Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
She shakes her head. “No, not like that.” I can tell she’s getting nervous because she looks down at her hands, and I can see she’s tapping her fingers together. “When I was in college, I was a loner.” She looks up. “Unlike the rest of my family, I didn’t have that big of a social calendar. If it was up to me, I would have gone to community college and lived at home. But the peer pressure was real.” I chuckle now, seeing how nervous she is. I want to reach out and hold her hand to give her comfort, but she’s too busy twirling her fingers. “Anyway, I went online to this fan fiction place.” I open my mouth. “Yeah, I know, but then I started writing my own little story, and it just took off until…I would put out chapters every single week, and for the first time in a long time, I felt like I was in my own skin. I didn’t get it because of my name because, well, my name was Miss Vicki’s, so no one even knew who I was.” She smiles shyly. “Also, because they are my favorite chip.” I laugh, making a mental note to stock up on them. “It made me escape the reality that I was miserable at school. That I missed my family.” She laughs, and I can see the tears in her eyes. “They drive me insane and crazy, but I was all alone for the first time in my whole life, and I didn’t know how to feel about it.” She brings up her hand. “But writing was my escape from my sad reality.”
“Have you written a book?” I ask, shocked, and she nods at me.
“Yes, after I finished writing all the chapters on the fan fiction page. I scoured the internet to find out how to publish my book.” I smile at her, thinking about how courageous that was for her to put herself out there for the whole world to see. I played hockey in front of a crowd, but what she did millions of people would be able to read. “I got a cover for it, and then quietly published it without thinking twice. I shut off the computer, took two sleeping pills, and the next thing you know, I wake up, and I’m number one on the charts. It was insane.” She laughs through the tears. “And then I thought about telling my family, but then what if it was a one-time thing? A fluke.”
“Was it?” I ask. “Did you write another book?”
“I’ve written more than one,” she declares proudly. “I’ve written quite a few.” She laughs. “I’ve never said that out loud before. I mean I’ve never said that out loud to anyone who doesn’t work for or with me.” She smiles even bigger than she did before and her eyes light up even more. “Oh, and my aunt Vivienne.”
“Get out of here,” I say, smiling at her. “I’ve never even met an author before.” I can swear she blushes. “Are you in bookstores?”
“I am,” she says, and I have so many questions. I’ve met doctors, lawyers, and politicians but never, not once, have I met an author. I’ve met reporters but never someone who wrote a book.
“That is so cool. What do you write? Is it romance?”
Her head goes back again as her laughter fills the quietness. “I do not write romance. I like to read romance but I don’t write it.” She looks down before looking back up again. “I write murder mystery books,” she tells me, and I just stare at her as she lifts her eyebrows at me. “There is this main character.” She looks at me. “I called her.” Her eyes search mine, and it finally clicks into place. I sit up, gasping. “Lucinda.”
“You are not Cooper Parker!” I shout, shaking my head in disbelief, and she rolls her lips. “You’re lying.” I point at her.
“My grandfather is Cooper Stone, and my grandmother is named Parker,” she explains to me, and my eyes just go wide. “Never, in one million years, did I think it would get so big.”
I hold up my hand, sitting up in front of her. “Wait a second.” I shake my head. “You saw your book when you came over?”
“I did,” she admits, looking at me. “I was both shocked and surprised.”
“But you didn’t say anything.” I tilt my head to the side.
“No one knows what I do for a living,” she says softly.
“What do you mean?” I ask, my mind going in circles.
“I mean, I haven’t told anyone, including my family, that I’m Cooper Parker. No one knows.” Just when I think she can’t shock me more.
“What do they think you do?” I wait for her to answer with bated breath.
“They just think I edit.” I put my hands on my head. “To be honest, I wrote one book, never expecting it to come to a second, and then, well, two went into three.” She shrugs. “Then it got to the point when I felt so weird coming out to them. Like, ‘hey, can you pass me the potatoes, and in case you didn’t hear, I just hit The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.’” I can’t help but smile at that. “It was just easy to pretend it didn’t happen.”