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"I'm just gonna say this one time, Mer. I love you and I respect you. You know this. But I am not at all liking this chicken thing. I really got to say... feels like a dead end." I was getting fed up with my editor. Every meeting about the book was worse than the last. I couldn't think of the last time he offered any helpful feedback... "I was thinking the other day. Doing a little brainstorming. Now, I'm no writer. I leave the writing up to you guys, the writers. You know this, Mer. But if we could leave the chicken thing alone for a second and just hear me out. Okay?" I sat there, speechless, which was my way of saying, "go on." I couldn't fight him any longer. "Alright then... So what's seems hot right, what really has people into the books getting hot is, like, a disaster or terrorist attack or genocidal thing or some kind of real evil thing, event–could be real, could be imagined, but probably better real–and then giving at twist of levity. People are saying this to me all the damn time, Mer. Okay, so here are the ideas I jotted down." My editor got out a legal pad which was scrawled with large, nearly illegible writing in a thickish red ink, or maybe even crayon. I didn't get the best look. "Idea numero uno is GUYsis. You see where I'm going with this?" I did not. "GUYsis, is like Isis, the terrorist thing, but for guys only. Now... Now. Now, look... I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna say–" he then did a fey, mocking impression of me, I suppose "–but isn't Isis already for guys? Don't they hate women already over there and whatnot? Yeah, well, there's, uh, that's the joke. The joke is multifaceted, multilayered. Of course, Isis is for guys. No shit! So, you know, let's do 'Isis for Guys.' It's Guysis." He threw up his hands like that was that. I did not get the joke, but the lack of any joke was, I had to admit, a little interesting. I allowed him to continue. "Second idea. Now... Now," he began to chuckle. "This one is wild. This one is a little con-tro-versial. You know morning shows? Daytime fluff, etcetera Well get a load of this... Good Morning Auschwitz!" Surprisingly, he didn't have anything more to say about that one. I digested it. Took a sip of water and said, "The Guysis one isn't... bad. But, listen, I'm not even sure this thing takes place in our world. Didn't you get the idea that was a different timeline?" My editor looked confused. "Timeline? Worlds? What the fuck are you talking about, Mer? This is America. This is... are you feeling okay?" --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/myspace/support