Friday, June 26, 2009

Scribe Awards Ceremony Announced

Third annual presentation of the International Association of Media-Tie-in Writers (IAMTW) "Scribe" Awards, honoring excellence in tie-in writing in such notable franchises as CSI, Criminal Minds, The X-Files, Star Trek, Stargate, Star Wars and Dr. Who, will be held on FRIDAY JULY 24 3-4:30 pm at Comic-Con in San Diego in Room 4. The ceremony will be followed by a panel discussion with the nominees, including James Rollins (Indiana Jones), Matt Forbeck (Mutant Chronicles), Bob Greenberger (Hellboy), Keith R. A. DeCandido (Farscape), Stacia Deutsch (Dark Knight), Nathan Long (Warhammer), Tod Goldberg (Burn Notice). With moderators Lee Goldberg (Monk) and Max Allan Collins (GI JOE).

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Tied-In

(Cross posted from Lee Goldberg's blog)

Today at the California Crime Writer's Conference several writers sheepishly asked me "so, how do you get into this tie-in business?" as if they were asking me how to get into writing porn movies. Now that the book biz is tightening up, and mid-list writers are being dropped all over the place, tie-ins are beginning to look good to some authors who never would have considered them before.

The same thing happened to me during the WGA writer's strike...writer who once gave me a hard time about doing the MONK & DIAGNOSIS MURDER books while I was also writing & producing TV shows would say to me that they were "interested maybe trying that tie-in thing, you know, just for fun." Not because they needed a job, of course, but "just for fun." Uh-huh.

For some reason, when times are hard for writers, tie-ins get a lot more respect. I don't know why...for that matter, I don't understand why writers regard them with disdain when times are good. But that's one of the reasons Max Allan Collins and I formed the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers a few years ago...to educated people about tie-ins and to gain more respect for the genre. Slowly but surely, the organization is making a difference.

Speaking of which, there's an Q&A interview with me over at Talking With Tim about the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and tie-in writing. Here's a taste:

the reason more creators don’t try to keep their TV series alive in print after cancellation is because publishers simply aren’t interested, which is no surprise if you think about it. The incentive for publishers to do tie-ins is to capitalize on the huge audience that a hit show draws and the enormous publicity that surrounds it. It also offers a level of confidence in what ordinarily would be a gamble. The book is, in essence, a pre-sold concept with a built-in audience and supported by millions of dollars worth of FREE promotion. The TV show itself, as well as the advertising and promotion that the network does, becomes free publicity for the books. Success, wide recognition, a strong concept and major promotion are what makes a publisher interested in tie-ins.

But once a show is cancelled, the incentive to do tie-in books instantly evaporates...

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Behind the Music of BURN NOTICE: THE END GAME

(Reposted from Tod Goldberg's blog)

It's hard for me to believe this, but my first tour of duty on Burn Notice is just about over -- pending, of course, a new contract -- as today is the official release date of my second Burn Notice novel, The End Game. I am about 30 days from being done with my third Burn Notice novel, called The Giveaway and that will then be 18 months, 3 books and 180,000 words. The publisher hasn't told me if there will be more, though I understand the first one has done well and the fans seem to like it and it was critically well received, which is always nice. Writing these books is certainly a different kind of experience for me -- I write them very, very quickly. More quickly than I'd like, really, but the turn-around time on them is such that I really only have about three months to write each one and have a normal life in-between. And by normal life, I of course mean a normal writing life, which in this case means that while I wrote those three books these last 18 months, I also completed a new short story collection -- Other Resort Cities -- which will be out in October and which I am exceptionally excited about as well, wrote dozens of book reviews and essays and articles and also have a day job directing an MFA program in creative writing. So it's been a challenge to write quickly and lucidly while keeping the voice of Michael Westen in my head all the while. 


So, The End Game. Here's a little Behind the Music on it:

I knew I wanted to do something somewhat sports related and so Wendy and I hatched the basic plot one evening over pizza. I had the plot of the novel written on scraps of receipts and such and when I presented it to Matt, he liked it but also suggested I talk to Rashad Raisani, a staff writer on the show, who had a similar idea that was just too expensive to shoot. That week I came into the BN production offices for a couple of days while they broke the episodes of the second season so that I could get the flavor for the changes the show was going to take, as well as get an idea where the show was going in season three, too, since obviously my books are written not at the precise same time that the show is written. (For instance, I've been getting the scripts for the 3rd season over the course of the last month or so, but by the time I turn in The Giveaway, I'll probably have only seen the first 9 episodes on paper.) Rashad kindly gave me the notes he'd written up about these very cool yacht races and I incorporated some of that research into the book, plus I picked his brain on a few ideas I had on the caper itself, since that had been one of the things he was still trying to work on when they ditched the idea. So it was very cool to have someone who basically was on the same wave-length with me before I actually started the writing.  I then spent three months writing the book...and then I wasn't happy and added a new chapter from Fiona's pov when the copyedits came in, which probably didn't thrill my publisher, but it felt like something was missing. I've been tinkering a lot with adding different povs into the books -- Sam's, Fiona's, and in this new book I'm writing, you get the client's pov for a chapter, too -- because that's the one thing I'm really able to do that you can't get on the show. Plus, it's fun for me as a writer. Writing in the same voice in back to back books, as I did essentially with The Fix and The End Game, which were written with very little break in between, can be boring, frankly, so in order to stay inspired and excited about a project, writers trick themselves on their down days, they add new POVs, they blow up a boat, they kick someone in the head, they bring in a new character, whatever. 

As in The Fix, there are a couple of inside jokes for folks in the know. A villain is named for two friends of mine, one of whom is a big time famous author. A mutual friend of mine and Matt Nix's shows up briefly, by full legal name at least, The husband of a well-known romance-author-friend of Wendy's appears as a former NSA agent. Two other friends end up as one very odd therapist (the same two friends also ended up in The Fix as an odd character named James Dimon...but now I've used all of their combined names, so they won't be in the next book...I guess I better make some more friends...) and several sentences begin "when you're spy" because, dammit, that's what the people want and I am a people pleaser. 

(Though, despite that, I'm not going out on the road to please the people for this book as it unfortunately is being released right when the new book is due. But fear not people, as I'll be touring the world in the fall for Other Resort Cities and will happily sign all the Burn Notice books you'd like. But if you really want a signed copy of The End Game, I suggest you contact the wonderful people at eitherMysterious Galaxy or the Mystery Bookstore, both of whom have a bunch of signed stock. )

Monday, May 4, 2009

Star Trek Screenwriters Pick Their Favorite Tie-Ins

The LA Times asked Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, screenwriters of the new STAR TREK movie, to pick their favorite TREK tie-in novels. Their choices were:
"Best Destiny" by Diane Carey (Pocket Books, 1993). "A beautiful imagining of Kirk's childhood and how it shaped him to love the stars." 
 
"Spock's World" by Diane Duane (Pocket Books, 1988). "If Mr. Spock is your favorite character, this is amust read. The relationship he forges with Dr. McCoy finally gets the nuanced treatment it deserves."
 
"Prime Directive" by Judith and Garfield Reeves Stevens (Pocket Books, 1990). "One of the best incarnations of the original bridge crew, with every character given equal consideration and full development, against the backdrop of a real-deal science fiction story." 
 
"Ex Machina" by Christopher L. Bennett (Pocket Books, 2004) "A great example of how a 'Trek' novel can fit within 'canon' while existing between the movies we love."


Sunday, April 26, 2009

Tying-in at LA Times Festival of Books


IAMTW Members Tod Goldberg (BURN NOTICE), William Rabkin (PSYCH) and Lee Goldberg (MONK) signed their books at the Mystery Bookstore booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. BURN NOTICE creator Matt Nix (pictured below with Tod Goldberg) made a surprise visit and signed some books for delighted fans.  

Thursday, April 23, 2009

The End Game Has Got Game

IAMTW Member Tod Goldberg's BURN NOTICE: THE END GAME got a rave from Rod Lott at Bookgasm, who says, in part:
It is fun, capturing the show’s joyous, jubilant essence, but not, sadly, shots of well-endowed women in bikinis. [...]The book is quick, snappy and forever mirthful — just like its source material. And until that starts back up in the summer, this is a fine substitute for a weekly fix.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Appreciating Garforth's Avengers

Novelist & TV writer Stephen Gallagher (perhaps best known here for creating THE ELEVENTH HOUR) stumbed on tie-in writer John Garforth's blog:
Garforth wrote four Avengers novels for Panther Books in 1967. Two years earlier Hodder and Stoughton had put outDeadline and Dead Duck, two rather classy tie-ins written by Peter Leslie but with Patrick Macnee credited as their author... which seemed as transparent and ludicrous to my eleven-year-old self as it does now.

Both had their virtues. Leslie's books read like a literary source from which the show might have been adapted; Garforth's Panthers were shorter, racier, and had a more contemporary feel to them. All were true tie-ins as opposed to novelisations; which is to say, they were original works based on the series' characters, and not pre-existing scripts adapted into prose form.

Check out Stephen's appreciation and, of course, Garforth's blog.

Monday, April 6, 2009

On An Award Tour With a Mic in my Hand

(reposted from Tod Goldberg's blog)

I keep forgetting to mention that I'm a finalist for (which means I'll lose) a Scribe Award for my first Burn Notice book, The Fix. The IAMTW gives these awards in recognition of excellence in writing tie-ins and such, which means, essentially, I am excellent. Or I am a finalist to be excellent. Typically, I lose these kinds of awards (there was the LA Times Book Prize, the SCBA Award, the 57,000 Pushcart Prize nominations that have garnered me 2 Special Mentions etc. etc. etc.), though I did win the Other Voices Short Story Collection Prize, which was awesome,  and I once won a free dinner at Quiznos at a raffle, so, yeah, close, but not excellent.

At any rate, the awards are given out in July at Comic-Con, which means I now have a reason to bust out my V uniform and full regalia, so that's cool, and I'd like to fucking win for once, okay? In case I don't, however, the good people at Las Vegas CityLife, where I'm a book critic,interviewed me on the topic on their blog today:

JKBurn Notice is a great property, but what other TV shows, films and games are you itching to tackle?

TG: None. I wasn’t itching to tackle Burn Notice, but the show runner, Matt Nix,[and I] have known each other for a long time, I love the show and when it was offered to me it sounded like a ton of fun, which it has been. So I don’t see me writing any others, candidly, so don’t go running to the bookstore to read my take on, you know, My Two Dads: The Novel.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Scribe Award Nominees Announced



The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers is pleased to announce this year's nominees for the 2009 Scribe Awards, which honor excellence in licensed tie-in writing—novels based on TV shows, movies, and games. The nominees for this year's awards are:

Best General Fiction Original

BURN NOTICE: THE FIX by Tod Goldberg
CRIMINAL MINDS: FINISHING SCHOOL by Max Allan Collins
CSI: HEADHUNTER by Greg Cox

Best General Fiction Adapted

DEATH DEFYING ACTS by Greg Cox
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL by James Rollins
THE TUDORS: KING TAKES QUEEN by Elizabeth Massie
THE WACKNESS by Dale C. Phillips
X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE by Max Allan Collins

Best Speculative Fiction Original

GHOST WHISPERER: REVENGE by Doranna Durgin
RAVENLOFT: THE COVENANT, HEAVEN'S BONES by Samantha Henderson
STARGATE SG-1: HYDRA by Holly Scott & Jamie Duncan
STAR TREK: TEROK NOR, DAY OF THE VIPERS by James Swallow

Best Speculative Fiction Adapted

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY by Bob Greenberger
THE MUTANT CHRONICLES by Matt Forbeck
STAR WARS - THE CLONE WARS: WILD SPACE by Karen Miller
UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS by Greg Cox

Best Young Adult Original

DR. WHO: THE EYELESS by Lance Parkin
PRIMEVAL: SHADOW OF THE JAGUAR by Steven Savile
DISNEY CLUB PENGUIN: STOWAWAY! ADVENTURES AT SEA by Tracey West

Best Young Adult Adapted

IRON MAN: THE JUNIOR NOVEL by Stephen D. Sullivan
THE DARK KNIGHT: THE JUNIOR NOVEL by Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohen
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 3D by Tracey West

The highest honor the IAMTW can bestow is the Grandmaster Award, which recognizes a writer for his or her extensive and exceptional work in the tie-in field. This year's honoree is KEITH R.A. DeCANDIDO. He has written over thirty novels, most of them original tie-ins or novelizations. His work includes many Star Trek novels, as well as original books in the CSI: NY and Supernatural tie-in series, to name just a few.

The Third Annual Scribes will be awarded at a special ceremony at Comic-Con in San Diego July 23-29. (Specific date and time to be announced)

The IAMTW also awards two Special Gaming Scribes, honoring excellence in game-related tie-ins. Those awards are given at GenCon in Indianapolis August 13-16 2009 (http://www.gencon.com/2009/indy/default.aspx. Specific date and time of the ceremony to be announced) The nominees are:

Special Gaming Scribe - Best Original

EBERRON: THE INQUISITIVES, THE DARKWOOD MASK by Jeff LaSala
DRAGONLANCE: DEATH MARCH by Jean Rabe
EBERRON: THE DOOM OF KINGS by Don Bassingthwaite
WARHAMMER: ELFSLAYER by Nathan Long

Special Gaming Scribe - Best Adapted

THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT: BEYOND THE DARK PORTAL by Aaron Rosenberg & Christie Golden
THE MUTANT CHRONICLES by Matt Forbeck
METAL GEAR SOLID by Raymond Benson

For more information about the IAMTW (I AM a Tie-in Writer), please visit our site at www.iamtw.org

Congratulations to all the nominees and special thanks to all of our judges for their hard work.
(Pictured: Keith R.A. DeCandido)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Story of the Year

Unreality SF is a British web site dedicated to tie-in fiction of all sorts. In honor of their first anniversary, they held open voting to determine the "Story of the Year." After the nominating process, they listed the top ten vote-getters, and held another open vote to determine the winner. The nominees included novels and audio dramas, plus a short story, most in the realm of Star Trek and Doctor Who (the exception was a 4400 novel).

Yesterday, they announced the winner and full rankings:

1. Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night by David Mack
2. Doctor Who: The Eyeless by Lance Parkin
3. "Good Queen, Bad Queen, I Queen, You Queen" by Terri Osborne (in Doctor Who: Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership)
4. A Gutted World by Keith R.A. DeCandido (in Star Trek: Myriad Universes: Echoes and Refractions)
5. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Greater than the Sum by Christopher L. Bennett
6. The 4400: Wet Work by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
7. Doctor Who: The Raincloud Man by Eddie Robson (audio)
8. Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles: The Prisoner's Dilemma by Simon Guerrier (audio)
9. Doctor Who: Brotherhood of the Daleks by Alan Barnes (audio)
10. Doctor Who: Almost Perfect by James Goss