The only book I have written so far under the name Edward Taft is called Bump and Run. By clicking on the name Edward Taft, you can see the nifty web site I made up for that pen name. It just has this article on it, but still fun.

The pen name Edward Taft came from two sources. Edwards is a family name, and Taft is part of Lincoln City, Oregon. You see, Lincoln City originally was five small towns that combined together to form one eight mile long town along the Oregon Coast. Taft is one of those towns. Nelscott is another, and my wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, picked Nelscott to write under for a series of mystery novels. Kris Nelscott. So I figured why not and picked Edward Taft to write this book under.

Bump and run is a golf term, for you non-golfers. I used to be a golf professional, way back in what now seems like another life, and had always wanted to write a thriller about golf. But, as many writers before me have discovered, and anyone who hates watching golf on television understands, the terms golf and thriller do not go well together. I had failed a few times with runs at golf thrillers when along came a new press called Foggy Windows Books.

Yeah, that’s right, Foggy Windows. The press had a clear mission statement: To publish erotic novels with married couples (only sex between married couples in the books) to promote some sort of family values that to this day I’m puzzled about. But I won’t go there.

Foggy Windows hired a top editor and this top editor hired a bunch of us to do original novels. Six novels would be released at the same time every three months, one in each genre. My first contract was for a science fiction book, actually the first book in a three book series about three couples on a ghost spaceship that some day I might actually write. My book was to be in the third series of six books. (It never was written, see why in a moment.)

But then one fine day I got a phone call from the editor. The sales force for this publisher had no idea what these books were going to be, what they would look like, or anything like that, and they needed basically an Issue Zero. And they needed it fast. And it had to be a thriller with popular appeal.

Could I write them one, quickly?

As I normally do, I said, “Sure. How quickly?”

“Two weeks,” was the answer.

“Sure,” I said, “but it’s going to cost you.”

They paid, and I wrote Bump and Run by Edward Taft, an erotic golf thriller. It took me exactly two weeks (which is not my fastest book by a long, long ways. This book is only about 60,000 words long and I have written 90,000 word books in seven days, so this seemed easy, to be honest.)

I love the burning golf cart on the cover, because actually, there is a burning golf cart in the book. And sex on a golf cart, but that didn’t cause the fire if I remember right.

I wrote the book in the summer of 2000 and it came out late summer of 2000, light speed fast in old publishing terms. A number of months later the first six books came out, one in each genre. They were written by some fine writers, and the sales were above expectations. Way above, actually, and everyone was happy.

Then one day it suddenly ended. The publisher decided he wanted to go another direction, so they treated the writers great in the shutdown. We got to keep signing payments, we were paid for books that were turned in, but would never be published, and all rights were reverted to all the writers. Very solid and fair treatment to the writers. But all of us were bummed. The press promised to be fun, and I really enjoyed writing this one book, and a long novella for them that was published in three parts in their newsletter. (That one is a mystery that I will republish here at some point. I also wrote them a few short stories that will appear here later as well.)

So now, after nine years, I still haven’t done another Edward Taft novel and you can find Bump and Run in used bookstores and on Amazon as used. It’s a fun read, or so people tell me. I plan to write another Edward Taft book at some point, just not sure if it will be erotica or not.

It was a ton of fun being involved with Foggy Windows Books, and a sad day when they suddenly shut down after such a short life. But it brought Edward Taft to life, and now he even has his own web page. He will be writing new books and stories shortly, all with a little sex, all very, very strange. Visit his site every so often at www.EdwardTaft.com

Cheers, Dean