Does the book come before the movie, or the other way around?
Marc Rosenberg, a Senior Teaching Fellow in Bond University’s Faculty of Society and Design, originally wrote the screenplay for “Kyd’s Game” 10 years ago.
As a film script, he couldn’t hook an investor.
“I liked the story a lot, but no one else did.”
So, the American senior teaching fellow decided to rewrite it as a novel.
Finally, after 50 unsuccessful publishers, the creative success that is “Kyd’s Game” is being published and has already received rave, five-star reviews.
The Literary Titan called it a “thrilling read that marries the personal and the political … with meticulous attention to detail”.
Peter Watt, author of the Frontier series noted, “life and death shadow each other to the last page”.
The hope now is that with a successful novel, someone might turn it into the movie Marc had always envisaged.
“One of the first draft copies of the novel I gave out was to my usually very critical brother who was, on this occasion, very encouraging.
He called it “brilliant airplane reading”.
For Marc the encouragement was a huge relief, and validation, after having sent his manuscript to so many publishers before it was finally accepted by Vine Leaves Press.
He said the publisher’s reader and bookseller both commented it was the best submission they’d read. High praise indeed for the debut author.
Marc recognises that espionage novels are a tough sell to a female-dominated readership, so he focused keenly on creating authentic characters, particularly involving the relationship between a father and daughter.
He said he had always admired the depth in the characters of British novelist John le Carre.
“Spies aren’t the action men movies portray, like James Bond, Jason Bourne or Ethan Hawke.
“You know agents can’t turn a coffee cup into a satellite dish.”
Marc said he brought the pacing and structure he’d learned as a screenwriter into the novel.
He wanted it to be fast paced like a movie, and soon recognised one of the advantages of writing a book, as opposed to a film, was not having to worry about a budget.
In “Kyd’s Game”, Neil Kyd is accused of assassinating a Russian presidential candidate and hunted by Russian special forces and has only one thing on his mind - saving his daughter’s life.
Marc said the inspiration for the story was a news video he saw where a father and son, already affected by a chemical attack, hopelessly tried to escape something unseen.
“I was very committed to the story and wanted to expose Russia’s complicity. I wanted to communicate that story to other people.”
For such a highly-credentialled screenwriter and film producer of more than 30 years who has taught in the US, China and India, it surprised him how long it took to deliver his first novel.
He had, after all, already written an instructional book, The Screenplay Tree, distributed worldwide.
His professional credits include more than 30 hours of television and seven feature films, including having written “Dingo” starring Miles Davis and “December Boys” with Daniel Radcliffe.
Asked about his writing process Rosenberg says he works best in the morning.
He writes for three to four hours a day “before the shutters come down”.
He describes himself as a slow writer, editing as he goes. Something he teaches his students not to do.
Sparked by his success and encouragement, Marc already has another novel or two on the horizon, including a creative biography of his own life.
“I never think my life is that interesting, but I have points in my life that I want to connect in a book.”
Among those points is his absolute love of the work he does and the industry that has helped shape him and given him such joy.
“Kyd’s Game” will be launched at the Bond University library on October 21 from 5pm.