As <Behind the scenes> was released, a lot of his friends and family congratulated him. Leo even tweeted about the book, and Omar personally sent him a photo of him buying the book.
Surprisingly, Dustin, who he had only recently exchanged numbers with, also told him he really liked it.
In all of them, Uncle Sam was a completely different case altogether. He had bought a dozen copies of the book and was distributing them among the customers in his restaurant.
Even though Aiden hadn't expected it, he was touched by the gesture.
From time to time, he kept an eye on the comments on the internet. There were a lot of comments about it on Sparrow, and Vikings publishing had even told him about a few book forums where people were actively discussing his book.
He was glad that most of these comments were positive, but it was not like there weren't any bad comments. He had come across several of them in which people hadn't really liked the book.
[Hogwarts dropout: I don't know why people like this book so much. It looked too boring for me, so I dropped it midway. Only that author's fans like it.]
[Following the religion of snu snu: I bought it because my girlfriend loved it, but I didn't enjoy it even a bit. The writing is fine, but the author really needs to work on how to engage the readers. Felt like a bad attempt at a novel.]
[Cat Cultivator: I hated it. I want my money back. The story of Hollywood could be more interesting. I thought it would be about making movies and having some smexy time with multiple actresses. Web novels are better at providing a better Hollywood story than this crap.]
These were just a few of the bad comments that he had seen, and Aiden was completely fine with them. He was never in the mindset of wanting to satisfy every single person with his novel.
In the first place, it was his first novel, and he had already done pretty well. At least that's what Richard had told him.
Yes, that old man had personally called Aiden as he had sent him a copy of the book.
Although his tone was still sharp, he seemed to at least think that Aiden had some potential as his final words were, "Don't get too ahead of yourself with one published book if you want to grow as a writer. When you get the right inspiration, write your next book and come see me if you have any problems."
He was clearly saying that he could come to him with a manuscript which was a pretty big thing for Aiden.
He even felt like the main character of a shounen anime. After all, he now had a mentor who was one of the highest-level writers in the world according to his system.
Other than that, Aiden was also busy with his album work. As he had already completed the composing of 'Firefly', he decided to record it straight away.
The album wasn't going to come out till March, so he was going to record each song one by one. As he was collaborating with other singers, he needed to get the dates right too.
It was still fine currently, but if he got the role in [Disconnected], then it would be very tight for him.
For the recording of 'Firefly', Aiden was collaborating with someone he hadn't met for a long time.
When they contacted Cyco media with the offer, they showed interest in it, and in the end, it was decided that he was going to work with Rachel on the song.
Someone who he had a pretty complicated relationship with.
***
"I'm very nervous."
Rachel muttered as they got out of the car. Linda, who was next to her, shook her head a little seeing the always cold Rachel like this.
"I don't think you should be nervous. Aiden agreed to you working on the song. I don't think he holds any grudges against you."
"He might not, but it was disrespectful as to how I talked with him the last time I met. Moreover, I feel inferior to him like this."
Rachel muttered with a frown.
Even though she had won X-Star, her career was in a struggling phase, and Aiden, who she had beaten, was a young breakout singer. They were completely in opposite positions.
It had made her realise that winning a reality show was nothing in the context of the bigger picture. She had thought that she would achieve everything after winning it, but that hadn't happened.
"Don't worry too much. Just talk to him normally."
Linda said, texting someone that they had arrived at the destination, which was the recording studio that Aiden had rented for the recording.
Entering it, they were greeted by Tom.
"Hello, please come this way."
"Ah, yeah."
He led them through the lounge area and corridor to the main recording room. Noises of people discussing various things were coming from the room.
When Rachel saw the inside of the recording room, she thought that it looked very messy. Papers with lyrics written on them were scattered here and there.
There was a table on which boxes of pizza and beer cans were present. A few people who were specialists that Wade had hired for the recording were talking among themselves while focusing on the person who was outside the booth.
It was Aiden who seemed to have already started recording.
'He seems to have grown a lot. Not in looks but in the atmosphere.'
That was the impression of him on her, and at that moment, Wade stood up and greeted them.
"Hello, I'm Aiden's agent. Wade Spectre. It's our first meeting. Nice to meet you."
He shook Linda's hand, who nodded her head with a smile.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too. I'm Rachel's manager, Linda."
"It seems like you have already started recording." Rachel said, looking around.
"Yeah, Aiden wanted to try out a few things and do a little practice. Oh, he's coming out of the booth."
Wade glanced at the booth, and Rachel flinched, nervous about facing Aiden, but she took deep breaths and calmed herself down. Aiden walked toward them with a smile, and Linda was the first one to start a conversation.
"Hello, my name is Linda. I'm Rachel's manager."
"Aiden, it's nice to meet you," Aiden said, shaking hands with her and then turning to look at Rachel, who froze for a second before opening her mouth.
"It's been a while."
"Yeah, it's been more than a year. How are you?"
"Good."
Aiden didn't say anything after that and just stared at her for a second. Actually, he was checking her status and what he saw surprised him a lot.
'Why is she still at Intermediate Grade 2?'
Rachel was at the same level even when he had seen her in X-Star but even after winning the competition and getting a debut single out, she hadn't improved at all.
It was very weird and reminded him of how Cameron had not improved due to smoking and no practice. Was this a similar case?
"Why are you staring at me?"
"... Nothing."
Aiden said, coming out from his trance and looking at the recording booth. It was no point in thinking about why Rachel hadn't improved.
Instead, it was way better to focus on the recording.
"Can you work right away?"
He asked, and Rachel nodded hastily.
"Yeah."
"Then, let's first discuss the song. We never got the chance to have a proper discussion on it."
"Okay."
Like that, the work began for real.
***
"Don't worry, the role is going to be yours no matter what."
A sharp-eyed man who looked to be of Asian descent said as he looked at the person sitting in front of him. He was Franco Li, one of the most famous agents in Hollywood and a person whose every minute was important.
Currently, he was sitting in the back seat of the car with a bearded guy who was just nodding to his words. He was Seth Douglas, one of Franco's actors.
"How did your meeting with Jesse Ross go?" Franco asked, and Seth hesitated a bit before replying. In front of his agent, he always felt powerless.
"It went well. We discussed the movie, and he told me that he has another actor in mind too, so he was asking my opinion on additional auditions."
"He's a fool. Directors like him aren't uncommon. Black Line Cinema themselves would solve that problem and get you the role. Don't worry about it."
In Franco's eyes, Jesse was a very mid-level director who had good works but wasn't someone who had influence beyond a level.
He was nothing in front of Franco, and all this was just for nothing.
"After this movie's a hit, I would look to get you a lead role in a superhero movie. There's a new batch of them being discussed, and I think you would fit right in the commercial actor zone. You could play that role for years and get famous all over the world."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I'm already in talks."
Seth was very excited when he heard that. He wasn't interested in art movies, nor did he want to contest for Oscars. He just wanted to be a very popular actor, and a superhero movie was the one thing that could easily get your face across the whole world.
Several unknown actors had become worldwide stars because of them.
"Thank you, really. I don't know how to thank you."
At that, Franco just smirked.
"Don't worry, there are no donations in the film business. Everything is for a price."
...
