The Adventures of Devlin Mythryll Episode Eight: The Cure for Writer's Block
#8 of The Adventures of Devlin Mythryll
"Master, why are there flying toasters on the screen?"
"That is the screen saver," Devlin replied as he put his head on the computer table. "It comes up when I don't do anything with the computer for a certain amount of time."
Eros stared at the screen then poked it. She wondered how her master had made toasters fly then put them on screen.
"They aren't real Eros. They are computer generated. Now please, could you move back a little?"
"Master, why are you not doing anything with the computer?"
Devlin gave her an angry look. He wasn't in a very good mood at the moment. He had just spent most of the day typing then deleting ideas for his new book. Eros's curiosity was not helping Devlin.
"Do me a favor and find something to do with yourself," Devlin said with anger in his voice.
Eros moved back and lowered her head. She then ran into the bedroom and closed the door.
Devlin looked at the bedroom door. A ping of guilt went through his entire body. He knew that she meant well and she didn't deserve his anger.
The bedroom door opened and Eros came out holding a large stack of papers. She put the papers on the desk then bowed her head. Afterwards she returned to the bedroom and closed the door behind her.
Devlin looked at the papers oddly, picking up one of them. He looked at the papers and gave a look of surprise. The paper was part of a story. The spelling was horrible and the grammar wasn't the best but Devlin could understand most of it.
"This is amazing. Better than any shit I ever wrote. Some editing is needed but other than that..."
Devlin suddenly had an idea. Instead of writing his own book he would help write Eros's story, get it published then reap in the fame and fortune that would come from it. He could even give her a pen name so that no one would know her real name. Not that he thought anyone besides Silver knew her name.
"Eros, come here! I have a great idea!"
Outside, Silver was walking down the street toward his favorite coffee shop. He needed the cup of coffee after the rough night that he had. He couldn't stop thinking about what might have happened if he had told the truth. It had gotten to the point where he became paranoid.
"I have to tell someone," he said to himself. "Should I talk to Brian? No. He couldn't keep a secret. Margret? No. She is a complete airhead. She wouldn't be able to help me out. Maybe Devlin could help?"
Silver stopped and gave a sigh. Telling Devlin was the last thing that the crow wanted to do but that was probably the best option that he had. It would also make sense to talk to Devlin because the fox was the one that had the feline.
"Hello Silver," said a familiar voice, "Why are you talking to yourself?"
Silver jumped up and turned around to see a black bear behind him. The bear wore a blue shirt that said 'I'm up for grabs' in white letters and a pair of jeans. His brown hair was in a pony tail that went down to the end of his neck.
"W-who are you?" Silver asked, slowly moving away from the black bear.
"It's me, Trevor. Remember?"
"Trevor? You look so much different. Weren't you a panda the last time we met?"
Trevor looked at his fur for a moment then nods.
"You have a good eye there my winged friend. I forgot that I sprayed my fur black today. I do it just to mess with people. Though it does become a bother every time I get pulled over by the cops."
"You have a car?"
"A car? I haven't had a car since 1969," Trevor said jokingly.
"Really? Does that mean that you are really, really old?" Silver asked with a look of surprise on his face.
Trevor rolled his eyes and shook his head. Was Silver really that stupid? Or was this some sort of joke. By the look on Silver's face, Trevor concluded that it was the former and not the latter.
"So...," Trevor said, trying to think of something to say, "Where are you off to?"
"I was going to the coffee shop to get some coffee. You want to come with me? I have enough money to pay for both of us."
"Ok, though I will skip the coffee. It makes piss like a race horse."
"I really did not need to know that," Silver said. "Let's just go there."
Trevor nodded and followed Silver to the coffee shop.
Firebird Print was one of the largest book publishers ever known. Many major authors had published their works there. The publishing company got three awards for best publisher, four nominations for the best run company and was listed as the fourth best publisher in the world. Hundreds of book drafts have been sent to and rejected by the company. With such high standards, it was a wonder how Devlin's drafts were even allowed into the company building.
The owner and main editor of Firebird Print was Ceri Cerverus, a black feline with a bite mark on his ear. Ceri created Firebird Print after failing to find a publisher for his own book. He used the company to publish his own book. The book failed but the company was a success. The success fed his ego and he soon became known as the crusher of writer's dreams. He wouldn't just say that your book wasn't good enough. He would say that your book was a joke, you were a terrible writer and whoever taught you how to write should be shot on sight. Not in those words of course but people got the idea what he was saying.
"You can't be serious about the shit," Ceri said as he looked at Devlin's draft. "What the hell are you trying to do? Are you trying to bore me to death?"
The man had such a way with words.
"You didn't even read it," Devlin said. "You just looked at the title. You have to read the whole thing."
Ceri looked at Devlin angrily.
"I only need to read the cover to know this is crap," Ceri replied.
"Just read at least the first page for me. Humor me before you rain down your divine wisdom on me."
Ceri opened the book and started to read the first page. At first his face gave off the impression that he hated it. But when he started to read second page his mood lightened.
"This isn't bad at all," the feline said as he started to read the third page. "I take back what I said before. This actually has some promise."
"Thank you," Devlin said with a smile.
"Do me a favor and pitch this book to me," Ceri said as he closed the book and gave it back to Devlin. "I want to know what this book is about. I have some idea from the pages that I have read but I need more information in order to say I want this book printed."
Devlin smiled. This was the moment that he was waiting for. He planned to wow Ceri like the feline had never been wowed before.
"Imagine that you live an average, boring life at a dead end job with no chance to ever get married or even laid," the fox said, "You wish that one day something exciting would happen that would change your life forever. And then that day comes. You open the door and find a naked girl lying on your door step. You don't know how she got there. You are freaking out. You are afraid to call the cops because then they will ask questions and people will forever look at you oddly. What do you do?"
"I wouldn't know. My life isn't boring, I am married and no girl ever lay down naked on my door step."
"You are one of the lucky ones. Anyway, that isn't the point. The point is that this situation happens to Damien, the main character of my story. The girl that is on his door step is actually an alien slave that fell from the sky and landed on earth. They quickly become friends and end up in a fantastic adventure full of action, danger and plot twists that no one would ever see coming."
"It sounds interesting but the last part seems cliché."
"Is gay sex cliché?"
Ceri looked at Devlin with wide eyes. He couldn't believe what Devlin had just said.
"You put gay sex in the book?" Ceri asked Devlin.
"Yes I did."
"What is wrong with you? You don't just put things like gay sex into books. You just don't do that."
"Why not? Why shouldn't we? I mean, it is a part of life. Guys have sex with girls, girls have sex with guys and sometimes guys have sex with guys. I don't see the problem."
"It has never been done before."
"And that is the point. Don't you get it? This could be revolutionary. Never before has gay sex been allowed to be written about in books. This company would be the first company in history to allow such a book to be published. Think about it. The first in history. That is something that no other company could take away from you. It could also make the company number one and you could finally be able laugh at those who rejected your works so many years ago."
As soon as he heard what Devlin said, Ceri gave an evil grin. He realized that Devlin was right. This was his chance to gain so much glory for himself. There was no way in hell he was going to turn this down.
"Devlin, I want you to go home and make sure that your punctuation, grammar and spelling are perfect. I don't want any flaws in the book."
"Yes sir."
"By the way, who is this Nina Moon? It says that she is your co-writer."
"She is a friend of mine that I met a few days ago. She was full of so many ideas that I had to write a book with her."
"Will I ever get to meet her?"
"I will see what I can do. She is rather shy. I don't know why. She is a great conversationalist. The problem is you have to get her to talk."
"If you say so. Look, Devlin, I hope that you are right about this. If this book fails, it is going to reflect really badly on us."
"You have nothing to worry about. Trust me."