I've been a ghost for a few weeks while I finished the new book. I had a heck of a time with the title. In my previous post I called it "Speak for the Dead" but boy did I not like that one. After kicking a few other options around, I finally settled on "The Open Contract" because it has a thriller-esque feel to it and refers to the plot. I'm happy with that one. I rolled the last page out of the Royal yesterday in time for my birthday party (I'm 32 now), and stuck it in a drawer. It's going…