October 3, 2003
Going to a funeral this morning. A young kid, drinking, you don’t want to know.

Excellent design advances yesterday. Robert Ray, Abby, Gus and I are wrestling with the photo introduction for the Classic Gunfights book and we huddled around 11 and I told them what I was trying to do: basically I want a story arc preceding the actual gunfights, kind of an overview, or movie trailer, previews of coming attractions, that both intrigues the reader and teases them into the book. I wrote little snippets of gunfighter lore (“Sometimes lawmen fought lawmen. . .”) and we moved images around, playing with a variety of type styles and finally hit on what I think is a total winner. It’s not quite there yet (there are bugs in the transitions, but we will get those nailed today). The big picture is there and this is my favorite part of the work, and you might even say, my favorite part of being on the planet. Creative, graphic problems, worked out with teammates I enjoy working with. Other than sex, this is as good as it gets. Hey, I wonder if we should buy a hottub for the office....never mind.

Still hanging out on artwork. It’s this weekend or else. I’ve got a speech in Kingman next weekend and the book goes to the publisher as soon as I get back. Pressure time.

”I find that a change of nuisances is as good as a vacation.”
—David Lloyd George