because the sam gwynne i knew for many years working together. the sam gwynne, the very successful prolific magazine writer was somebody who lived, as i knew him, really in the present. the sort of stuff that you wrote for "texas monthly," for "time" magazine, and over the years were stories that were set now. >> right. >> and then when you strike out to become the wildly successful author, you don't write about things now. you're not writing about steve jobs, you're not writing about something happening now, you're writing about quanah parker, and you're going back to stonewall jackson. what got you to do that? why not live in the now as you did for so many years? >> there was an aspect of what i did -- i wrote a lot of stories. my best work of my career was done for evan smith at "texas monthly" and i, you know, there were stories that i would do. for example, the karl rove story. i did a karl rove cover. >> karl rove cover story, right. >> you know, what was that? i ended up going back to 1978, the first year he came to work for jim baker in t