A Writer's Tale Page 3
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 (It remains unpublished.)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 si
milar 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 a
s 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.)