I have some bad and sad news today. There has been a delay in the writing of Long Arrow, Clint Walker's new book. It is the result almost solely of misunderstandings, things taken out of context, and things said and apparently not remembered by either side. Sadly, I have come to learn it is almost impossible to sustain a relationship of writing books together where both sides have vastly different methods of working out ideas and discussing them. I am not a phone person, but an email person. Clint is not an email person, and strictly a phone person. This, among many other things, makes it very stressful to put out a product, particularly when the two authors live so far apart.

I am more concerned about my personal relationship with Clint than I am with book writing, so if it seems that the book writing is going to tear us apart then I will probably not write any more books with him. He and his wife, Susan, mean too much to me as a person to see our relationship washed away by misunderstandings and mis-perceived deadlines.

I was not going to put this news on this board, but I have so many people writing me privately to ask about the new Clint Walker novel, and I only have so much time in the day to write back to them, so I decided I would have to do it here. Sorry if this comes as a shock. I just could not leave all of my fans wondering where the book is.

I was up to Chapter 33, was extremely excited about Long Arrow nearing completion. I thought Clint would be just as excited. As far as I knew (and as far as I still know) I was sticking to the outline as close as possible, but I had several gaps that had to be filled in to make the scenes mesh. This was several weeks ago. The book was brought to a screeching halt then, and there it sits, probably 5 chapters, maybe less, from a finish.

I wish I could tell you all anything else on this, but of course some things are private, and I am only telling you this much so you will know why there is a delay. If I can, I will finish the first draft of Long Arrow before the middle of May, but as I said, at the moment it is up in the air.

I have begun work on another book in the interim, because as a writer I have to be creating words. I am on Chapter 10 and have the entire book outlined in intricate detail so I should only have to fill in the gaps to finish it. The book is The Secret of Two Hawks. It was begun when I was 19 years old, and has been worked on sporadically for many years now. I think it may end up being my next book that is published, although I will put it aside again if I get a chance to pick up Long Arrow and take it to a finish. Thank you for your interest in the Clint Walker book, and I apologize that I don't have better or more complete news for you.

Kirby

Kirby,

I'm sorry to hear the news. I hope you and Clint can get the problems resolved and be able to get back on tract pretty soon.

I hope Debbie and the kids are doing OK.

Your friend,

Garry

Thank you for your wishes, Garry. I sent out a contract to Clint such as we should have had from the very beginning. I haven't heard back from him as of yet, and I don't know on what date he actually posted his news about Long Arrow on his website. I assume that if he posted that AFTER he received the contract then the book is at a standstill for now.

Take care, my friend.

Kirby