What Say Erma Write lie -Man Stories1 TIM LA Timti-Wnhimton Pott Wirt WASHINGTON — The jditor of the old Blue Book magazine almost dropped his copy pencil w hen author Ruland Waltner walked in the door The Blue Book after all was a magazine “of men for men and by men" And “Ruland Waltner” was not only a woman he was two of them After that the Waltner sisters Vera and Erma wrote no more for Blue Book “They’d bought five articles in a row from us too” said Vera “But then we decided to drop in for a visit" explained Erma "That” said Vera “was a mistake” That was also some 15 years ago The old Blue Book is no more but the spinster sisters from Kansas City JIo are just getting their second wind Thpy were here for Georgetown University’ fourth annual M'riters Conference Vera and Erma have been living and writing together for fun and profit since they got out of college “Ruland was our mother’s maiden name” said Erma explaining one nom de plume “We’ve got other pen names too” The first story they sold about a race horse was bought by Argosy Magazine Since then they’ve turned out hundreds of men’s adventure articles children’s stories “good westerns full of action” detective stories short stories for slick magazines and even a couple of “True Confessions” “We wrote about 80 stories a year when we were going good” said A'era The pay has run as high as $1000 an article enough to keep bodies and souls together The sisters talk out each other's story ideas and then the one who got the brainstorm writes the rough draft more conferences and it’s off to the publisher “Usually we agree on the final version” said Erma But they don't remember many of their own plots “We don’t live in the past’ said Vera with a smile “Sometimes I'll pick up a story we did long ago read it and say: ‘Why Erma this is really good’” After the Georgetown Conference the sisters planned to go to New York City and buttonhole a few publishers With the short story market drying up they're turning to novels “We’ve already done one that we haven’t sold” said Erma "It’s a crime story”' "Yes we think it’s very funny" said Vera “It’s about two old maids”
