"Mike Resnick - Frankie the Spook (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

Hauer shot a quick look at the door to make sure it was
closed.
"Well, I'll never get an answer if I don't ask. Just between
you and me, who's your spook?"
"My what?" said Marvin.
"Your ghost."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Come on, Marvin," said Hauer confidentially. "You're my only
rival on the literary scene. I've studied you thoroughly. I know
all about your background, your education, your cultural
upbringing. You have no more business writing a classic than I
have. We're computer hackers, not writers."
"Speak for yourself," said Marvin defensively.
"I will," said Hauer. "I can't ask for your confidence if I
don't give you mine." He paused. "You know how people keep saying
I write with Rabelaisian wit, even when I'm doing Westerns?" Hauer
grinned. "That's because I've got Rabelais in my box."
"Really?"
Hauer nodded. "Who's yours? Shakespeare?"
"Is that they way they read to you?"
"Who reads books? That's what the reviews all say."
"Actually, it's Francis Bacon," admitted Marvin. "He wrote
all of Shakespeare's plays."
"So you've got an experienced spook ghosting for you?" said
Hauer. "Boy, I wish to hell mine was! He's very unhappy about the


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situation."
"Oh?" asked Marvin, suddenly interested.
"Yeah. He keeps wanting to write orgy scenes into the cowboy
stories."
"Francis writes exactly what I tell him to write," said
Marvin.
"I envy you," said Hauer.
"Don't. He's very difficult to get along with. He gets
furious every time the critics compare my books to Shakespeare."
"You'd think that after being a ghost writer for so many
centuries, he'd be used to it by now," said Hauer.
"It just seems to make him madder," replied Marvin. "I'll be
honest with you -- I'm thinking of announcing my retirement. I
don't know how many more books I can get him to write."
"Whoever heard of a writer who doesn't want to write?"
"Oh, he wants to write -- but he's obsessed with this
Shakespeare business. I have to appeal to his vanity to get him to
do any contract work at all."
"I see your problem," sympathized Hauer. "But still...a
spook who's willing to write something besides orgies. It must be