It Begins- The Mad Rantings of a Ghostwriter

La Plume is mightier than the sword? Being a pen for people is the job I have always dreamed of because it was my secret super power.

When I was in my pre-teens I spent a lot of time at the local music shop- Breck's Music Center. I was learning to play the flute and clarinet and I was always looking for new music and the possibility of upgrading my instruments. One day while waiting for my lesson, I met a guy a few years older than me named Ken La Plume. He was a drummer and electric guitar player, and we hit it off immediately. We would jam, he on the drums, me on the flute, and we did some gigs at the local dinner theaters together.

One day, my father asked me what Ken's name was, and I told him. He laughed and replied,"His name is Ken the pen?"

"What do you mean," I asked him, I was a little irritated because I thought he was making fun of him.

"La Plume means pen," He explained.

I never called Ken by the moniker 'Ken the Pen' but it stuck in my brain even to this day, mostly because I thought it was a really cool name. I feel bad because I figured he was teased mercilessly by any French foreign exchange student he may have come across, but I thought of it as a cool almost mafia inspired name.

John La Plume does not really have the same alliteration even when changed to 'John the Pen', but I could definitely use it as my super hero name, but it describes my super power so perfectly.

I am a ghostwriter. No I am not a dead author, and I usually, I say usually, don't moan when I am writing.

I help other people write their books- they are the author and I am the pen. I become a useful tool to create a book that may otherwise never exist. I am called a ghost because I am transparent- no one knows I helped write a piece, unless the author wants to tell people.

If you were to look at my true resume, it will look as though the National Security Agency got a hold of it and redacted top secret information. I have to keep secrets like some kind of international spy, except the difference is that I take my martinis in the safety of my office tucked away in a old Victorian home overlooking the Mississippi river.

Maybe this Halloween I should come out to the world dressed as La Plume and have a device that squirts ink  like a small oil well out of the pen nib shaped from aluminum foil strapped to my head. Or maybe I shouldn't.

This blog is dedicated to my old drummer friend.
Vive La Plume!

John Peragine
 www.osiris-papers.com