“At the end of the day… nice guys are sooo boring. Mate…I wrote about myself and my renunciation for years (and I’m not saying I am that nice!) but it ended up soooo boring! Mate… for years there when I first got back from India, I was literally boring myself to death!”

“Mmm.”

“Mmm – yeah… nice guys uh?”

“I’m not talking about real life.” David Brown was suddenly very defensive. “Of course, it’s completely different in real life! Obviously there’s a huge difference between fiction and life! I love nice people in real life, of course I do! We all do! The nicer the better! But to write about in a novel… Mmm – I assure you, nice people are not easy. They’re boring!”

“Mmm… this President that you had so much fun with. Can you tell us a bit about him?”

“I’d probably prefer not to… as I say, it’s completely irrelevant now.”

“Was there anything… funny?”

“Yes there was… plenty. Or at least, plenty that I found funny. I doubt that the Publishers were laughing though.”

“Mmm.”

“Well?…”

“Well… there was something that amused me… something the publishers really hated… but it was, it was never going to make it to print.”

David Brown was already laughing, just at the thought of it.

“Come on… tell us.”

“O.k…”

David Brown took a deep breath – and he told them his worst joke about the President of America.

Yes, they did laugh.

“You’re kidding!”

“That is outrageous!”

There was a pause as they settled.

“You’re right, Dave, that was never going to be published!”

“No chance!”

“No, of course not.” David Brown admitted. “It was just a joke… to lighten the tone and stir the publishers. By that stage I didn’t really know what I was doing. You know what it feels like! You know writing, especially fiction – sometimes it is incredibly powerful… sometimes… your imagination can get a bit out of control. But you’re right. I am the first to admit, that was too much!”

They all settled.

“So… what happened with it… eventually?”

They were ready to move on… frankly, they’d heard enough.

“Well… every publisher, every single one of them told me the same thing.”

The final tease from the frustrated writer.