Prolific Writer Pooh-Poohs Pretensions of the Literati

Call it the Rodney Dangerfield complex.

Genre paperbacks--Westerns, action-adventures, romances, etc.--outsell the more literary stuff by a mile. But they don’t get the respect given to their hardback cousins; no reviews in the Sunday newspaper, no book tours, no admiring interviews on “SunUp San Diego.”

Chet Cunningham, 61, a former newspaperman who lives in San Carlos, thinks that’s wrongheaded and

snobbish. He’s just had his 200th paperback published, “Canyon O’Grady: The Lincoln Assignment” (Signet. $3.50).

He wrote a grouchy letter to Times book editor Jack Miles. “Don’t you feel a bit silly, unneeded, elitist?” he wrote.

I went out to Beaver Lake Drive to see the man who has written the continuing exploits of Marcus Quinn, Mack Bolan (“The Penetrator”), Major Harding, Matthew J. Hawke (an avenging drug agent based in San Diego), Jim Steel and more. Sometimes Cunningham uses his own name; sometimes a nom de word-processor.

The most he ever made for a book was $10,000; the least, $300. The most copies he ever sold was 340,000 for a Mack Bolan (200,000 were in French).

He takes pride in never missing a deadline or using an anachronism (Did you know that “bouncer” wasn’t used until 1865 and “alibi” until 1909?). He thinks writer’s block is a bunch of horse-droppings.

“Writer’s block was invented by people trying to sell memberships in writers’ clubs,” he says. “Did you ever hear of plumber’s block?”

All his protagonists are 28 years old, 6-foot-4, and 220 pounds, with lean, hard muscles. His favorite hero is Buckskin Lee Morgan.

“He’s had a tough life,” he says. “There’s a wanted poster out on him put out by a crooked sheriff.”

He’s peeved that newspapers don’t run their book sections more like their sports pages, with coverage not just for major sports and big-time teams but a little space for lacrosse and boccie ball as well. He’s not discouraged, though.

“I know I’m writing books that people actually read.”

Go Directly to Bird Rock

Here’s some more.

* Sales are going well for La Jollaopoly, the board game invented by a San Diegan and marketed by Elusive Dream Marketing Services of El Cajon. It’s a Monopoly knockoff featuring the names of prominent local businesses.

Stand by for San Diegoopoly and Seattleopoly (both by the end of January), Portlandopoly and Albuquerqueopoly (later in the spring) and Los Angelesopoly (bilingual). And possibly Orange Countyopoly, Kansas Cityopoly and Riverside-San Bernardinoopoly.

All are in the works. Researchers are finding the essence of each region and salesmen are pitching businesses on spending $1,400 for a square on the board.

Don’t look for Lakesideopoly. It’s hard to get those biker bars to plunk down that kind of money.

* Former Del Mar Mayor Ronnie Delaney plans to challenge Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier in June’s Republican primary.

Delaney, 44, was on the council from 1984 to 1988 before being swept out by the continuing “green” revolution.

* Every so often Camp Pendleton has artillery practice that rattles windows all over North County. The Marine Corps generally explains to annoyed civilians that a little racket is a small price to pay. . . .

But even the Corps has limits when it comes to noise.

Boom boxes in private cars have just been banned on base. Military police are furiously writing tickets to stomp out the ear-splitting scourge.

Bronx Cheer in Mission Valley

As proof of San Diego’s right-thinking conservativism, the Wall Street Journal mentioned in an editorial that patrons at B. Dalton bookstore in Mission Valley applauded when Robert Bork arrived for a book-signing party.

That’s true.

It’s also true that Bork was an hour late, and someone who was there remembers the applause as mocking, like when the Padres finally get the third out after the Giants have scored 10 runs.