(Outline of an unpublished novel)

THE OBSERVATORY is a novel whose action is set in Bonn, Germany.  It was inspired by a real story at that location, and depicts the director of the Astronomical Institute struggling after the old Observatory was sold by the University to an entrepreneur who converted it into a nude dancing club attached to a bordello.  His wife divorces him, he loses funding and, finally, he loses his position at the University.  After a series of one-night stands he lands in the arms of his former secretary.  His fall from grace in the eyes of the society is complete when he winds up as a bookkeeper in his secretary’s flourishing Beauty Salon business.

Ed Breslin, a literary agent and friend, absolutely loved the story and agreed to present it to a number of publishers.  Six or seven of these attempts fell flat, and after that he gave up, convinced, as he told me, that the whole book market has collapsed.

  • DOWNPOUR, the prologue of the novel, has recently been published in WIPs [Works (of fiction) inProgress].  There is a related INTERVIEW WITH THE EDITOR published in the same issue.
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