From Book to Movie
By Kevin J. Porter
 Come Clean (a Kevin J. Porter Mystery) by Kevin J. Porter ISBN 0595245722 Writer's Club Press 2002, 316 pages, paper $16.95 | Once Ronald L. Donaghe heard that my mystery thriller, Come Clean, had been optioned for a feature film, he asked me to write a series of process-to-product reports for the readers of The IGW. It’s January 8, 2004. I’m in Hawaii on vacation, still excited from my Jan. 2 meeting with two film producers, one assistant producer, and the chosen screen writer. The nearly three-hour meeting focused on both writing the screenplay and discussing a potential TV series of Kevin J. Porter mysteries. Always thinking of writing even on vacation, I decided to take up IGW’s illustrious author/editor’s offer. So here is my first article on the evolution of Come Clean, my first independently published novel, subsequently nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel and quickly followed by my being approached by film producers from Hollywood and Vancouver, BC to discuss optioning it for a feature film. Part One: Idea to Published Book Late one dark night in 1987 I was driving home after having taught a night-school English class at a Vancouver college. The highway was lonely. It was a 20-mile drive to where I lived with my wife and daughter (our sons had long since been living on their own). As I drove, I became aware of a car ahead of me. I did not attempt to pass it. As I followed the taillights, an idea for a perfect pickup by a killer flashed into my mind. I began to embellish this idea until it unnerved me all the way home. When I arrived, I said to my wife, “Don’t talk to me. I’ve got to write something down.” I went directly to my office in a little cottage beside our home and wrote out the entire scene that had stuck in my mind. Ten years later, having had several textbooks published and now retired from teaching. I was in the process of deleting old computer files. I came across the 1987 document, read it, and got scared again. The pickup, the murder, the killer’s image raged in my head as I went to sleep that night. The next morning I awoke with Kevin J. Porter in my bed. Figuratively. He said, “I’m an ex-RCMP Officer and I’ve come to find your killer.” Thus my pseudenom came into being. Porter and I became inseparable; nearly every morning I’d awaken to his voice in my head. Neither of us knew who the killer was. I’d go to bed asking questions and during the night and morning he’d respond. I’d go to my computer and write it all down. As we progressed, I asked Porter, “Why are you an ex-RCMP Chief Inspector.” He told me that he was caught in a “situation” with a young man and, since the RCMP had a no-tolerance policy, he was booted out of the Force. He was soon divorced and living on his own in the West End in Vancouver where he met the love of his life, Brent Barnes. The characters became real and I was on a roll. After completing the first 8 chapters, I needed feedback. My sister, who is, to put it mildly, a totally horror-mystery-novel freak, was to become my first test reader. I e-mailed the 8 chapters to her. She wrote back the next morning, “I’m hooked. Send me the rest.” “There isn’t any more,” I answered. She insisted I finish the novel, assuring me I was really onto a great horror novel. I continued, writing and sending what I had written. If I missed a day, I’d receive an e-mail from her. “Write, damn you. Write.” Nine months later I had completed my novel and went through the editing process with her and an expert on serial killers. In 1999 I started writing query letters to agents. One responded and asked to see the manuscript. Many letters of praise came from him and then silence. After six months, I received a form rejection letter and my manuscript. I swear that three-quarters of the pages had never been turned. Ugh! The exact same thing happened a few weeks later. Sent manuscript, received praise, silence, six months pass, received rejection letter with the return of my pristine manuscript Frustrated at the end of the year, especially after receiving continued praise from friends and acquaintances who read my ever-revised manuscript, I broke the rules of dealing with one agent at a time, and sent out query letters to over 100 agents. A few responded but none wanted to see the whole manuscript. Now in the new millennium and still unpublished, I revised my novel again and thought, “Why not by-pass agents and send it directly to publishers?” I inundated at least 100 publishers with query letters. Most said that they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts and suggested I obtain an agent. Duh! A few wanted to see the first three chapters, and two asked for the whole manuscript. Believe it or not, two publishers expressed great interest, even assuring me that they would publish Come Clean. Alas, months later, the unsoiled manuscripts were returned with “Dear Author” rejection slips. By 2001, with a stack of rejection letters cramming my files, I virtually gave up, with one thought in my head: “Why hadn’t at least one agent or publisher begged to represent me?” Then I happened to see a two-page spread on Trafford, a pay-on-demand publisher. I was leery and the cost was high. Did I really want to self-publish? I decided to do a bit of research and came across several US pay-on-demand publishers. I wrote to five authors who had published with iUniverse to find out their experiences. Mark Roeder and Paul Wagner wrote back, praising iUniverse highly. So I got in touch with them, paid my $149.00, sent in my manuscript, told them exactly how I’d like the cover to look, and within two months, I was holding my first published mystery novel, Come Clean. I was really pleased with the results. Click on www.kevinjporter.com to see how good it looks. You can even read the first two chapters of Come Clean on line. Now all I had to do was get the public to buy my self-published book. But more important, I’m still looking for that elusive publisher to take over the selling of Come Clean. (Ever optimistic, I am currently working on another Kevin J. Porter Mystery: Here Came the Grooms.) Kevin J. Porter Stay tuned for the next installment: Part Two: Self-published Book to Movie Contract |
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