Free Rough Men by Aric Davis Page B

their asses.”
    “No. I’m sure it’s just the snow. It slowed down everything else, may as well slow down the cops and the medical examiner too. I’ll let you know if I change my mind.” After a beat, Will said, “Lou, I know you aren’t just calling to see how I am.”
    “I’m like a piece of glass,” Lou said. “There’s a window into my soul, what can I say? The people at Fox want to talk to you. Might score some national coverage, give you a chance to tellyour side. Alison could be on if she wanted to as well—hell, that’s what they want—but I told them I’d talk to you.”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Will, these people put you on the air twice when you were promoting books. I’ll get a list of questions beforehand, and it won’t be live—it’s pretty much best-case scenario. You get to tell your story in a safe setting, and if stuff goes badly, we have them edit the hell out of it.”
    “Give me a day to talk to Alison, but you can tell them I’ll do it—once I approve those questions, of course.”
    “Great! They’re going to be thrilled. I’m going to get on the horn with them. I’ll get back to you soon—day or two, tops.”
    The phone clicked off, but before Will could replace it in the pocket of his jeans, it began to ring again.
Christ, what now?
Checking the caller ID, Will could see that it was a 206 area code.
Jack, most likely.
    “Hello?”
    “Hey, Will, do you have a couple of minutes?”
    “Yeah, sure. What’s going on, Jack?” Will stood from the kitchen table, held a finger up to his brother to say,
One minute
, and then walked into the dining room.
    “I was able to talk to Terri and Bruce this morning. Don’t freak out, but we had a meeting to discuss your issues. Actually, before I say anything else, it’s all good news, so really don’t freak out.”
    “I’m good.”
    “Cool. Terri and Bruce both agreed with me that we should push your next title back a little bit, maybe a quarter or two from when you normally release, so nothing crazy. I think they would have gone for it either way, but I sort of gave a nudge in that direction, and they went for it. I didn’t mention that you weren’t writing right now. I mean, I assume they would think you weren’t writing because of what happened, but I didn’t say you were kind of stonewalled before that.
    “Here’s where it gets really good. Terri still wants you to get something to her when you normally do, but we’ll have a ton more time to work out the kinks. If you get in by the middle of summer, you’d most likely be looking at a fall release next year. I think that should be totally doable, writer’s block or not, and it should give you a way to escape from reality for a bit.
    “The other great part is that if the next book is as good as your first two, Terri will likely negotiate an advance with you. Now, don’t quote me on that part, but we all feel terrible about what happened, and none of us want it to affect your ability to produce new work, or need to take time away from doing what you love, for something that isn’t your fault.”
    “I appreciate that, Jack. And the possibility of an advance—that’s awesome.”
    “Will, we want you to do well. This is enough to go through, not to mention writing. That said, dude, you need to give us something we can work with. You need to produce something awesome, something that works within the genre that you found success in. We both know you can write, but you need to stay focused. I loved that last thing, but it was way off the reservation in terms of what people have come to expect from you.”
    “I got that, Jack. Once this is a little more settled, I’ll get back to the keyboard.”
    “Good, that makes me super happy. Get through this, and get to writing. You’ve done it before; you’ll do it again. Just because the last one was a no-go doesn’t mean we don’t want more from you or that some crazy Norse god took all your stories away. You’re a