It comes with great sadness I learned of the passing of a dear friend and colleague who helped spur my literary career. Michael Hamilburg was 82 and passed away on January 1, 2016. I'll let the attached article at the bottom of the page by my good friend Mike Barnes, another former colleague, detail Hamilburg's life and achievements. And they were many.
I want to express my own friendship with Michael here. I first came into contact with him when I was looking for a book agent and sending out query letters several years ago. I found his name on a list of agents and decided to drop off my letter and samples to him. When I got off work from KNX 1070 News radio at 5AM, I stopped by his office on the way home. It did not exist. As it turns out the publication got the address wrong.
I immediately called and left a message and followed up with an URGENT Email telling him of this. He got back to me and also recognized my name since he was a faithful listener of the radio station and me, as it turned out. He thanked me for the misinformation of the publication and we soon set up a meeting at the Starbucks in Brentwood near his home. He loved to meet at that Starbucks since he worked out of his home office as many of us do these days.
We hit it off right away. He believed in my talent which was super refreshing. We were going to make it happen for me as an author. I had already been published by Schiffer Books in 2009 when
"Fan Letters to a Stripper; A Patti Waggin Tale" came out. I wanted to break into other books though. I brought him a work of fiction with some new and innovative twists called
"The Tattoo Murder." He liked it very much and began pitching it. He above all, liked the main character, John Potenza; a surfing police detective.
When, after several weeks, the word came down that no publisher was interested, it was a blow. He believed in the book but said there were so many real life stories out there like mine, publishers were more interested in Non-Fiction than Fiction in these cases. He encouraged me to find a story in the news I could sink my journalistic and news background into. One of his claims to fame was
"Fatal Vision" which was a huge story.
Through a friend I came upon a story which seemed like it would work. This friend of mine's adopted son plotted to kill her, her husband and his little sister for what he believed to be an insurance policy. Turns out it wasn't a life insurance policy but a liability for business policy. He carried out his plans but failed to kill anyone. He and a neighbor boy ended up in jail until they were 21.
The story achieved national headlines settling in on the Morey Povich Show, but died there. So Mike and I took a look at it deeply but decided it wasn't going to sell. If the kid had even partially succeeded in the plot it probably would have interested a publisher. Fortunately, for my friend no one died and she recovered from her injuries.
Mike did pitch
"Lancer; Hero of the West" but warned me no big publishers were buying Westerns and that proved to be true enough. My other books were not commercial enough either. However, recently I came up with an idea which fit the molds perfectly. I was excited but knew I could not proceed without selling the book first. Mike was ready based upon my enthusiastic emails stating in December;
"Happy New Year, Bob
Great work you're doing.
Mike"
We were scheduled to get together at Starbucks this week.
I sent an email to nail down the date and got an email back from his wife, Susan, telling me of is passing. I was stunned. It was a hard blow. I had lost a real friend and a mentor. There are few people in this industry like Mike Hamilburg and it's too easy to say "he'll be missed." It is OUR Loss. A loss we can only recover from and move forward in the spirit he showed us. There should be a special page in the dictionary for the Michael Hamilburgs of the world. The heading would say "Integrity" and Mike's photo would be right there.
Article on Michael Hamilburg by Mike Barnes.
