In the work section of my office, near the conference table, I had a wall full of white boards. I motioned for Harry to follow me and I grabbed a dry erase marker and began outlining various sections of the book. "For one thing, we can't make this just about roads or bridges. Infrastructure covers a lot of other stuff - dams, sewer systems, water systems, canals - all sorts of things. Nobody is going to read about just one thing, but if we do a just a chapter or two on each item, we can do a survey style book for the public."
"I don't have information on those things. My specialty is bridges and roads.", he protested.
I shrugged this off. "So what?! You know who does know this stuff, you can find the relevant papers and technical info, and you can make sure we credit everybody involved. Then we have to find relevant and current examples of problems, and put them in the appropriate chapter."
"There was a dam collapse in Italy a couple of years ago. We could put that in the section on dams.", he offered.
I shook my head. "No, we need American examples. Don't get me wrong, I am sure it was a tragedy, but American readers won't care about disasters somewhere else. We'll need examples from places the readers have heard about and can relate to. They won't care about stuff that happens overseas."
"That's incredibly callous!", he protested.
Unfortunately, he was right. I sat down on the conference table and nodded to him. "I know. This is a situation where we're both right. The problem is that I'm talking about a book designed to appeal to the American reader. People can be very insular on these things. For one thing, like I said, they at least will have some idea where a location in the U.S. is, and may have heard about it on the news. For another thing, you tell the average guy on the street that a bridge in a foreign country collapsed, they will immediately figure, 'Of course it did! It was built by a bunch of foreigners!' It won't matter if the entire work force went to MIT or not."
"That's awful."
"Yes it is, but very human. Take a look at our own news on TV. A fishing boat that sinks with three people drowning will get more television time on the news than a ferryboat in the Philippines that sinks and loses a thousand!" I just shrugged and held my hands up in a what-can-you-do-about-it gesture. "It's not fair and it's not right, but you know it happens."
"So you see this book as appealing to the average reader?"
I had to think about that. "You know, I just don't know. We'd need to talk to the publishing house about that. I would think it would appeal more to the college educated intellectual types rather than high school educated readers. The guy who reads Scientific American, not Field and Stream. Also, probably the readers of political books."
"Why politics?"
Professor Johnson really was a babe in the woods. "Infrastructure means money, money means politics."
"Oh, yes."
"So, still interested?", I asked him.
"Yes. Are you?"
"Yeah, actually, I am. I'll need to do some of this at home or after hours, but I get a certain amount of leeway with my schedule. It helps to have your name on the door. Who do you see doing what?"
"You'll have to do most of the writing, with me providing the technical information."
"Okay, but you'll need to go through and edit it, and then I'll have to edit your edits, and then the publishing house will probably toss the entire thing anyway and make us start over again from scratch.", I answered.
That made Harry smile. "Fifty-fifty split?"
"You can even have top billing." I held out my hand and we shook on it. Then I went to the door to my office and opened it. "HEY! WE GOT A LAWYER AROUND HERE?", I yelled out the door.
A couple of people down the hallway stopped and stared at me, and then both John and Jake Junior stuck their heads out of their doors. "What have you done now!?", asked John.
"Just the man I want to see." Junior just rolled his eyes and smiled, and went back into his office. John came down the hall and entered my office. "John, this is Professor Harold Johnson from over at UMBC. Harry, this is John Steiner."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Chairman of the Board, otherwise known as Carl's lawyer and bail bondsman. What'd he do now?"
"I'm hurt, John, hurt at that.", I protested.
John ignored me and looked at Harry with a smile. "We're going to write a book. I don't know why he called you in.", answered the professor.
John looked over at me. "You're going to write a book?!"
"Yeah, maybe. Know anything about publishing or writing?", I asked.
"No. Should I find somebody who does?"
"That might be a good idea." I turned back to Harry and said, "You get in touch with whoever you know at Simon and Schuster and let them know you're interested in something. No matter what, though, don't sign anything unless we get a lawyer to look at it."
"Right! Got it."
"Does Marilyn know you're planning on writing a book?", asked John with a touch of amusement.
"No, not yet."
"This ought to be good. Listen, I'll find you somebody who knows about books, and you're going to take me to a very expensive lunch to tell me all about this."
"Deal."
John took his leave and then Harry shook my hand again and left. I just shook my head. What had I gotten myself into now?
Chapter 90: Eat Your Peas
And so it began. The following week Harry called his contact at Simon and Schuster, and a literary agent took the train down and met us for lunch. We outlined our ideas and he told us their ideas and we pretty much came to a compromise on that. We were left with a tentative contract for our review, along with a proposed time frame for publication, and we promised to get it back to them in another week. One thing I was expecting and found I was correct with - there are a lot fewer zeroes on the checks when you're dealing with non-fiction than with fiction.
Regardless, that wasn't our primary motive in any case. Yes, money would be nice, at least certainly to Harry, but his big reason was to publicize the need to take better care of our infrastructure, and mine was to get back into science, at least in a roundabout way. I figured that my skills at communication and knowing how the world worked would complement his skills in engineering and analysis.
Marilyn's reaction was not at all the one I was expecting. After I explained the idea, she just nodded and said, "Good! You need to do something different."
"Huh?"
"Carl, you get bored doing the same thing over and over. You're getting that way now, with the firm. I can tell." I didn't know what to say to that, and she continued. "Seriously, you're not just about making money. I know you've sometimes wondered what it would have been like to teach instead of going into the Army. Give this a shot."
Well, I actually knew what it was like to teach at the community college level as an adjunct, but I was curious about teaching at the four year college level full time as a professor. I wasn't going to do that, but this was an interesting idea. Could I write a book, or just half a book? I gave my wife a big hug and a smooch, which grossed out Charlie, and then called Harry and said my wife was game. A week later John's publishing lawyer friend had approved and we signed some papers and were authors-to-be.