The Wrap Up

2025, like all the years before it, was a mixture of good and bad around here. Health issues became a little more challenging this year and took up more time, but I feel like I’m still in pretty good shape for an old-timer. My writing production isn’t what it once was, but I managed to turn out more than half a million words, which amounted to almost six novels. No short stories this year. Most importantly, I feel like the work is still pretty good quality. My schedule is fairly full again for 2026, but changes are looming. But when aren’t they?

Of course, reading is still very important to me, as it has been ever since I first visited the bookmobile when I was six years old. I read 149 books this year, a nice number but down some from last year. Here are my ten favorite books (not best, necessarily, but favorite) that I read this year, alphabetical by author:

SHARPE’S TIGER, Bernard Cornwell

GANGLAND’S DOOM: THE SHADOW OF THE PULPS, Frank Eisgruber Jr.

RANCHO BRAVO #1: CALHOON, Thorne Douglas (Ben Haas)

THE CHRONICLES OF HANUVAR, VOLUME 2: THE CITY OF MARBLE AND BLOOD, Howard Andrew Jones

LONGHORN STAMPEDE, Philip Ketchum 

SARA AND THE MAD DOG, Stephen Mertz

ROBERT E. HOWARD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A TEXAS WRITER, Willard M. Oliver

SOMETIME LOFTY TOWERS, David C. Smith

STORYTELLER: HELPFUL HINTS AND TALL TALES FROM THE WRITING LIFE, Carlton Stowers

’NADA, Daniel Boyd (Dan Stumpf)

At least a dozen more books could have made this list and some of them probably would have on a different day. I read a lot of good books. I believe all of those listed above are still in print and easily available except for the Western novel by Philip Ketchum.

So what does 2026 hold in store? Who knows? I plan to keep writing and reading for the foreseeable future, and I figure most of the other stuff will take care of itself. My thanks to all of you reading this, some of whom have been here for more than twenty years. We’ll see how long we can keep it going.

UPDATE: In response to a request in the comments, here are the other books I considered for my top ten list, in the order in which I read them: THE RULE OF THREES, Jeffrey Deaver; THE ART OF RON LESSER, VOLUME 2, Robert Deis, Bill Cunningham, eds.; ONCE A FIGHTER, Les Savage Jr.; SWITCHEROO, Emmett McDowell; GUN LAW AT VERMILION, Matt Stuart (L.P. Holmes); HAMILTON'S HAREM, William Kane (Ben Haas); THE JOY WHEEL, Paul W. Fairman; KNIGHT OF DARKNESS: THE LEGEND OF THE SHADOW, Will Murray; THE WILD ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, VOLUME 5, Will Murray; OVERBOARD, George F. Worts; THE BULLET GARDEN, Stephen Hunter; THE RED TASSEL, David Dodge; DREAM TOWN, David Baldacci; MARIHUANA, William Irish (Cornell Woolrich); and EYE WITNESS, George Harmon Coxe. Any of these books are well worth your time.

The Annual December 27th Post

49 years ago today, I opened the mailbox at my parents’ house and took out a check in the amount of $167.50 from the Ideal Publishing Company, my first sale as a professional fictioneer. I’ve written about this many times before, starting with the very first year of this blog, a post that you can read here. And if you do, you may note that one of the comments is from my long-time, much-missed friend Bill Crider, and there are others by Juri Nummelin and Todd Mason, who are stlll good friends of mine all these years later.

I’m a lot closer to the end of my writing career now, but I’m still at it and plan to be for a while yet. Many thanks to all who have gotten me this far, including all the editors who have accepted my work and all the readers who have plunked down hard-earned cash to read it. My daughters Shayna and Joanna have helped me every step of the way, and of course, none of it would be possible without Livia, who has always believed in me. 49 years is a long time in this business. I’m not sure the youngster I was back in 1976 could have even comprehended such a thing, but I’m mighty pleased and proud to be here.

Half a Million Words and Counting

Some of you probably remember how I used to write a million words a year. I did that for 17 straight years, in fact, and usually posted on the blog when I reached that milestone. Then, a few years ago, for various reasons, the streak came to an end. Since then, however, I’ve never done less than half a million words a year, and since that seems like a worthwhile accomplishment, I thought I’d mention that I hit that mark yesterday.

I’ve also made noises about retiring on numerous occasions, but I came closer than ever before to doing that for next year. My age is starting to catch up to me, health-wise. It wouldn’t be actual retirement, of course. I’d still write books, but only ones that I intended to self-publish, nothing with contracts and deadlines involved. But when I mentioned that to the editor on the ghosting job I’ve been doing for many years now, she prevailed on me to do a few more books next year, and then Gary Goldstein, a good friend for more than 35 years and the editor who has bought more of my books than anybody else, became the editorial director at Dusty Saddle Publishing and asked me to write a few books for him, and I couldn't say no. So I went from the prospect of semi-retirement to having contracts and deadlines at two separate publishers next year. That adds up to, you guessed it, about half a million words. So I guess I’ll press on for a while yet. My current novel is the 432nd I’ve written, and I’d sure like to get to #450 . . .

#430

I just sent in my 430th novel. I used to confine posts like this to more significant milestones, but hey, at my age, every milestone is a significant one. My goal is to make it to 450 novels, which I believe is within reach barring any of the proverbial unforeseen circumstances. I got a good start on #431 while Livia was editing #430, so I had best get back to it. 

Review: Storyteller: Helpful Hints and Tall Tales From the Writing Life - Carlton Stowers

I first met Carlton Stowers many years ago at one of the mass autograph parties TCU Press used to sponsor every December. The idea was that they would gather twenty or thirty local authors in one place, and people could come and buy signed books to give as Christmas presents. The events were usually held at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens in those days. It seemed like they sold quite a few books, but for me, the real appeal was the chance to see old friends I didn’t run into in person that often—Elmer Kelton, Jory Sherman, Kerry Newcomb, G. Clifton Wisler—and to make new friends such as, well, Carlton Stowers.

I knew who Carlton Stowers was before that. I’d seen the name many times and knew he was an Edgar Award-winning author of true crime books. I believe he was acquainted with Bill Crider, too, and I’d heard Bill speak of him. But I didn’t read true crime books so I’d never sampled his work. However, when we were introduced and I spent some time talking to the guy, we were friends right away. His interests ranged ‘way beyond true crime, and I remember telling him one time, after he’d spun a great yarn about a distant relative of his who’d ridden with Pancho Villa, “You really need to be writing fiction. You’d be great at it.”

Eventually he did, but we’ll get to that.

For several years, Stowers attended the annual Howard Days get-together in Cross Plains with his friend and literary agent Jim Donovan (a fine writer his own self), and we had lengthy, hugely enjoyable conversations about everything under the sun, as they say. I haven’t been able to make it to Cross Plains for several years now, and those conversations with Carlton are among the things I really miss. Maybe one of these days.

So, to the point of this review, last year TCU Press published STORYTELLER: HELPFUL HINTS AND TALL TALES FROM THE WRITING LIFE. It’s part memoir, part how-to book, and it’s full of entertaining stories about Stowers’ life and his varied careers as a sports reporter, columnist, feature writer, ghostwriter for sports and entertainment figures, and of course, his award-winning years as an author of true crime books. I said above that I didn’t read true crime, and I still don’t, but I swear, I really need to read Carlton’s books because I know they must be well-written and compelling. Mixed in with these reminiscences are plenty of useful, practical tips about writing non-fiction of all sorts.

There’s also a section about Stowers’ career as a Western novelist. He’s written six novels so far, and they’re all excellent. I hope he does more. In the meantime, and until I get around to reading some of those true crime books, I’m very glad to have read STORYTELLER. It’s a superb book about the writing life, and if that interests you, I give it my highest recommendation. You can find it in trade paperback on Amazon.

The Wrap Up

I don’t talk much about real life on here anymore. It hasn’t been a great year, mostly due to various medical issues in the family, but we’ve had worse. I prefer to concentrate on the more pleasant aspects of life, most notably reading and writing. So with that in mind . . .

I read 167 books this year, not as much as some years but still a very respectable total. That includes more actual pulps and pulp reprints than I’ve ever read in a single year, so I’m pleased with that. Here are my top ten favorite books I read, in alphabetical order by author:

CASINOS, MOTELS, GATORS: STORIES, Ben Boulden
NORDIC AND FINN, Peter Brandvold
GUNSMOKE RECKONING, Joseph Chadwick
WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH: THE ILLUSTRATED MEN’S ADVENTURE ANTHOLOGY, Robert Deis, Wyatt Doyle, Josh Alan Friedman, eds.
THE SHADOWED CIRCLE COMPENDIUM, Steve Donoso, ed.
HIGH FLIERS, MIDDLEWEIGHTS, AND LOWLIFES: DAVID GOODIS IN THE PULPS, Cullen Gallagher
THE COMPLETE CASEBOOK OF CARDIGAN, VOLUME 1, Frederick Nebel
THE SHADOW OF VENGEANCE, Scott Oden
NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD, Jason M. Waltz, ed.
HELL STRIP, Lee Richards (Lee E. Wells)

That’s the new, expanded edition of WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH. I read the original version when it came out a number of years ago. When I was looking over my list of books read this year, there were many, many more that could have been included because I read a lot of really good books. As always, narrowing it down to ten was not easy.

As for writing, my production actually went up a little, although it’s difficult for me to comprehend how that happened. I don’t have an exact number, but I know I wrote right around three-quarters of a million words. I’m not expecting to write as much next year, or probably ever again, to be honest. I’d be perfectly happy to do half a million words in 2025 and after that? Well, some people actually retire, even writers. That’s starting to look very appealing to me.

But that’s on down the road, and for now, many thanks to all of you reading this for sticking with me. May next year be better for all of us.

The Annual December 27th Post

Twenty years ago today, I posted about making my first fiction sale, which took place on December 27, 1976. You can read all about it here. Now, 48 years have gone by since that semi-momentous day, and half a century in this business is barreling at me. Will I make it? Who knows?

Meanwhile, here's a picture of a dog at a typewriter. Reminds me a little of me in those long-ago days. That would be a pile of rejected manuscripts behind the typewriter.

But to be serious for just a moment, to all the editors who have bought my work over the years, to all the folks who have laid down their hard-earned money to read it, to those who love it and those who hate it, and especially to Livia, Shayna, and Joanna, the biggest thank you I can muster. You've kept me going, and God willing, I'll putter along a while longer.

#425

I wrapped up my 425th novel yesterday. I think that's a milestone worthy of a blog post and something I never seriously dreamed of achieving when I started out in this business all those years ago. I'm more convinced than ever that writing 500 novels is out of reach for me. Even 450 seems like a stretch considering how much I've already slowed down and how much I'd like to slow down even more. But that's one thing about life . . . you never know. For now, I'm proud and happy to have gotten this far, and I appreciate all readers and editors and publishers who have made it possible, and special thanks, as always, to my daughters who have helped so much, and to Livia, without whom it never would have happened.

Now I have another book to write, so I'd better get at it.

The Wrap Up

I think we all know there was no shortage of terrible things happening this year, but why dwell on the negative? I’m going to try to look at a few positive things.

First and foremost, I’m still here, and Livia, Shayna, and Joanna are still putting up with me. This day and age, that’s something to feel good about.

A few days ago, I celebrated the 47^th anniversary of my first fiction sale. Most writing careers don’t last that long, so I’m very happy to still be turning out the pages, even though there are fewer of them than there used to be. I also think I’m still writing with a fair degree of competence. I have a legitimate shot at being in this crazy business for half a century, and that seems pretty good to me.

I also read a lot of good books. Here are my ten favorites for the year, alphabetical by author:

PUNK & OTHER STORIES, Cleve F. Adams
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MATTHEW SCUDDER, Lawrence Block
THE ART OF RON LESSER, VOLUME 1: DEADLY DAMES AND SEXY SIRENS, Robert Deis, Bill Cunningham, and J. Kingston Pierce, eds.
SPILL THE JACKPOT, A.A. Fair (Erle Stanley Gardner)
MALIBU BURNING, Lee Goldberg
LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND, Howard Andrew Jones
DARK AVENGER: THE STRANGE SAGA OF THE SHADOW, Will Murray
THE EYE OF THE TIGER, Wilbur Smith
THE NOVELIZERS, David Spencer
THE GRAVES IN THE MEADOW, Manning Lee Stokes

There were plenty of other excellent books I could have included. It was difficult narrowing the list down to ten. If you check the posts for each month you’ll find lots of other good reading that I recommend.

I plan to write about the same amount in 2024 but I hope there’ll be a few more books with my name on them. We’ll see. And I certainly intend to keep reading as much as I can, although my attention span isn’t what it once was and that makes it a challenge to get through longer books. So I don’t really foresee a lot changing, which actually makes me a little nervous because life has a habit of throwing curveballs at all of us. As always, we’ll have to wait and see what happens, but I wish all of you out there the very best for the New Year.

The Annual December 27 Post

Regular readers of this blog know that today marks the anniversary of my first fiction sale, back on December 27, 1976. 47 years ago today, a number that makes me shake my head in disbelief. I’m sure that back in 1976 I hoped I would still be writing and selling almost half a century later, but I’m equally certain that I wouldn’t have bet money on it.

But here we are, and if you want to read the background of that first sale, you can find it in my original post on the subject from 2004. I noticed when looking up that post that there are comments from Todd Mason and Juri Nummelin, who are still good friends and regular commenters here all these years later. I’m thankful for that continuity.

I’m thankful as well for everyone who’s contributed to me being able to stay in this business for so long, including all the fine editors and writers I’ve worked with over the years, as well as all the readers who have ever sat down and cracked open one of my books. And of course I couldn’t have done any of it without Livia, Shayna, and Joanna. My thanks and love to all of you. I’m at the point where I’m genuinely curious to see how long I can keep this up.

By the way, that isn't the exact model of typewriter I used in those early days, but I typed thousands of pages on one very much like it.

Half a Million Words and Counting

I used to tell people that if I was writing half a million words a year, I'd feel like I was retired. What that cocky comment failed to take into account was that my productivity could erode to the point where it takes twice as long to get anything done. So today I hit the half-million word mark for the year, but I don't feel retired. I just feel tired.

But at the same time, I tell myself, hey, half a million words isn't bad. I'm still turning out books and they're not terrible (I hope). So I guess I'll keep at it for a while yet. Still have stories to tell.

Blog Update

A series of real-life issues, some unforeseen and some we knew were coming, has kept me from posting here in recent days. I considered leaving the blog up but closing it down as far as new posts. However, I don't want to do that. If I can keep it going until next summer, that'll be 20 years, and that's a good run. (The WesternPulps email group will turn 25 next spring, and I intend to continue with it, too.)

So I've written some short reviews of the books I've read lately and will schedule those for this week. Going forward, that's probably how I'll proceed, depending on the time and energy I have. No, I'm not sick, and I don't mean for it to sound that way, just swamped with sad, annoying, time-consuming developments, much like just about everybody else in the world. With luck, the pulp posts will resume next weekend. I'm still writing novels and have enough work lined up to last through next year, so the pages will continue to flow.

In the meantime . . .

Reading and Writing Update

I said for years that I was going to slow down on the writing, but I never managed to do it to any meaningful degree. Well, age and circumstances have done it for me. Halfway through the year, I'm on pace to write just a hair more than half a million words this year. I realize that's still pretty productive, but it's half of what I used to do, and the frustrating part is that I'm still working almost as many hours at it. Getting the pages done just takes me longer.

But on the reading front, I've read 80 books so far this year, which is pretty good, I think.

Reading or writing, we do what we can do and move on to whatever's next, I guess.

#415

I've turned in my 415th novel and gotten a good start on #416. There was a time when a book had to mark a real milestone before I'd mention it, but the older I get and the closer I come to the end of my career, even these smaller increments mean something to me. I'm committed to enough work for the rest of this year and next year to carry me to #425. Will I pack it in after that? I don't know, something about 450 seems appealing to me. 500 is out of reach. I'd have to write hard for another 15 years to do that, and that's not going to happen.

Whatever the total winds up being, I've had fun and entertained some folks.

The Wrap Up

There’s no point in denying that 2022 was a rotten year in many ways, but there’s also no point in dwelling on that. So let’s turn our attention to more pleasant endeavors, such as writing, reading, editing, and publishing.

To take those things in reverse order, for most of this year I was the editor of Rough Edges Press, the mystery/thriller/men’s adventure imprint of Wolfpack Publishing. It was a wonderful job, as I got to work with Mike Bray, Jake Bray, Patience Bramlett, and all the other great people at Wolfpack, in addition to all the authors involved. While there, I was privileged to edit some really excellent books, and I’m proud of what the line accomplished. However, I stepped down at the end of October because I discovered that I couldn’t both edit and write at the level I wanted to, and although I didn’t mind slowing down some on my page production (more about that in the next paragraph) I just wasn’t ready to stop writing full-time. There are still too many books in my head clamoring to get out.

As I mentioned a few posts back, 2022 was the first year since 2004 that I didn’t write at least a million words of fiction. So the streak ends at 17 years, and while I might have preferred an even number (yes, I am a little OCD), I’m absolutely fine with that. I wrote approximately 900,000 words this year. That’s plenty. I think 750,000 would be a good total for 2023. I wrote at that level for many years before I started hitting a million, and I think I can continue producing at that level for a while yet. My plan for next year is to keep up with my regular ghost-writing job (I’m committed to approximately half a million words there) and devote the rest of the wordage to a few books of my own. We’ll see.

On the reading front, it was a good year, not at all rotten. I read 138 books. Here are my top ten favorites, in the order in which I read them:

A GUIDE TO THE GOOD LIFE: THE ANCIENT ART OF STOIC JOY, William B. Irvine

GUNS OF THE DAMNED, Stone Cody (Thomas E. Mount)

IN THE PULP FICTION TRENCHES, Len Levinson

STAND UP AND DIE!: THE LOST THRILLERS OF MICKEY SPILLANE, Mickey Spillane

THE SPIDER: SCOURGE OF THE SCORPION, Will Murray

GHOST OF THE HARDY BOYS, Leslie McFarlane

FROM THE FILES OF . . . MIKE HAMMER, Mickey Spillane

THE RANCH CAT (apa STRAIGHT FROM BOOT HILL), Willliam Hopson

JANE FURY, James Robert Daniels

CALICO, Lee Goldberg

I’m aware that’s a pretty odd mix. Two of them I edited (the Levinson memoir and the Spillane prose collection; the other Spillane book is a collection of the Mike Hammer comic strip I had nothing to do with). Two of them aren’t out yet because I read them in manuscript, JANE FURY and CALICO, but they’ll be out next year and you should remember those titles because they’re great. The pulp influence is there in GUNS OF THE DAMNED, the first novel in the Silver Trent series originally published in THE WESTERN RAIDER and STAR WESTERN, and in the Hopson novel because he got his start in the Western pulps, and in the new Spider novel by Will Murray since the Spider is one of the iconic pulp hero characters. My study of Stoic philosophy kind of petered out as the year went on, but the lessons I learned from it came in handy more than once and I still plan to get back to it.

There were at least two dozen other books right on the verge of making this list, including quite a few I edited, starting with Jamie Mason’s Father Barrett series and Ryan Fowler’s Father Tag Nolan series. Both of those feature priests/detectives and both are absolutely excellent, but beyond that, they couldn’t be more different. You should check them out if you haven’t already. Chuck Dixon’s Levon Cade series continued this year with several great entries. Brent Towns added another top-notch action/adventure series to his tireless output with TALON and also gave us some fine hardboiled private eye novels set in Australia. Nik Morton’s Leon Cazador books are fast-paced international thrillers with a great protagonist. Stephen Mertz’s latest Cody’s War novel demonstrates that he hasn’t lost a step and is still a legend in the action/adventure field. And these are just Rough Edges Press books. I also read some great pulp reprints from Altus Press/Steeger Books and several superb hardboiled/noir novels from Stark House/Black Gat Books/Staccato Crime. I swear, if you can’t find plenty of great books to read these days, you’re just not looking hard enough!

Finally, this blog suffered a bit in 2022 because I just didn’t have enough time to devote to it. As a result, there were fewer posts than any year since I started it in 2004—and since I started it in July, that was only half a year. I hope to post more in 2023, including more book reviews, the return of movie reviews, and maybe an occasional post about what else is going on in my life, although generally, that stuff is pretty boring. My thanks to all of you reading this, whether you’ve been a regular reader since 2004 or just found the blog. Like the WesternPulps email group (which will celebrate its 24^th anniversary this spring), I intend to keep this going for a good long while yet.

The Annual December 27th Post

Regular readers of this blog may recall that today is the anniversary of my first fiction sale. 46 years ago today, on December 27, 1976, I became a professional fictioneer. I told the story here, in the first year of the blog, and I can't sum it up better, so if you haven't read about how I broke into this business, you can check out that post if you're of a mind to. Almost half a century later, I'm still at it and intend to keep going for a while yet. I think 500 books is out of reach (I just started novel #414) but I ought to be able to make it to a full 50 years as a professional writer.

In related news, there will be no "A Million Words and Counting" post this year. As I've threatened for a long time, I slowed down some this year (not entirely voluntarily) and will finish with about 900,000 words. So the streak comes to an end after 17 consecutive years. I'm fine with that.

My sincere thanks to everyone who's helped make it possible for me to keep spinning yarns all these years.

Editing and Writing Update

Effective today, I’m retired as the editor of Rough Edges Press. I sold the original REP to Wolfpack Publishing a little more than a year ago and stayed on to run the line. After much thought, I’ve decided that I need to get back to writing full-time for a few more years. I really enjoyed working for Wolfpack, and I’m proud of the books we published there. I want to thank Mike Bray, Jake Bray, Paul Bishop, Laura Sarrafan, Kristin Yahner, all the fine authors I worked with, and especially the amazing Patience Bramlett, who did all the heavy lifting and made it possible for Rough Edges Press to function. I’m leaving the line in her capable hands, and I know there’ll be some great books coming from REP in the future.

On the writing front, my production for the year is right around 750,000 words, so with only two months left in 2022, I think it’s safe to say that my million-words-a-year streak really is ending this time. I’ll probably finish somewhere between 850K and 900K, which is still pretty productive. I’m committed to doing around half a million words in my regular ghosting job next year, and I hope to do a few books of my own, too. 750K is a good pace. I did that for almost 20 years before bumping it up to a million. I’d like to ease back even more than that. But I’m sure that as long as I’m capable of stringing words together coherently, no matter how long it takes, I’ll be writing something.

The Wrap Up

As we all know, 2021 has been a rough year in many respects. At times, I’ve felt as if I were keeping busy just so I wouldn’t think about how many unpleasant and downright tragic things were happening in the world.

But I did keep busy: I wrote somewhere around 1.1 million words, the most in several years. I read 202 books, the most I’ve ever read since I started keeping records 41 years ago. (My previous record was 186.) I not only kept my own writing going, but I also sold my publishing imprint, Rough Edges Press, to Wolfpack Publishing and stayed on as the editor, guiding the development of a line that I think can compete with anybody in the mystery/suspense/men’s adventure field. So I think I accomplished quite a bit, although it wasn’t enough for me to feel caught up. I’ll never be caught up . . .

Not for a while yet, anyway. But another thing I’ve done this year is decide on the date when I actually will retire, except for maybe writing a few more books of my own and keeping this blog and the WesternPulps email group going, assuming those platforms still exist. More about that later, as the time approaches. For now, full speed ahead.

Which means listing my top ten favorites of all the books I read this year, in the order in which I read them:

GUN RUNNER, Larry Correia and John Brown
THE SPIDER: FURY IN STEEL, Will Murray
A WRITER PREPARES, Lawrence Block
MAGAZINES I REMEMBER, Hugh B. Cave
THE COMANCHE KID, James Robert Daniels
5 DECEMBERS, James Kestrel
MASTER OF MYSTERY: THE RISE OF THE SHADOW, Will Murray
STRIPPED AND BRANDED, Peter Brandvold
AMBA, Andrew Hallman
DROWNING ARE THE DEAD, Brent Towns

The last two on that list aren’t available yet. They’re books I’m publishing at Rough Edges Press, and they’ll be out next year. I read a lot of good books this year, and there are twenty or thirty more that could have made the cut for the top ten. I especially want to acknowledge the three issues of MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY from Bob Deis and Bill Cunningham, BATTLING BRITONS and the two follow-up issues from Justin Marriott, the Levon Cade series by Chuck Dixon, THE COMPLETE CASES OF THE RAMBLER, VOLUME 1 by Fred MacIsaac, THE GUN WITH THE WAITING NOTCH by Stone Cody (Thomas E. Mount), and two thrillers by William Christie that I’ll also be publishing next year, DARKNESS UNDER HEAVEN and BARGAIN WITH THE DEVIL. I’m very glad I had so many good books to read, and I want to give a big thank you to all the authors, editors, and publishers who made that possible.

I mentioned above that I wrote around 1.1 million words this year, the 17^th straight year I’ve hit the million word mark. This is where I always say I won’t do that much next year, and then I wind up writing that much anyway. Right now, I’d say it’s doubtful that I’ll do a million words in 2022, but stranger things have happened. I still have some ghost work lined up, and I plan to write a few books under my own name, if I can get around to them. So we’ll see.

And that pretty much sums up my attitude toward everything that’s waiting for us in 2022. We’ll see. Because there’s nothing else we can do.

The Annual December 27th Post

When I wrote the first of these posts back in 2004, it never occurred to me that I'd still be writing them seventeen years later. I've missed posting about it a year or two along the way, but I've never forgotten what it was like to make that first sale on December 27, 1976, and to be able to consider myself a professional writer.

This year I was trying to think of something to write about those days that I haven't rehashed before. I've talked about the first story that sold and how I came to write it . . . but I don't think I've ever written anything about the stories that didn't sell, for the very good reason that I don't remember much about them. But I recall a few titles and plot details, yarns that I scribbled out with a fountain pen on notebook paper or in a spiral notebook while I was working in my father's TV repair shop. Then either Livia or I would type them, I'd go over them and make revisions, then one of us would type a final draft to go in the manila envelope (with SASE, of course) to go winging off to editorial offices in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago . . . where they went right back in those SASEs and limped back home to me. Those manuscripts are long gone, of course, so I'm working by memory, but here are a few I recall.

"On the Dead Run" -- this was a mystery story about a heist crew that targeted a big party held by degenerate jetsetters in Cancun. All elements about which 23-year-old me knew little or nothing.

"Over on the Hot Side" -- a science fiction story about a radioactive zone, mutants, and other stuff that had been done to death even then.

"The Long and the Short of It" -- another science fiction story. I don't remember anything about it except that one of the editors who saw it handwrote a note on the rejection slip about what an offensive story it was.

"Key Allegro" -- some sort of tropical adventure yarn that I targeted at the men's adventure magazine market. The title came from a housing development in Rockport, Texas, a town I had visited with Livia a few months earlier. That's all I remember.

"No-Hitter" -- now this one, I remember a little better, because Sam Merwin Jr. almost bought it for MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE. It was about a major league baseball pitcher who got in trouble with the Mob. He was ordered to tank a game he was pitching, but a few innings in, he realizes he has a no-hitter going, and he's torn between his competitive nature and his desire to save his skin from the gangsters. It was a suspense story, told from inside his head as the game progresses, and probably the best story I'd written up to that time. But Merwin hated the ending so much that he didn't even ask me to revise it, as he did with another story of mine that he wound up buying a short time later.

For every one of these stories, I wrote at least five or six others that never sold, either. I tried to have three or four stories out in the mail, minimum, all the time. I look back on those days now with nostalgia and think about what a great time it was to be alive, a newlywed with a beautiful bride and a head full of hopes and dreams, but I'm also realistic enough to know that it was a lot of hard, grinding work, too, and I'm not surprised that I almost gave up a few times.

But I'm glad that I didn't, because today marks 45 years that I've been in this business of telling stories. I hope I have a few more years of it left in me. For now, a big thanks as always to the editors who bought the stories and the novels, those of you who read them, and Livia, Shayna, and Joanna, who continue to make it all worthwhile and possible. 

A Million Words and Counting, One Last time

I knew I was approaching a million words again this year, but I've been so busy I just forgot about it. So it slipped by me on Saturday when I passed that mark for the 17th straight year. This is actually the earliest I've achieved that in several years. There had been some rough patches this year, but some really productive stretches, too. However (and stop me if you've heard this before; on second thought, don't), this will be the end of the streak. When Rough Edges Press was relaunched as part of Wolfpack Publishing and I agreed to stay on as the editor, I knew that job would take up a lot of my writing time. I still had (and still have) quite a few writing commitments, so I've been juggling both jobs for the past couple months and will continue to do so through much of next year. But I don't have as many books under contract anymore, so I can start easing out of that full-time writing schedule over the next six months or so.

Of course, one should never say never. I have several books of my own I'd like to write, so who knows how much I'll find the time to do. Really, though, I expect my output to be more like half a million words.

As always, thanks to Livia, Shayna, and Joanna for making everything I do possible, not just the writing, and to all the editors over the years who have put their trust in me, and most of all to the readers who enjoy my books and stories. You've all made this journey a lot of fun.