A Writer's Tale

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June 28 Based upon my novel, Missing Pieces, (which is so far still unpublished) I was taken on by the literary agency of Jay Garon-Brooke Associates.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