December 9, 2008
When I was in Cartersville, Georgia last week, the January issue of True West was being put to bed. On Wednesday night I was sitting in my Holiday Inn room, with the heater on, as I reviewed pdf proofs coming in from my production crew. When I saw my editorial, I sent this challenge back to the office: "Even though it is low res, 72 dpi, grab the photo of Terry "Ike" Clanton off his website and make it work on my editorial page. If Robert Ray can pull this off, I'll buy you all lunch when I get back."

Just saw the proofs and Robert pulled it off. It's almost impossible to push a 72 dpi jpeg up to the minimum requirement for the printed page (150 dpi is the threshold), but he did! We met at Tonto Bar & Grill for lunch and talked strategy for our "Graphic Novelette" which premiers in the January issue. Lots of good ideas.

We also talked about expanding our community online with Ning and other platforms. When I had lunch with Seth Hopkins and the powers that be at the Booth Museum last week they asked: "How do we find the 200,000 maniacs who love Western Art in our area?" That is THE question, and we need to answer it.

Got a call from Bob Pugh down in Tucson. He told me Jeff Burton has a new, limited edition (100 copies) book coming out on all the train robberies between Tucson and Lordsburg. It's some 400 pages. Bob is sending me a copy and I'll post a better review when I get it, but if you're a collector, these books aren't going to last long and you should call Bob now at:

(520) 293-1260

What are my goals as a writer? Well, I think a certain prince has the answer:

“[I] could not read a single chapter without envy, amusement, astonishment or an erection.”
—Prince Charles Joseph de Ligne, a close friend of Casanova’s, who made the above comment based on reading early drafts of the notorious lover’s autobiography