Author Spotlight - Melanie Atkins talks about her favorite show

As many of you probably know, I'm a Castle addict. No, I'm not jonesing for a medieval home. I love the TV show Castle that airs on Monday nights at nine central on ABC... starring hunky Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic. Best. Show. Ever!

Fillion plays Rick Castle, a bestselling mystery writer along the lines of James Patterson (who, by the way, has appeared as himself in poker games on the show, along with Michael Connelly and the late Stephan J. Cannell) who finds himself bored with his career until he meets Detective Kate Beckett, played by Katic, when some yo-yo starts killing people the way he does in his books. He is immediately entranced with Beckett and decides to start a new series about "a saavy female detective" -- Nikki Heat. Of course, to develop his characters, he has to do research. So he pulls strings with the mayor and winds up shadowing the beautiful detective as she solves cases -- much to her chagrin.

Sparks fly between them from day one despite her annoyance… and that was all it took to get me hooked. I love a good romance, and this show has it in spades. Andrew Marlowe, the show's creator, says that when he started developing this show, he "set out to write a great romance", and so far, he's succeeding. What a treat!


I seem to obsess over only one show at a time, and I was in the doldrums lamenting the lack of what I most wanted to see on my previous favorite program, Law and Order SVU, when Castle came along. In my opinion, SVU peaked in seasons seven and eight and then went down the tubes. The writers drew the audience in with Elliot's impending divorce, thrilling those of us who desperately wanted Olivia and Elliot to get together, only to dash our hopes when Elliot's estranged wife Kathy turned up pregnant. What a waste of a great storyline! I just couldn't get excited about that show after that, even though I tried.
And then along came Kate Beckett and Rick Castle. Marlowe is following through on his promise to get the two together, even though it's taking a while, and I love it. Finally, a show that doesn't disappoint in the romance department. Sure, some episodes are better than others, but as a whole the show, which has been called a "dramedy" because of its mix of comedy and drama -- and their relationship (or friendship, as it is right now) -- rocks. They will get there eventually, Marlowe swears, and I believe him. He hasn't let us down so far.

He's also a marketing genius, because each fall a new Richard Castle book comes out. First there was Heat Wave, then Naked Heat, and now Heat Rises. Of course, Castle is a fictional character, so he can't really write the books… and Marlowe won't say who pens them. I don't care. They're just like the show, only with Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook as the main characters, and I always enjoy them. This year, they've even come out with a graphic novel called Deadly Storm that focuses on Castle's pre-Nikki Heat series about cunning Derek Storm. Too cool!


In addition to watching the show and read the books, I also blog about each Castle episode with Lee Lofland, an ex-cop, author, and fabulous resource for anyone writing crime fiction, on The Graveyard Shift. Lee puts on the Writers' Police Academy in North Carolina, and I've never been to a finer conference (I'll blog about that another day). Lee critiques Castle's police procedure every week, while I discuss the romance. Sometimes, we go good cop-bad cop in our reviews. It's so much fun! You can read our blog each Tuesday morning here: http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/

Don't forget to catch Castle on Monday nights at nine central on ABC… and if you become addicted like I am, check out the fansite at http://www.castletv.net