“I’m sure you can guess.” Her tone didn’t indicate if she agreed with his editor or not. She was just relaying the information. “With everything going on right now, the publisher thinks—”
“I thought all publicity was good publicity?”
Becca sighed. “In this case, Atrea Press disagrees.”
“And?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Look, I know you don’t want to hear this, but these are the facts. The publisher is concerned that with you coming out, the plot of this new book feels like you’re pushing an agenda.”
Asher snorted rudely into the phone, but Becca ignored him and continued.
“Not all of the chatter from the fan forums is exactly what you might call supportive. I’m sorry, Asher, but Atrea Press is drawing a hard line in the sand. Either you rewrite the chapters, or they’re threatening to terminate your contract.”
“No.” The series had become stagnant, boring. Sending his hero undercover as a drag queen to solve a murder was fresh, fun, and it breathed new life into a series that desperately needed it. “I didn’t change a damn thing about the character. I just put him in an unusual situation. There’s nothing wrong with those chapters, and you know it.”
“Asher.” She paused, sighed again. “There’s more. The studio is talking about postponing filming onInjustice.”
Leaning his elbow on his desktop, he dropped his face into the hand not holding his phone and closed his eyes. It wasn’t like the world would fall into ruin without another Marshall Kane movie, but he doubted it would do anything good for his image if the studio canceled production.
Everyone had been telling him that things would get worse before they got better. Apparently, this was the “worse” part.
“Did they say why?”
“Well, it doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with you. I guess the lead actor was caught cheating on his wife and co-star.”
Asher sat up and glared at nothing in particular. “Jesus, Becca, why didn’t you lead with that?”
“Sorry,” she chuckled. “I just thought you should know.”
Sighing, he rubbed his temple, trying to stave off the headache he could feel forming. “Do you haveanygood news?”
“Atrea Press has agreed to extend your deadline to the beginning of the year.” She paused, then added in a quick mumble, “To give you time to rewrite the first five chapters.”
“Great. Fucking fantastic.” Every part of him wanted to chuck his phone across the room, but he took a deep breath and reminded himself he was a mostly functioning adult. “I need to go. I have work to do.”
“So, you’re going to rewrite the beginning?”
She didn’t sound hopeful, exactly, just surprised. “No, I won’t rewrite the beginning.”
Christ, he needed a fucking drink. Unfortunately, it was barely nine o’clock in the morning, and things hadn’t turned quite bad enough to justify day-drinking.
“Good.”
Asher pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it for several seconds before bringing it back to his ear. “Did you just saygood?”
“Yes, Asher. I loved those chapters ofUninvited, and I think you’d be an idiot to listen to those bigoted assholes.”
That was the thing about Becca. She never minced words. Asher might not always like what she had to say, but he respected the hell out of her for giving it to him straight. The fact that she was actually taking his side on the issue was even better.
“Okay,” he said, drawing the word out to give himself a few moments to think. “So, what do we do?”
“Well, like I said, they’re threatening to terminate the contract if you don’t make the changes they want. First thing we’re going to do is let them. They have right of first refusal, but once they pass on it, you’re free to do whatever you want with the manuscript.”
It was good in theory, but it all sounded a little too easy. “Do you think they’re actually going to refuse it, though?”
“I do.” She sounded very confident about that. “You’ll have to pay back your advance, of course.”
“Of course.” He’d already known that, and it wasn’t like he needed the money. “Becca, I don’t know about shopping this to another publisher.” He had a very clear vision for the book, and he didn’t want to run into any of the same problems he was currently facing.
