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

"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
things that have never been done with erotica before. The few who
don't mention Shakespeare" -- Bacon's image winced -- "keep
comparing me to Voltaire!"
"A decidedly minor talent," sniffed Bacon. "Still, what do
critics know?"
"We're Number One on the bestseller list, and we've gone back
to press six times in two weeks."
"Only six?" said Bacon. "I overestimated the intelligence of
the American reading public."
"Yeah?" retorted Marvin. "Well, almost three million members
of that public have forked over six bucks apiece to read a
paperback original by Marvin Piltch!" Suddenly he shifted his
weight uncomfortably. "With some slight assistance by Sir Francis
Bacon, of course."
"_Some slight assistance?_" roared Bacon. "Why, you self-
centered, egotistical--"
"Watch your blood pressure," said Marvin.