OK Two things I want to do that.

I think will be a lot of it
early like I'm sure what is

a chapter from time travelers never die
and the other one is a short story.

And I think since we launched on time
travelers I'll do that first this is

chapter thirty that starts with
the quotation from Dick Nixon.

I have often thought that if there
had been a good rap group around in

those days I might have chosen
a career in music instead of politics.

That's on an audiotape but it takes
a librarian He was quite a good pianist as

a matter of fact I've only just a little

bit of the background there are two
guys for about half the book and

later on in the book there's a guy and
I'll young woman named Katie and

these pairs you got to travel around with
that there are a couple of things that

pressed on them a good bit they've got
some problems but what they really enjoys

going around and beating people they are
they get Charles Lamb started going on his

right career right he has say for
example they're the ones who inspire H.G.

Wells to write about a time machine
they visit the library at Alexandria and

save a lot of stuff they do all
kinds of interesting things and this

occurs right after they have visited
Ben Franklin at a meeting of the Hutto

in Philadelphia in
the seventeenth the lack

of women participants at the heart of
lead Dave and Shel to Sojourner Truth.

They were among the very few males
present when she delivered her eight.

I a woman speech at eight
hundred fifty one at the Ohio

women's rights convention in Akron.

They spent an evening with
Alexander one humble and

eighteenth century Berlin discussing
celestial mechanics and politics.

They hung out in a land bar several
evenings with Ernest Hemingway while he

was recovering from wounds incurred
driving an ambulance during World War one.

If you like Slater they were in
eastern France at the Chateau the sea.

Hilary walking with Voltaire and
his lover the Marquis said to shy away.

Actually Dave did most of the talking
because Shell's French was nonexistent.

But they hit it off.

Voltaire whose name was actually
Francois bowtie our way

was simultaneously the funniest and the
most passionate man shall ever encounter.

And this the spite the fact that
everything had to be translated.

The evening went well
they were invited back.

Shell worked on his French and

the next time they when he was better able
to participate Voltaire loved parties

they met Ibram looked up how they got
that one and Alexander Pope another

Jonathan Swift was going to travel
with Pope but he failed to arrive.

I think Pope said he has no taste for

travelling long distances on October
first one hundred thirty two.

They were in the stands
of Wrigley Field and

be a group called the shot against Charlie
route and yes there was no question

in shells mind what route the dead
that when wanted to took out.

He stepped out of the box and pointed
his bathroom where the right center

field bleachers at Fort Bridger
eight hundred sixty eight Wyoming.

They've bought a round of drinks for
Calamity Jane.

In France after the Great War They
arranged to meet the unsinkable

Molly Brown while posing as
reconstruction volunteers and

in fact she successfully
coerced into doing some work.

Years later they partied with her
on the Hannibal Missouri social

circuit with the big catch
was to be George Washington.

Claiming to be journalists they
attended the awards ceremony for

Mary Hayes Macaulay Mary the general

explained that accompanied her
husband the battlefield and

quote on a blazing hot day paid no
mind to incoming artillery shells and

carried pictures of water to thirsty
soldiers when her husband was wounded.

She took his place with the gun you
presented her with her warrant.

Henceforth Mrs McAuley will
be known as Sergeant Molly.

In fact of course history
knows her as a volley pitcher.

After the ceremony.

And there as I.

I didn't talk with Molly they
let Washington slip away.

The converters were hopelessly addictive
shell and they were out constantly

visiting Cicero's Rome wandering
through Florence at the height of

the Enlightenment offering advice to
Van Dyke and then Greco or August or

the fourteen ninety two they started
the mouth of the harbor in Palo Spain

watching Columbus's three ships the Park
West where it was that's a way for India.

They visited Henry thorough jailed in
Concord for refusing to pay taxes during

the Mexican War and Harlan Ellison
jailed in southeastern Louisiana for

participating in civil rights protests.

They spent an afternoon in
Dayton Tennessee at the Monkey Trial and

wrote on Mark Twains riverboat there
on a crowded rooftop of the battery in

Charleston with several others several
dozen others when at four thirty A.M.

on April twelfth eighteen sixty one the
Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter.

It was during this period they moved the
base of the operation from the town house

three days modest home
on Carmichael drive.

By then there were too many
costumes to manage equitably and

they've had the ideal walk in closet.

They made a second try for
George Washington.

Going to revolution it was
impossible to get close to him.

They compromised and spent a few minutes
with a younger version of the man

in Alexandria Tavern in
seventeen fifty nine.

He was twenty seven at the time but
already a veteran of the French wars

shell and they pretended to be journalists
as they had so often but Shell's

impression was that while he was courteous
Washington wasn't particularly receptive.

He was unwilling to submit to what
he perceived as an interview and

took the first opportunity to
excuse himself from their company.

But the evening began the tradition of
meeting presidents well before they become

political forces.

But twenty year old Andrew Jackson
actually on the third shelf.

They were in Salzburg in North Carolina
and seventeen eighty seven

Jackson had recently been
admitted to the bar shell and

Dave were tending to it just learned about
his accomplishments were helping him

celebrate when a couple of oversized
roughnecks made lascivious car.

Mental passing moment Jackson
directed them to back off.

When they challenge him he took
office jacket invited either or

both to try their luck.

He glanced at Shell and
smiled shell realized with horror.

He was being invited to the fight.

Fortunately it wasn't necessary
both dogs back the way

they located Herbert Hoover at twenty
six in China during the Boxer Rebellion

introduced himself as heard and said he
was glad to see some fellow Americans.

Joe was in the middle of
explaining why they were there or

how they were around
the world tour when gunfire

explosions interrupted the conversation
several nearby houses exploded.

Others are up in flames who were
charged into one of them and

began carry out wounded kids shell and
Dave hesitated briefly then

followed his lead the other had Woodrow
Wilson in Atlanta in January hundred

eighty three allegedly for an article to
appear in Georgia law during the interview

Wilson discusses would equate visions
of course I'd like to be president.

He said The country needs
to change direction and

one way Mr Wilson the government as it's
presently constituted invites corruption.

We need to rewrite the constitution
bring it into the modern

age you think
the Constitution is obsolete.

It's hopelessly eight Pete century sorry
hopelessly they stopped by the grant and

Perkins leather shop and go into
Illinois the brink of the civil war.

Who talked with the future
president about saddles and

incidentally his feelings on the tension
with the Southern States eventually

grant said it's going to come up or
shoot out.

He shook his head far as I'm concerned
we might as well get it over with.

It's right on hats at the Truman and

Jacob said haberdashery in Kansas City in
the summer of one nine hundred twenty and

it think thirty three they left clothing
to be repaired at Andrew Johnson's tailor

shop in Greenville Tennessee expecting
to get away from politics for

a time they bought is their chance
nineteen thirty seven meeting with Al

this Hawksley in the lap like
a Durham North Carolina restaurant.

While they waited the piano
player took a break and

the young dark haired guy was one
of a group of students seated and

back him forward there are three and
sat down at the piano

the ripple through the Keys and we can
immediately evident he was quite good.

Well his friends cheered he
played these foolish things.

Huxley came in during the middle and
Shell got up and pretended

shock at having run into as he put it
the writer he most admired in the world.

I love your work.

He said they mean time recognize
something familiar about the piano player

brave new world is brilliant still
continued I wish I had my copy with these

are going to be signed
it would be all right.

If I took a picture.

Sure said Huxley who was accompanied
by a lovely young woman.

They've We need a camera
the pit astonished up and

started another number in
the mood like in the chapel.

They took his out his gooseberry and
waved there from twenty seventy and

wait to tell closer to Huxley so
we could get them both in the shop

say said Oxley is that a camera
there was a model said shell.

They took the picture and two more
including one of Huxley and the woman I

see it they had handed it to the author
with the first picture on screen.

That's the photo said shelf.

Hosley was impressed by deficit he said.

Where can I get one of these They've
had the goose bird a shell and

walk over the piano.

You have a nice touch.

He said the pin a smile.

Thanks.

He was in his early twenties.

You were a student who claw very good
that should give you a running start

smile wide I hope so.

One of the other students
pushed into the conversation.

Dickie said how about
taking a chance on love.

They put the money in
his breast pocket sure

he gave Dave a thumbs up and
began to play.

They went back to their
table gel by then and

returned you recognize that
guy who the guy at the piano.

He also has said no you're sure who
do you think he is think she actors

checkers who plays checkers at
the board game the dog shelter.

There think you're right

that's true.

I was never die.

I was telling Bill last night
I have never in my life.

Joyce writing anything
as much like Joy doing.

That's a little more

I've

got a story here we want to sort

of the thirty minute
relics like a good book.

This is a story from pulp file which

is a collection of political publisher

history and
the story is called Henry James.

This one's for you and

this was also one of the people that
we were we were talking this morning.

I guess was last night or

rather somewhere about unbridled

technology that science is not always
necessarily thing maybe Here's an example.

Anyway Henry James this one's for
you that came in over the transom like

a couple hundred other manuscripts
each week memoirs of people

that were you ever heard of novels
that start with weather reports and

introduce thirty characters
in the first two pages.

That's of collections of unreadable
poetry from someone's grandmother the or

go in the stack for

the screeners to look through them attach
our former jacket and set them back.

Actually there's only one screen name.

As Myra crispy she has one green eye and
one blue eye and a talent for

going through the slush pile she picks
out the occasional possibility and

gets rid of the rest every
day loved by job she says

when I ask her why she says it
because I pay or the big bucks.

That was publishing isn't
a major route that we go.

OK we don't specialize that will publish
anything that looks as if it will make

money but most of the manuscripts
we see have already made the rounds

of Random House Harper Collins and the
other big Some come in from an agent but

that has no effect on the way we
treat them as we know the author.

They all go into the pile.

Sometimes we get lucky we published
a couple of self-help books last year that

extremely well and the novel about those
arc that became a runaway best seller.

Anyhow the day it arrived was cold and
wet the heating system I got down again.

So I was wrapped in a sweater.

I just opened my office and had turned
on the coffee when Myra came in Marion

up relevant the manuscript
that was unusual.

She doesn't usually take
these things old age.

Jerry she said I think we've got a winner.

Really she was being that yes I
was happy happened night with it.

She tripped over to her desk and

sat down in front of what I
thought was a second manuscript.

But which turned out to be
the rest of the submission.

I got I said that was
like a thousand pages.

She peeped at the end.

Twelve hundred twelve.

I've only read a few chapters but the rest
of us like what I've seen that good on I

couldn't put it down magic words we
seldom saw anything that wasn't easy to

walk away from she lived through the pages
credible she said Who is this guy.

What is it.

I ask because that the long war.

It's about the war in the Middle East.

It's what how many are involved.

And I didn't see the news this morning.

It's been done.

I said I'd like this boss.

She was still turning pages
who's that by by name.

Patterson.

She shook her head.

Edward Patterson ever hear of it.

It was a stranger to me.

What's the cover letter say she needed
a minute to find the novel enclosed.

All that's it.

We used to have a screener's box where she
could the closet manuscripts and work with

actually publishable we dispense with it
because by rarely put anything in it.

So she just wrote the manuscript over and
later on a side table and she walked back

to work desk pulled the next submission
of the pilot began turning pages.

But I knew she was really waiting for
me one of me to pick up the long war.

I look at it before I go home I say
she continued turning pages side and

touch the keyboard the printer
kicked out a fresh rejection.

OK she said I was working on
Make straight the path and

inspirational book by Adam Trent.

It was pious and

reassuring loaded with anecdotes
showing how the unbelievers get theirs.

You wouldn't believe how his other books
had sold think we would have loved

to have him.

I stayed with it.

Resisting the temptation
to look at Paterson's epic.

It resembled an epic
the manuscript obscured a coffee

stayed half afforded by
the table that made it official.

Now lest you think I'm one of those
editors only cares how many copies can

be booked let me tell you that
while sales figures matter.

It's always been my ambition
to discover the writer.

Well OK All editors feel that way but
that's because we're generous and

compassionate.

So what Myra got up and
headed for the washroom.

I took a look.

Patterson lived in New Hampshire.

I lived on the cover page and
glanced at the opening lines

that night I hold it down the elevator
all twelve hundred pages took it all.

I read it on the train read during dinner.

Milo's read through the they
have to look at the bed.

In the summer of twenty one.

I went to the Army recruiting officer
with the young college student hero and

cringed while he joined the Reserves.

I rode with the U.N. inspectors while they
played tag with the rocky escorts and

tried to surprise their hosts
at suspect the syllabi.

I sat in the councils of the president
while his aides urged an attack on Saddam

and construct their arguments they
hope the UN and the voters would buy.

The night got away from me and

I finally closed my eyes in the first
line of board was hitting the curtains.

I called Myra's voice.

A couple hours later letting
her know I'd be late.

All the get around by the teller
I wouldn't be in it all.

It wasn't simply one more word of.

This one had that cliff hanging quality
Yes but it was vastly more it only the war

through the eyes of its characters
the reader saw how it happened.

Came to grasp the inevitability
of the conflict

you understood what it meant to
ride shotgun on the convoys or

go house to house and pollution
experienced what it was to fight an enemy

who wasn't afraid to die who imagined
killing to be a divine imperative.

I spent time with a group of insurgents
and came to understand what drove them.

I carried stretchers of the burning words
of an Iraqi hospital when shattered

bystanders were brought in.

And finally I was with the mothers
at Ohio with the read news came that

perspective passion fear the terminations
of obviously floored men and

women in authority to get things right.

The mounting frustration as those who had
been liberated refused to throw roses.

I was holed up with for six days.

The outside world simply stopped until
the last shots had been fired and

the fallout had begun to
take its political toll.

It was a war and

peace for our time I had done better than
five one more professional writer who

could sell a few thousand copies
of what their father Herman walk.

I finished laying on his
really cold evening and

sat staring up my apartment
window at downtown Boston.

Thinking about Edward Patterson
on that night only I and

Myra knew he was within a year or
the whole world was going to know.

He lived in the Konya at
the foot of the White Mountains

who was a quarter after ten
a bit late to be calling.

Well the other hand.

This was a guy who was far as I could
the term of the never been published.

I remembered my own reaction when
the postcard arrive from Guns and

Ammo it out to my own first sale.

Vajra anticipating me I'd gotten
Patterson's number from information and

printed the above the title.

I made myself a scotch and
soda and reach for the phone.

Wonderful he said Mr Packer that's great.

You're actually going to publish it.

You something younger than I'd expected.

Yes Mr Patterson.

Is it OK if I call you Ed.

Sure.
Yes absolutely.

Can you all the second.

OK.

You must recover the phone but
I knew what was happening.

He was passing the good news.

It was wife or girlfriend or
whomever I'm back he said but

Mr Packer you have no one
deal with this means.

I can't.

Yes I said Ed are you by any chance
free to come in the Boston tomorrow.

You made a sound deep in his throat I'm
a teacher he said of the high school.

OK How about Saturday we don't
usually open the office Saturday but

in this case I was willing
to make an exception.

I could do that.

He said fine I'll have a contract ready
and we'll celebrate by going to lunch.

The truth was I wanted him signed the
delivery for a file that how good the long

war was if he realized what he had
wanted to I had to deal with an agent or

possibly you may get caught in
a bidding war with a villain.

He was maybe twenty five.

Paul with a nervous smile light brown hair
already beginning to think soured cheeks

pale skin watery gray
eyes behind bifocals.

He wore a frantic jacket and hold a laptop
in a stage bag over one shoulder and

looked much like having way he turned
the pages of the contract with

longer than yours not examining it I
thought so much as admiring it when he got

to the advance he stopped
twenty thousand dollars.

Yes I was about to say I'd be willing to
go higher because I like the book and

expected to go higher was always best
to start with a conservative figure he

always moved up seems like a lot.

He said well I tried
to conceal my surprise

of purpose believed to be generous.

It didn't really matter.

The book was going to make a ton.

So it was no risk.

It's certainly very kind of you.

He smiled again he looked like the kind
of guy the other kids are picked going to

the school yard and
I would never believe him.

Capable the kind of rugged
prose that is for the long war.

I showed him where to sign explain what we
expected that we want to be able to use as

bio would like us and promoting
the book that we might ask of the.

A few guest appearances.

I didn't mention that he was
signing over all the T.V.

and movie rights that he was giving to it
was a healthy share of any foreign sales

that we would also collect seventy
five percent of book club rights and

of course there was the option
because normally and

I told him we'd want to retain the right
of first refusal on your next novel but

he said looking suddenly worried or
be upfront with you.

Is there going to be a sequel
sequel his eyes cloud.

There will be another book.

OK good enough.

Tempus is willing to forgo the option.

We'd like instead to sign you to
a three book deal beyond the long war.

There's Iceland shot I was looking at
those be a tipping smiling ever see

Paradise had arrived.

Were offering a seventy five
thousand dollar dance for the three.

Who put the glass down and stared.

I don't know what to say Well I'm saying
as I just signed on the line I showed him

where I know what you're thinking but
we do not try to take advantage of our

authors we were providing a major
service for Ed Patterson.

We were giving him a chance to launch a
new career to break away from his teaching

job to fulfill a lifelong dream when
you've been in this business for

a while you discover that takes a lifelong
dream to drive someone to write a novel.

Especially a big one.

He signed the contract for
books and all in triplicate.

I put one copy in the middle of a loop and
handed it to him.

Yours I said he was glowing.

Now let's go celebrate.

We want to cross the street to
Marcos It's a quiet Italian restaurant

just off the common.

It was still a little early for lunch so
hardly anyone was there we ordered

the Cantar red wine and
I feel both glasses to you.

Wade I said.

And to the long war.

He wore a green a mile wide.

Thanks Jerry.

He said The wind made a face put it
down strong stuff he said if it is

my own to refill the glass I have to tell
you where the long war is pretty good.

How are you working on it for years five.

I guess you could say ten or
eleven somewhere in there.

And yours been writing this and
you were one fifth.

Tina I have that right.

No.
Jerry I didn't write the novel next it X..

Who's Max I said that's
the real accomplishment.

That's my surprise I finished
the second glass of us.

Well you didn't tell me it
was going to be a surprise.

The waiter arrived we
water when he was gone.

We pick up where we left out what surprise
I met who wrote the book where you was

Agent L. Gerry anybody can
sit down to write a novel or

you have to do is we
want to stay with it for

what a year or so or five I guess so
that we want to write every day.

That's all it takes we try
to tell me at whose backs.

He dropped the laptop or
the seat beside him.

Now we set it on the table over the lights
go on and the screen glowed cobalt blue.

This is my actually said.

I stared at the computer and it.

It was an ordinary H.P. model.

I read one like it black case
the logo printed on the lid.

You said Max wrote the book he did.

X. is a computer actually is
an artificial intelligence.

Jerry Ford breasts are real one.

The computer wrote the book.

He's an AI He looked at me as a way before
he did cheer when I didn't the cloud

crossed his face.

I don't care what you call him I said
over Sheen could have written a long

war that the Green came back and

I don't believe it a few years ago they
were saying no computer would ever compete

with a chess master you'll agree
simply to see who's World Champ.

He sat staring at each
other the door opened and

people came in a family with a little
boy the boy had a pull cord.

It took four days he said What took
four days the write the novel.

The chill settled into my

bones I'd write down more of the why
two plates showed up pizza for

Patterson spaghetti and meatballs for
me but my appetite is gone sour.

For days I say yeah well maybe
a bit more but not much.

It took a deep breath and

smile but I thought the almost alone
telling what kind of book I wanted.

It's not possible.

That doesn't include printing time though
you're signed to do three more office.

Yes.

I was expecting world class stuff.

Don't be good.

Max was years in the making and spent
a long time analyzing the great novels.

How long I asked how long what he was
chewing on the pizza obviously enjoying

himself but he looked as if he
couldn't understand why I was unhappy.

I would take to deliver the other
novels probably two weeks.

Takes a while to run
them off two weeks for

another novel like The Long War
two weeks for all three.

But there will be like a little war
though they'll be of comparable quality.

He pushed his chair back and tried to
look up beat we've already decided on

the next book will be about the power of
the downside of religious belief followed

the order of the problems car lots of but
different points of bridge.

I sat frozen.

I have no problem for Macs.

You want something but they make people
forget the winds of war haven't for you.

Tuesday.
You're all right.

Jerry I need some fresh air.

Or maybe we get a new one this
time around to take a hard

look at the day practice I threw money
on the table and headed for the door.

Jerry wait.

He was right behind me they
didn't dries or novel by Max or

something in the photo Scott Fitzgerald
traffic outside was heavy buses delivery

trucks crowded sidewalks
the facts wrote the book.

Why is your name on it
legal reasons he's not

a person can't sign checks
can't really do anything.

Separate great novels.

You've got it.

He stood in front of me and

flight an enormous grin he
had no idea what he's done.

This child who was obviously
very good electronics I canceled

William Faulkner Melville catheter what
with their work be worth in the shadow of

this thing I assume that because the kind
of hot stuff you can produce a new

symbolic masterpiece of the spirit of
James Joyce always want to kill East.

Which a man's life is driven
by a search for control.

Or maybe something to push for
members of Things Past.

Well off the charts in eight volumes
deliver over the course of a month.

They could be short at work.

Patterson said I don't read
that much not fiction.

I know I didn't know there was any good or
not.

What Max wrote you were
the test who put his

name on the cover though of that's
OK What what's my ex's last name.

I had a boss was coming up behind it was a
local headed for Massachusetts Avenue and

I just picked up passengers at
the corner seen an opening and

was accelerating into broken
loose from the traffic.

Winterhaven Max Winterhaven
sounds pretentious.

I thought it sounded literary Max
Winterhaven was slung over his shoulder.

I looked up at the bus driver and I swear
he knew what I was going to do before I

did I saw it in his face the incident
where I get tires and a quick shot of

his eyes went wide at the top of backward
people screamed the brakes streets and

I either said or thought This one's for
Henry James I got clean away

the description that showed up on C.N.N.
a few hours later saw that nothing like me

they also reported the dead man to
be carrying a laptop it had been

smashed police were trying to reconstruct
it but I never heard anything more.

It was the widow I'm pleased to say I
don't know who had been with him the night

I caught a long war as we although has
become an international bestseller.

We are sending a check to the deceased's
mother literary authorities

are on the tube almost weekly the crime
the loss of Edward Patterson a man of

incredible talent who were to
become a towering literary

figure how do you only been given time.

Thank you.

That's why I have another chapter here
from from but I'm travelers but because I

think you've heard of reading for a while
I'm saving that I would do that tonight.

And you know my story is on the downbeat
that I'm very happy ending.

I'll just look at things.

Well anyway thank you very much for
coming.

I'm like yes going to be doing a signing
that's going to get the books I've got

copies of five or six when I was a war
been there be a finalist with me and

I also have a couple copies of
this collection of anybody wants.

Anyway.
Thank you very much and thanks for

coming by.