Jackson shook his head. “I don’t think so, but they also sell used books and make some bit off of that.”
“He’s the purest novelist I’ve ever met,” said Eddie, gesturing back his girlfriend with a wave.
“You’re a lucky man, Eddie.” Jackson winked. “Be sure,” he said in an exaggerated aside to the young woman, “be sure he tells you the story of how the Sea Miss emerged from the mist.”
“Oh yes,” she replied with an enthusiasm that already sounded forced. “That’s a great story.”
“Tuck him in tight.” Jackson turned to embrace his friend, who held the grasp a bit too long.
“No hard feelings,” said Eddie.
“None at all,” Jackson whispered, more or less to himself.
After Eddie and the girl tottered off, Jackson stood in the spot where he’d promised himself success. He surveyed the vista he’d tried to describe five years earlier.
“The backs of the mountains curve like those of sleeping monsters,” he tested, “benevolent in that they mean no one real harm — yet dangerous all the same.”
Acknowledgments
Grub is an updating of George Gissing’s satire of the Victorian literary marketplace (New Grub Street, 1891). It draws on it, borrows from it, and could never have been written without it. I am indebted, also, to those friends who told me their stories of writing triumph and humiliation. Thank you.
About the Author
Elise Blackwell
CREDIT PHOTO TO:
Keith McGraw, University of South Carolina
Elise Blackwell is the author of Hunger and The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish. She teaches at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia, where she lives with her husband, writer David Bajo, and their daughter Esme.