Ken Goddard's
Fiction-Writing Web Site
My Latest Novel: IN EXTREMIS
Back in April of 2006, my literary agent called and asked if I'd be
interested in continuing a series of original novels based on the CBS-TV
show CSI Las Vegas and published by Pocket Books. She knew that
I'd been an informal advisor to the show (on wildlife-related evidence)
for a few years, but she also knew that I didn't watch the show because
actions of the main characters --- in terms of engaging with the
suspects --- were pretty unrealistic.
As a crime scene
investigator for almost 40 years, I'd done everything I could to avoid
the suspects at the scenes. My job was to work the scene and
collect the evidence in an unbiased and unemotional manner, not to
confront and/or interrogate the suspects.
But I also had to admit that I liked watching William Pedersen as an
actor, and enjoyed his portrayal of Gil Grissom. It was just too
much work trying to 'suspend disbelief' in watching the episodes ... and
besides, I didn't have time to watch prime time TV. I had books to
write ... and, admittedly, a ranch to take care of, movies to watch and wine to drink, but those
were separate problems. My literary agent then reminded me that an awful lot of people did
watch the show, and --- more importantly from her and my point of view
--- bought the related books. So I talked with Ed Schlesinger, the Pocket Book editor responsible
for the CSI/Las Vegas book series, and discussed the idea that if he
hired me to continue the series previously written by Max Collins, I'd
like to make the characters a tad more realistic. Ed understood,
and promised to do his best to find the proper balance between
my concerns, the well-established characters, and the popularity of the TV series. Even better, he
had a great idea for the book title: IN EXTREMIS. All I had to do
was come up with a couple of vivid crime scenes, an underlying plot, a story
arc, and one or two memorable bad guys. And, to make things a bit
easier, he'd send me the DVD sets of episodes so that I could catch up
on the developing 'voices' of the characters. I was busy at the time trying to get scuba certified so that I could
be part of an international team tasked with developing CSI techniques
to investigate damaged coral reefs; but I managed to put together a
detailed treatment before I flew to Cozumel. A week later, I
returned to my Cozumel hotel room after a very memorable (and somewhat
scary) cave dive to find a message from Ed: CBS-TV had approved my
treatment. The writing could begin. IN EXTREMIS turned out to a fun --- and relatively easy --- book to write; but
I had to constantly refer to the DVD episodes to keep the 'voices' on
track. And there was a point in the story when Ed advised me that
Greg Sanders, one of the younger CSI characters, had to be portrayed a
bit more 'hot and sassy.' Having little-to-no idea what he was
talking about, I quickly consulted my daughter and granddaughter ...
both of whom, as it turned out, had a very good understanding of the
terms and were perfectly happy to help educate father/grandfather. So Greg became a bit more hot and sassy, and the whole team (that I
couldn't actually harm too badly in my story) certainly did their fair
share of suffering at the scenes. The book was released
to the bookstores in October, 2007. Oh, and there's more info on the writing of IN EXTREMIS in the
interview I did with Shane Sanders for his
TV-CSI-based website ModernDaySherlock.