The Success of BRANDYWINE’S WAR enabled me to sell a book to another major pulisher. The initial title of the book was GLORY DUST (which, incidentally, was the sixth time I had attempted to use that title) and the concept was to be a “SEVEN DAYS IN MAY” kind of story. In the story I had a satellite navigation system, which I called SAT NAV….and I had a president of the US who resigned from office rather than face impeachment. After about 150 pages, my editor asked me to throw it all away, and start on an entirely new story. “This isn’t science fiction,” she said. “Your idea of using satellites as navigation for airplanes and cars is so far out that nobody would believe it unless….as in science fiction, they are asked to suspend belief. “And your suggestion that an American president might actually resign is totally beyond belief. You are going to have to come up with a completely different story.” All this took place of course before GPS or Nixon’s resignation. I was living in Phoenix, having gone to Arizona with a very attractive young woman that I had interviewed on TV. She belonged to a professional theater group which had come to Newport News to put on a play…only to see the producer leave town with all the money, stranding the troupe. And why shouldn’t I have asked her to come with me? I was divorced, I was out of the army, and I was a “hip” writer. I was so “hip” that I actually became a hippie, letting my hair grow long, and growing a beard. I sold my car and bought a van….then had it converted into a camper. In Phoenix I got a large royalty payment from Brandywine’s War, and a healthy advance from my new book…which was now called VALKYRIE MANDATE, a story about the coups and assassination of President Diem of Vietnam. I was in the money, I was thin, and I was living in sin with an attractive girl. I WAS LIVING THE LIFE OF A WRITER! I did things that I thought a “famous and wealthy” writer would do. I invited friends to a wagon train breakfast in the desert…at a cost of five thousand dollars. I bought my girlfriend a new Opel, (the car) and a new wardrobe. My publisher sent a publicity person out to work with me, and she, my girlfriend and I went on a national tour of TV, radio shows, and book signings. She told me that I was one of the two finalists for “Bachelor of the Month” in COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE. (I didn’t get it) I finished VALKYRIE MANDATE and started writing what I intended to be my book based upon the American Indian Movement about Russell Means, and the Wounded Knee affair. Then things started going wrong. I was having a very difficult time with the book…and my editor. My editor got fired, my contract was dropped, and the publisher wanted the money back for the uncompleted MS. I had spent a lot of money…thinking there would be no end to it, but now I had a dwindling bank account, and no contract. I quit doing the “fun” things….and my girlfriend announced that she didn’t want to live with me anymore. Truth to tell…I was beginning to grow tired of that kind of life anyway, so I told her she could stay in the house (which had 3 more months on the lease) and I would go back to Sikeston. By now I knew that I had less than six thousand dollars remaining in my account, so I went to draw it out. IT WASN’T THERE! My “girlfriend” who I had foolishly put as a signatory on the account, had cleaned it out. A lawyer friend told me that because I had put her on the account….it would take me more money to recover it…than I would recover. I left Phoenix with less than a hundred dollars to my name, heading to Sikeston. When I bought gas and breakfast in Little Rock, I was down to less than ten dollars. My dad, taking pity on me, gave me a job working in the fish and barbeque market. I was not a happy worker….six months earlier and I had been on top of the world, and now I was working for my Dad. And even that didn’t last long. My dad could cut fish, and wrap it in paper so neatly you could put it under a Christmas Tree. I never developed the skill. Then, one day after brutalizing a fish, and presenting a package to the customer that looked as if it should be thrown in the trash….the customer looked at it critically and said: “That’s not a very nice-looking package.” I had it….the entire world came crashing down on me then. “Damn, lady…are you planning on sending that fish through the mail?” Dad heard me…came into the front, rewrapped the fish and gave it to the woman without charge. “I won’t be needing you anymore,” he said. That moment, being fired by my own father, was the absolute lowest of that low period. From there I could only go up.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 23:10:03 +0000
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