When unhappy with his press release, Ralph rewroteit and sent changes to Northwest. When dissatisfied with Northwest's marketing,he wrote demanding that they comply with the terms of their agreement.
By letter dated January 22, 1996, Northwest'saccount executive told Ralph that 6,800 copies of Searchlight, Nevada had been ordered and shipped. It didn't say whoplaced the orders or where they shipped them, but said that another 2,500 copies had been ordered by thechain Books A Million. Northwest promised royalty statements in about threeweeks.
On his 1996 Form 1040, Ralph reported $2,600 ingross royalties from his writing activity.
In late 1993, after signing with Northwest for Searchlight, Nevada, Ralph began researching Nevada Nights, San Joaquin Dawn. He wanted to document the difficulties that womenface when attempting a break from prostitution. "The story's never been donebefore to any degree of authenticity," he said, explaining that he thought itwas commercially viable.
Ralph, however, had learned that rooms at brothelswere equipped with listening devices. Therefore he met prostitutes at otherlocations on "out calls," paying by credit card. In 1994, during January, February,April, May, June, and July, he spent from one to six days a month in Nevada on "out calls."He successfully encouraged ten prostitutes to leave their profession. As of histrial, he hadn't finished NevadaNights, San Joaquin Dawn.
Some time after signing with Northwest on Searchlight, Nevada, Ralph submitted the 450-page Lightning at Dawn. He thought that Northwest only required a jointventure payment for first novels, and so if Northwest agreed to publish Lightning at Dawn, he'd not have to pay anything. He also triedmarketing Boys and Girls Together, but stopped when he was told that there was noneed or market for that type of short stories at the time.