It has been awhile.
Here is the latest from the writing desk:
Last week, I submitted my manuscript entitles (tentatively) "Let's Go Rob a Train!" A History of Train Robbery in the Arizona Territory to the University of Nevada Press for their consideration. Professor Eduardo Obregón Pagán at Arizona State University was kind enough to write the forward for me (his book Valley of the Guns is one of the best written about the infamous Pleasant Valley Feud). I have not yet submitted the photographs which will accompany the text, as I discovered author John Boessenecker (Bandido, Law Was in the Holster) has some original post-mortem pictures of some of the less fortunate train robbers. I have written him to ask his permission to use these.
Fingers crossed the manuscript will be accepted. University presses have a much more rigorous selection process than other publishers do.
In other news, on this the 106th anniversary of her death, I am still hard at work on the Edna Loftus biography. McFarland Publishing, which previously published my book about the Bisbee Massacre, has shown interest in Edna. Unfortunately, I am stuck waiting on the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service to send me information on Edna's deportation case. and i had to employ a genealogy company to research Edna's ancestry in England. I did learn that Edna had a daughter, possibly named Eileen, with jockey Winnie O'Connor during their brief marriage. This is exciting news, as Edna may have living relatives.
Also, Edna now has a tombstone marking her grave. When she died of tuberculosis at the City Hospital in San Francisco, she was penniless. and was going to be thrown in a pauper's grave. However, one of the denizens of the Tenderloin stepped up and paid for her to be interred at Cypress Lawn in Colma. Unfortunately, a headstone was too costly, so for the last 105 years, Edna has laid in an unmarked grave.
Not anymore.
Lastly, I am working with another author to help him write his autobiography. I normally would not take on such a project, but this man's story is exceptional. I will provide more details in a later post.
Anyway, as Adolph S. Ochs, the owner of The New York Times, famously said that is "All the News That's Fit to Print,"
Regards,
D.
