The Discovery, A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

job.”
    “Already have, didn’t even need to give two weeks’ notice.”
    “Great. So you’re free now?”
    “Free as a bird. I’ve been thinking about this since your call earlier. Jenn and I even talked about it over lunch.”
    “So she’s on board? Good. ’Cause if we do this thing, we’re going to need you to get right on this, work some long days to put something out soon. I can keep the interest alive between now and the book’s release with some promo ideas we’re working on. All his fans will really eat this up. I’m sure of it.”
    It sounded exciting, but my novels wouldn’t even be in the same genre as my grandfather’s. I wasn’t expecting to catch many of his fans, certainly not a majority. “So . . . why do you think it will do so well, Rick? Is it just the name recognition, the family tie?”
    “That’s just a small part of it. But it’s a serious plus, don’t get me wrong. I’m thinking about flying down my best ghostwriter, help you get this thing done quick.”
    This thing?
    “It’ll be your name on the book, and you can write as much of it as you want, pick the parts that matter the most to you. But this guy is fabulous. He’ll interview you, read a bunch of things you’ve written, and before you know it, he’ll be writing just like you. It’ll be so close your own wife won’t be able to tell the difference.”
    This was beginning to sound very strange. “What kind of time line are we talking about here?”
    “I’m thinking eight weeks, tops.”
    Eight weeks, I thought, to write a full-length novel? Guess I would need some help. But I couldn’t imagine how that would work. Jenn wouldn’t be too happy having some strange guy here day and night writing a book with me. And I wasn’t too keen on having a ghostwriter writing half of my first novel. “You really think my grandfather’s fans will want to read one of my books?”
    “Are you kidding, Michael? You’ve got the grandson of a literary legend writing a book about his grandfather . . . especially someone as elusive and mysterious as he’s been all these years . . . I mean, I don’t even know much of his story, and I’ve been working with him over twenty years.”
    “What?”
    “I’m assuming you guys know all about his personal life, the stuff he’s always kept hidden from the public. I’m not talking about dirty secrets. Your grandfather seemed squeaky clean. I’m talking about, you know, the family stories. How he and your grandmother met. The kind of questions he’d never answer in all those interviews. A book like that coming out now, we’d sell a hundred thousand, maybe a million.”
    This was awful, just awful. “So, you’re not interested in hearing about any of my novel ideas?”
    “What? Your what?”
    “Novels, books. Stories I’ve made up in my head.” I wanted to say, like my grandfather wrote, but didn’t. Because they wouldn’t be like my grandfather’s books. They’d be my books. Books nobody would ever want to read.
    “Oh . . . I see.” A long, awkward pause. “Well, Michael, I’d be open to that, maybe after this. I can almost guarantee, you write a biography about your grandfather and you’ll have a huge audience ready to hear anything else you have to say. Even if you kept a fraction of his fans for yourself, you’d still have a bestseller on your hands. So what do you think? How about I get a contract written up and overnight it to you. And you can start doing some research, start organizing things in your head, collecting old photos, maybe think up some interview questions to ask your family members.”
    Awful. I was feeling almost sick to my stomach. Why didn’t I see this coming? “Can I think about this for a while?”
    “Sure, it’s a big deal. I don’t want to steamroll you here. You give it a few days, talk it over with your wife. I’ll get the contract written up, start a conversation with my ghostwriter, see how quickly he can get on board.