Mr. Monk and the Finished Manuscript

It's 10:07 pm here in Los Angeles and I just finished writing my sixth MONK novel, MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY. This means I will be delivering my book to my publisher two weeks early, which will buy me a little time to relax before plunging into the outline for my seventh MONK novel.

MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY will be out in hardcover in June to coincide with the summer season premiere of the TV series.

My fifth MONK novel, MR. MONK IN OUTER SPACE, comes out in hardcover later this week...which is a bit of an experiment, since this will be the first MONK book release that doesn't coincide with a MONK season premiere. It will be interesting to see how the book fares without the benefit of the promotion that accompanies the TV show (but my fourth MONK novel, MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS, comes out in paperback in January, when the new episodes of MONK return).

To The Max

IAMTW co-founder Max Allan Collins optioned his graphic novel JOHNNY DYNAMITE to Dick Wolf Productions for a new TV series. And in more good news for Max, Publishers Weekly has given his new book, DEADLY BELOVED, a rave review. They say, in part: "Collins skillfully ties up a multitude of branches into a big bloody bouquet one would expect from the author of THE ROAD TO PERDITION. Sharp and satisfying, this is another must-have for fans of the Hard Case Crime imprint."

DOUBLE THE FUN

There appear to be two tie-in novels on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction best-seller list for 10/7/07.

Jonathan's Story (by Julia London and I) at #7, a tie-in to the daytime soap, Guiding Light; and Dexter in the Dark at #11, a tie-in to the returning cable drama, Dexter.

If you want to stretch a point, you can even consider #9, Bones to Ashes a sort of tie-in, though, in this case, the forensic book series predates the TV series, Bones.

ALINA ADAMS

HBO Embraces Tie-Ins

When you think of tie-ins, you probably imagine one movie novelization or one of the hundreds of STAR TREK original novels. But now tie-ins are going up-market. Publisher's Weekly reports that HBO is aggressively developing it's TV tie-in publishing program. They are hoping to repeat the success of cleverly-packaged and hugely successful books like SEX AND THE CITY: KISS AND TELL, which was sold in a fake alligator shoebox.

HBO v-p of licensing and retail James Costos, who joined the company in July 2006, said he has a mandate to “raise awareness for all of our licensed merchandise, which certainly includes books.” Costos said the cable channel is looking to highlight the HBO book line by taking advantage of its midtown New York retail store, Web site and newsletters, as well as through its broadcasts.

Almost all of the HBO titles come from Melcher Media and the distinctive packaging of their tie-ins come with a hefty price-tag for consumers. But that hasn't slowed sales. In fact, it's a selling point.

Melcher Media president Charles Melcher contends that HBO titles “reinvented the TV tie-in, which used to be priced under $20 and mostly filled with old scripts.” HBO titles like Deadwood: Stories of the Black Hills or Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Book, said Melcher, can sometimes feature scholarly research but, most importantly, they all have the complete involvement of the shows' casts of actors.

“HBO wants the books to be more than just a way to make money,” Melcher said. “They want their creative people to be happy. Like the TV shows, these aren't just books; they're HBO books.”

Upcoming HBO tie-in titles getting the "high-end" treatment are The Sopranos: The Complete Book, ' Entourage: A Lifestyle Is a Terrible Thing to Waste, and Rome.

“The books are an extension of the shows and a natural must-have for fans and viewers. The revenue will follow if we continue to deliver quality books,” said Costos.

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

Julia London, a NYT best-selling romance author, tried her hand at tie-in writing this summer, co-authoring "Jonathan's Story," as part of television's oldest soap opera, "Guiding Light's" 70th Anniversary celebration.

Julia writes on her site:

This was a classic “work for hire” situation: the Guiding Light crew wanted a book with a specific story, and they needed an author to write the book. I was approached about writing the book by my publisher, who had a detailed plot the Guiding Light folks had developed, and one that would tie in to their show....So then I took the Guiding Light outline and turned it into a novel. The turnaround was much quicker than I am accustomed to, but I had lots of help from several people at my publishing house and at Guiding Light, who read the book numerous times to make sure it was true to their characters and their show. The result was a collaborative process, and I think the end product is good.

While writing a tie-in was a new process for Julia, NOT writing one was new for me. I had written GL's sister soap, "As The World Turns," tie-in novel, "Oakdale Confidential," the previous year (though, in the first edition, for storyline purposes, I'd been credited as "Anonymous").

This time around, a newborn daughter limited me to merely writing the detailed, chapter by chapter outline based upon a story idea provided by the show, then, at the end of the game, polishing Julia's final draft to make sure it sound like "Guiding Light." I had one baby at home, but this was my first time handing off another "baby" to a total stranger to do with as she liked!

Like Julia said, "Jonathan's Story" did prove to be a very collaborative process between writers, "Guiding Light" executives and publisher. Read Julia's take about it on her blog, then check out my version in the next issue of the Tie-In Writers Newsletter -- coming this Fall!

ALINA ADAMS

Another Tie-In Writer

You can add the name of best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Herman Wouk to the list of tie-in writers. SLATTERY’S HURRICANE is something of an oddity in Wouk’s career. It’s usually not included in the lists of his novels, and I’d never even heard of it until I happened to run across a copy recently. As it turns out, this paperback original published in 1956 is a novelization of a 1949 movie based on a story by Wouk that was published in the slick magazine AMERICAN. Why there was a seven-year gap between the movie and the novelization, I have no idea. But while this is a minor work compared to Wouk’s blockbusters like THE CAINE MUTINY and THE WINDS OF WAR, it’s a highly entertaining book and well worth reading.

2007 Scribe Award Winners Announced

The winners of the Scribe awards were announced late Sunday afternoon at the San Diego Comic-Con. The convention is in its 38^th year and drew more than 120,000 attendees.

The winners are:

· Speculative Fiction, Best Novel Adapted—Superman Returns by Marv Wolfman

· Speculative Fiction, Best Novel Original—30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead by Stephen Niles and Jeff Mariotte

· General Fiction, Best Novel Adapted—Snakes on a Plane by Christa Faust

· Best Novel Original—Las Vegas: High Stakes by Jeff Mariotte

· Young Adult All Genres, Best Novel—Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Portal Through Time by Alice Henderson

· Grandmaster, honoring career achievement in the field: Donald Bain

Max Allan Collins, president of IAMTW, said: "The San Diego Comic-Con is the perfect place to kick off our Scribe Awards. It's a virtual world's fair of popular culture, and the members of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers deal with some of the most famous fictional characters of all time."

The IAMTW was formed in 2006 by Collins, author of Road to Perdition and the USA Today bestselling CSI novels, and Lee Goldberg, author of many Monk and Diagnosis Murder novels. The organization is dedicated to enhancing the professional and public image of tie-in writers and providing a forum for tie-in writers to share information, support one another, and discuss issues relating to their field. There are more than 150 members of the IAMTW, including authors active in many other professional writer organizations, including the Writers Guild of America, the Mystery Writers of America, the Western Writers of America, and the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Collins said: "We've banded together to bring recognition to individual excellence in our field, as well as to shine a light on all of the writers who create the books that put movies on the printed page, and bring popular TV characters to life in prose. Working with characters from another medium, created by other writers, is a challenging task. Readers worldwide have responded to these books by buying them in the millions, and the creative minds responsible deserve some applause."

About the winners:

Donald Bain is the author or ghost/author of nearly 100 books, many of them bestsellers. They encompass both fiction and non-fiction, and include such categories as murder mysteries, westerns, comedies, investigative journalism, food, business, psychology and historical dramatizations. Among his books, the airline comedy, Coffee Tea or Me?, published almost 30 years ago, together with its sequels sold more than five million copies worldwide and was the basis of a television movie-of-the-week. His current project, a series of more than two dozen original paperback murder mysteries for Signet, are written “in collaboration" with TV's most famous mystery writer, Jessica Fletcher of "Murder, She Wrote," who exists only as a fictitious character. He is married to Renee Paley-Bain, also a writer, who collaborates with him on the Murder She Wrote series.

Christa Faust calls herself a writer with a fetish for noir cinema, tattoos, and seamed stockings. Among her books are Snakes on a Plane, Final Destination III: The Movie, Friday the 13^th: The Jason Strain, A Nightmare on Elm Street #2: Dreamspawn, and Twilight Zone #5: Burned/One Night at Mercy, all published by Games Workshop.

Alice Henderson has been writing since her father gave her his old Underwood manual typewriter when she was six. From early on she wrote tales of the supernatural, spooking herself as she pounded away on the typewriter in her childhood turn-of-the-century house. Her passion for writing only grew, and she wrote her first novel at age eleven. She earned her B.A. in Literature and Language at Webster University, where she began writing screenplays. She once worked for Lucasfilm Ltd., where she wrote for video games, both manuals and strategy guides, including the manual for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. In 2001, she became a full-time freelance writer.

Jeff Mariotte has written more than thirty novels, including original horror epic The Slab, and Stoker Award nominated teen horror series Witch Season, as well as books set in the universes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Las Vegas, Conan, 30 Days of Night, Charmed, Star Trek and Andromeda and a novelization of the movie Boogeyman. He is also the author of more comic books than he has time to count, including the original Western series Desperadoes, some of which have been nominated for Stoker and International Horror Guild awards.

Stephen Niles is one of the writers responsible for bringing horror comics back to prominence, and was recently named by Fangoria magazine as one of its "13 rising talents who promise to keep us terrified for the next 25 years." Niles is currently working for the four top American comic publishers - Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse. Currently ongoing at Image is the creator-owned series Bad Planet with co-writer Thomas Jane, and The Cryptics with artist Ben Roman.

Marv Wolfman is known for his work in comic books, movies, television, animation, children's books, theme park shows and rides, video games, novels, and internet animation. His newest non-fiction book is Homeland, The Illustrated History of the State of Israel, which covers the founding of the country from the time of Abraham to the present. His novel, Crisis on Infinite Earths, based on his award-winning 1985 comic, was published April, 2005. The first printing sold out in less than three weeks and the second printing sold out a few weeks later. The trade paperback was released in April, 2006. Superman Returns was published June, 2006.

For more information on the Scribe awards or IAMTW, contact Max Allan Collins, macphilms@hotmail.com

Unplug Me

Beguiled by the wily suggestions of Rich Dansky, the fine folks over at Storytellers Unplugged asked me to join their hearty crew of professional writers, editors, and other assorted scalawags. In a moment of dumbfounded excitement—which kept me from begging off due to my soul-crushing deadlines—I accepted.

In the ensuing blizzard of e-mails, I realized that I'd been shanghaied into—ah, signed up for—providing a short essay for the website, once a month, on a particular day. Joe Nassise, who's in charge of the whole shebang, whip-cracked me with the 21st. That starts this month or, as the kids say, today.

So, stop by Storytellers Unplugged and check out my first essay for the crew. While you're there, be sure to poke around and see what the other press-ganged souls have come up with too.

Getting the Last Word

My novel THE LAST WORD is coming out next week... it's the eighth and final book in my tie-in series based on DIAGNOSIS MURDER, a show I also wrote and produced. Reviews are starting to come in and some fans/critics are surprised and a bit shocked by what I wrote. Some have called it "too dark."

I don't think it's any darker than THE PAST TENSE (#5) or THE DOUBLE LIFE (#7)...the other books in what I like to think of as an "unofficial" trilogy. It was certainly my intent with THE LAST WORD -- as well as PAST TENSE and DOUBLE LIFE -- to explore, as deeply as I could, Dr. Mark Sloan and to make him more than just a one-dimensional TV character, a "doctor who solves crimes." Over those three books, and to a lesser degree in THE SHOOTING SCRIPT (#3), I was intentionally confronting/deconstructing the ridiculous conceits of the series in a backwards attempt to make the implausible, underlying concept more believable and, by extension, the characters more real. I know that sounds pretentious, but I like to think that's what made these books read more like novels than simply knock-offs of a TV show...and why I was lucky enough to enjoy so much critical praise for them.

If I ever decide to do more DM books, the resolution of THE LAST WORD opens the door to go in a new direction which...after being involved in four seasons of DM as a writer/producer and as the author of eight books...I am ready to do. I think I have taken this particular format and these relationships about as far as they can go.

I'm curious to know what you think. Is THE LAST WORD a fitting end for the series? Or did I go too far?

Canon Fodder

An author I know was recently taken to task by a disgruntled fan because a character in a tie-in novel mentioned visiting the Grand Canyon when, in a recent episode, the same character said he'd never been there. My author friend was surprised that a fan would care about such an insignificant detail. I agree with my friend...especially if you are writing book based on an on-going TV series. It's virtually impossible for the books and the series to not contradict each other over little details. Publishing can't keep up with production...in the time it takes for my finished MONK manuscript to reach the stands, an entire new season of MONK has been written and shot. I have no control over the content of the episodes that are conceived, written and produced after I have written my book. Which is why I added the following disclaimer to my Monk books:

"While I try to stay true to the continuity of the TV series, it's not always possible, given the long lead time between when my books are written and when they are published. During that period, new episodes may air that contradict details or situations referred to in my books. If you come across any such continuity mismatches, your understanding is appreciated."

Bottom line, it's fiction. We are sharing characters in two very different mediums. The fans have to understand that these are characters in a fictional world...and relax.