to his ear and shouting things nobody wants to hear.'
'Then perhaps this is a "How to Survive" book.'
'Possibly.'
'There are other technophobes out there,' Blacker said. 'Plenty of others. The secret of successful publishing is all about identifying a market. Let me think about this.' He set the typescript on the stack. 'Is there anyone I missed?'
Maurice said, 'I think not. Several of our members chose not to submit anything at this point in time.'
Anton said, 'Chairman, that is one of the most deplorable of all cliches.'
'Thank you, Anton.' Turning to Blacker, Maurice said, 'Anton is our vigilante, ever on the lookout for lapses of speech.'
'You'd make a useful proofreader, then,' Blacker said. 'I didn't notice a script from you, sir.'
'I wasn't ready,' Anton said.
'And the young lady . . . ?'
'Works long hours at a hairdressing salon and finds it difficult to put together anything of any length,' Maurice said with a smile in the direction of Sharon. She looked up, content to stay silent. The camera zoomed in on her notepad. Some of the doodles looked artistic.
'Length is not important,' Blacker said. 'I'd be willing to look at anything, however slight.'
'As the actress said to the bishop,' Thomasine said in an undertone that the mike on the camera picked up but Blacker did not.
'Any questions, then?' he said.
Dagmar was the first to come in. 'When can we expect to see Maurice's book in print?'
'Ah, Maurice's book,' Blacker said and for a moment he was caught off guard. Watching him now, it was obvious there was a problem. 'Yes, Unsolved. As soon as I saw it, I thought this is right for us. We must publish it. As to when, I don't have my schedules in front of me.'
'The first Thursday in September,' Maurice reminded him.
'There you are, then,' Blacker said. 'It's in the pipeline. Nearly through the pipeline, in fact. Another question?'
You talked about the tips in Jessie's book,' Anton said. 'Do you have any tips of your own to pass on to the circle?'
'To assist your writing, you mean? The one thing I would recommend is to get the tools for the job. I don't mean expensive computers or reams of paper. I'm talking about a decent dictionary, for example, a modern one, not something handed down by your grandfather, and some basic reference books connected to your topic. Some sort of filing system also helps because you'll be cutting things out of newspapers and magazines. Keep everything you are ever likely to use. I'm a hoarder, and not ashamed to say it. My house is filled with cuttings and photos from years back. Letters, notebooks, videos. I wish I was better organised because I'm starting to write a memoir of my chequered career and I have to keep stopping to look for things, but it's all there somewhere. I expect you have the same problem, Maurice. You must have stacks of material on unsolved murders.'
'Quite a bit,' Maurice said. 'I've only used about a tenth of it.'
'Ah, it's the iceberg principle. What is on view isn't the whole story. There's a huge amount underpinning it.'
Anton said, 'Mixed metaphor.'
'I beg your pardon?'
'Another question,' Maurice said.
'How much do you pay?' This from Tudor, still unhappy that his script hadn't been discussed.
Maurice said at once, 'I don't think that's appropriate.'
'Why?'
You don't ask that sort of question.'
'He's in business. We're the people offering the goods. We're entitled to know what he pays.'
Dagmar said, 'Tudor, we're not selling tins of beans.'
'That's debatable.'
'Tudor, how could you!'
'The whole thing about writers is that if they knew anything about business they wouldn't be writers anyway.'
Maurice said, 'Equally you could say that a genuine writer doesn't do it for the money. You know very well, Tudor, that a publisher and his author come to a private agreement.'
'You mean you don't want to tell us how much you're getting?'
Blacker tried to take some heat out of the exchange. 'What a publisher pays is an advance on the