February 17th, 2009

At long last the Buffalo Bill book is complete and is off to the editor. The working title is The Many Loves of Buffalo Bill Cody. After spending so much time researching the showman I can see why so many women were drawn to him. I suspect he was actually more dazzling than history gives him credit for being. I’m anxious to tackle my next subjects. I’ll not only be writing about Elizabeth Custer, but about the most notorious bad men and women in the Midwest in the 1800s. I’ll be writing about Kate Bender – the first serial killer in the U.S.. She lived in Kansas and is credited with cutting the throats of 20 people – one of whom was an eight year old girl. I’ll start the initial research about Kate and others like her in June. I received a very nice email from one of the librarians at UCLA. She has read a few of the titles and noted how well she liked them. Her note was very encouraging. I added some more signings to the roster for May. I’ll be at the Reader’s Corner Book Store in Rolla, Missouri on the 28th of the month. I’m looking forward to that visit. I have yet to book a rental car, airline ticket, or hotel room for the Midwest trip. I’m afraid if I don’t do that soon I’ll have to sleep outdoors and I hate the outdoors. To me the outdoors is where the car is. I’d like to lose weight before the trip too. I don’t think I’ll be successful at that. I belong to a gym, but apparently you have to actually show up in order to get into shape. That’s just as well. Gyms are filled with skinny people anyway. I’m not crazy about skinny women, because no matter how thin, they’re still always on a diet. I have a friend that’s 5’9 and 102 pounds and she’s been on Phen Fen, Metabolife, and lives on Slim Fast. Used to be she’d ask, “Do I look fat in this?” Now she says, “Can you still see me? Am I still visible to the naked eye?”