The Beast lay the last page face down on the coffee table and made the face, the one where he twirled his tongue around the inside of his cheek.
“Well?” I asked.
“Hm.” He sniffed.
“What do you think? I wrote your book. 66,865 words. Do you like it?”
He breathed out his nose and looked away, staring out the window. “Well. It’s all right. For a first draft. But it’s not long enough. And chapter thirty-two—it’s all wrong. You have to rewrite it completely. ” He shook his head and turned back to me. “You’re not off the hook yet.”
I coughed in order to cover the curse word under my breath. It was best to stay on his good side. I tried again. “Do you even like it? I did what you asked me to do. Put in all that—stuff you wanted. No one’s going to like me. If it’s ever published—which it won’t be—well I can’t ever show my face at work again. Or anywhere, for that matter. But I wrote it like you told me to. And you can’t pay me a single compliment.”
“Don’t get me wrong. It’s got potential.”
“I’m not writing anymore. You’re evicted. I’m running a 5k instead.”
He laughed. “You won’t do no stinking 5k. Besides, you need me.”
It was a last resort, but worth a shot. “I do
n’t need you. I have him.” I pointed a thumb at the cowboy, dozing on the sofa with his hat over his face and his boots leaving dirty scuffs on the coffee table.
The Beast pulled a gun from his own holster and in a single instant, aimed and fired. The cowboy fell over, landed hard, blood drenching my Guatemalan pillow covers.
I got up, disgusted. “Oh man. I’m not doing anything until you clean that up.”
Poor Henry.
But the good news is, the first draft of HitList is finished.
k. Rawson 
1) I’m not getting on The Beast’s bad side. and 2) This is so getting published. I’ll publish it myself if necessary, and I don’t even have a publishing company.
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lol, Watch out, I may have to hold you to that!
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Congrats on the”first draft”! Now kill the beast through those silver bullets of editing. And don’t underestimate yourself getting this published. The Lone Ranger is coming out next year and original western authors will be in demand.
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Thanks Gene! This one is not the Western… I think that may be next… But I have heard the same rumors about demand 🙂
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Congrats on your first draft…yea! Now comes the fun part… revision!
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