A Writer's Tale (5 page)

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.