The Ghostwriter - Episode 1

Riker Wednesdays

Ghostwriting is like being a surrogate mother. The closer you get to delivery, the harder it is to give up what you’ve given life to.

Offering less than a penny a word, for work, for art they themselves could never produce. Barely enough to pay a utility bill once a book had been delivered. But that wasn’t enough. They wanted the spirit as well, demanding, in the form of a confidentiality agreement that the truth of real authorship never be told. The Ghostwriter believed that it took a special kind of dark soul to take credit for what another had put their entire heart into. The lowest of the low, the hunger these talentless posers possessed for the limelight was insatiable, with his own personal parasite, L.B., having pretty much sucked everything that was good out of him.

L.B. The initials she hid behind when robbing him. He had tried to Google the name but no potential suspects came up. Not knowing if it was even a male or female, The Ghostwriter had his own take on what the abbreviation stood for. Lying Bitch/Lying Bastard. Worked either way.

Turns out, truth was destined to eventually set itself free. It happened one day at a Barnes & Noble.

Ever since he could remember book stores had been both his playground and aspiration. If his mother wanted to have a peaceful day of shopping all she had to do was drop him off in one and the boy would stay content for hours on end. As he got older he started imagining his own stories up on those shelves, with not one weekend going by where he didn’t lose himself in some book shop. And so his treasured past time had remained, the only thing having changed was that he was now on the hunt for his own work.

Although The Ghostwriter knew it had to be out there somewhere, (otherwise he never would have been paid for it to begin with) it still took him by complete shock when he had come upon that first book. The title could have been changed to absolutely anything, and as far as L.B.’s real name, who knew? That is until one name stood out in its bold caps.

KIZZY COOKE

It just had a dishonest sound to it, at least to him. Like he had done a million times before he began flipping through the book, but this time the words looked familiar, the sentences too close for comfort, the paragraphs causing him to shake. Only when his brain started to say the words before he read them did he truly believe it.

The Ghostwriter’s heart was now thudding through his ears, looking at his book that was not his book. Looking at all the other books displayed alongside it. He had made it. His work, there for anyone to discover. To fall in love with.

But then the extreme pain of reality burst within him. L.B., who was really Kizzy Cooke, taking credit for his soul. He tore to the back cover and there she was, a smiling fraud, with a little caption on the bottom stating that she lived in Spokane, Washington.

A deal with the devil.

That’s the thought that kept boiling in his head, his first instinct being to track her down in person. But then logic crept in, telling himself that he would be brilliant, methodical, like when creating one of his stories.

The Ghostwriter wanted to buy the book. To take it to his ex wife who had recently divorced him and throw it in her face for not believing in him. To show it to his seven-year-old daughter she had taken from him.

You see sweetheart, daddy was telling the truth!

But such first instincts were not worthy of what was owed to him. Redemption would come in due time, karma bestowed, and with this self-reassurance he was able to step back and plan ahead, starting with sending his target an email that very day.

Boo! Guess who? Yep, your cyberspace friendly ghostwriter! I know we weren’t scheduled to talk until next month in regards to starting the third book, but I’ve been hit with such an inspiration this afternoon that I think it would be a crime not to take advantage of it while the creative juices are flowing, you know?

I have a very strong feeling this one’s going to be bigger than the past two. Of course due to our arrangement I have no idea how the first one did, and can only guess that your publisher is about to release the second soon if they haven’t done so already. But I believe this one’s going to take you to a whole new level, as in joining the hundred-million-copies club!

Remember a few years ago when we first found each other? When we spoke about showing some diversity in the writing once you became established?

Well, I presume you’ve been able to do such since we’re still working together and you were able to increase my pay to one and a half cents per word on that last book.

They’d probably classify this new story I have in mind as crime/mystery, which is actually a smooth transition from the Literary Fiction we’ve been doing so far.

Picture this: