March 11, 2013
Had a great day at the Tucson Festival of Books. Met some great people, heard some good news: Jeff Guinn, who wrote the New York Times best seller "The Last Gunfight" about Tombstone told us the New York Publishers are scrambling to sign up Western authors and he predicts a big boom in westerns in the next two years.
On Saturday night we feted Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana at La Paloma Resort, presenting them our first True Westerner Award. Photos and details to follow.
Left Tucson at one on Sunday with my regional sales director Greg Carroll for a road trip to Cochise County. Our first stop was Tombstone to meet the folks. That poor town. Most of the people there love the Old West and want to do good, but the town is cursed with an inordinate amount of idiots who just don't get it. My heart goes out to the ones who try to make a difference. The guy at the Crystal Palace is a saint, so is Bob Love down at the O.K. Corral, Terry Ike Clanton, Stephen Keith, April Hinton and her Temperence gang. We met some great guys who are doing a theater show at Doc Holliday's Gunfight Palace next to the Birdcage. Talented guys who put on a very good show. It's their passion to keep the history alive. We need to support them.
From Tombstone we motored down through the Mule Mountains and landed in Warren where there is a classic Victorian just south of Bisbee. Ate at A Taste of Italy last night and it was very good. Met the "Hugging Mayor" a 92 year old woman who still drives and is sharp as a tack. She, of course, hugged us both (I personally got four hugs during our dinner). She had great stories about all the infighting and politics going back to the 1920s! And then she drove off into the night—at 92! Need to do a story on her. Meetings all day today in Bisbee and we return to Cave Creek in the morning.
"Tombstone would be a good town if you could have six funerals, and name 'em!"
—A Tombstoner who shall remain nameless
