 He used the experience to write a burlesque satire about the film industry, published in 1939 under the pseudonym Willem W. Waterman, on his employer's request.The novel centered on a crew filming on an island in the Pacific, which was to be a regular setting for his later novels.On the eve of World War II, in 1939, van den Hout again joined the military, and turned his experiences into a novel published in 1941, "De kruistocht van generaal Taillehaeck".