August 20, 2004
If you’ve noticed we haven’t had images in here for awhile. Our server, blogger.com reconfigured their posting parameters and it blocked images for quite some time. Yesterday, our man Jason told me to send him something and we’d try it again, so I grabbed the office staff, we went outside on the porch and took the photo posted below. Yes, everyone is wearing a True West t-shirt. Someone, Abby or Sue, decided they would all wear company shirts on thursday and I must admit it did look professional, if a bit like Burger King. Anyway, Sherry Monihan e-mailed me this morning and said the photo is posting over several paragraphs of copy, then Melrose came in this afternoon and said the same thing. It isn’t doing this on my computer. Let me know if you are getting your copy smothered. My e-mail is at top of this page.

Had a good solid day in the office working today. Stayed focused and had six things on my daytimer list I wanted to accomplish and I checked them all off. Very rare. Including this to do:

• Do six illustrations of something, anything!

After I finished my other assignments—a scratchboard of a notorious whore (she doesn’t work at True West), a crazed Buffalo Bill, Jr., copy for next Classic Gunfights, tweaked 1880 census copy for next Classic Gunfights book—I picked out six random images to illustrate. A zany Yavapai County detention officer staring up the nostrils of a prisoner (out of today’s Republic), a Victorian woman sweeping, an Olympic Russian female (?) shotputter, a Norwegian bachelor farmer eating and a Japanese gangster. The trick is to keep going and not stop. Keep the hand moving, don’t panic, stay loose, have confidence. I can lock it down later. Of course the results are mixed, but surprisingly, the loosest stuff is the best. Really strong of the woman sweeping. The false starts on the scratchboard only added to the movement of her body and arm. It's called "happy accidents."

Mike Melrose invited DeAnn Giago to come out and have lunch today. It was great seeing this Lakota woman who used to work here. She left on rather unpleasant terms, and I told her today that every time I saw a damn Indian I thought of her (and it’s true). We laughed, because she has a great sense of humor about being “In-din.” Melrose treated (call Guiness World Records!) at El Encanto and we sat out by the pond and laughed and laughed. It was good to see her and bury the, ahem, hatchet.

"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."
—Willy Wonka