Corkscrew

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Book: Read Corkscrew for Free Online
Authors: Donald E. Westlake
it's called divorce, and until it goes away I can't concentrate on anything else. All therapy would do is give me one more thing to be impatient about.'
    Fred, who naturally believed there was a professional of some sort to be hired for every one of life's many problems, spread his hands, saying, with palpable doubt, 'You'll know best, Bryce.'
    'I hope I do. Anyway, it can't go on. I owe a book, and I need money. So what I'm doing is, I'm taking on a collaborator.'
    'You? Bryce, everything you say to me today is out of character.'
    'I have to do
something,
Fred. This guy, I've known him a long time, he's a good writer in his own right, he's published some books, but he's hit on hard times. So he's gonna plot the new one with me, and write it with me, but it would be very bad news commercially if the word got out. So it has to be absolute secrecy.'
    'And you can trust this other fellow.'
    'Completely. He wants this as much as I do. And it wouldn't help
his
career if the word got around he was becoming a ghost. It would be like people finding out he was writing novelizations.'
    'I don't know what that is,' Fred admitted.
    'Oh, the paperback form of a movie, written from the screenplay.'
    'And it's not considered a very high level of occupation, I take it.'
    'Hackwork.'
    'I understand.'
    When Fred was getting down to business, he would lean forward and put both forearms on the desk, right hand near his pen and yellow pad, and that's what he did now. 'You've worked out the details of the agreement with him?'
    'The contract will say he's being hired as an editorial consultant,' Bryce said, and paused while Fred wrote that down. 'It won't say anything about his doing any writing or plotting. It says his work is confidential, and that if he breaks confidentiality the contract is null and void and he doesn't get paid.'
    'And if he does get paid?'
    'Five hundred fifty thousand dollars, out of the first earnings of the new book.'
    This time, Fred was absolutely astonished. 'That's an amazing amount of money, Bryce!'
    'It's half the advance,' Bryce pointed out. 'I told you, it's a collaboration, so he has to get half. But after that, any future moneys, foreign sales, movie sales, anything like that, he gets a quarter.'
    'Not half?'
    'No, a quarter.'
    'Will he agree to this?'
    'I'm sure he will,' Bryce said, because he wanted to be sure. 'He'll understand, any additional income like that, it would all be coming in because of my name anyway, not because of any specific thing he might have put into the book.'
    'I'm sure you're right.' Pen poised, Fred said, 'And what is this collaborator's name?'
    'Tim Fleet. Like the street.'
    Fred wrote it down. 'And who is representing him?'
    'No one. This is just between the two of us.'
    Fred put down his pen. 'Are you sure, Bryce? He really should have representation. If there are questions later—'
    'There won't be questions,' Bryce assured him, knowing this was merely once again Fred's liking for everybody to be surrounded at all times by a magic circle of professionals. 'Tim and I worked it out,' he said, 'and we shook on it, and now we just need it done in proper legal format.'
    'And what's the time frame?'
    'As soon as possible. Some time next week?'
    'No,' Fred said, 'I meant the term of the collaboration. Deadline, you call it?'
    'Oh, no, we'll leave that open,' Bryce said. 'Neither of us wants to
add
pressure.' Grinning, he said, 'The book doesn't even have a title yet. It's just being worked on.'
     
     
    It
was
being worked on, in fact, and so was the title. In the Danbury train, on the way to his stop, Bethel, the last before the end of the line, he found a dual seat to himself, since he was leaving early enough in the afternoon, ahead of the real rush, and settled down to read the book again, make notes, and think about titles.
    The book was good, certainly good enough to become his own. This weekend, he'd scan it into his computer and start the rewrite. He'd keep the basic storyline, but

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