Unlike Sleep Talkin’ Man, whose wife records everything he utters in his sleep and blogs it to the world, my husband Michael has to watch his tongue. His job requires him to keep secrets.
No, he’s not a spy, though he was an undercover cop in London when he was very young, and he has been required to guard sensitive information in other career incarnations along his way. All good practice, I suppose, for being a ghostwriter.
Being a ghostwriter is tough when it comes to promoting your work. A ghostwriter can’t ask clients for testimonials or word of mouth recommendation. When you pay a ghostwriter to write your book, you pay for the confidentiality as well. Your book goes into the book shops with your name on the cover. You are the author. It’s your story, your information, and your right to pay for the skilful words to put it across in your name. And that’s exactly the way it should be. So how does a ghostwriter get the word out?
By blogging about being a ghostwriter, a decision Michael made earlier this month. And he’s doing it big, airing it publicly in his own style.
As for sleep talking, well, during the early years of our relationship Michael used to ask me about his dreams in the middle of the night. I introduced him to the concept of a notepad and pen by the side of the bed to write down his dreams – or at least a couple of key words to jog his memory in the morning – but the notepad remains blank. Or maybe the ghost uses invisible ink.
You can’t live with a dream analyst for all these years without getting the hang of interpreting your own dreams and applying alchemy, and Michael is now adept at both. And you can’t live with a ghostwriter for all these years without getting really excited when he decides to emerge and blog under his own name – Michael Collins.
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