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The Dirty Version does a lot of subtle heavy lifting. It hints at what’s going on behind the scenes — both in Hollywood and in the emotional lives of the characters. There’s a cheeky nod to “dirty” in the steamy sense, but the title also points to creative compromise, blurred boundaries, and the messier corners of power and control. The story centers on a feminist author whose novel is being adapted for TV — only to find that the project has landed in the hands of a macho director who insists on “sexing it up.” He says he wants the “dirty version” of the story.
The title is also a little meta. There’s no explicit sex on the page — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t sexy. It’s all about foreplay, tension, and emotional intimacy. I wanted to write a slow burn that made space for desire without defaulting to a standard template.
I actually came up with the title at the eleventh hour. I’d been calling it Very Hands-On as a placeholder, and just before I sent out my first query, I typed in The Dirty Version instead. It stuck — and now...[read on]
Q&A with Turner Gable Kahn.
--Marshal Zeringue
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