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

"All right, all right," said Marvin in resignation. "It's a
deal."
"I have no way of forcing you to keep your promise," said
Bacon, "but as there's a God in Heaven, I'll haunt you every day
and night of your life if you should break your work to me."
"I said I'd do it."
"All right," replied Bacon. "I'm going to need a little
backgrounding before I start writing."
"It's just a sex book."
"It won't be when _I_ get through with it."
Marvin shrugged. "All right. Anything you need, just ask. If
I don't have it, I'll get it."
"Let's start with some information."
"Such as?"
"What _is_ a meter maid?"

* * *

Bacon finished ghosting the manuscript in nine days. Marvin
changed eleven words that he didn't understand -- the only eleven
corrections the stunned copy editor made on the manuscript before
sending it off to the printer -- and then decided to take a month
off before looking for a new way to make a living and fend off his
creditors.
As it turned out, he only had to wait 19 days.

* * *

"It's a hit!"
"Plays are hits. Books are blockbusters," Bacon corrected
him.
"Well, whatever it is, we're rich!" Marvin paused. "By the
way, how the hell did you learn a word like blockbuster? They
didn't have blockbusters back in your time."
"I'm cooped up in here all day and all night with a bunch of
word processing programs," answered Bacon. "So, having nothing
better to do with my time, I read the dictionaries."
"Oh," said Marvin. "Well, getting back to the news, we
actually got reviewed in the _New York Times_! They called it a
mock Elizabethian erotic masterpiece, and said it was even more
bitingly satirical than _Candy_."
"It was more bitingly satirical than _Candy_ halfway through
Page 1," said Bacon contemptuously. "And there was nothing 'mock'
about it." He paused. "What else?"
"They say I'm a genius, and that I've -- _we've_ -- done


file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/D...ike%20Resnick%20-%20Frankie%20the%20Spook.txt (3 of 10) [2/24/2004 10:54:47 PM]
 file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/New%20Folder/Mike%20Resnick%20-%20Frankie%20the%20Spook.txt