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This episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features my interview with crime writer Lee Matthew Goldberg.
Check out our discussion of crime writing, screenwriting, and our favorite movies and books. Including, but not limited to, the awesome Twin Peaks!
Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two eBooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy inks for both on my website, debbimack.com under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so.
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Download a copy of the PDF transcript of this episode here.
Debbi (00:54): Hi everyone. My guest for this episode writes thriller novels and he writes for adults and young adults. His books are in various stages of development for film and TV. He’s also editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe dedicated to publishing fiction that’s outside the box. That sounds interesting. He is a contributor to several publications, including Pipeline Artists. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, WeScreenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay Contest. He is also co-curator of the Guerilla Lit Reading Series. I’m very pleased to have with me today, author and screenwriter Lee Matthew Goldberg. Hi Lee. It is wonderful to have you on.
Lee (01:52): Hi Debbi. Yeah, thanks so much for having me on,
Debbi (01:54): Oh, it’s my pleasure. Believe me and I, I had to get in the mention of Stage 32 because I’m on there, too. And it’s just …
Lee (02:01): Oh, it’s good. It’s, it’s a good, it’s a good resource. I think if you, you know, are a budding screenwriter and you’re looking to like get in the industry and figure out how.
Debbi (02:11): Yes, yes, absolutely. I couldn’t agree with you more. It, it is an excellent resource. So let’s start off. I wanted to start off. How did you start off writing novels or screenplays?
Lee (02:26): I mean, if we really go back in time, I was like a kid trying out writing screenplays, but my first actual publication was a novel in 2015 and then I had my second book optioned and there was some interest and it, it all seemed great and then everything fell apart. And in my mind I was like, well, let me just try to adapt all of my works. And then I could be the one trying to feed it to producers and try to make something happen. So that’s kind of my goal now. I, I, I write the scripts of all my books and try to see what could happen.
Debbi (03:03): Mm-Hmm <affirmative> is there a form you enjoy? Do you enjoy doing both equally or do you prefer one format over the other?
Lee (03:14): I mean, definitely I’m a novelist first and you know, the, the time it takes to create a novel, you’re giving yourself over a lot more. But I almost like screenplays now as like palate cleansers. Between books, it’s a good way of me, like, you know, recharging my mind to get ready to write the next book ultimately. And if a screenplay happens and it can go forward, it winds up being a lot more money than a novel sometimes. So it could help you know, financially.
Debbi (03:49): True, true. Just outta curiosity, do you find writing screenplays more emotionally involving than novels?
Lee (04:00): No definitely novels are more emotionally involving. Screenplays like I’m working? I’m, I’m developing one of my books with a, with an actress right now into a TV show and I’m, I’m almost at the whim of her and her people, so it’s like kind of whatever they want in a good way. But you, you kind of have to detach yourself a little bit from the characters, the character being turned over from the book is becoming a, a different person almost, and it’s better for a TV show, but ultimately as a writer, it’s like, you have to let go of the character a little bit.
Debbi (04:36): Mm-Hmm <affirmative> I was gonna say you do adaptations then?
Lee (04:41): Yeah. Yeah. I have, like one or two scripts that are original, but most of the time I’m adapting my own stuff and trying to make it happen.
Debbi (04:51): Mm-Hmm <affirmative> yeah. That’s excellent. An excellent strategy, by the way. How do you divide your time between different projects?
Lee (05:01): So I’m pretty much always writing every once in a while. When I finish a project, maybe I’ll take a week or two off. But I’m always working on something. So like right now I’m finishing up edits for a book I’ve been working on a really, really, really long time. And then after that, I’ll probably take a break and maybe adapt one into a script and, and, and do that. And yeah, I, I pretty much work every day. I come I’m in Central Park now taking a break from working. So usually you could find me there under a tree in, in nice weather.
Debbi (05:35): <Laugh> I was gonna say for anybody, who’s listening to this, as opposed to watching it on YouTube he’s sitting in Central Park, there’s a tree behind him, and the sun is shining at such an angle, but it gives him almost an angelic look.
Lee (05:48): <Laugh> yeah, there’s the, there’s the sun. <Laugh>
Debbi (05:52): Very nice.
Lee (05:54): It’s good for me to sorry to interrupt, but just living in the city and it being so chaotic all the time. I find just being in nature, it’s it, it, it just really helps my creative mind.
Debbi (06:07): I hear that loud and clear.
Lee (06:08): Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> yeah, yeah.
Debbi (06:11): So your books are all thrillers, correct?
Lee (06:16): My young adult series, I would say is not a thriller. But all my adult books are and some of them have a little bit of a sci-fi kind of connection to it.
Debbi (06:27): Mm-Hmm <affirmative> Your thriller, your adult books are all standalones though, right?
Lee (06:35): No, actually my current books that just came out is a five-book series. But other than that, yeah, they’ve all been standalones. So there’s, there’s one I’m thinking of maybe writing a sequel to, by I book the ancestor. I would love to go back into that world, but yeah, right now my, my series, The Desire Card came out. So the fourth book just dropped this week. And it’s called Vicious Ripples, and it’s about a really awful organization called The Desire Card that promises any wish fulfilled for the right price. And usually the price is you know, more menacing than anybody could imagine.
Debbi (07:14): Uh-Huh <affirmative> yes, yes. There goes your soul, right? <Laugh>
Lee (07:20): Yes. Yeah. That’s literally the tagline, you know, it’s those whose souls are indebted to this organization basically.
Debbi (07:27): Hoo boy. <Laugh> Let’s see. Your YA books. What are they like and what brought you into writing for young adults?
Lee (07:37): Yeah I, I kind of wanted to take a break from thriller writing and like killing people <laugh>
For the rest of the interview, check out the PDF transcript of this episode.
S. 8, Ep. 8: Interview with Crime Writer Lee Matthew Goldberg