This was the original query for Without Wax:
Dear Lily,
I have enclosed for your consideration the opening 5,000 words of a documentary novel entitled WITHOUT WAX.
Wax Williams is the biggest star in the adult film world, but he longs to retire from the life. With a health issue hastening his exit strategy and his manager, Lyle Mammon, conniving to keep him working, Wax opts for a radical procedure. The narrative is positioned as an oral biography, with the title character’s friends, fans, and consorts telling his story from multiple points of view. Court depositions and an annotated XXX screenplay are also employed to tell Wax William’s story. In addition, the central narrative is fleshed out by a series of six consumer profiles that focus on men and women whose lives have been touched in ways large and small by mass-market pornography. Three chapters of this novel have been published or are forthcoming with NEW YORK TYRANT, JUKED, and OLD CROW.
Though this novel is more than a bit transgressive, it is not pornographic nor could it be categorized as erotica.
Over the years, my short fiction has appeared in LIT, PRESS, ROSEBUD, CRESCENT REVIEW, QUARTERLY WEST, and a number of other journals. I’ve also published online at McSWEENEY’S, TATLIN’S TOWER, and SWEET FANCY MOSES. Most recently, a series of derived text exercises that I developed from the many (many) books of Calvin Trillin have been accepted for publication with CAKETRAIN, TURNPIKE GATES, 3711ATLANTIC, BLEEDING QUILL, OPIUM, and ELIMAE.
I completed the graduate writing program in fiction at the University of New Hampshire in 1990, and I’ve taught writing at Stonehill College, Newbury College, Dean College, and the Brown University Learning Community. I currently serve as Director of Advancement Communications at Brown University.
I would welcome an opportunity to send along the full manuscript at your request.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Bill