Page 17 of To Love Jason Thorn

“Great. Olive, I’d like to introduce you tothe youngest member of our company, Keith Cannon.”

With those pale blue eyes and sharpcheekbones, Keith Cannon made a very impressive first impression.

“Nice to meet you Keith. I’m Olive Taylor.”

I smiled up at him and shook his warm hand.He had long, strong fingers. His teeth looked a little too white, a little tooblinding to be natural, but it was hard to find natural in LA.

Next to him, a shorter, younger guy who wasbusily typing away on his laptop got up and briskly shook my hand as Bobbycontinued with the introductions.

“This is probably very exciting for you, andif we agree on our terms, he will be the screenwriter for the movie. It’simportant that we reflect everything in your story onto the big screen as wellas you managed to do in a few hundred pages so I wanted you to meet HarrySchuman and hear out his ideas. He is actually here for our next meeting, butwe’re running a little late today, so since he is already here, we wanted himto sit in on this with you.”

I nodded and after the pleasantries took myseat across from them.

“We understand that at this time you haveno book agent, Olive. Is that right?” Keith asked.

“Yes,” I answered. “This wasn’t something Iwas expecting to happen. At all. I’m an indie author, and as you must alreadyknow, Soul Ache is my first novel, which makes all this even moresurreal.”

“We understand that it could be a littleoverwhelming, but you definitely impressed us with your story and we wanted toget your attention before anyone else could steal you.”

“Keith is right.” Bobby took over again.“We want you to look at this as the first step of our partnership. You don’thave to decide on anything today, but you should know that we are extremelyeager to take on this project. You should also be aware that—excuse me.” He pausedwhen his phone pinged with a new text message. Lifting his eyes, he absentlywaved his hand in a gesture that said ‘keep going’.

“I need to check on something, but pleasego on without me for a few minutes and I’ll be right back. We might even have asurprise for you, Olive. I think you’ll like it.”

I forced a smile on my lips and then BoobieBobby was gone.

“Let’s get to it, shall we?” Keith askedand got a nod from both Harry and me. “As Bobby just mentioned, we areinterested in optioning your book. But—” He lifted his hand as if to stop mefrom cutting in.

I’m all ears, Keith. No one is stoppingyou.

“We wanted to set this meeting so we couldget to know each other better and see if we can impress you. After today, ifyou like what you’re hearing, I’d be happy to set up a lunch meeting so we cango over the details and present you with an option agreement for the exclusiverights.”

“Okay,” I nodded, because that made sense,right? He wasn’t saying anything scary, not at all.

Keith nodded back at me with a big smile thatshowcased his blinding pearly whites again and kept going. “So, essentially, Olive,we want to stay true to your story as much as we can. You captured so manyhearts from so many different age groups, so we want to keep the heart of yourstory. The only difference is that we want to elevate it even more. Polish themain characters, maybe do a few small changes here and there, add a few newsecondary characters, big names from Hollywood of course. We haven’t decided ifwe want to change the ending yet, but that’s just the details I’m sure you’renot interested in.” Linking his hands together on top of the table, he lookedstraight at me. “We want the movie to get everyone’s attention.”

Somewhere in the middle of his explanationof the studio’s intentions with my book, had he just said that I wouldn’t beinterested in the changes? What on earth was he talking about?

“It all sounds great, but maybe we shouldtake a few steps back,” I said. “I really feel like I’m out of my depth here.When you say a few small changes…?”

“I’ve read your book, Miss Taylor, andwhile everything was great for a book format, for a movie it won’t translatethe same way. Making changes will be necessary at certain parts,” Harry said,speaking for the first time.

“We’ll walk you through everything.” Keithassured me, cutting in. “Usually it takes time—around a year or possibly evenmore than a year—to gather funding for the movie, to find the right directorfor the story, the right actors, the production company, and many other steps…butwe want to use the buzz of your book to our advantage and keep the momentumgoing. Since you don’t have a book agent, I would highly suggest you to findone or have a lawyer go over the contract we’ll be presenting you at our nextmeeting so there won’t be any issues in the future.”

“Sure, sure. But what about those changes?”I asked, feeling more overwhelmed by the second.

Keith must have seen something on my facebecause his smile softened.

“I don’t think we asked you, would you liketo have something to drink? Something to celebrate, maybe?”

“No, I’m good. Thank you.”

“Next time then. So do you have anyquestions for me?”

I glanced at Harry, but he was having noneof it.

“I think I do. First of all, it’s veryexciting to hear that you’re interested in my book, but to be honest, thechanges you mentioned you want to make are…I don’t know how to put it intowords actually. The thing is, I’ve spent years on this novel. While I do wantto see my characters come alive on the big screen, I’m not sure if it’s worthit to go through this whole thing only for it to end up completelyunrecognizable.” Every word in that book held a special place in my heart.

“You are not interested in selling themovie rights?”

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