Chapters 3 and 4 Summary

Mike and Frank talk, but it is superfluous conversation and the kind that men have with each other. Mike isn't able to tell him the real truth, despite being given numerous openings to do so. Mike is suffering from writer's block, and since the novel he completed after Jo's death, he hasn't been able to complete a single chapter. In October of 1997, Harold calls Mike to tell him that several best selling authors are planning to release new novels this season and to ensure a place on the Times best seller list, which only has enough slots for fifteen writers, he should be prepared to release his new novel by the summer of 1998 in order to get ahead of the competition. Mike knows that means he has to give them his book by November which gives him only one month. Since...