17 June 2005 The journal doesn’t always get written when another month appears on the horizon. I just finished writing the 2nd novel in the Vigilante series for Berkley, and I was turning out 12 pages a day toward a goal of 340 pages. On the last day, last Sunday, I wrote 23 pages to finish up the novel. Then, after clearing up my desk, putting the research and character lists back in their folder to file away, I brought out the folder for THE BARON DECISION, the 7th book in that series for Forge. I had stopped work on it to meet crucial deadlines in order to keep up the cash flow. I know that I have only a small window to finish this novel, and I knew I was about halfway through it. I had to read some of what I had written, and had to pay special attention to the last completed chapter. I seldom read what I have written, so when I did read the chapter, I began to make changes, small ones, and so that chapter had to be reformatted. But, it gave me the springboard to jump on the next chapter. And, as I wrote, the entire book came back to me, all that I had written, all that remained to be written. And, in order to keep to all of my deadlines, I knew I would have to maintain the same pace, writing at least 12 pages a day, more on other days. When I finished the new chapter and gave those two chapters to Charlotte, she gave me a progress report. I was on page 299. So, just halfway through the novel. I must finish the book by July 15th, since I then have to write the first novel in another new series for Berkley, THE SAVAGE GUN. And, again, 12 pages a day. In the meantime, my agent sold still another western series, THE SHADOW RIDER, to Harper’s. And, now those books are on my schedule, further cramming it to the brim. And, this was a series I told her to pull from the market because it had been out too long and I had enough work to last me through 2008. When she tried to withdraw the series, the editor pounced on it. Maybe that’s the key to getting something sold. Editors take months to decide on a book proposal. It’s tough on new writers, of course, and not any fun for us old dogs. It feels good to write a dozen pages a day. We set our own limits and I just had to take my limits off in order to make the dreaded deadlines. I was happy doing 3 to 5 pages a day, a decent, demanding enough pace. But, it’s more thrilling to write 12 to 15 pages a day. Sure, at the end of the day I feel as if I had dug a trench with a shovel that stretched 40 rod or more. All of my muscles ache and there were many nights when I was too tired to eat supper. But, when I awoke the next morning, in the wee small hours of the morning, I was lean and mean and ready to tackle any task. The first VIGILANTE book will be on the stands October 4th. Berkley calls it VIGILANTE, although I had given my editor, Samantha Mandor, another title. In fact, I had titled all of the books, beyond the three that were under contract. So, now I shipped off the 2nd one and for brevity’s sake called it by another name, which has probably been used to death. But, I could see that my titles would probably not be used and the string was broken with that first title. So, I just called this one SIXGUN LAW. And, it is dedicated to Pat and Dusty Richards. I believe Dusty deserves more recognition and maybe his name on the inside of a book will help keep his name out there. It gets tougher and tougher to sell books these days. Berkley is cutting back. All of the other western publishers are slow in taking on new projects. Book sales are down, down, down. The recent BEA in New York echoed that feeling among publishers and booksellers. Book promotion is at an all-time low. Publishers now rely on the authors to promote their own books. And, promotion works. But, I don’t do any, because then I would not be able to write the books I would have to promote. It’s a vicious cycle. So, I’m taking the same attitude as the publishers. I’m writing the books. Let them find their own way, either into readers’ hands or to the remainder tables. Charlotte and I will be at the next Ozarks Writers League (OWL) meeting in Branson come August. These meetings are held 4 times a year, and president Lou Turner is doing a great job in presenting speakers and programs. Dusty Richards raised over 900 dollars for OWL at the last meeting when he conducted one of his spectacular auctions. A lot of fun and I was once again on a panel with Dusty, Velda Brotherton and Suzann Ledbetter. Sometime soon, perhaps in August, I’ll be doing a booksigning at Oaklea Mansion in Winnsboro, Texas. Ill be there with another writer who has just had his first book published. And, now, to work. Jory Sherman