How did you become a writer?

I've always been one. 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 sold these novels 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.

I continued writing novels all through my teenage years. By the time I was 17, I was writing articles for The Contra Costa Times and other San Francisco Bay Area newspapers and applying to colleges. Once I got into UCLA, I put myself through school as a freelance writer…for American Film, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, UPI, Newsweek. Anybody who would pay me. Most of the articles I wrote were interviews with novelists or people in the entertainment industry, so it was like getting a graduate school education in publishing and the movie business for free… better yet, I was paid for it!

I had a journalism advisor at UCLA who wrote spy novels. We became friends and talked a lot about mysteries, thrillers, plotting, etc. One day, while I was still his student, his publisher came to him and asked him if he’d write a “men’s action adventure series,” sort of the male equivalent of the Harlequin romance. He said he wasn’t desperate enough, hungry enough, or stupid enough to do it…but he knew someone who was: Me. So I wrote an outline and some sample chapters and they bought it. The book was called .357 Vigilante (aka The Jury Series). I wrote it as “Ian Ludlow” so I’d be on the shelf next to Robert Ludlum who was, at the time, the bestselling author in America.

It was a huge success. I ended up writing four books in the series. Naturally, the publisher promptly went bankrupt and I never saw a dime in royalties. But New World Pictures bought the movie rights to .357 Vigilante and hired me to write the screenplay…and my dual careers as a novelist and a screenwriter were born. I've been going ever since.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

It was Gregory McDonald and his novels Fletch and Confess, Fletch. The dialogue was so good that the publisher put a full page of it on the covers of his books. It was the first time I'd read great crime stories that were told primarily through dialogue. Yet they were every bit as rich, in character and plot, as far wordier and less dialogue-driven books. I studied Fletch and Confess, Fletch the way some Jews study the Talmud. I didn’t have McDonald’s skill, but somehow, I knew after reading his books that I could become a writer. I also devoured and studied books by Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, Larry McMurtry, John Irving, Robert B. Parker and Lawrence Block.

In television, my mentors were writer-producers Michael Gleason (who created REMINGTON STEELE), Ernie Wallengren (who worked on shows like THE WALTONS and FALCON CREST) and Stephen J. Cannell (who is perhaps best known for THE A-TEAM). They taught me more than just how to write scripts, or how to produce television, but also how to survive in the business while still remaining a decent person.

When and where do you write? 

I write anywhere and everywhere, in airplanes, in hotel rooms, in the bathroom, in waiting rooms, in restaurants, in a parked car while my wife is shopping, or on a folding chair on the set of a film, to name just a few places. But most of the time, I write in my home office. I do my best work between 8 pm and 2 am. I get up 10 am, rewrite the crap I wrote the day before, and start fresh again at 8 pm...and so it goes until a novel or screenplay somehow emerges from the process.

What are you working on now? 

I’m working on my fourth “Eve Ronin” crime novel (following GATED PREY, which comes out in October) and a screenplay adaptation of one of my books for a major studio.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Never. I’ve hit walls plotting, or had questions about what a character should say or do next in a chapter or scene, but that’s not a block. That’s writing.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Put your butt in the chair and write, even if it’s crap. You can’t rewrite a blank page.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Far too many authors are impatient and self-publish their work way too early…when they still have a long way to go in terms of mastering the craft of writing…and it’s very damaging. You only have one chance to make a first impression, and if you write a terrible book, or even one that’s merely mediocre, that’s what people will remember…and they won’t come back for the second one. And then they compound the mistake by focusing more on social media self-promotion than on their writing.

Lee Goldberg is a two-time Edgar & two-time Shamus Award nominee and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over thirty novels, including True Fiction, Lost Hills, 15 Monk mysteries, five Fox & O'Hare adventures (co-written with Janet Evanovich), and the new thriller Gated Prey (Oct 2021). He's written and/or produced many TV shows, including Diagnosis Murder, SeaQuest, Monk, The Glades, and co-created the hit Hallmark series Mystery 101. He's also the co-founder of Brash Books, which has published over 100 crime novels & thrillers. www.leegoldberg.com