THE DEAL: How I got offered a contract to write a book about "this Athens thing"

One day, I was working at a weekly newspaper in Atlanta, Ga., and I came back from lunch to find a message on my desk. It was written on one of those old "While you were out" message pads. The message was to me, from Madeleine Morel, and on the line for "Re:" it said, "Discuss idea for a book."

The phone number was in New York City. I thought it was somebody trying to get me to review a book. I had no idea it was somebody who was trying to get me to write one. I was all into free review copies of books, so I returned the call.

The phone was answered by a phone-answering person. After I asked for Ms. Morel and said my name, I was put on hold. I was used to that. Then a woman came on the phone. She had a British accent and spoke with the confidence of a swift river. I wasn't used to that.

Madeleine explained the situation. Seems there was an editor at Penguin USA who was standing around in the kitchen at some party in Manhattan and had met someone who was part of The B-52's' old Athens crowd. The person was telling stories about Kate's goats, the Valentine's party, the two Jewish record-company guys who weren't allowed to do work on the Sabbath so somebody else had to lift the coke spoons to their noses. The editor thought it would make a great book. He asked the guy to write one. The guy said sure.

But the guy wasn't a writer. A raconteur, certainly. An insider, more than you know. But not someone to do the long-haul trucking.

The editor then asked a person he knew to find a writer...