Lou Federico, author of ONE HELL OF A RIDE, emailed me back in 2003, asking if I would write his memoir. He wasn’t satisfied with anyone else he had contacted about the project. He sent me several interesting notes, but they were vignettes that didn’t have a common theme. I told him I didn’t want to take his money since I didn’t think he had a marketable book in the making.
“Bill,” he said, “I’m gonna do this one way or the other, but I’d rather have you aboard.”
Lou was a feisty but active seventy-nine-year-old man, someone who played tennis everyday, managed a duck hunting club, went deep sea fishing–a man full of piss and vinegar, as they say. I told him that I could stitch the vignettes together as a series of short stories, but probably no more.
What Lou ended up sending was truly remarkable. He did indeed have a book once he started to sit down and organize his notes and add a little to them. Lou was one of the first to build resort hotels in Baja, California, and in the process, he had to battle corruption in the Mexican goverment and build his own roads and airstrips. Once his resorts opened, his guests included Jayne Mansfield, John Wayne, Fred Astaire, June Allyson, Edgar Bergen, Erle Stanley Gardner (creator of Perry Mason), Mayor Sam Yorty of Los Angeles, and countless other celebrities.
Lou was a great client. He gave me his materials right on time, paid every bill within days, and occasionally made a few suggestions or augmented his recollections since he said he was a bit forgetful at times. He liked my prose and that’s what he stuck with all the way through. He was a gentleman, a straight shooter. We have remained good friends, and I am happy to say that his book has done very well in his target market.
