July 15, 2003
Daniel did his magic on the Vera cover and we are close to a finished product. He E-mailed up two different versions yesterday and we mulled them. Strong consensus on one.

Worked hard on a James W. Bell piece for the October issue. He was one of the deputies killed by Billy the Kid during his brazen escape from hanging. Some of the writing was precognition, meaning I was writing about the memorial this coming Saturday from the perspective of the event having already happened. Ed Mell and I are driving over to Lincoln on Friday to attend the Bell memorial dedication at White Oaks on Saturday. I’ll take photos and live the experience and determine if the copy I wrote yesterday matches the actual experience. All of this underscores the old saying, “Media are scum.”

Went to lunch with Carole at Tuscan Cafe. Had the veggie sandwich ($11 cash). Good talk with her. She has been with me since day one and she knows where all the bodies are (and we have a pretty decent sized cemetery going).

Worked until around 5:30, came home, swam laps for 40 minutes. No pool cover is needed now. The water is 90 degrees without it.

Studied the printout of Classic Gunfights book. Needs a ton of work. Very rough. Many gaping holes and wrong-headed graphics, but then, that is the fun of it. Fixing those holes.

Planning our trip to New York in two weeks. Working backwards from our big meeting at the network. What do I need in that meeting to be pro-active? I’ve been in these meetings before and I give great meeting, but it’s what happens after the meeting that counts, and it’s there that I have dropped the ball on more than one occasion. I still go back to the saying, “Success is 99 percent failure,” or as The Babe put it:

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
—Babe Ruth