A Writer's Tale

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.