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Elevator Pitch
by Buck Dopp
I watched as Morton Janklow entered the elevator and knew it was now or never. Lunging forward, I extended my hand between the closing sides, touching the cold metal, triggering the open mechanism then slipped inside. Smelling hydraulic fluid as the door slowly encased us, I figured I’d have about 45 seconds alone with New York’s greatest literary agent.
“Mr. Janklow, I’m Buck Dopp, and I’ve written a book and am hoping you’ll represent me.
He looked up from checking messages on his IPhone. “I’m not taking on any new clients, sorry. What’s it about?”
“Moral dilemmas — choices we make — entertaining and thought provoking. Kingpin’s a jerk, readers will love to hate him — almost dies, tries to change.”
“Why should the reader care?”
“Because there’s a little bit of Kingpin in all of us. They’ll want to know if he can pull it off.”
“Does he?”
“Some of his choices work, some don’t — kinda hit and miss.”
“Like real life,” he smiled.
I nodded, “Exactly.”
“Okay, I might be interested.” Reaching into his lapel pocket, he pulled out a business card and handed it to me. “Send me your query with the first two chapters to the email address on this card.”
“Will do. Thank you, Sir.” I smiled at our reflection on the stainless steel door before it opened with a chime.
Morton Janklow hurried out.
I read the card as the elevator door closed on me; he had given me a card for Carmine’s Restaurant on West 44th.
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Buck Dopp’s first novel, Kingpin and Eli was published in December 2013 and explores the choices real people make when facing moral dilemmas and the impact of ambitious rivalry and envy in the workplace. It is available on Amazon.com and Kindle. He retired from a twenty-seven-year career in business management in 2008, deciding instead to write full-time. Dopp's stories have appeared in The Oasis Journal and A Long Story Short's e-zine. He is the past president of the Lake Havasu City Writers Group, which published his stories in its anthology, Offerings of the Oasis.
