A Writer's Tale (4 page)

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 (It remains unpublished.)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.