The Accidental Novelist

I never intended to write a novel. But I did. And HarperCollins published it. Titled The Gorgeous Girls, it was based on a number of pieces I'd written for Toronto's NOW magazine; they appeared in NOW's feature Naked City, which was all about love and sex.

I wrote The Gorgeous Girls for money. I was tired of being poor, and I wanted things for my kids: lessons, trips, memberships, musical instruments, sports equipment, etc. They say sex sells, so I worked hard to stitch my Naked City articles together and fill in any gaps, thus creating my novel:

The interwoven stories of three women in search of love and sex and adventure.

HarperCollins promoted my book as "the thinking woman’s erotica”, which I quite liked. I mean, if it had to be categorized, then at least "thinking" gave it some cred beyond just steamy scenes.

I had a great agent shopping it around and then swinging the HC deal for me, an affable guy who knew everyone in the biz, having once been VP for publishing giant McClelland & Stewart.

A publisher with his own HC imprint was interested, saying that half his staff had read my manuscript and were very enthusiastic about it. So, we took a meeting - my agent, the publisher and me - and that turned into a handsome advance, a few rewrites, some fruitful exchanges with the editor and finally publication.

I was and always will be grateful for that.

But what I really like to write are screenplays. And I've written some good ones, if I do say so myself.

But my fabulous agent died. RIP Peter Taylor. And without an agent, it is hard if not impossible to get your work read - at least by anyone who can make your work into a movie.

I've had friends read my scripts and judges for writing competitions (who have awarded them with Best Screenplay or Runner Up or Official Selection) but producers and directors and agents are too busy or too wary or too who knows what to give my work the time of day.

So, because I love cinema but haven't been able to see my vision on the screen (except for a few shorts I wrote), I created what I think of as a midway-between-page-and-screen book (my idea of a halfway house for screenplays) - a work I call an Illustrated Novella: a cousin to the Graphic Novel and a third-niece-once-removed to motion pictures.

Introducing: Walter Kist and the Seven Whorls or simply Kist.

I’ve serialized Kist on Vocal. But the chapters appear all willy-nilly on my profile page.

So, right here, I'm putting them in order for anyone who cares to read my novella - Chapters 1 through 14.

Another word or two (or more, so to reach Vocal's required word count) about The Gorgeous Girls:

Do you recognize that little black and white portrait on each of the proposed covers (and on the actual cover)? She's in the locket or she's in the O - and it's none other than legendary Algonquin Roundtable wit Dorothy Parker.

Mrs. Parker figures in my novel - you'll have to read it to see just how she shows up: You can buy the ebook here for just a few bucks.

And then - or now - read Kist. I think you'll like the story and also the photos, which were taken with my Diana, a 1950s film camera with a plastic lens that gives dreamy, retro results in the developed photos.

Thanks for reading! Here are the remaining chapters:

The End.