It seems hard to believe that it’s been a month since I posted. I’m going to have to take some time to get used to this.

In the last month, I’ve been a busy guy, well, if you want to call it that. First, I’ve been off 6 days from school due to snow. Hard to believe when it’s in the 50s today, but we had nearly a foot of snow in our area in late January.

I spent some of the month reading and revising my new biography of Erle Stanley Gardner. It’s a chore just to find all the materials I need and keep track of them. I started my own inventory program to keep track of what I have and what I don’t. At this point, I have all the Perry Mason books, the DA books, and all the AA Fair books. I’m still missing some of his non-fiction Baja books and many of the secondary sources, such as magazine articles and uncollected short stories.

I just finished watching a show on PBS about Lincoln, and I got excited watching the researchers pull out their white cotton gloves to inspect some research materials. I miss that with this book. Most of Boucher’s papers were conveniently collected at Indiana University. Gardner has some at the UofT — Austin, but I haven’t located much of his early correspondence or the more personal pieces. The Bouchercon in Indy this fall will take a side trip to Bloomington and IU to look at the Lilly Library. Due to the good fortune of my fall break, I’ll be able to attend that trip.

In the meantime, I am planning a trip to LA and its environs. Gardner lived outside of Temecula, which is not far from LA. There are great vineyards and wineries in the area, which give me all the more reason to call this research for the IRS.

Speaking of which, the taxes are done as well, and I’m expecting my return today. So I’ll be off spending money somewhere. Have a great day!