By Pat Browning
Ask a simple question and get a surprising answer. I asked Thomas B. Sawyer why he wrote THE SIXTEENTH MAN, his novel about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and he sent me an excerpt from his unpublished memoir.
That stunning day in Dallas is the defining story of the raucous 1960s. The Vietnam War was an ongoing horror but JFK’s murder overshadowed everything else. THE SIXTEENTH MAN is the best piece of writing to come out of it, fiction or otherwise.
The following excerpt from Tom Sawyer’s unpublished memoir is a fascinating look at how a creative mind works out an idea originally pitched for a Gideon Oliver TV show. Instead, it went into an episode of "Murder She Wrote" and finally became a full-fledged novel, with a nod to novelist Susan Isaacs for its structure.
***
(Quote) The idea for what would eventually become my first novel came just about as spontaneously as the MOON project, JACK, and others – a facility which by that time I was beginning to appreciate as one more fortunate life-pattern. Asked to pitch episode ideas for a new, not yet on-air series, I found myself once again at Universal Studios, where the show’s co-executive producer, respected veteran Bill Sackheim, welcomed me warmly and quickly explained that Gideon Oliver was to be part of an ABC "Mystery Wheel," rotating with two other whodunit series, each airing a ninety-minute movie every third week (the others were the already long-running "Columbo," and the more recent "B. L. Stryker").
Based on a character created by novelist Aaron Elkins, and portrayed by the imposing Louis Gossett, Jr., Gideon Oliver was a Columbia University Professor of Anthropology who solved murders. Sackheim offered that he hoped to put me into work on a script ASAP.
“…And, since we have a script in its final editorial stages just now, that we plan to shoot in the southern Utah mountains, around Moab, it’d be great for us, budgetwise, if you can come up with one we could do there simultaneously. Matter of fact, my co-exec, Dick Wolf, is on location just now in Mexico where we’re shooting show number three, and we need a script from you so badly that – well, I’m not gonna let you out of here until we’ve got a story.”
So, pacing around Bill’s office, I asked questions about various series-and-character nuances – did Gideon drive, did he have an assistant, any tics or phobias? And when he started pacing, too, tossing out answers, I stretched out on his sofa, hands behind my head – and began articulating a what-if – without much editing – almost as it was forming:
“Okay, there’s this dig taking place in those mountains, some sort of ancient burial chamber. And Gideon Oliver’s called in because there are a bunch of really old skeletons in there – maybe something he’s an expert about – except one of ‘em isn’t old. It’s got a bullet in its wingbone, say – and – and these bozos start coming out of the woodwork – and killing people – and going after Gideon. Because that skeleton – it’s connected to the JFK Assassination – to some hidden truth about it? And Gideon’s about to solve what really happened that day in Dallas---”
Which was as far as I got. “Great. I love it. Let’s go with that.”
Heading home a few minutes later, I began thinking about what I’d just sold. And while I had thus far not a single thought, beyond my pitch, about how to tell the story, it excited me, the best part being a chance to deal with Jack Kennedy’s murder in a fiction piece – a crime that I had never for a minute believed was the work of a single gunman. It became more intriguing when I began playing with the notion of just who the modern-day skeleton had been, and what he might have had on whoever was behind the JFK Plot that was serious enough to get this fellow killed back in 1963.
I suppose my short-lived PI, Charlie Moon was still near my thought-surface, because by the time I got home my dead-guy had taken the form of a similarly seedy investigator. This one was on a domestic surveillance job that had taken him to Texas in November 1963, where he’d shot clandestine evidence photos of his client’s adulterous wife and her cowboy lover. And several of those snapshots inadvertently contained some sort of proof that Lee Harvey Oswald had not acted alone. I was stoked by the possibilities, and eagerly began outlining the teleplay.
Then, a few days later, I received an odd phone call from Sackheim. He seemed tentative, ill-at-ease: “So – how’re you coming with the story…?”
I told him I was just getting into it, laying out the overall shape. “It feels good...” It also felt like one of those next-shoe-about-to-drop conversations. “Is there a problem?”
Bill’s response came after a brief, awkward silence: “Tom, the thing is, we might have to shitcan it.” Then, he quickly added: “But if that happens we’ll work out a different premise for you to--- Listen, before you do any more work on it, why don’t you come in tomorrow first-thing, and talk me through your story – you know, in detail? And then we’ll see.”
Weird. I had never before encountered such a request, not one put in that way, or even close. The following morning at the studio, Bill greeted me with the news that we weren’t going to do the notion I’d sold him. “But don’t worry, you’ll get your story money. So – let’s get going on another one. How about…?” And an hour later, with a lot of plot-suggestions from Sackheim, we’d hammered out a story which was okay, though not as interesting as the first one.
I was never told the reason for the cancellation, nor did I press the obviously embarrassed Sackheim for it. Maybe it’s the conspiracy-nut in me, but I’ve always suspected that the topic had frightened someone at ABC, so they told Bill to kill it, and that his first brief phone call was an attempt by him to buy time in hope that he might appeal the decision to a higher-up at the network, and/or maybe between us find a twist that would cause them to change their minds.
I had come away from the experience a bit wiser – and, far better, I had the intriguing notion that what I’d sold to Bill Sackheim that day several months earlier was – maybe – the germ of a pretty good idea for a novel.
A form I’d yet to try, though it was getting to be that time. And tantalizingly, even at that early thinking-about-it stage, it presented a nagging, major challenge that, with my customary optimism I figured would quickly sort itself out. It did not. Until one day several years hence when, quite by accident, I saw how another writer had solved a similar problem.
I continued to write TV episodes on a freelance basis, mostly for "Murder, She Wrote," but with an occasional script for such shows as "Scarecrow & Mrs. King," "Zorro," and others. But again, on the seems-like-a-good-idea-front, my attempt at a first novel was stalled at the outline-stage, presenting a barrier I was finding insurmountable and maddening: how to tell the story without killing off my favorite character within the first few chapters.
In laying out THE SIXTEENTH MAN, based on the Gideon Oliver premise that had been axed by ABC, my present-day protagonist would be a young archaeologist, Matt Packard. He discovers the burial chamber full of ancient skeletons, plus the more recent one which turns out to be that of a Reno PI who in late 1963 had the key to who really killed JFK, and had vanished along with his secret. As mentioned, with my original pitch to Bill Sackheim, the ‘what-if’ was – what kind of people would suddenly emerge, willing to kill in order to conceal the truth about that long-ago conspiracy?
Obviously, Packard would carry the bulk of the story. But if, as logic dictated, I wrote the piece in linear sequence starting in 1963 and then taking it to present-day I’d have no choice but to quickly lose the player who, not surprisingly given my soft spot for rascals, had quickly emerged as the most fun: PI Charlie Callan. It just didn’t seem right to dump him so soon.
So, stymied – maybe permanently – and simultaneously beyond my eyeballs juggling other projects, including JACK and of course MSW, after struggling for several weeks, with regret but still fascinated by the problem, I temporarily laid the project aside.
Early in that first season as Showrunner, Angela, Bruce and I agreed that too many recent episodes had involved extensive, rather tedious backstories. So I came up with several premises that would take place mostly-to-entirely in the present and, with Bruce at my side in his sister’s dressing-room/trailer outside the Cabot Cove soundstage, I ran them past Angie and her husband, Peter. She didn’t much care for any of them, and asked if I had any others.
I did not. But the next thing that popped into my head was a sudden vision -- a way to write a very abbreviated version of my Gideon Oliver/JFK stalled novel as a "Murder She Wrote" episode. And impulsively, I offered that yes, I did have one. “But you probably won’t like it…” I quickly, waggishly added: “because it’s got the mother of all backstories.”
Which of course hooked her, as well as Bruce and Peter. Angela grinned: “Let’s hear it.”
Continuing on my mini-roll, and giggling inwardly, I delivered part two of my tease. “Okay, let me give you the TV Guide logline: "Jessica Fletcher solves The Murder of the Century – almost…" After a suitably dramatic pause, I admitted that the murder case was the JFK assassination. All of them loved it, and that was that – they needed no further details.
As I began outlining my story, I figured it would be cool to bring in Jerry Orbach to once again portray Harry McGraw. So I phoned him at his apartment in Manhattan to check on his availability and learned to my disappointment, but delight for Jerry, that he couldn’t do it: “I just signed on to co-star on 'Law & Order'.”
So, in writing the episode, titled Dead Eye, I created a new PI character not unlike the seedy, retro McGraw: Charlie Garrett. We cast the witty M.A.S.H. veteran Wayne Rogers in the role, and had great fun over the next five years employing him as Jessica’s recurring, exasperating bullshitter pal.
A joy to work with, Wayne, like Angie, always knew exactly where the jokes were. He also shared my affection for con artists, admitting that like me he felt more than a little of it in himself. I was proud of Dead Eye, pleased with the way it turned out to be an atypical but satisfying MSW episode.
The challenge of how to approach my mystery-thriller novel about the JFK assassination, telling two stories separated by decades without killing off my most entertaining character near the top, was solved for me unexpectedly – and with forehead-slap immediacy – early in 1996, by Susan Isaacs.
One of my favorite authors since her delightfully funny novel (and screenplay), COMPROMISING POSITIONS, Ms. Isaacs had just published a novel titled LILY WHITE. Another first-rate read, in this one Ms. Isaacs told parallel stories taking place thirty years apart.
She accomplished this by employing a simple, hardly original but totally effective device. Ms. Isaacs had laid out her two yarns in alternating chapters, employing a different, distinctive typeface for each thread. Bingo! I saw within a few pages that she’d given me the key to keeping my 1963 Reno PI alive until the end, while still telling my archaeologist’s tale in present-time. Thus, I eagerly began outlining THE SIXTEENTH MAN. (End Quote)
© 2010 Tom Sawyer Productions, Inc.
***
My notes:
Tom is co-librettist/lyricist of JACK, an opera about John F. Kennedy that has been performed to acclaim in the US and Europe. It’s described on his web site as a personal drama, an “almost Shakespearean story of a complex, deeply conflicted yet loving relationship – between an obsessed, profoundly driven father, and his near-textbook second son – and how that young man, in overcoming those and other challenges, would ultimately provoke his own assassination.”
When I asked about its current status, Tom e-mailed: “And about JACK, the latest from Michael Butler (producer of HAIR) is that he intends to mount an equity-waiver production in LA late this year or early next. I'll believe it when it happens.”
The episode of “Murder She Wrote” referring to JFK’s assassination is titled “Dead Eye” and features guest star Wayne Rogers as PI Charlie Garrett, a recurring character. “Dead Eye” is Episode 13 of Season Nine (1992-93) and a CD of the complete season is listed at Amazon.com for $30.99. A detailed summary of the episode can be found at www.imdb.com/
Tom’s web site is http://www.thomasbsawyer.com/
Photos:
Tom’s mug shot and book cover from his web site.
Cast picture and original title picture from Wikipedia; cast pictured: William Windom as Dr. Seth Hazlitt, Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher, Ron Mazek as Sheriff Metzger.
By Pat Browning
The first Malibu sunrise of 2010 was captured on film by author Tom Sawyer and e-mailed with this note:
“Let's hope this is a sign...
May the year be at least half this glorious for all of us!”
www.ThomasBSawyer.com
So now we’ve passed the halfway mark and are hard-charging toward fall and end-of-year holidays. Don’t know about you, but my tongue is hanging out. What a year – one disaster after another, and that’s just the weather.
Then along comes author Peter E. Abresch with “Mr. Slug,” one of his weekly Burnt Offerings. Its upbeat message seems to go right along with Tom’s photo. I may print and frame them together and hang them behind my computer to remind me of a year that – isn’t finished. Keep a positive outlook, I remind myself a dozen times a day.
Here’s Peter’s poem.
MR SLUG
On my own/I am a slug in the muck/
happy perhaps/yet certainly limited in view./
But lift your child, Lord/upon Your shoulders/
and I see over trees,/hills, mountains,/
out past the stars/to all the kingdoms/
in your realm,/a foretaste of things to come./
Today I remain/a slug in the muck/
but tomorrow,/in my Father's house/
I shall become/little less than a god.
----------Peter E. Abresch -- June 28, 2010
I reviewed Peter’s first mystery, BLOODY BONSAI (Write Way Publishing 1998), when I worked for The Hanford (California) Sentinel, and we’ve kept in touch.
Among other things, Peter writes the James Dandy Elderhostel mysteries. One of my favorite books of all time is PAINTED LADY (Intrigue Press 2003). His latest, NAME GAMES, he published himself through Amazon’s Create Space.
For me, PAINTED LADY is the pause that refreshes. James P. Dandy, a retired physical therapist, and his ladylove, artist Dodee Swisher, join their Elderhostel group for a tour of the old Santa Fe Trail. History of the Old West is woven throughout. There's a legendary Mayan falcon with diamond eyes, a kidnapping, a hilarious bus-car chase, and an otherworldly shootout at the St. James (aka Ghost Hotel) in Cimarron. There's also a true story about dandelions, which may give you pause the next time you start to dig one out of your lawn.
You can read the first 65 pages free at Google Books:
http://tinyurl.com/37ojndh
As for Peter’s bio, “been there, done that” just about covers it. He’s been a professional dancer, an international geodesist for the U.S. Government and a systems computer programmer with the National Weather Service. At age 75 he started taking banjo lessons and now plays with the folk choir at church. He’s built three sailboats, and with his wife and five young sons he hammered and nailed together the 3400-square foot house they lived in for 20 years. Meanwhile, he just keeps writing and has several web sites with info about his books.
On one of his web sites he says:
“Fiction writing is addictive. You laugh, but once I started building worlds on paper, I could never turn off that seductive siren-call that still whispers to me in the middle of the night. Rejection slips -- and I've had more than my share -- never stilled it.
“Nor did frustration. I remember once during lean times, way back in the days of typewriters, when my 'Q' key got stuck. I kept on writing using the '+' key for a substitute. Then another key got stuck and I substituted a '@' key. Then one day I hit the return bar and the platen didn't advance. I picked up the typewriter and smashed it against the floor. Picked it up and smashed it again. And smashed it again. When I looked up my wide-eyed wife, Annemarie, was staring at me from the doorway. I said I needed a new typewriter. She didn't argue.”
Catch up with Peter at:
http://www.elderhostelmysteries.com/
http://www.easyreadingwriting.com/
http://www.sidewalkbooks.com/
Though we haven’t met, Tom Sawyer has been a part of my life since 2001, back in the dear dead days of the iUniverse chat room. Print on demand (POD) was just coming on the scene and causing conniption fits everywhere. Bookstores wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot-pole because POD books couldn’t be returned. The CEO of Barnes & Noble announced that B&N would have POD kiosks within a year and almost immediately began backpedaling.
Caught in the furor was Thomas B. Sawyer, a veteran writer and TV showrunner who had agreed to be the poster boy for iUniverse because of the promised bookstore connections. His novel was THE SIXTEENTH MAN, one of the best books I ever read. With the assassination of President Kennedy as a hook, Tom wrote parallel stories 30 years apart and brought them together in a heart-stopping ending.
2001 was a time of new beginnings. I had almost finished writing my first mystery and $99 seemed like a reasonable price to get it into print. I haunted the iUniverse chat room because of its knowledgeable guests. On May 15, 2001, the guest was Tom Sawyer who had been through the mill, gathering 22 agent rejections for THE SIXTEENTH MAN. I still have my transcript of his chat room appearance.
About his rejections, he said:
“They ranged from ‘Your book doesn’t work’ … to the capper from a major agent whose name will remain anonymous, who said, ‘I have yet to see a screenwriter who can write a novel, but you do show promise, so if you’re willing to work with me, I’ll teach you to write.’ Fortunately, that’s when I saw the ad for iUniverse.
“I also realize, having gone through this, if I hadn’t been a professional of many years, didn’t have a bullet proof ego, this stuff could destroy you. It makes me feel very sorry for the people who were vulnerable to it. You really have to believe in your work.”
My review of THE SIXTEENTH MAN is still up at Amazon.com. Quoting from it:
“First story, set in 1963: Tracking an errant wife whose husband wants evidence for divorce, a private eye accidentally photographs a small group of men with rifles, one of whom is a dead ringer for Lee Harvey Oswald.
“Second story, set in present time: A dirt bike accident dumps an archaeologist near a rock fissure that leads him to a pile of skulls and bones. Fifteen sets of bones appear to be thousands of years old. The sixteenth skull still has some hair attached, and there are silver fillings in the teeth.
“Sawyer weaves these stories together so smoothly that hair on the back of my neck stands up when the story threads cross. The ending is a knockout. … I think: It's fiction. That didn't happen. But what if? What if?”
Tom’s professional bio is impressive. From his web site:
“Novelist, screenwriter, playwright Thomas B. Sawyer was Head Writer/Showrunner of the classic hit series, Murder, She Wrote, for which he wrote 24 episodes. Tom has written 9 network TV pilots, 100 episodes, and has been Head Writer/Showrunner or Story Editor on 15 network TV series. He wrote, directed and produced the cult film comedy, Alice Goodbody, is co-librettist/lyricist of Jack, an opera about John F. Kennedy that has been performed to acclaim in the US and Europe.
“The best-selling mystery/thriller, The Sixteenth Man, is his first novel. Both his book, Fiction Writing Demystified, and Storybase are Writer's Digest Book Club Selections. He is publisher of Storybase 2.0 writer's software. Tom's latest thriller - and Number One Bestseller: No Place to Run. He's taught writing at UCLA, at other colleges and universities, teaches at numerous major writers conferences, and online at Writers University where he currently teaches STORYTELLING: How to Write Stories That Will Grab and Hold Your Audience. Tom has been nominated for an Edgar and an Emmy.”
NO PLACE TO RUN (Sterling & Ross Publishers 2009) was voted Best Novel of 2009 by the American Book Readers Association. A political conspiracy thriller, it’s the first novel to make the case that the 9/11 hijackers received serious help from high up within the U.S.
FICTION WRITING DEMYSTIFIED (Ashleywilde, Inc. 2003) is one of a half dozen writing books I wouldn’t be without. Tom based it on what he learned as a screenwriter as it relates to writing novels, and what he teaches at conferences. It changed the way I look at dialogue.
You can read the first 34 pages, including the table of contents, free at Google Books:
http://tinyurl.com/322zrg6.
Tom’s web site is http://www.thomasbsawyer.com/.
=======
I haven’t met either Tom or Peter in person but we’ve been virtual friends for years. This is my tip of the hat to two authors whose friendship I cherish and whose work I admire.
By Pat Browning
This week’s news: Harlequin created a new imprint, Harlequin Horizons, for self-publishing. A spokesman said it was "a way to participate in the fast-growing self-publishing market … ” You can read the full New York Times article at tinyurl.com/yz9f2s3.
***
Meanwhile, back in California … there’s news from Thomas B. Sawyer, one of my favorite writers. His new thriller, NO PLACE TO RUN, was No. 1 on the list of Malibu’s Top Ten Books for the first week of November.
The new novel is also featured in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (The Jury Box by Jon L. Breen):
“Thomas B. Sawyer: No Place to Run, Sterling & Ross, $14.95. Claudia Lawrence, twenty-four, is snatched from her happy life, along with her parents and teenage brother, when a secret revealed by a client to her lawyer father Bill lands them all in the witness protection program. The parents are murdered, and the kids go on the run, with government agents as the enemy. However you feel about 9/11 conspiracy theories, this is a model pursuit thriller, with mystery, menace, strong characters, and cross-cutting action managed with a screenwriter's flair. (Murder, She Wrote, of which Sawyer was head writer, was nothing like this.)”
(www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm/jury/)
Not bad for a guy whose first novel, THE SIXTEENTH MAN, was rejected by 22 agents before Sawyer lost patience and published it through iUniverse.
That was 10 years ago. I read the book on the iUniverse web site and was so enthralled that I ordered the book immediately. I’ve been a Tom Sawyer friend and fan ever since, and I still have that copy. It was POD – print on demand – when it was a whole new and almost universally scorned concept.
iUniverse was barely a year old when Tom published his book. I was part of an online group that – as I recall – was sponsored by iUniverse. The pros and cons of self-publishing were cussed and discussed. The more I heard, the better it sounded: quick turnaround for a book costing $99.
iUniverse also had a live chat room, the Café. On May 15, 2001, the guest was Thomas B. Sawyer, calling in from Malibu. I still have my transcript printout.
In the chat, Sawyer explained how he ended up with iUniverse. On rejections of his manuscript for THE SIXTEENTH MAN: “They ranged from, 'Your book doesn't work,' to 'I didn't love it QUITE enough to sell it, but I'm sure you'll find somebody who does,' to the capper from a major agent whose name will remain annonymous who said, 'I have yet to see a screenwriter who can write a novel, but you do show promise, so if you're willing to work with me, I'll teach you to write.' Fortunately, that's when I saw the ad for iUniverse.”
Sawyer added: “I also realize, having gone through this, if I had not been a professional of many years, didn't have a bullet proof ego, this stuff could destroy you... It makes me feel very sorry for the people who were vulnerable to it. You really have to believe in your work.”
Later that year, the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Sawyer. Excerpts:
***
Wall Street Journal – November 13, 2001
Agents, Editors, Publishers – Who Needs 'Em?
By Matthew Gurewitsch
Thomas B. Sawyer is the author of the thriller "The Sixteenth Man." He is also its publisher, because he was too impatient to wait for a creaky, old-line house to do the job. And because modern technology made it easy for an amateur to navigate the world of typesetting, printing, binding and inefficient bookstores.
Two years in the writing, "The Sixteenth Man" was Mr. Sawyer's first novel after two decades in Hollywood, where as head writer on "Murder, She Wrote" he scripted 24 episodes and plotted some 80 more, collecting a cool $5 million in the process.
…
In the real world, Mr. Sawyer might still be angling for an agent. "I sit on panels at these conventions with novelists whose work I know," he marvels, "novelists with five or six well-reviewed, well-received books in print. And they have day jobs! In Hollywood, they threw money at me, and I thought that's what writing was. But in this country, unless you're one of the six authors who sell 94% of the books, you're in a world of nickels and dimes."
***
That was then. When I e-mailed Tom this week for permission to quote him on his experience with iUniverse, he added these comments:
“When I spotted an advertisement for iUniverse -- then very early in the history of POD -- and visited their website, I immediately saw that it was a new wrinkle in vanity publishing, a path I was unwilling to pursue. So I emailed them with my credits, logline and synopsis, said I wasn't interested in paying them, but that I might be willing to serve as their poster-boy for the professional writer who had chosen to thumb his nose at the system. They responded affirmatively 25 minutes later (call me ‘shallow,’ but I admit to being a pushover for that sort of thing).
“Am I glad I did it that way? Yes and no. The no-part: no bookstore sales. The yes: with the excellent inventive help of my publicist, Milt Kahn, and that of iUniverse, THE SIXTEENTH MAN became one of the all-time bestselling POD books.
“For my new novel, NO PLACE TO RUN, I ‘played the game,’ had an agent, sold it to a conventional house. It took two years to find a publisher, Sterling & Ross (the book is a bit subversive), and another 18 months for it to debut. Am I glad I overcame (‘suppressed’ says it better) my impatience? Yes. I am now ‘legitimate.’”
Tom turns out so much work one might wonder if he’s really twins. His how-to book, FICTION WRITING DEMYSTIFIED, is one of three or four that I would never be without. He teaches writing, both online and in workshops. He and Will Holt wrote the book and lyrics of an opera. That’s not a typo. They wrote an opera – JACK –about the life of John F. Kennedy.
From the synopsis at Sawyer’s web site:“… the almost Shakespearean story of a complex, deeply conflicted yet loving relationship – between an obsessed, profoundly driven father, and his near-textbook second son – and how that young man, in overcoming those and other challenges, would ultimately provoke his own assassination.”
I have a 14-minute video of highlights from the 1995 production of JACK at the University of Oklahoma. It’s dazzling to watch and very moving. A detailed synopsis can be read at the web site: http://www.thomasbsawyer.com/.
Sunday, Part 2. Honest questions and honest answers about self-publishing from Debbi Mack and Richard Hicks.
Debbi Mack is the owner of Mack Research and Writing, providing corporate communications, web content, and white papers. She has just republished her first mystery, IDENTITY CRISIS, to good reviews.
Richard Hicks is a former trial attorney who has published several books with Xlibris. His latest novel, MURDER BY THE NUMBERS, is an Enneagram mystery.
