Another in the series, “So You Want to Write a Book”
Saturday morning, Lorraine was away at work, and I was in bed. I hated the thought of getting up. I felt like an elephant was on my chest. I was going to stay in bed until nighttime, and that was that. But then the cruel master called, the one who said I wouldn’t have my two profiles done for Sunday night’s weekly deadline for the book I’m a writin’, to be called Colorful Characters of St. Louis. If I kept doing that, how could it ever be ready for you next fall, dear reader? So I rose and went out to research and write.
That day, I found an abundance of material about Steve Mizerany, who hawked washers and dryers for his appliance store on TV from the fifties through the eighties. That augmented stuff I’d gathered for a portrait I did of him in my earlier book, Hoosiers and Scrubby Dutch: St. Louis’s South Side.
I found the material about Steve Mizerany after I interviewed former Saint Louis Zoo Director Charles Hoessle earlier in the week. He related some funny stories, including about the time he hid some rattle snakes under his bed without telling his wife. Ha ha. I hope you like it.
The good news is that I made my deadline. I e-mailed two more profiles to the publisher at 10 p.m. Sunday. But can I do it again next week? Stay tuned.
Jim Merkel the Writer 