My first book, “Where There’s a Will” was written on a Remington portable typewriter on the fender of a Ford panel truck parked along the coastline of Trinidad. (The truck contained navigational equipment for an offshore geophysical crew for whom I worked.) An agent found a publisher in England–Hammond, Hammond & Co–and I signed a contract for two more books, “Murder Most Ingenious” and “Killer Be Killed.” These were dictated to a tape recorder while commuting to my next job at Vandenberg Air Force. Hammond, Hammond & Co was subsequently absorbed by another company that did not publish murder mysteries. (Had mine been best sellers–which they were not–they might have changed their policy.) I moved on.
