An update on Kyle and Jimmy

Quite a thing, really, to have the first act completed, about 30K. Now the stage is set, all the main characters have been introduced and revealed, tested and tempered by fire and ice.The partners are bonded to each other and to the women they love.

Curtain up on a new field of battle. I have some glimmers, I know how the second act ends, but I'm okay with idleness, to take as long as it takes to start an entirely new story. That's how it feels because the next 30,000 words must truly be new earth and blood, a heavy price to be paid.

The real Peachy

Not much distance between my fictional heroine and the real woman I modeled her on.

She's a multi-engine jet pilot, flight instructor, secret squirrel, Ph.D. and head of a law enforcement agency, after a long career in the field carrying a sidearm. A gifted poet, whose prose and poetry often made me gasp in admiration. Out of all the people who encouraged me to write, this beautiful brainy patriot stepped up candidly, warmly and courageously. I've never met her in person, and very much want to, however awkward it will be. I'm old and ugly, a small civilian who hasn't had to face much evil. I write about good and evil, of course. I saw just enough in prison and out to have an opinion.

I know this remarkable redhead from her writings -- hundreds of long posts -- and her private letters by email that I cherished more deeply than all others I've received. It's hard to describe how much this lady inspired me, not only as the real-life reference for my projection of an ideal woman in The Case Files of Cable & Blount, but likewise an unexpected ally in the hardship of writing novels. The work is intensely difficult. She had my back, freed me to write.

Period weapons of the 70's

Along with driving period cars like a 1974 Mercedes SL and a peppy 327 high mileage Impala that needs an alignment, a brake job, and four new tires, I had to think about what my guys would carry.

Swiss SIG 210

The senior partner ("the most dangerous man in town") was a G.I. stationed in Europe, traded cigarettes and booze for it.

S&W Model 60

The new guy is given a Chief's Special chambered in .357, the first handgun he's ever fired -- like being tossed in the deep end of the gene pool.

Heckler & Koch MP5A

for those awkward circumstances

when you're outnumbered

The purpose and power of key art

The goal of designing a book cover at the beginning of a project is to find the theme, gaze at the totality of what needs to be achieved and why. At the moment I have 5,000 words, about 2/3 of one percent, long way to go, and art is the motor. On a big new project like this one, I'd much rather use days or weeks to see each little piece of my two main characters and the people they have to deal with as troubleshooters. Funny sort of job, shooting trouble in the mid-1970s. Milwaukee was run by the mob. Private hoodlums existed, both black and white, but they couldn't touch a pinball machine or enter a nightclub without supporting organized crime. Quite an era.