A Writer's Tale

The Chronology

1947

I was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 14, the second son of Hugh Kelly Laymon and Wanda Kathleen Hall Laymon. My older brother, Robert Kelly Laymon, had been born on March 25, 1945.

We are Americans without hyphens. My great aunt, Emma Laymon, was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, so at least one of my ancestors was here in the days of the founding fathers.

My great grandfather, Joseph Laymon, grew up in Illinois. During the Civil War, he fought for the Union with Company B, 6th Regiment of the Indiana Cavalry Volunteers.

He was captured and survived incarceration at the infamous Confederate P.O.W. camp, Andersonville. His son, my grandfather, Hugh Kelly Laymon (along with Aunt Emma) grew up in a sod hut on the plains of Nebraska. My grandfather later lived in Charleston, Illinois where he drove a locomotive for the Nickle Plate Road. My other grandfather, Carl Hall, ran a moving company in Charleston, Carl Hall Transfer. Carl Hall Transfer is still in business in Charleston.

My father served in the Army Air Corp during World War Two, and “flew the Hump” with the Air Transport Command. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

1947-1963

I spent a few early years living in a duplex in Skokie, Illinois. Then we moved into a duplex in Lincolnwood. My great aunt, Emma, lived on the other side of the duplex with her cousin, Daisy Bliss (a member of the Women’s Temperance Union). My father worked for Henry Regnery, a Chicago publisher, during the early years of the company.

(Now run by Alfred Regnery, the firm courageously publishes many important, controversial books.) My mother was a housewife who stayed home and took care of my brother and me chauffeur, cookie maker, den mother. She introduced me to the joys of literature, reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to me while Dad and Bob were away at Scout meetings.

Later, aunt Emma got married for the first time at the age of eighty to her childhood sweetheart, Fred Hendrickson. She moved to Florida with Fred. We moved to a new house in a nice suburban area north of Chicago called Northbrook. (Fictional versions of Northbrook are portrayed in lots of my fiction, probably most accurately in, “A Good, Secret Place.”)

My whole family was active in Scouting. We often went camping in the woods. Nearly every summer, we drove to Wisconsin where we stayed in a cabin, went boating, fishing and swimming. I have great memories of those times, and much of my fiction takes place in areas similar to the places where we had such summer adventures.

Oddly enough, my first published work appeared in the newsletter of the Northbrook Methodist Church. Starting in September, 1962, I wrote a regular column “The MYF News” in which I briefed readers about the activities of our Methodist Youth Fellow-ship group. I wrote fourteen such articles.

For two years, I attended Glenbrook High School. There, I played Sousaphone in the marching band, ran cross-country and participated in track meets, running the 880 and sometimes the mile. I also submitted material to the school’s literary magazine. In 1962, the magazine, Helicon, published my poems, “He Never Lost His Head” and “Ode to a Wayfaring Sousaphone,” and my short story, “365 Days a Year.”

In a hint of things to come, the “powers that be” made me tone down the end of my short story. The revision was found acceptable.

I won a $5.00 prize for the story. My English teacher called me “the most prolific writer in the school.” I was honored by the compliment, especially before learning the definition of “prolific.”

1963-65

In March, 1963, I received my first rejection slip for a piece of fiction that I submitted to the magazine, Bluebook for Men. My piece, “The Great War,” was a crummy imitation of those vignettes that can be found in Hemingway’s In Our Time.

After my brother’s graduation from Glenbrook High School in June, 1963, we had a garage sale, packed up our belongings, hopped into a couple of cars and drove across the country to California where Dad started a business venture. We settled in Tiburon, in Marin County. We lived in a house with a spectacular view of San Francisco Bay, and I received my last two years of secondary education at Redwood High School in Larkspur.

At Redwood, I took two years of creative writing classes, edited a book review newsletter, worked on the staff of the school literary magazine, and hung out with “intellectuals” at least one of whom got busted during the Berkley “free speech movement.” I spent a lot of time with my friends, the Gronbecks. I went to a lot of plays. I spent much of my spare time exploring bookstores all over San Francisco, Sausalito, Mill Valley and San Rafael.

I wrote for Bookmark, the Redwood High School’s monthly book review periodical, from January through June, 1964.

After doing reviews of such books as All Quiet on the Western Front, For Whom the Bell Tolls and Battle Cry, I inaugurated a column called “The Bookstore Browser” in which I wrote about new paperbacks appearing at the Redwood student bookstore.

The 1964 issue of the Redwood High School literary magazine, Orpheus, contained my poem, “Memories” and my short story, “The Contemplator.”

From October, 1964 through March,. 1965 I was editor of Bookmark, seeing it through six issues. I wrote essays about several authors who turned out to be major influences on my own writing: Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway, Nathaniel Hawthorne and J.D.

Salinger. (Also one about Ford Madox Ford, but I don’t think he had much effect on me.) The 1965 issue of Orpheus contained my poems, “Man We Gotta Make Music,” “Nothing,” “Running Away,” “A Prayer,” “Eternity,” “Road With a Sharp Turn,” “Kite,” my haiku “Sea Gull,” and my short stories, “Beyond the Streetlights” and “Lillies Die in Rough Wind.”

During that period, I was extremely self-conscious, weird, arrogant and annoying especially to my parents. I moped. I pined. And I continued to write. I fancied myself to be a sort of hybrid Dylan Thomas/Jack Kerouac/Ernest Hemingway/William Goldman/Edgar Allan Poe.

I also started taking backpacking trips into the High Sierra mountains with my brother, some explorer scouts, and various other friends. Sometimes, I camped and took driving trips into dangerous places with my friend, Chris Gronbeck. It is a wonder we survived.

But I got a lot of material that would later turn up in my fiction.

1965-69

Upon being graduated from Redwood, I headed north for Willamette University in Salem, Oregon to begin my days as a college student. Willamette is the inspiration for the fictional university, Belmore, which appears in some of my novels. I majored in English, wrote a lot, and had stories and poetry published in the university literary magazine.

The Spring, 1966 issue of Willamette’s literary magazine, Jason, contained my poem, “Complaint.”

The Spring, 1967 issue of Jason contained my poem, “One More Crucifixion,” and my short story, “Beast.” (About a teenager who keeps a dead mouse for his pet.) I attended summer school, 1967, at the University of Iowa, where I took courses in literature and creative writing.

Three of my poems, “Night on a Lake,” “Some of Us,” and “Today I Could Have Lost” were published in the 1968 issue of Willamette literary magazine, Jason’s Phantasy.

In 1967 and again in 1968, I received $20.00 for winning second place in the Willamette University Creative Writing Award contest.

Though I’m officially in the Willamette class of 1969, I piled up a lot of credits by going to summer sessions at various institutions. I received my B.A. a year early, and spent my fourth year (Fall, 1968-Spring, 1969) working on an MFA degree at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Two of my poems, “Today I Could Have Lost,” and “Some of Us” were published in the December, 1968 issue of Tongue, which appears to be the literary magazine of the University of Arizona.

While in Tucson, I took a driving trip into the desert with a friend who intended to steal a cactus. This incident inspired my first professionally published story “Desert Pickup.”

In 1969, President Richard Nixon started the draft lottery.

I had lost my student deferment some time earlier, had gone for my pre-induction Army physical, and had made preparations to enlist in the U.S. Air Force. When Nixon held the lottery, however, I came up with a fairly high number. Thus, I never served in the armed forces. And I lived on to write my fiction.

1970

After one year at the University of Arizona, I dropped out of the MFA program and moved to Los Angeles. I enrolled in Loyola University of Los Angeles to pursue a Masters Degree in English literature.

April 10 I received a contract in the mail. My short story, “Desert Pickup,” had been bought for $75.00 by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. It would be published in the magazine’s “Department of First Stories.” I went crazy wild with joy.

September I got a job teaching ninth grade English to girls at Bishop Conaty High School. (A teaching certificate wasn’t required for being a teacher at private schools.) I experienced a real life version of The Blackboard Jungle. I also started working on a Masters Degree in English literature at Loyola University of Los Angeles.

1971

I experienced my first major earthquake, a 6.6 that struck at 6 a.m. on the morning of February 9. Not knowing whether school would be in session at Bishop Conaty, I hopped into the car and drove downtown to Pico and Normandie. Traffic signals were dead. Fire hydrants were shooting water into the air. I used some of this experience, years later, when writing Quake.

At the end of my first year of teaching at Bishop Conaty, I resigned to publish a pamphlet called Smoker’s Blend, which I thought would be sold by the thousands to pipe smokers and make me rich. It didn’t. I published four monthly issues (July-Sept., 1971) before going out of business.

The issues contain articles, tips and jokes for pipe smokers mostly written by me.

December 27 I began working on my novel, Dark Road.

I worked as a library clerk at Mount St. Mary’s College in Brentwood.

June 17 I received a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from Loyola University of Los Angeles.

Summer I took classes in Library Science at University of Southern California, working toward a Masters Degree in Library Science in order to become a certificated librarian.

In October and November, I published Smoker’s Blend II, two follow-up issues of my original periodical.

1973

March 5 I joined Mystery Writers of America. Soon afterward, I was invited to attend a meeting of the Pink Tea writer’s group. I ended up belonging to the group for about a decade.

September I quit my job at Mount St. Mary’s and took a good job as the library assistant at John Adams Junior High School in Santa Monica.

While working at John Adams, I attended USC and UCLA in my spare time (night and summer sessions). Over a period of about four years, I took teacher training and worked on a Masters Degree in Librarianship. I came out of it with a lifetime California teaching credential. I am permanently licensed in this state to teach secondary school and junior college English, and to be a secondary school and junior college librarian. Nice to have something to fall back on.

1974

April 25 My second story, “Roadside Pickup,” was bought by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

August I briefly worked as the editor of The Executioner Mystery Magazine and The 87th Precinct Mystery Magazine. These magazines were published by Leonard Ackerman. They appeared to be sponsored and intended as some sort of conduit for stories written by clients of a certain famous literary agency that I’d better not name in print.

1975

Oct. 3 I sent a manuscript of my novel, Ravished (a revised version of the 1971 novel, Dark Road), to literary agent Richard Curtis. He didn’t think much of it. More than twenty years later, a significantly revised version would be published as the novella, “Fiends.”

(This goes to show that rejected stuff is not necessarily without merit and value.) Oct. 9 In a letter to Richard Curtis, I told him about my current work in progress, Substitutes, which I had been working on “during the past 18 months.”

June 24 Having sent Substitutes to Richard Curtis, I received a letter from him. He wrote that he and his staff were divided down the middle about the book’s virtues and shortcomings. However, the shortcomings won the day and he didn’t wish to handle the novel. “You have a definite talent,” he wrote, “and if you can learn to plot a novel better, I think we can break you into print in the novel field.” (I later broke into the novel field, but Substitutes has never been published.)

August Ann Marie Marshall and I took a driving trip up the coast, visited the Hearst Castle and the Winchester House, then drove on to Lake Tahoe where we got married.

(I’d met Ann through our mutual friend, Marshall Oliphant. At the time, Ann was working in reservations at TWA.)

1977

Jan. 28 I was elected for a two year term as regional director of the Los Angeles Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

April My short story, “Keeper of the Books,” was published in the Spring, 1977 issue of California School Libraries. (I don’t list this on my short fiction bibliography because it was not a professional sale.)

May 3 I wrote to Jay Garon: “Saturday night (at a party hosted by Garon - R.L.), on the recommendation of Clayton Matthews, you said that you would be willing to look at my work. I recently finished writing Missing Pieces, a mystery novel. The manuscript is enclosed.”

June 28 Based upon my novel, Missing Pieces, (which is so far still unpublished) I was taken on by the literary agency of Jay Garon-Brooke Associates. I needed to sign a three-year contract with the agency.

June - Aug. Instead of working the summer session at John Adams, I stayed home at our apartment in west L.A. and wrote my novel, Beast House, which would eventually be published as The Cellar.

Sept.19 I sent my gun confiscation novel, Take ‘Em, to Jay Garon.

Oct. 28 I sent the manuscript of my novel, Substitutes, to Jay Garon. In my letter to Garon, I told him that I wrote Beast House over the summer, and that I was currently halfway through a novel “about a girl’s revenge on the man who raped her.” This was Lo Down. I later finished the first draft of Lo Down, but I have never completed a final draft of it. The book was a little too nasty, and I’d been advised to back away from the really rough stuff.

Nov. Ann and I moved into our house in west Los Angeles.

Nov. 17 Garon wrote to me, “We love Take ‘Em as a hard cover possibility and Substitutes as a good paperback. (Neither novel has ever been published.)

May 26 My novel about gun confiscation, Take ‘Em, was rejected by Warner Books.

June 12 -Jay Garon wrote to me, “I had made a presentation of what I considered two of your best to Warner, but to the top man (Larry Kirshbaum, I believe R.L.)… In another 10 days or so, I may have an interesting deal with Warner in a major way.”

Sept. 19 Jay Garon wrote to me, “We have read The Keepers and like it. You did a splendid job on this one. We immediately sent it out on multi-submissions.” (It has never sold.)

1979

Jan. 26 Beast House (to be retitled The Cellar) was bought by Warner Books for $3,500.

April 18 Your Secret Admirer was bought by Scholastic for $3,000.

April 25 Ann and I had lunch in New York City with John Kinney, my editor at Warner Books.

May 7 Jay Garon wrote to me that he had sent The Keepers to John Kinney.

June 21 Got news that Warner Books was giving me a three book contract for $45,000.

July 25 Our daughter, Kelly Ann Laymon was born at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood.

July 31 I mailed out the manuscript of my mummy novel, Dead Corse, to Jay Garon.

(This book never sold.)

Sept. 7 I mailed the manuscript of my novel, Secret Nights, to Jay Garon. (This book never sold.)

Sept. 12 My short story, “Stiff Intruders,” was bought by Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine.

Sept. 13 A full, two-page ad for The Cellar appeared in Publishers Weekly.

Sept. 22 Jay Garon informed me of “strong movie interest” in The Cellar. (Nothing came of this.)

Oct. 6-7 I attended a Bouchercon in Culver City, and recall playing a lot of poker with Bill Pronzini.

Oct. 22 The Cellar was bought by New English Library for $24,000.

Oct. 23 I resigned my position as librarian at John Adams Junior High School in Santa Monica. The resignation would become effective January 31, 1980.

Dec. 4 I mailed the manuscript of my novel, The Woods Are Dark, to Jay Garon.

1980

January The Cellar was published by Warner Books!

Feb. 7 At the old, dark house of our close friends, Chris and Dick Boyanski in Clayton, New York, we fooled around with a Ouija board and it seemed to give us coherent messages. This incident eventually led to my Ouija board novel, Darkness, Tell Us.

Feb. 13 In New York City, Ann and I had lunch with my Warner Books editor, John Kinney. Then we went to dinner at York, and Jay Garon’s party.

Feb. 14 We had lunch with Jay Garon at Sardi’s. That evening, we had dinner with our friends Bill and Marie Chambers.

April 1 I sent a revised version of The Woods Are Dark to Jay Garon.

June 1 We went to a poolside party thrown by Harold Moskovitz, my new film agent and Garon’s protege. (He never sold anything for me.)

July 7 My novel, The Woods Are Dark, was accepted by Warner Books.

July 29 I mailed my finished novel, Out Are the Lights, to Jay Garon.

Aug. 12 I mailed the manuscript of my second young adult novel, Nightmare Lake, to Jay Garon.

Aug. 16 Back in upstate New York, we drove up to Gananoque, Canada. There, we went into a memorable House of Horrors that inspired quite a lot of my material, but especially some of the ideas I used in the final sequence of Funland.

Nov. 14 I went to my first and last P.E.N. meeting. The folks at P.E.N. seemed largely stuffy, self-important and pretentious.

Nov. 21 The Pink Tea meeting was held at Gary Brandner’s house. He invited Dean and Gerda Koontz. I had never read any of Dean’s books, but I’d recently read Funhouse by Owen West, so I was impressed to meet him. I blurted, “You’re Owen West!!!” He admitted to a fondness for The Cellar, and we started a friendship that has continued to this day.

Dec. 20 Though Ann had to stay home because we couldn’t find a babysitter for Kelly, this was our first invitation to Dean and Gerda Koontz’ house. I couldn’t bring myself to miss the opportunity, so I went alone.

1981

Jan. 13 I received an advance for Out Are the Lights from Warner Books.

Jan. 15 I finished writing Allhallow’s Eve.

Jan. 16 The Woods Are Dark was bought by New English Library.

Feb. 24 I mailed the manuscript of my novel, Allhallow’s Eve, to Jay Garon. It was supposed to be book three of my three-book contract with Warner Books. But it was rejected.

March I worked on screenplays for The Cellar and The Woods Are Dark. (Nothing has come of them, so far.)

March 13 I began writing my invisible man novel, Beware!

April 2 I mailed the finished two screenplays, plus the manuscript of my novel, The Hag to Jay Garon. (The Hag was a revision of Dead Corset)

In my letter, I told Garon about a new idea. “This is a horror story that is not occult or supernatural. It also, I think, has great series potential. The protagonist is an agent of a small, secret government department that investigates and “deals with” SPECIAL OCCURRENCES reports of such matters as alien sightings, ghosts, satanist activities, or other strange circumstances that would not fall within the bailiwick of normal law enforcement activities.” (Golly, sounds a bit like The X-Files.) April 28 - May 5 Ann and I traveled to New York City for the production of the play, Ah, Men. Its producer, my agent Jay Garon, had talked me into investing in it. Nobody told us that the opening date had been changed, so Ann and I showed up a week early and missed it. We got to see a rehearsal, though.

June 9 I received the contract from New English Library for Out Are the Lights.

June 19 Finished the first draft of Beware!

June 25 Mailed Beware! to Jay Garon. This was supposed to be the third book of my three book contract with Warner Books. But it was rejected.

June 27 I began making notes for a sequel to The Cellar.

July 14 I received the contract for The Lawmen, to be written under the pseudonym Lee Davis Willoughby. I started working on The Lawmen, postponing work on my sequel to The Cellar.

July 30 In a letter to Jay Garon, Warner Books editor-in-chief Bernard Shir-Cliff rejected Allhallow’s Eve, Secret Nights, and Beware! In regard to Secret Nights, a reader report stated, “The incestuous twist in Roger’s parentage as well as his secret attic con-finement is too blatantly a rip-off of Flowers in the Attic.” This really annoyed me. I hadn’t “ripped off” that book or even read it. The report on Beware? stated, “Laymon only succeeds in creating an uneven mish-mosh with occasional moments of sex and sadism to try to hold the reader’s interest.” She also wrote, “Why invisibility? Why not back from the dead or something along the Shadow’s line where the subject has the “ability to cloud other people’s minds.” Why not, indeed?

Aug. 3-5 I wrote my short story, “The Grab.”

Aug. 14 I started working on my secret project about people being marooned on a tropical island between California and Hawaii. (There isn’t an island out there!) The project was instigated by a couple of film guys. They had an elaborate plan to make the book into a huge bestseller and blockbuster film. I was to ghostwrite the book and keep mum about my participation in it. Unfortunately, their detailed plot outline was pretty much ludicrous and they refused to let me fix it very much. I ended up wasting a lot of time on the project, but I did get paid at various stages. For the purposes of this chronology, I will refer to said project as Hollywood Goons.

Aug. 15 I dabbled with the outline of a wishes book.” I wish I could remember what that was about.

Aug. 17 I worked on the outline of a novel called Servant.

Sept. 1 Having given up on trying to revise Beware! for Warner Books, I mailed the outline of a completely new novel to Jay Garon Dark Sacrifice.

Sept. 2 My short story, “The Grab,” was bought by Gallery magazine.

Sept. 29 My short story, “The Champion,” (which had appeared in the 1980 anthology, Modern Masters of Horror) was optioned by Universal for the television series, Dark Room. The show, with James Coburn as the M.C., would be cancelled before it could film my story.

Oct. 24 Dean and Gerda Koontz came over to the house for dinner for the first time.

Nov. 2 I had dinner at the restaurant, Joe Allen’s, with one of the primary guys behind Hollywood Goons. A fictional version of the restaurant would show up in Night Show, when Tony rushes at people dining at a patio table. So something good came out of a lousy situation.

Nov. 13 I spoke to a writers’ group at Orange Coast College.

Nov. 16 I wrote a desperate letter to Jay Garon about the possibility of abandoning the disastrous Hollywood Goons project. He advised me to stick with it.

Dec. 18 I started making notes for a novel called, Chill Master, later to be known as Night Show.

1982

Jan. 3 I finished Beware! revisions that I’d started in November, 1981.

Jan. 11 My outline for Hollywood Goons was accepted.

Jan. & Feb. Most of both months were spent working alternately on Hollywood Goons and Chill Master (Night Show).

March Ann and I left Kelly with my parents in Modesto, and we spent a week in Hawaii with our friends, Frank and Loretta Beard. After returning, we stayed a few days in Modesto. Then we got home and I devoted all my writing time to Hollywood Goons.

March 26 My three book contract with Warner Books, which included The Woods Are Dark and Out Are the Lights, was terminated with extreme prejudice.

April 22 I mailed a revised version of Beware! to Jay Garon. April 30 The first draft of Chill Master was finished.

May 10 I changed the title of Chill Master to Night Show and mailed the manuscript to Jay Garon.

May 19 I delivered outlines of Out Are the Lights and Night Show to film producer/director Andrew Fenady for possible film development. (Nothing ever happened.)

June 3-12 I worked briefly on a possible novel about Edgar Allan Poe, but never got very far.

June 15 I started a novel with the working title, Curse, which I later called Tread Softly. The book was also eventually called Dark Mountain in the Headline edition. After working on it for a week, I went back to work on Hollywood Goons.

June 6 A momentous date! I finished the first draft of Hollywood Goons! But alas, it was not to be accepted or ever published.

July 16 I returned to work on Curse.

July 30 I mailed the manuscript for a short-short story, “Tiny,” to Gallery magazine. It was rejected.

Aug. 2 I mailed the short story, “Bedtime Stories” (the “Hairy Hand” story) to Twilight Zone magazine. It was rejected.

Aug. 4 I mailed the short story, “Opening Night,” to Playboy magazine. Also mailed the short story, “Pick Up” to Woman’s World. Both stories were rejected.

Aug. 5 I started work on a novel with the working title, The Dump, which I ‘was trying to write in collaboration ‘with the mystery writer, Robert Colby.

Aug. 10 My young adult horror manuscript, Nightmare Lake, was bought by Dell. It would be published as part of the Twilight series under the pseudonym, Carl Laymon.

Oct. 12 I wrote a letter to Jay Garon informing him that I’d happened upon a paperback version of Modern Masters of Horror. Though it contained my story, “The Champion,” I’d never received payment for any paperback version. Was this a foreshadowing of things to come?

Sept. & October Throughout these months, I divided most of my time between The Dump and Curse. Toward the end of October, however, I got dragged back into Hollywood Goons for some major revisions.

Nov. Mostly, I worked on The Dump and Curse,

Dec. 4 After doing my final work on The Dump, I quit the project.

Dec. I worked the rest of the month on Curse.

Jan. 27 I finished writing the first draft of Curse.

Jan. 29 New English Library bought Beware! and Night Show.

Jan. 31 I started work (again) on my sequel to The Cellar, which I was calling Cellar E.

Feb. 1 I changed the title of Curse to Tread Softly with Care. Feb. 4 I mailed Tread Softly with Care to Jay Garon.

Feb. 9 I had a meeting with Lynn Rudman about William Morris interest in film version of Out Are the Lights. (Nothing ever came of it.)

March 10 I mailed a revision of Tread Softly to Garon.

March 18 Mailed a Hollywood Goons revision to Garon.

March 22 My short story, “A Place Called Joe’s,” was accepted by Mel Cebulash, publisher of the “Fastbacks” at Pitman Learning.

March 29 My short story, “Cardiac Arrest,” was accepted by Mel Cebulash.

April 14 My short story, “Dawson’s City,” was bought by Mel Cebulash.

May Mostly spent working on Cellar II.

May 6 My major revision of Hollywood Goons ‘was rejected by the Hollywood goons.

May 16 My short story, “Intruder,” was bought by Mel Cebulash. June Nearly all month was spent working on Cellar II.

June 28 I mailed short story, “Chopper,” to Mel. It was later rejected.

July 8 My short story, “Night Ride,” was bought by Mel. July 27 My short story, “Live Bait,” was bought by Mel.

Aug. 9 Ann and I started collaborating on a non-fiction satirical book about auto driving Driving Me Nuts.

Aug. 11 I sent letters to Aaron Priest; Paul R. Reynolds Inc.; Knox Berger Associates; Bill Berger Associates; and Michael Larsen/ Elizabeth Pomada. I explained that I was looking for a new literary agent to handle my work, and told them about my background.

For one reason or another, I would end up staying with Jay Garon for another two years.

Aug. 22 Getting a positive response from Aaron Priest, I sent him the manuscript of Tread Softly. I also started hunting for a job.

Aug. 25 We finished Driving Me Nuts.

Sept. 1 I mailed Driving Me Nuts to Martin Asher of Long Shadow Books. It was rejected. (It remains unpublished.)

Sept. 7 I signed up with Thomas Temps to work as an “office temporary” worker.

Sept. 9-16 I worked 4:30 p.m. to midnight at a joint called “Mileage Plus” counting up people’s frequent flier miles.

Sept. 20-23 I did some sort of un-rememberable office work at a place called Ticor.

Oct. 3 Mel Cebulash of Pitman bought three more short stories, “Guts,” “Bait,” and “The Lonely One.”

Oct. 3-7 I worked at UCLA Medical Center Surgical Pathology reporting office where I learned the meaning of “necrotic tissue.”

Oct. 13 I finished the first draft of Cellar II later to be published as Beast House, (For you up-and-coming writers out there… yes, I was working on a novel all along while I worked at the temp jobs and on the short stories for Mel. It’s the only way to go-) Oct. 19 I received contracts from Jay Garon for two contemporary romantic suspense novels to be packaged by James Bryans (same packager as The Lawmen), and to be published by Blue Heron Press. I was to get $500 per novel. I needed the money.

Nov. 9-16 I worked as an office temporary at a place called Technical Books.

Dec. 1 I worked as an office temporary at Budget Furniture.

Dec. 6 - Jan. 27 I worked as an office temporary at General Telephone in Santa Monica, where I would eventually be offered full-time employment. Which I turned down. I aimed to remain a writer, not become an employee of the telephone company.

Dec. 11 I finished the first and only draft of the romantic contemporary suspense novel, A Stranger’s Arms.

Jan. 25 The contract arrived for a story called, “The Caller,” from Mel Cebulash at Pitman Learning.

Feb. 3-14 I worked as an office temporary for a company called EJM.

Feb. 21 My short story, “Marathon,” was bought by Mel.

Feb. 28 I worked again at Budget Furniture.

March 13 I worked at a place called Paradyne.

March 15 - April 6 More work at General Telephone. Meanwhile, I was writing almost constantly for Pitman Learning, turning out numerous stories, including my four-story SOS series, which remains in print as of this writing.

April 23 Feeling rather desperate, I bypassed my agent and sent letters to ten U.S. publishers, trying to hawk my novel, Night Show.

May 9 I started working on a new novel with the working title, Mystery Mystery. I later changed the title to Murder by the Book. (Never sold.) May 10 I finished and mailed Passion Storm, by Carla Laymon. Blue Heron Press apparently went out of business, however, and this book (to my knowledge) was never published.

May 22 I mailed sample chapters and an outline of Night Show to Little, Brown. This publisher had responded to my self-promotion letter. They rejected the book.

May 30 On a trip to Belmont, California, I met with Mel Cebu-lash to plan further work for Pitman. After the meeting, we drove to Santa Cruz. Ann, Kelly and I spent the night there. We noticed a lot of “homeless” people in the area. There, they were called “Trolls.”

May 31 Ann, Kelly and I went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk amusement park. Out of that visit and a newspaper article found by Ann, the idea for Funland was born.

June 11 I worked one day as an office temporary at Reback Design.

June 13 I worked again for General Telephone.

June 14 I worked at a law office.

June 15 -July 12 Back to General Telephone.

July 13 I began my four-year stint working as a researcher and report writer for the Law Offices of Hughes & Crandall. I was given the job by Richard Hughes, a friend from the Pink Tea writer’s group. My job mostly entailed investigating medical reports in hopes of defending the L.A. bus company (and sometimes the Sheriff’s Department) against personal injury lawsuits.

July 13 My short story, “Cobra,” was bought by Mel.

July 22 I started working on the outline for a novel called Blood Sisters. (Whatever that was.)

Aug. 10 My story, “Small Fish,” was bought by Mel. (Was the title changed? I don’t know of a story by that tide being bought, rejected, or existing at all.) Sept. 14 I mailed Murder by the Book to agent Al Zuckerman. He chose not to take me on as a client, in a letter indicating that he had reached a stage in his career where he no longer handled authors of my kind. (Was that a dig?)

Sept. - Nov. I didn’t put much in my calendar, but was apparently writing material for Mel and sometimes getting in pages on a novel.

Nov. 21 Meanwhile, my career in the dumper in the U.S., I received the proofs for the New English Library edition of Beware!

Nov. 22 Across the “big pond,” the New English Library edition of Night Show made the “best subscribed” list in The Bookseller (the British equivalent of Publishers Weekly).

Dec. I was apparently dividing my time between an unidentified “kid novel” and something I called, “The Vision.”

1985

Jan. 13 I mailed the manuscript of my new novel, The Cellar II (which would be published as Beast House) to Jay Garon.

Jan. - June I was apparently working on the first version of Alarums (or Alarms) during this period, but my records are missing.

April 24 New English Library bought The Cellar II and Allhallow’s Eve.

April 25 Night Show and Tread Softly were both bought by Tor for their new horror series.

June 27 Though we were nearly flat broke, I had been owed payments for long periods of time from nearly all of my foreign and domestic publishers. (Except Pitman, which didn’t come through Garon.) Though I had often expressed my concerns to Jay Garon, he continued to suggest that I remain patient. Now, I ran short of patience. I wrote letters to several publishers and Garon’s subagents asking about numerous payments that I should’ve received, but hadn’t.

June 30 I sent a letter Jay Garon, explaining what I’d done. It resulted in an angry phone call from Garon in which he accused me of “stabbing him in the back” and trying to ruin his reputation by making him look like a crook. During the next month or so, however, he sent me checks from about ten different publishers, totalling about $15,000. He had apparently received most of the payments long ago, and kept them. Records showed that he’d been holding my money for six months, a year, a year and a half and one payment for two and a half years after receiving it from the publisher.

July A VERY IMPORTANT EVENT!!!! Dean Koontz recommended me to his agent, Bob Tanner of International Scripts in London. Not only did Dean promote me to Bob, but he knew how strapped we were, and he actually mailed the manuscript of Tread Softly to England. Thanks again, Dean. And thanks again to Bob Tanner for taking me on as a client and turning my career around.

Aug. 4 I wrote a letter to Jay Garon, expressing my wish to no longer be represented by his UK subagent, Abner Stein. Aside from the problems of payments being withheld (which might not have been Abner Stein’s fault), I was being soaked for 30% agent fees between the two of them.

Aug. 17 I wrote a letter to Jay Garon, firing him. I fired him mostly because of the way he’d kept my payments for such long periods of time. But also because he seemed to consider me a loose cannon for raising a stink about it. (If I’d really been a loose cannon, I would’ve filed criminal charges against him for embezzlement. One of his other clients, John Grisham, did sue Garon’s estate for similar practices.) Dec. 3 At Computer land, I bought my first computer, a Compaq Deskpro. It had no hard drive, and ran off a pair of 5” floppy disks.

1986

Jan. 25 I started a new novel with the working title, Parasite. Later, I changed the title to Snatcher, and it was eventually published as Flesh.

Jan. 31 Over at the Law Offices of Hughes and Crandall, where I continued my full-time employment, I received a raise to $10 per hour.

March 3 I wrote a letter to the agent, Sterling Lord, hoping he might take me on as a client. He wouldn’t.

April 23 Ann and I, along with Robert Bloch and his wife, were guests for a dinner given by Tor (in Long Beach) to launch its new horror series. I got to meet Thomas Doherty, a very cool guy. I also got to listen to quips by Robert Bloch who was nothing if not a quipster.

May 20 I finished the first draft of Flesh.

May 25 In hopes of starting a new career as a suspense writer (with a pseudonym) I started working on a new novel, Intruder.

June 24 Ed Gorman called, wanting to interview me for his magazine, Mystery Scene. It was the start of an on-going telephonic friendship with Ed that continues to this day.

June 27 I went to a Tor party at writer Bill Relling’s place. The shock of the evening was being approached by a wildly enthusiastic fan who seemed ecstatic about meeting me. He introduced himself as Ray Garton. I soon became a big fan of his, and remain his friend and fan to this day.

July Ray Puechner took me on as a client of his literary agency.

Aug. 22 On a driving trip through up-state New York and Vermont, Ann and Kelly and I visited Howe Caverns (near Cooperstown, NY). While on the cave tour, I was struck by the idea for Midnight’s Lair.

Sept. 5 I started writing a short novel for young adults called, Night Skater.

Sept. 22 I finished the first draft of Night Skater. Oct. 6 My novel, Alarms, was rejected by Berkley.

Oct. 13 I saw my first copy of Tor’s Night Show in a Culver City Crown bookstore.

Oct. 28 I started working on my new novel, Cavern, which would become Midnight’s Lair.

Nov. 17 The great Bob Tanner made my first hardbound sale, Tread Softly, to W.H.

Allen. Because New English Library was still bringing out some paperbacks, we decided to use the pseudonym, Richard Kelly, for Tread Softly.

Nov. 25 I finished Intruder, a suspense novel which has so far not been published.

Dec. 22 Ray Peuchner called to inform me that he had sold The Cellar, Beast House and Beware! to Paperjacks. It was lousy money, a total of $5,000 for the bunch but better than nothing.

1987

Jan. 13 I mailed my suspense novel Intruder to my agents, Bob Tanner in UK and Ray Peuchner in the US.

Feb. 9 My novel, Intruder, was rejected by Warner Books.

Feb. 12-16 Ann, Kelly and I went on a trip to Bullhead City, where we stayed with our friends Frank, Kathy and Leah De Laratta. During the visit, we explored the nearby desert, visited ruins and ghost towns. The area would soon provide the inspiration for the background setting, some plot elements, and a character or two for my novel, The Stake.

Feb. 20-22 I worked on my essay, “In the Midst of Life,” about Dean Koontz for Bill Munster’s book, Sudden Fear.

Feb. 26 Tor offered me $7,500 for Flesh.

March 5 Over problems with the Tor contract, I ended my brief time as a client of Ray Peuchner.

March 9 I received and rejected the Flesh contract from Tor. The terms on paper were different and worse than I’d been told on the phone. (Lesson: believe nobody. Always read your contracts.)

March 14 I finished writing Cavern, which would later be published as Midnight’s Lair.

I also began to write a novel with the working title, Gone. (I don’t think it came to much.) March 23 Melissa Singer called from Tor. She insisted that the problems with the Flesh contract were “clerical errors,” that there had been no intention of deceiving me. She also told me what the contract was supposed to say.

March 27 I signed the revised Tor contract for Flesh. Also, I started working on a new novel with the working title, Zombie. This would later become Resurrection Dreams.

April 12 We went to dinner at the restaurant, Scandia, with Dean and Gerda Koontz and Bob Tanner. At this dinner, Bob informed me that the U.S. agent, Ralph Vicinanza, would be willing to take me on as a client.

April 21 I answered interview questions provided by Charles DeLint.

May 8 I mailed the manuscript of Midnight’s Lair to my new U.S. agent, Ralph Vicinanza.

May 14 I received the on-sign payment for my contract with W.H. Allen for the British hardbound edition of Flesh.

May 18 I started work on the zombie story, “Mess Hall.”

June 2 Scholastic rejected my juvenile suspense novel, Night Skater.

July 28 I heard from Bob Tanner about an offer from Spain to do a film of The Woods are Dark. (Film was never made.)

July 29 At the law office, I received a raise to $11.50 per hour.

Aug. 6 My short story, “Mess Hall,” was bought by Skipp and Spector for their anthology, Book of the Dead.

Sept. 9 I finished writing my novel, Resurrection Dreams.

Sept. 10 On advice of Bob Tanner and my editor, I added a few pages to the ending of Midnight’s Lair to wrap things up.”

Sept. 11 I started a new novel. It had the working title, Troll. It would be published as Funland.

Oct. 1 EARTHQUAKE!!!! A 6.1 magnitude earthquake occurred at 7:45 a.m. while I was alone at the law offices in Glendale, not far from the epicenter. This quake inspired the major plot and certain scenes for my novel, Quake.

Oct. 4 AFTERSHOCK!!! A 5.5 magnitude aftershock hit at four o’clock in the morning.

Dec. 9 The contract arrived for the W.H. Allen edition of Midnight’s Lair, which would be published under the pseudonym, Richard Kelly.

Dec. 21 Ralph Vicinanza called with news that New American Library (Onyx) was interested in publishing Resurrection Dreams.

1988

Jan. 27 Bob Tanner called with news that W.H. Allen had made an offer for Resurrection Dreams.

Jan. 28 There was a brief flare-up of movie interest in The Cellar. (Film never made.) Feb. 4 Bob Tanner called with news that he had received a contract for a film version of Flesh. (Film never made.)

Feb. 8 Ralph Vicinanza called and asked me to send him an outline and sample chapters of Funland.

Feb. 11 I sent Ralph an outline and the first 440 pages of Funland.

March 26 I finished writing Funland.

March 28 I started working on a new novel. The working titles at different times were Finders Keepers and Vamp. This would eventually be published as The Stake, and would feature material inspired by the Bullhead City trip of February, 1987.

March 29 Ralph Vicinanza called with an offer from New American Library for the purchase of Resurrection Dreams ($9,000) and Funland ($11,000).

April 25 I received $1,350 for a film option of Flesh.

May 14-22 I wrote the short story, “The Bleeder,” for Chris Lacher, a friend I’d met through Gary Brandner’s writing group. Chris was the publisher of the magazine, New Blood.

May 20 I met Ralph Vicinanza when he came to town for the Nebula awards. He handed me the New American Library contracts for Resurrection Dreams and Funland.

May 23 Bob Tanner called with news of a film offer from Spain for The Cellar. (Film never made.)

May 27 “We had lunch at the Spaghetti Station in Anaheim with Bob Tanner and Mike Bailey, who were in town for the A.B.A. (The annual convention of the American Booksellers Association.)

June 9-19 I worked on a “stalker” story for Ed Gorman. It would be published as “The Hunt” in Stalkers.

June 24 - July 12 We went to New York City for the Horror Writers of America weekend. After leaving Manhattan, we visited Ann’s hometown, Clayton, on the St. Lawrence River for a couple of weeks.

July 16 I started working on a novel called Thin Air, also known as Madland. This story was based on an idea of mine that had been approved by John Silbersack of New American Library (Onyx) as appropriate for a “break out” book.

July 19 I received $2,700 in option money for The Cellar.

Aug. 4-10 I worked on revisions of Resurrection Dreams for New American Library.

Aug. 15 MY LAST DAY OF WORK AT THE LAW OFFICES!!! I RESUMED MY CAREER AS A FULL-TIME WRITER OF FICTION!!!

Aug. 19 I mailed the Madland sample chapters and outline to Ralph, and he would send them on to John Silbersack.

Aug. 27 - Sept. 11 I wrote an “on-spec” screenplay based on my short story, “The Hunt.” It would be published in the book, Scream-plays, edited by Richard Chizmar in 1997.

Sept. 12 I resumed work on The Stake.

Sept. 16 Bob Tanner called to tell me of W.H. Allen’s offer for Funland, approx. $15,000.

Oct. 22 We had dinner at Scandia with Dean and Gerda Koontz, Gary Brander and Martine, and Robert and Sally McCammon. The dinner was hosted by Dean.

Oct. 25-28 At Mike Bailey’s request, I made minor revisions in Funland for W.H.

Allen mostly to tone down the sex.

Nov. 5 I went to Gary Brandner’s bachelor party.

Nov. 6 Paul Mikol of Dark Harvest invited me to participate in Night Visions VII.

Nov. 7 I started writing the novella, “Mop Up” for Night Visions.

Nov. 11-12 At a hotel in Westlake Village, we fed the ducks in the stream. Our daughter, Kelly, instigated the duck banquet. Dean and Gerda helped by supplying the bread. The next day, I was best man at Gary Brandner’s wedding to Martine, and toasted the bride and groom.

Nov. 13 I started writing my short story, “Bad News,” for Night Visions.

Nov. 16 I started writing my short story, “Madman Stan,” for Night Visions.

Nov. 23-27 Eight months after starting work on The Stake and still almost two months away from finishing the first draft, I went on a trip to Death Valley with Ann, Kelly and the De Laratta gang. Exploring the ghost town Rhyolite on the 25th, The Stake started coming true. (More about that elsewhere in this tome.)

Nov. 29 Having found a skeleton in Rhyolite, I started writing a story about a skeleton found in a tree for Night Visions.

Nov. 29 I was interviewed on Kim Greenblatt’s public access television show.

Dec. 3 Earthquake! Magnitude 5.0, not very big, but enough to shake us up. Regardless of the quake, we drove to Santa’s Village near Big Bear.

Dec. 11 I finished the final drafts of my stories for Night Visions.

Dec. 23 I had a long telephone conversation with John Silbersack, my editor at New American Library (Onyx). He wanted my next novel to be the “break out,” saying I can do it “as well as King, Koontz & McCammon, or better.”

Dec. 28 I started writing a western horror story, “Dinker’s Pond,” for Joe Lansdale’s anthology, Razored Saddles.

Jan. 4 I had another telephone conversation with John Silber-sack about possible ideas for my “break out” novel.

Jan. 6-9 I worked on the outline for a new novel, Voices. (Though this book was never written, its main idea about reading minds possibly mutated into Body Rides.) Jan. 12 I sent a partial of Voices to Ralph Vicinanza for submission to New American Library.

Jan. 19 I finished writing The Stake.

Jan. 21 I began working on a novel I called Rain. This would become One Rainy Night.

Jan. 27 I mailed the manuscript of The Stake to Bob Tanner and Ralph Vicinanza.

Feb. 17 Ralph told me of a U.S. film company’s plans to option The Cellar. (No film made.)

March 1 A special friend sent us a surprise check a loan to help tide us over while we waited for our “ship” to come in.

March 6-17 I had jury duty in Beverly Hills, got to read some good books, but didn’t make it onto a jury. Ironically, the prosecution made the mistake of rejecting me. (This is ironic because I am generally rabidly pro-prosecution unless they’re trying to nail good cops.)

March 31 I wrote a piece about Resurrection Dreams for Ed Gorman’s Mystery Scene.

And Bob Tanner called “from London to inform me of an offer from W.H. Allen for The Stake and one other unnamed novel for about $54,000. YES!!!

April Flesh was named best horror novel by Don D’Ammassa in his article, “1988: The Best Novels of the Year” in Science Fiction Chronicle.

April 19 I received the big W.H. Allen contract for The Stake and untitled.

April 20 Bob Tanner called to inform me of a U.S. offer from Thomas Dunne, St. Martin’s Press, to publish The Stake hardbound for $15,000. Also, I learned that Flesh (published by Tor) had made the Horror Writers of America’s final ballot for a Bram Stoker award in the “novel” category.

May 11 I finished writing One Rainy Night.

May 14 I started a new novel, working title Beast Nights. It was intended to be the third of the “Beast House” books.

June 4-5 I answered questions for a David Whitehead interview.

June 14-21 We went to New York for the Horror “Writers of America weekend. The Stoker for novel was awarded to Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs, not to my Flesh.

June 22-27 I worked on the short story, “Slit,” for the Ed Gorman/Martin Greenberg anthology which at that time was supposed to be called Slashers. The anthology came out in 1993 with the title, Predators.

June 28 I started a novel with the working title, Ouija. It would be published as Darkness, Tell Us.

Aug. 17-20 I wrote the short story, “Invitation to Murder” for the Gorman/Greenberg anthology, Invitation to Murder.

Aug. 28 I signed the St. Martin’s contract for The Stake.

Sept. 8-13 Though still working on Ouija, I spent a few days on notes for a new novel, The Cage. This didn’t develop into a novel, but the idea was later used for my novella, “The Good Deed,” which was published in my Deadline Press collection, A Good, Secret Place.

Oct. 7 My first book signing took place, given by Don Cannon at Aladdin Books in Fullerton. The signing was for Night Visions VII, but I was shocked and delighted to find a crowd of fans waiting in line with bags and boxes of my older books.

Oct. 13 We had a flat tire before dawn on the freeway as we headed north for a book signing given by John Scoleri at a B. Dai-ton in Santa Clara. But we eventually arrived safely. That night, we went to a party at Dark Carnival in Berkeley, where we met Joan Parsons and Larry Mori, who would become close friends. Lany would later do the artwork for A Good, Secret Place.

Oct. 14 We went to the signing at the B. Dalton, and met John Scoleri. John would later be a publisher of A Good, Secret Place as well as THIS book.

Oct. 17 A major earthquake hit the San Francisco area, and an overhead section of road collapsed onto the same stretch of highway that we’d driven four days earlier on our way to Dark Carnival Bookstore. By this time, however, we were safely home in Los Angeles.

Oct. 31 I wrote a piece about Funland for Ed Gorman’s Mystery Scene. Later, we went trick or treating.

Nov. 4-7 I wrote short story, “The Tub,” for Hot Blood.

Nov. 18 I started a new novel, working title Breakdown (never finished), then returned to work on Ouija.

1990

Jan. 3-15 I worked on a new novel, The Stillness, but only wrote about 40 pages before abandoning it temporarily, at least and returning to Ouija.

Jan. 22 Mike Baker came to the house and taped an interview of me for the magazine, Afraid.

Jan. 30 I received the alarming news that my British publisher, W.H. Allen, was going out of business. I was terrified that this might be the beginning of the end for my career in the U.K.

Feb. 6 I finished writing Ouija, which would be published as Darkness, Tell Us.

Feb. 6 ANOTHER BIG DAY! In telephone conversations with Dean Koontz, Bob Tanner and Ralph Vicinanza, I learned that a major British publishing company, Headline House, intended to take over the contracts of a few W.H. Allen authors including Dean and me. Headline would become my regular publisher. I was vastly relieved and delighted.

Feb. 7 Mark Ziesing and I made a deal for his special limited edition of my novel, Alarms. He would be paying me the advance in much-needed installments of $500 per week. Upon making this deal, I re-read the novel, written in 1985, and wrote a major revision.

Feb. 20 Bob Tanner called to tell me that Headline bought Out Are the Lights (which had originally been published in U.K. by New English Library).

Feb. 20-26 I wrote the short story, “Special” for Under the Fang, the HWA anthology edited by Robert McCammon.

March 6 I began a new novel, Daring Young Maids. It would be published as Blood Games.

March 28 Headline sent an “on-acceptance” payment for One Rainy Night.

April 17 I started work on material for an ill-fated, Screamplay stage play. (Not to be confused with the Screamplay collection of screenplays in which The Hunt would be published.)

April 22-25 I wrote the short story, “Saving Grace,” for Richard Chizmar’s anthology, Cold Blood.

April 26 I sent an article on novel outlining to Mystery Scene.

April 27-29 I worked on a “Mess Hall” stage play for Screamplay (the stage play that never materialized).

May 1 YES! Bob Tanner called with the news that Headline had offered me a three-book contract for approximately $135,000. At last, we’d really made it!

May 18-23 I spent time communicating with a U.S. editor (then at Bantam) trying to come up with an idea for a book that she might find acceptable. I came up with ideas and sent off outlines, then got back to Blood Games.

May 31 I had lunch here in Los Angeles with Bob Tanner. He suggested that, since my main success was taking place in Great Britain, I should try to come up with a novel having a British background.

June 17 Pondering Bob Tanner’s advice from the luncheon, I came up with the idea for my Jack the Ripper novel, Savage. I would work on making notes and doing research for this book while continuing to write Blood Games.

June 29 The big “on-sign” check from Headline arrived. Finally, we were no longer poor!

July 11 With a portion of our new wealth, we went driving out to buy a new Jeep, but our ancient Omni broke down along the way.

July 12-13 We succeeded in buying a brand new red Jeep Cherokee. We immediately showed it to the De Larattas, then drove up and showed it to Bob and Cheryl (my brother and sister-in-law), spent the night in Bakersfield, then drove the rest of the way to Modesto for a surprise visit to my parents so they could see the new Jeep. We were pretty happy to have it.

July 18 Back in Los Angeles, I was treated to lunch at the Polo lounge by my publisher, Tim Hely Hutchinson, the head of Headline.

August 10 Returning to Berkeley for a signing at Dark Carnival, we spent the night in the apartment of Lany Mori and Joan Parsons along with their collection of disturbing oddities.

Sept. 6-10 I wrote the short story, “I’m not a Criminal” for the Stanley Wiater anthology After the Darkness.

Nov. 8 Blood Games, begun on March 6 of that year, was finally finished.

Nov. 18 I started writing Ripper, which I would later retitle Narrow Calls, and which would be published as Savage.

Dec. 6-15 I wrote the short story, “Good Vibrations,” for a Gorman/Greenberg anthology to be called Stalkers III. The anthology would be published in 1996 as Night Screams.

1991

Jan. 1-5 I made notes for a novel called Nightman which never went anywhere.

March 1-3 We took a trip to Bishop, CA to visit the Laws Railroad Museum so I could do some train research for Ripper Savage).

March 18 I wrote a piece about The Stake for Mystery Scene.

March 20 Looking for an American agent to replace Ralph Vicinanza, I contacted Dominick Abel.

May 17 I spoke on being a writer for “career day” at Canfield, Kelly’s school.

May 24-27 We drove to Tecate, Mexico and spent several days there with my parents, my brother Bob and his wife Cheryl.

June 8 Don Cannon had a signing for me at Aladdin Books. Approximately sixty copies of The Stake were sold, and I spent three and a half hours autographing books and talking to fans.

June 21-23 We stayed at the house of our friends, Sally and Murray Harb, and attended the Horror Writers of America festivities in Redondo Beach. My novel, Funland was nominated for a Bram Stoker award, but lost to Robert McCammon’s Mine. Bogart threw up. John Scoleri introduced me to Peter Enfantino and they proposed publishing a collection of my short fiction in a special limited edition. I agreed.

June 29 I had a signing at The Bookstore, Ltd. in Modesto, CA. Approximately two copies of The Stake were sold. Larry Mori and Joan Parsons drove out from Berkley and had dinner with us.

July 17 - August 1 We took a driving trip out west. Went to Jackson Hole. At a dude ranch near Cody, Wyoming, we did a lot of horseback riding, some whitewater rafting, some rock climbing. We got to meet a few real cowboys. We went to the Cody rodeo and Yellowstone Park. After the ranch, we went to Custer, South Dakota, saw Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Mountain, the badlands, the Custer battlefield at the Little Big Horn, etc.

We drove through fabulous landscapes near Moab, Utah. All this provided vast amounts of first-hand experience that came in handy during the writing of Savage’?, western sections. (I had been writing Savage since November of the previous year.) Aug. 9 I spoke and autographed copies of The Stake at The Book Annex in Venice, CA.

This being Venice, we had real vampires in attendance.

Sept. 6 I finished writing Ripper, otherwise known as Narrow Calls and soon to be published as Savage.

Sept. 9 Though I’m convinced he did everything possible to help my career, I broke off from my U.S. agent, Ralph Vicinanza.

Sept. 10 I began a series of original stories for my first short story collection, to be published by Peter Enfantino, John Scoleri and Robert Morrish of Deadline Press.

Sept. 12-18 I wrote the short story, “Finders Keepers.”

Sept. 19-23 I wrote “Joyce.”

Sept. 24 - Oct. 1 I wrote “Mask.”

Oct. 1-5 I wrote “Stickman.”

Oct. 7-20 I wrote a story called “Friend,” which would become the title story of the Deadline collection, “A Good, Secret Place.” (The title, of course, is a play on the title of Hemingway’s classic short story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”) Oct. 14 I met agent Dominick Abel for lunch at Coco’s in West Los Angeles. He seemed willing to take me on as a client, but he thought I would be a tough sell because of my track record. (It’s all computerized, so if your books are not smashing hits, you can’t escape the record and your career inevitably goes down the toilet.) Mr. Abel thought it might be a good idea for me to escape from my record by writing under a pseudonym.

Oct. 28 After smoking a pipe since about the age of sixteen, I gave it up. For a while, I thought I might not be able to write without smoking a pipe, but I managed.

Oct. 29 I started work on a new novel, The Caller (never finished).

Nov. 4 In my quest for a U.S. agent, I talked to a man from William Morris. I was informed, however, that the agency wouldn’t take me on as a client unless I allowed them to handle the whole world, including the U.K. Which would mean dumping Bob Tanner.

So I didn’t go with William Morris.

It may have been at this point that I decided to quit looking for an American agent, and have Bob Tanner handle the whole works. He’d done such a fine job everywhere else, that it made sense. And still does.

Nov. 6-13 I wrote the short story, “The Fur Coat” for Richard Chizmar’s anthology, The Earth Strikes Back.

Nov. 12 Bob Tanner called to inform me that Blood Games would be the main selection of Book Club Associates, Britain’s most important book club.

Nov. 17-23 I wrote the short story, “Phil the Vampire,” for the Gorman/Greenberg anthology, Vampire Detectives.

Nov. 27 - Dec. 2 We went to Bullhead City, Sedona and Cottonwood with the De Larattas.

Dec. 2-9 I wrote the short story, “Dracuson’s Driver,” for the Gorman/Greenberg anthology, Dracula, Prince of Darkness.

Dec. 10-13 I wrote the short story, “Kitty Litter” for the Gorman/ Greenberg anthology, Cat Crimes II. Dec. 14 I started writing my novel, Quake.

1992

Jan. 15 The Stake went into development for Tri-Star TV.

Jan 26 - Feb.2 In Florida, we went to Disney World, Daytona Beach, Cape Canaveral, and Gatorland where I ate alligator.

March 19 The trial of the police officers who subdued and arrested felon Rodney King began. Though still working on Quake, I took time to watch the complete trial on television.

March 25 Headline gave me a new and wonderful three-book contract.

March 30 My Headline editor, Mike Bailey, asked for a plot synopsis of Quake, so I wrote one up and sent it to Bob Tanner. (I send just about everything to Bob Tanner, and he delivers it all to Mike Bailey.)

April 3 I stopped working on Quake, leaving it unfinished. April 4-28 I wrote my novella, “Wilds.”

April 29 The jury found the police officers not guilty of charges brought against them in connection with the Rodney King arrest. The verdict wasn’t appreciated by some segments of the population, and the Los Angeles riot started. Reginald Denny was pulled from his car and nearly beaten to death by a mob of black hoodlums while we watched it happen live on television.

April 30 The riot was continuing. Armed with a pistol and video camera, we piled into our Jeep and drove to the Target store on a mission to save our Disney World photos from the rioters. Though we passed through areas that had already been hit, we succeeded and returned home safely.

May 1-3 The National Guard finally came in. With such a massive show of force, the riot tapered off and ended.

May 6 I started working on a new novel, Sleep Over, which would be published as Endless Night.

May 8 We went to a local gun shop and began to improve our home defense capabilities.

May 16 We went to Venice Beach, where we saw a fellow threaten another guy and chase him around with a big knife. We reported the incident to a couple of nearby LAPD officers.

May 23-25 The ABA was in Anaheim. We had breakfast with Bob Tanner, dinner with Anne Williams of Headline and Bob.

June 28 Two big EARTHQUAKES. A 6.5 demolished much of the city of Big Bear, and a 7.4 hit in Yucca Valley. We felt them both, but they were too far away to do any damage in Los Angeles.

June 29 We had dinner with Sian Thomas of Headline.

July 10 We had dinner in Sacramento with Steve, Kathy and Sarah Adamovich of Cobblestone book store. We stayed at a motel that night, and I signed books at Cobblestone the next day.

July 21- Aug. 10 We flew to Ann’s hometown, Clayton, New York and took a side trip through the Finger Lakes area to Niagara Falls. We also had an adventure in Clayton, in which we stumbled onto a possibly illegal dump site, were caught there on a back road, and feared for our lives.

Aug. 14-17 I worked on an interview for Samhain magazine.

Sept. 10 The St. Martin’s version of Midnight’s Lair was chosen to be a Doubleday Book Club selection here in the U.S.

Nov. 13 I had a book signing for A Good, Secret Place at Dark Carnival in Berkeley.

Late that night, at the Berkeley Marriott, we had rodent adventures and needed to change rooms. We didn’t find out until later, but in the new room Kelly spent the night between her bedsheets with a pile of nut shells near her feet.

Nov. 14 We visited the Santa Cruz boardwalk, which I had already fictionalized in Funland. While there, we observed a woman who was concerned because her child had vanished inside one of the amusement park’s rides.

Nov. 17-18 I wrote a piece about Midnight’s Lair for Mystery Scene.

Nov. 19-24 At the request of film agent Frank Cooper, I wrote a treatment of Midnight’s Lair. Oddly enough, based on a review of the book that appeared in Publishers Weekly, the folks at Disney were interested in movie rights. But only for a while. Then they found out what Midnight’s Lair was really about. (Film never made.) Dec. 2 I finished writing Endless Night and sent it to Bob Tanner.

Dec. 12-13 We helped our friends, Loretta and Mel Roberts, set up and arrange their audio book store in Long Beach.

Dec. 15 I started making notes for a new novel, The Pact (never finished).

1993

Jan. 6-11 I had meetings with film agent Frank Cooper, and did more work on treatments of Midnight’s Lair. (No films made.)

Jan. 19 - Feb. 9 We took a massive driving trip through Arizona and New Mexico, visited Carlsbad Caverns, drove through west Texas, stayed in Corpus Christi for a few days, spent a while in Houma, Louisiana, then a few days in San Antonio, Texas before heading for home. On the way back, visited the Cadillac Desert to pay homage to Joe Lansdale.

Feb. 15 I started writing a new novel, working title MOG. It would be published with the title, In the Dark.

Feb. 16 I made two trips to the Cooper Agency about a possible film version of The Stake.

Feb. 26 Savage sold to St. Martin’s Press for hardbound publication under the Thomas Dunne imprint. Also, I went to the Cooper Agency for a meeting with screenwriter Richard Adams about a film version of The Stake. (Film never made.) March 5-6 We went to Disneyland, Roy Robbins threw a book-signing party at the Disneyland Hotel, and Roy treated us to a night at the hotel. Tim and Serena Powers dropped by for the signing. We got kicked out of the Disneyland cowboy saloon (because Kelly was under age), so we all went to our room, opened up the mini-bar, and had a great time for a couple of hours.

March 12-13 We spent the night in Sacramento, then had another signing at Cobblestone Books. Larry Mori and Joan Parsons came over from Berkley and we took them to dinner.

March 15 I wrote my article, “The Lizzie Borden Syndrome,” attacking certain book reviewers. It would appear in Afraid magazine and cause a bit of a stir.

March 25 I was informed that paperback rights for The Stake and Midnight’s Lair had been bought by Berkley but the publisher turned out to be Zebra, not Berkley. Also, Tom Dunne of St. Martin’s made an offer for Quake, based on the partial I’d sent to England back on March 30, 1992.

April 17 Koon and Powell, two of the officers involved in the Rodney King arrest, were found guilty when retried by the Federal government. This was the “proper” verdict, so we didn’t have a riot this time. Except for a small outbreak of violence at Magic Mountain amusement park.

April 19 The Branch Davidian compound at Waco was burned down with multiple casualties.

May 20 I got involved in writing a screenplay with the man who installed the new windows in our house.

July 1-13 To celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of my parents, my brother and I treated them to a week in Hawaii. We all went over and stayed together in a condo on Maui. Then Ann and Kelly and I spent an additional week in Honolulu.

July 20 I finished writing MOG, which would be published as In the Dark.

July 31 - Aug. 20 We took an extensive driving trip up the California coast, staying in such places as Bodega Bay and Fort Bragg, then going up the Oregon coast and spending a couple of days in Portland. After going to the disaster site of the Mt. St. Helen’s volcano eruption, we stayed in Seattle, Washington for a while, then drove up to Port Angeles and Aberdeen. On the way back, we spent a couple of days at Gold Beach, California, where we took the mail boat ride up the Rogue River.

Aug. 20 - Sept .22 I wrote a screenplay based on ideas developed in discussions with the man who installed several windows in our house. I then sent a copy of the finished screenplay to him, and never heard from him again. So much for the fun and games of collaboration.

Sept. 24 I started working on a new novel called, The Look. (I don’t think it went anywhere.)

Sept. 30 A letter arrived from Tom Dunne, who had just bought Quake for St. Martin’s Press, in which he made several suggestions for revisions and ways to proceed with the parts I hadn’t yet written.

Oct. 1 I returned to writing Quake, which I’d stopped writing on April 3, 1992 about a year and half earlier.

Nov. 29 I started making notes for a new novel, working title Body Hitcher, which would be published as Body Rides.

Nov. 30 I wrote an introduction for Bentley Little’s first collection of short fiction.

1994

Jan. 17 BIG AWFUL EARTHQUAKE!!! A 6.6 magnitude earthquake (or larger) struck the Los Angeles area at 4:31 a.m. We thought it was “all over.” For a while, we were trapped inside our house because a book case containing my published novels had fallen in the way of the front door and we couldn’t find the key to the back door. But we finally got out, and stayed in our car until dawn. Our only major damage was the loss of our chimney and fireplace.

Jan. 22 In spite of the destruction throughout the Los Angeles area, we went ahead with a signing at Don Cannon’s Aladdin Books.

Jan. 25 I got back to writing Quake with quite a lot of fresh perspective under my belt.

Feb. 7 I was interviewed by John Fredrickson via telephone at 7:30 a.m. for a radio show out of Penn State University.

March 3-6 We drove to Phoenix, AZ for the World Horror Convention. I spoke on a couple of panels, autographed books and met authors and fans. I finally got to meet Bob Morrish, one of the three guys who had published A Good, Secret Place and who would also be a publisher of this book.

March 20 EARTHQUAKE! Though we’d had a lot of aftershocks from the Jan. 17 quake, this was a big one. It was magnitude 5.3, hit on a Sunday afternoon when we are all home, and lasted 30 seconds. Ann, Kelly and I stood around holding television sets and the china cabinet.

March 24 I finished writing Quake.

March 24 - April 4 We took a driving trip to Arizona, returning to Tombstone, then spent a few days in Bullhead City with the De Larattas.

April 5 I started a new novel, working title Glory Bus. (Never finished.) May 7-8, 15-16 I wrote the short story, “The Maiden,” which would be published in Dark Love, edited by Nancy Collins and Edward Kramer.

May 8 “We took a Sunday morning drive to explore downtown Los Angeles and east L.A., and saw a dead body on the pavement of a car lot near the Hollenbeck police station. It was partly covered with a blanket and surrounded by several cops.

May 25 I started making notes for my novel, Island.

May 27-30 ABA in Anaheim. We had dinner with Bob Tanner, went to a breakfast for a talk by Pat Conroy, and had lunch with Jane Morpath of Headline. Had a ten second chat with Stephen King, a man in a hurry.

June 2-6 We drove to Las Vegas for the Horror Writers of America weekend. I had been nominated for a Bram Stoker award in the short story collection category for A Good, Secret Place.

June 29 I had lunch at the Bel Air Hotel with my publisher, Tim Hely Hutchinson.

July 12-13 I worked on notes for Down Cellar, the third Beast House book. I sent a partial and notes to Bob Tanner, then started making extensive notes on The Cellar and Beast House to ready myself for writing the sequel.

July 22-26, Aug. 15-16 I wrote the short story, “Herman,” which would be published in Cemetery Dance.

July 28 - Aug. 15 We flew to Memphis, TN, stayed a few nights, then took the Mississippi Queen down the river to New Orleans, where we spent a week. Among other things, we visited Graceland in Memphis and William Faulkner’s home in Oxford.

Sept. 1-8 We spent a week in New York City. There, we had a meeting with Thomas Dunne of St. Martin’s Press in his office at the Flatiron Building.

Sept. 14 I started writing my novel, Island.

Sept. 24 I went to Dangerous Visions bookstore for a signing of the Zebra paperbacks of Midnight’s Lair, etc.

Sept. 27 A memorial service for Robert Bloch took place in Westwood, and I attended.

Dec. 26 - Jan.1 We went on a trip with De Larattas to Death Valley, Tonapah and Ely, Nevada. At an Ely bookstore, we were told that Stephen King had recently come through on his motorcycle. Apparently, he was in the area doing research for Desperation.

1995

Jan. 23 I finished writing Island. And the trial started for O.J. Simpson in connection with the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Though continuing to get my writing done during the months of the trial, I watched nearly all of the trial on live TV.

Jan.’ 27 I started working on my new novel, Body Rides.

March 6 Kelly had a day off from school, so we all went downtown to the courthouse to observe the O.J. action. The crowd was moved down the block because of a bomb scare.

March 16 I spoke about being an author at Kelly’s high school for career day. There, I was teamed up with a local TV personality who was a lunatic, yelled at the kids (using the F word) and threw a couple of them out of class. Later, some of Kelly’s friends wondered which of us was her father.

April 8-14 We took a driving trip to Lee Vining, visited Mono Lake, and spent most of the week in Reno, NV.

April 29 While leaving the Burbank Book Fair, we ran into Del Howison. He told us about his new store, Dark Delicacies, so we drove over for a look at it. Visited with Del’s partner and future wife, Sue.

May 3 Ed Gorman interviewed me again for Mystery Scene.

May 6 At 11:30 p.m., Ann took Bogart into our enclosed back yard. She heard noises behind our garage, hurried back to the house, and told me about it. So I went to the rear of the garage and encountered a man trying to break in. I confronted him with my Colt .45.

He flung up his hands, yelling “It’s cool, man! Hey, it’s cool! Don’t shoot!” So I didn’t shoot, and allowed him to run away. Though we called 911, the police didn’t show up that night.

May 7 I called the police again. An officer came over and we gave him a statement about the incident.

June 3 We flew to San Francisco for a signing of Quake at a Brentano’s bookstore. A couple of the guys who worked there were major fans of my work. And I found out that their store hadn’t been scheduled to receive even a single copy of the St. Martin’s hardback of Quake. This let me know just where I stood with my U.S. publisher. I made up my mind to waste no more of my novels on any publisher that isn’t willing to put a little effort into getting behind me.

June 10 I had a book signing at Del and Sue’s store, Dark Delicacies.

June 17 We went to the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore in San Diego, where Dennis Etchison and I talked to the customers, answered questions, and autographed books.

June 24 We had a book signing at a Waldenbooks at Eagle Rock Plaza.

July 14 We arrived in Ann’s hometown of Clayton, New York, and were awakened in the night by a storm called a “micro-burst.” It felt like a bombardment, and caused great destruction throughout the area, uprooting trees, knocking out the power, ripping roofs off buildings, destroying the Lafargeville drag racing track, and killing several people.

July 14 - Aug.4 After the storm, we stayed in Clayton for a while, then took a driving trip. In Elmira, we visited a Mark Twain museum and his grave and saw a terrific stage play, Mark Twain: The Musical. Then we drove to Harrisburg, PA, visited the Gettysburg battlefield, then spent a while in Scranton.

Sept. 11 The concrete was poured for the foundation of our new garage. The garage, when done, would be two stories high. The top floor would be my office. We’d wanted such an addition for years. It was made possible by Tom Corey, a fan who’d come to many of my signings and became a close friend. A contractor, Tom managed to put the whole project together and get it done.

Sept. 27 I finished writing Body Rides and mailed it to Bob Tanner.

Oct. 3 All common sense to the contrary, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty by a jury of his admirers. This undoubtedly saved Los Angeles from another riot, but outraged some of us.

Oct. 5-16 I wrote the short story, “First Date,” for Poppy Brite’s anthology, Razor Kiss.

Oct. 17 I started work on a new novel, Bite.

Dec. 3-9 I revised my old novel, Fiends (originally written in 1974 and never published) cutting out large portions and turning it into a novella. It became the title story for Fiends, my first U.K. short fiction collection.

Dec. 26-31 We took a driving trip to Yuma, Arizona with the De Larattas. Visited the old Yuma prison and spent a day in the Mexican town of Algodones.

1996

Jan. 5 I mailed my short story collection, Fiends, to Bob Tanner, then resumed working on Bite.

Feb. 17-18 We drove to Ridgecrest, Trona and Death Valley so that I could get the geographical details straight for the driving trip in Bite.

March 11 I had lunch with publisher Lyle Stuart who is famous for publishing such non-fiction titles as The Anarchist’s Cookbook. He told me of his plans to publish all my books with loads of publicity, three books per year, under a special Laymon imprint.

Sounded great, but it never happened.

March 29 The building inspector showed up and gave final approval of the finished garage/office.

March 30 Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri came over and we went out to dinner at the Warehouse in Marina Del Key.

April 5-12 We took a driving trip to Salinas, San Francisco, and Moro Bay. In San Francisco, we went on the tour of Alcatraz Island and I got the idea for having “self-guided audio tours” with cassette players which I would soon use in writing The Midnight Tour.

May 1 I finished writing Bite.

May 6 I started working again on The Cellar III.

June 9 I changed course on my ideas for the next Cellar book, and started making notes for a version called, The Midnight Tour.

June 22 - July 2 We took a driving trip to Modesto, Placerville, Reno and Lone Pine.

July 6 I returned to work on The Midnight Tour.

Aug. 7-24 We flew to New York City, took a train to Boston, drove around Cape Cod and took a train from Boston to Salem of witch trial fame.

Sept. 4 Learning that Book Club Associates planned to print my next novel as part of a “double-book” with Bite, I quit writing The Midnight Tour about 180 pages into the manuscript. I started a new novel, After Midnight, which I saw as a “companion piece” to Bite.

Nov. 18 Going out for my morning walk, I slipped on our recently painted front stoop, fell down the stairs and broke my right arm in two places. Ann drove me to the emergency room at Brot-man Medical Center. Back home a couple of hours later, I returned to writing After Midnight. I’d gotten up to page 405. I managed to write two more pages that day typing with my left hand.

Dec. 20 I received my new contract from Headline for four more novels. The new contract gave me about two extra months between each novel.

Dec. 21-22 We took my parents to Catalina Island, and storms nearly prevented us from returning the next day.

1997

Jan. 2 I finished writing After Midnight.

Jan 15-Feb. 5 With the extra time on my hands because of the new contract, I wrote a screenplay of After Midnight.

Jan. 19 Ann and I had dinner at the Bel Air Hotel with Tim Hely Hutchinson and Amanda Ridout of Headline.

Feb. 18 I finally got back to my third book of the “Beast House” novels The Midnight Tour.

March 1,3,7,12,16 At the request of Bob Tanner, I wrote a “zombie” story for an anthology being edited by Peter Haining. I experimented with a new writing method of skipping about from one project to another. A day or two here, a day or two there…

March 2,4,8,9 I worked on the opening of a new novel, working title Madland, loosely based on an idea I’d long ago proposed to John Silbersack at Onyx. (He accepted the proposal, but didn’t give us an acceptable offer so we declined.) March 15 I returned to The Midnight Tour.

March 22 Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri came to the house, we all went out to dinner at Islands restaurant in Beverly Hills, and discussed developing this book about me. After dinner, we drove around to show John and Peter some places that inspired parts of Body Rides. Then we went nuts and drove around for a couple of hours, exploring famous murder sites.

March 23-29 We drove to Las Vegas, where we experienced some terrible crowd scenes and I got the inclination to write a novel set in Las Vegas.

April 2 I started work on my “Afterward” for the special limited edition of The Cellar published by Richard Chizmar and CD Publications.

April 15 I had my first meeting with film maker Jerry Lentz. We discussed forming a limited partnership in order to produce films based on my books.

April 25 I started working on material for this book, dividing my time between this project and Midnight Tour.

June 20 We attended Kelly’s graduation from Hamilton High School.

July 23 - August 10 We spent about a week in Philadelphia, then in Baltimore. At much peril to ourselves, we visited former dwellings of Edgar Allan Poe in both cities. In Baltimore, we visited Poe’s grave and hung around Fell’s Point to watch the taping of Homicide, Life on the Streets, the best drama show on television.

Aug. 15-16 Kelly and I attended Dracula ‘97, a vampire convention at the Westin Hotel near L.A.X. I signed books, sat on panels, and had a memorable “dialogue” with Tim Powers. Afterwards, we had drinks with Tim and Serena, Nancy Holder, and Katherine Ramsland.

Aug. 23 We took Kelly to college and managed to survive hauling her stuff to her third-floor dorm room.

Sept. 6 Ann and I drove to Parkfield, the “earthquake center” of California, to celebrate my mother’s birthday. On the way home, we dropped in on Dark Delicacies to sign a few books, visit with Del and Sue, and order our Christmas cards.

Sept. 14 I finished most of this book, which I plan to call A Writer’s Tale, and returned to work on The Midnight Tour.

Sept. 21 I had a private chat room discussion on the Internet with John and Peter in which we discussed details of A Writer’s Tale.

Oct. 16-18 We went to Tehachapi, visited the cowboy museum, then attended an air show at Edwards Air Force base with my brother Bob.

Oct. 28-29 I read and corrected the proofs for the Cemetery Dance edition of The Cellar.

Nov. 14 I received and began autographing the signature pages for The Cellar.

Dec. 6 I finished all except the wind-up section of The Midnight Tour.

Dec. 7 In a private chat room on the internet, John, Peter, Bob and I made some decisions regarding the contents, format, special features, number of copies to be published, prices, contract, etc. for A Writer’s Tale.