How the book came to be:
In 2012, former Atlanta Journal-Constitution sportswriter Darrell Simmons wanted to do a sequel to his first novel Daily Double [Cross], a horse-race-themed mystery. Tom, a longtime colleague at the AJC, heard from Darrell about his frustration with a well-known international company that claims they help authors to get their books finished. The product was sloppy to the point of embarrassment. Tom suggested he let WRITER for HIRE! Press (our only imprint at the time) to be his vendor of choice to handle production. The result was Secret Agent Who?
Because Darrell was an exceptional writer, and the content the book only took three months to bring to market. The only things the book needed were:
- Line editing
- Proofreading
- Interior design
- Cover design
At lunch one day, Darrell said he wanted a cover featuring a horse, a Luger pistol, and a chart of a race. By 4 that afternoon Angela had somehow produced three cover versions from which Darrell chose the above. Former AJC executive editor Jim Minter declared that the finished product “goes a long way toward establishing Darrell Simmons as a Southern Damon Runyon.”
Alas, Darrell was deathly ill and valiantly fought it, but passed away. Damn, what a writer he was.