Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
“Make it say ‘I love you!’” Shawn says.
“No, make it say ‘I’m hot for you, Cordelia,’” Luke says.
“Oh! I know!” Terry’s got another idea. “You could write a book about her. Oh, my God, dude!” He laughing now. “You could write a book—” He presses both his palms at the camera. “Just hear me out, OK? You could write a rom-com and make you and her the main characters!”
“Yes!” Shawn explains. “In fact, if you don’t do that for this woman, I’m gonna do it for Dawn. Thanks for the idea, Terry.”
Terry puts his hand over his heart. “Bro, it is my pleasure. I am nothing if not a fountain of ideas.”
“Shawn!” Luke exclaims. “You can’t just take the idea. Steve gets to reject it first. What you say, Steve? Are you gonna claim this one? Or can Shawn have it?”
“This is supposed to be an emergency meeting about me.” I point to myself. “How are we even discussing Shawn writing Dawn into a romance novel? It’s my genre. If he wants to write Dawn into a book, he needs to stick to time travel. That’s his thing! You don’t see me writing time-travel romance, do you?”
“Is that a thing?” Luke asks.
“Oooh!” Terry is back. “Dude. You should totally write a time-travel romance. One where you go back in time and make Leslie Munch never be born.”
Luke claps his hands. “I like it. Do it. Are we good here? I gotta run. I’ll see you guys for sprints on Monday. Nine a.m. Pacific.” Then he points to the camera and winks, just as his face disappears.
“I gotta go too,” Shawn says. “It’s almost time for the balloon ride. I’m gonna miss the Monday sprint, Terry. But I’ll be in on Tuesday.”
“Cool, dude. Have a great weekend.”
Shawn waves, then his face disappears too.
Then it’s just me and Terry. I sigh, feeling like a failure, and liar, and a cheat. Not to mention left out. “I didn’t know you guys were doing sprints again.”
‘Sprints’ is what authors call a conference call—much like this one—where they do short fifteen- or twenty-minute writing bursts. There is a little friendly competition to see how many words each of us can get in that span of time.
We used to do them a while back, back when I was actually writing. But I haven’t been invited into the Boom room in almost a year now.
I never really considered the idea that they just… went on without me.
Which means they stopped inviting me. Probably because I wasn’t writing, so I always declined, but still. They could’ve at least invited me.
“Yeah, we do them,” Terry says. “You want in?”
I let out a long breath. “I do. But I’m not writing anything.”
“Au contraire, mon frère. You’re writing a rom-com with you and Cordelia as the main characters.”
I smile, huffing out a small laugh. “It’s a fun idea, but…”
“But what?”
“It’s”—I sigh again—“not really my thing.”
“That’s kind of the point, bro.”
“What do you mean?”
“You write choking and ass-slapping. Just like Leslie Munch. But if you write a rom-com—”
“Then I can prove I didn’t steal.”
“Not only that”—Terry points at me—“you can prove you’re a great writer. Because you are, Steve. You’re great. I know we don’t tell you that enough.” He shrugs. “I guess we just kinda figure you know that about yourself. You’re like… top of the game, dude. But I’m gonna say it now. You’re a great writer. And if you write a rom-com, you’re gonna shoot it straight to number one.”
“I get what you’re saying. And I appreciate it. But… I’m only great at one kind of writing. Smut. I’m great at smut. You saw what those sci-fi readers did to my books online. They called me the worst. And that’s fine. I’ve come to terms with it. I write smut. But I don’t cheat and I don’t steal. I lie a little, but that’s only because I’m caught in the web, ya know? I don’t know how to get out of it now.”
Suddenly, gregarious-never-serious Terry goes stoic and still. When he speaks again, his voice is low and reverent. “You really like this girl, don’t you?”
I nod. “I do. I like her so much.” I let out a long breath. “And I told her the truth. She’s the only one I told. But… it just made things worse.”
“Well, the way I see it, you’ve got two choices. One, try again, dude. Just… try again. Because the only other option is to let her go. And I know that Shawn and Dawn are so gushy and sweet, but you do know they were high-school sweethearts, broke up, spent over a decade apart, and only then got back together a couple years ago, right?”
“What?” I didn’t know that.
“Yeah. That’s why he’s so fuckin’ in love with her, ya know? He missed out on ten years and he just refuses to miss any more moments.”