek as an all-new, syndicated series. So I already had a lot of background in both the business of TV and the business of Star Trek and had given this stuff some thought before.

Suddenly, I felt a book taking shape...

What if someone bought a studio decided to use it to launch a new network? And what if the cornerstone of that new network was a revival of cult, 60s science fiction series – with an all-new cast? How would the lunatic fans and original cast react?

There was a story there...and I also had a lot more personal demons to exorcise now, too. And I was fresh from my experience on SeaQuest.

In Beyond the Beyond , Charlie Willis is now a special security officer for Pinnacle Pictures. When the studio revives the cult series Beyond the Beyond as the launching pad for a new network, two forces fight for control of the show, a vicious talent agency that uses blackmail, torture and murder to keep its clients on the A-list, and a homicidal legion of rabid fans led by an insane actor who thinks he's in outer space.

The publisher calls it a dark/comic thriller about TV. But I'll tell you a little secret: most of it is true, drawn either from my own experience or those of my friends in the TV business.

And like the first book, I felt great after I finished it... though somewhere out there a shrink is going hungry because of it.