One Year Later - Mark J. Ferrari

Mark J. Ferrari

Mark J. Ferrari is illustrator-turn-novelist whose book came out--guess when!--last year. It was hot stuff going around the blog circles last year. I named Joby as my favorite male character in my yearly round-up. Mark and I struck up a correspondence in the spring, so of course I asked him for a post. Here are his thoughts.

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When Tia asked me to write a “one year later” guest blog for her, my immediate dilemma was the same one any predator has when confronting a large herd of prey: how to isolate a target in this jumble. (Oh for heaven’s sake! The prey I’m talking about is themes and ideas - not you guys!)

It’s been a dizzying year – even without the four month ‘book tour’ I did last winter – at almost no point resembling anything I ever imagined beforehand about my first year as a published author. There have been both unanticipated disappointments, and unexpected pleasures. As I survey the herd of possible themes before me, it’s the pleasures that capture my attention most, for I’ve come to realize that they’re the only part of this past year which still matters to me now or is likely to matter to me in years to come.

The first pleasure that comes to mind is the simple knowledge that my book is actually ‘out there’ now, living a life entirely beyond my knowledge or control in places and in ways that I could never have imagined. It’s being read in cities, states, and countries I may never see, by people I will never imagine, much less meet.

These readers and their generous willingness to share so much of their experience with me were by far the greatest pleasures of this past year. They are out there recognizing things in my tale that I wondered if anyone would get, and getting things from it that I NEVER imagined were there to find. They are bringing things to my story I could not have intended, swirling that alchemical mix around and pulling out insights and solutions to all manner of issues in their own lives that I could not possibly have anticipated or attempted to address. It’s a kind of magic I have certainly experienced as a reader, but really never expected to see worked by something of my own making. This has left me feeling less like a genius than like the startled and unwitting, if very pleased, vector of some current that came less from me than through me from I know not where. I wish this particular astonishment on everyone at some point in their lifetimes.

Though you may be surprised to hear it, I never anticipated e-mail from readers. I have been an avid reader all my life, and read many books that genuinely changed the way I saw the world, or sometimes even the way I lived, but I am chagrined to admit now that it never once occurred to me to try writing an author to tell him so. I think I just assumed that authors were some separate species living on some alien plane I could no more reach out and touch than I could send birthday greetings to folks on Alpha Centauri. The first e-mail I received from a reader, about two weeks after the book’s release, surprised me immensely. Tor had sent me a copy of the book a few weeks earlier as it was being released, but I’d been working with them on the publication process for so long that when I got this latest version of our work, it didn’t really register in any visceral way that the book was really ‘out there’ until I got that first e-mail from a generous and appreciative stranger. ‘Oh my god!’ I thought. ‘Someone’s reading this!’ I sent her a grateful reply immediately to express my astonishment at her extraordinary gesture. A week later, I was getting several e-mails a day, and had no idea what planet I’d been moved to in my sleep.

Even now, well after the book’s presence in stores has peaked and diminished, I still get one or two e-mails from new readers a week, all of which I answer with undiminished appreciation, because it’s these e-mails, more than anything else, that help me see and experience my ‘first child’s’ unfolding life out there: where it’s traveled, how it got there, who it met and what passed between them. I want to convey my profound thanks to all the readers who have taken time to write and let me know what happened when they met my book. You have been my greatest satisfaction in this task, and it is most of all for you that I am now at work writing another novel.

Another valuable, if not always pleasant, gift of this past year has come to me from within ‘the industry.’ ‘Critical’ reaction to The Book of Joby has been literally all over the map. Days before its release, Publishers Weekly wrote The Book of Joby off as relentlessly grim tripe for the ‘Left Behind crowd’ – an assessment that still surprises and confuses me, and apparently most of my readers – while the National Association of Independent Booksellers selected it as a Booksense Pick that October, and Booklist included it in their Top Ten list for fantasy in 2008. (My sincere thanks to all you independent booksellers and to Booklist!) While Library Journal also felt it had little redeeming value, the same book made the short list of nominees for the annual National Library Association award. Locus so disliked the book that they refused to acknowledge it at all beyond reprinting the Publishers Weekly review, while, as I write this, The Book of Joby is one of five finalists for the Pacific Northwest’s Endeavor Award. (One of the other five finalists is “Powers” by Ursula Leguin. Needless to say, I am delighted and honored to be on ANY short list with ANYTHING by her!) A fan in Australia sent me three reviews from major papers in her area. I kid you not: the first called it incredibly well written and a tremendous pleasure to read, destined for greatness; the second said it worked better than it ought to considering it’s many flaws; and the third said it was a horribly written waste of paper, recommendable only to those with nothing else in the world to do, and huge amounts of time to fill. The entire spectrum – same book.

What has all this taught me? Many valuable things!

First, that reviews – good or bad – have far less to do with the book being reviewed than with the agenda of the reviewer. If you want to know about a book, I’m afraid you’ll have to read at least a portion of it yourself – but if you want to know about reviewers – by all means, read reviews.

Second, it has focused my attention as a writer on a very different set of issues than before. In 2006, as Tor worked toward the launch of my first novel, I cared very much about how ‘the industry’ would receive it, and how their reception would impact my potential for a ‘writing career.’ During this past year, what has turned out to matter far more to me is the wonderful, growing, and frankly unanticipated, relationship with so many readers that I discussed earlier. I understand now, as I did not one year ago, that what I most want to do as a writer is just get the stories whirling around inside me down on paper, and share them with whatever audience wants to read them.  How many or few readers that turns out to be, or what label(s) those stories are published by, or how those stories are reviewed by ‘the industry,’ or even how much money I’m ever likely to make, have all become strikingly secondary concerns for me in such a short time compared to the writing task itself, and access to some receptive audience of whatever size. (Fortunately, I have a very nice day job – still – so far – economic crisis notwithstanding.)

The third and biggest thing I’ve learned in this regard is that once a book is ‘out there’ it’s travels and impacts are secret, and surprising, largely unknown to me or anyone else, and, once set in motion, largely unstoppable by me or ‘the industry’ or anyone else. For setting my book ‘in motion,’ I’ve had an agent, Linn Prentis, Tor in general, and Tom Dougherty and David Hartwell in specific to thank, and I will always feel grateful and unbelievably fortunate for their willingness to give a strange book such a great chance.

Here I must also thank an army of wonderful independent booksellers across the country, and those in the blogosphere, like Tia, who have been so supportive of me and my novel since its earliest days. I believe their support is the primary reason this novel has done as well as it has despite ‘the industry’s’ much more mixed and tepid assessments.

I am not sure how many copies of the book have sold around the world to date, but I have been given reason to believe it’s at least 16 or 17 thousand copies. Given the number of emails I’ve received from people who were given the book, or borrowed it, or found it at a library, I suspect at least three people have read it for every copy actually sold. Thus, I am pretty sure that in one year more people have read The Book of Joby than all the people who ever saw my fantasy art in the nearly 20 years of my earlier career as an illustrator. I am telling the stories inside me much faster and more completely in words than I was ever able to in pictures, and to a far larger audience, already. Am I stoked? Oh yes.

So there are the plusses, as I see them, of my first year as a published author. No matter how you slice it, I have been very lucky and very kindly treated by an amazing community of booksellers and readers out there. I have a lot more stories inside me, and a desire to tell them. Where or if they are published – to whom and with what success – is anybody’s guess, of course. But even if this one book turned out to be my sole break, it’s been well worth it – and so much more than ‘enough’ for me. It’s still out there, traveling around, talking to people, pleasing them, troubling them, making them think and respond. Who knew I’d ever get that kind of chance at all? I’m a lucky, lucky guy.

Tia has asked me to say a bit about where I am and what I’m working on now, so… I am back in Seattle’s colorful, energizing University District, doing reasonably interesting work at the Daily Planet by day, (or, in the interests of accuracy, perhaps for the same large entertainment software company I was working for before my ‘book tour’ last winter), and stepping into the random phone booth every Friday to doff my cleverly concealing glasses, and don my writer’s cape, (or … er, maybe that’s actually doff the cape and don the writer’s glasses, … in the interests of … well, accuracy). I keep meaning to try my hand at some kind of blogging on my website … any month now … as soon as … I outrun … this avalanche. Not this month though, I’m afraid. Check in every now and then. You never know.

Last December I finished work on the first draft of the first book in a ‘fantasy’ trilogy unrelated to The Book of Joby, which I submitted for consideration at Tor. This book has been alluded to in a number of online interviews during the past year, but unfortunately, it is no longer ‘in the cards’. A fantasy set in the future was perhaps not my brightest idea to date. There was a lot of confusion about whether it was supposed to function as fantasy or science fiction, and the consensus from numerous quarters was that it failed to function comfortably as either. Had this been a stand-alone novel, I would doubtless have shrugged and waded through the substantial revision process that seemed required to resolve the uncertainties of many veteran heads around me. But as this was the first book in a three book series I had still to write two thirds of, I was not comfortable committing contractually to five or six more years of work on something so many colleagues seemed so unsure about right out the gate. So, last spring, despite a contract offer for the trilogy from Tor, I withdrew the book from consideration, and started work on an entirely new fantasy which I’m having TREMENDOUS fun writing, and expect great things of.

The new book is a single volume, stand alone novel currently called ‘TWICE.’ It is a contemporary urban fantasy,  also unrelated to The Book of Joby, about a young man who does and doesn’t get what he unwittingly wishes for after being beaten, possible to death, by a troll in a downtown alleyway one night, and what it takes to set things right – in a number of lives and places afterward. So far, I think it’s … GOOD! I hope to submit a finished first draft to Tor this spring. What will happen to it after that is anybody’s guess, of course, but I am confident it will get to readers in some form, under some title, via some venue, within the next few years, (That’s the publishing biz for ya). I hope they will enjoy it at least as much as so many have enjoyed my first modest tale. Thanks for asking, Tia, and for all your interest and support during this first year of my great adventure in publishing!

J Mark

THE BOOK OF JOBY by Mark J. Ferrari

THE BOOK OF JOBY by Mark J. Ferrari is a wonderful debut. It is funny, touching, gripping, infuriating and unforgettable. Did I sneak an "infuriating" in there? I think all good books are occasionally infuriating, and this book is no exception.

It begins with a wager that has taken place before. Lucifer wants to wager all of creation on the downfall of a single man. God has a caveat: he gets to choose the man. Or rather, the boy.

The opening chapters -- even after the wager goes into effect -- are joyous. Joby appears to be defeating all of Lucifer's best-laid plans. He forms a Roundtable club, based on King Arthur's roundtable, and all the boys in the school -- even sixth-graders! -- want to be a part of it. One girl, named Laura, gets in first as the Roundtable's Damsel in Distress (because she broke her arm spying on them), then as a full-fledged knight (because she took on the school bully, who is a demon in disguise). Joby even starts to take an interest in religion.

Laura and Ben are Joby's best friends. However, his ties to them go far deeper than any of them suspect.

Things start getting tough for Joby after the breakup of his Roundtable at the hands of Lucifer's minions. Lucifer then sets his efforts to denying Joby the greatness that he seems destined for. He fills Joby's life with pointless endeavors and ensures that he fails at just about everything he tries. High school has it tumults, and the three-way friendship between Joby, Ben and Laura turns into a love triangle similar to Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere's.

I would be very surprised if Ferrari were not a fan of T. H. White's The Once and Future King. I've mentioned this novel before; it is one of my favorite of all time. In White's novel, the rivalry between Lancelot and Arthur never fully destroys their friendship. I see seeds of that in Ferrari's novel.

Joby grows up and seems doomed to mediocrity. Despite Lucifer's best efforts, he does manage to get a degree in English. Then, he goes to Taubolt, where he finds a haven even from Lucifer. There, Joby becomes a teacher. Taubolt is the reason that we don't spend the entire novel mired in misery. It is a magical place, and the reason for its magic is clearly explained by the end of the novel. It is Avalon, although it is never called by that name in the novel.

The rest of the novel takes place almost entirely in Taubolt and the surrounding wilderness. There, Joby eventually has his confrontation with Lucifer. None of it is in the least bit predictable. This book follows no formula that I can recall. One truly must keep reading to find out what happens next. I went to bed late on more than one occasion because I wanted to read "just a little bit more".

And now, the nitpicks. One is that some of the characters occasionally made mistakes that seemed to serve no purpose other than to advance the plot. I know that people make mistakes, but some of them were incomprehensible. At one point, an angel seemed terrified of following God's clearly worded instructions, resulting in a mistake that played right into Lucifer's plans. To be fair, the demons made plenty of mistakes as well, so maybe Ferrari was just trying to be balanced.

Lucifer's last gambit seemed a work of desperation. I don't think it should have come even close to working. I kept wincing and thinking to myself, "Surely Joby's not falling for this!" However, Joby did fall for it. Given Joby's trusting nature (especially where kids are concerned), I suppose that isn't really surprising, but it didn't make it any easier to read.

Despite the above, the book hardly left my hands through most of last weekend. My husband was quite the book widower.

I think Christians will enjoy it, although it could not pass for a Christian novel. Ferrari uses the Christian themes as the seed for his story, but it contains no proselytizing message. Indeed, Joby hardly breathes a prayer throughout the entire book. God is portrayed as warm, humorous and occasionally wrathful. The three angels, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, each have distinct personalities (although I wish I could have seen more of Raphael) and the demons are a delightfully evil, bickering, backstabbing bunch.

On the whole it is an imaginative work, crafted with obvious love. The ending was great -- just the sort of ending that I like. It was pure magic from cover to cover. It will take you away, but it never leaves our world. It is the type of book that will leave you thinking. And, it will leave you wondering what on earth the author could possibly think of next. Highly recommended!

THE BOOK OF JOBY - Progress Report

I'm 3/4ths of the way through THE BOOK OF JOBY and I'm reluctant to say much for fear of giving away the secrets of this surprising novel.

One thing that I want to clear up right away is that this is not an endless book of suffering. There is a rather lengthly portion between one-fourth and halfway through the book where it did seem like Joby did nothing but suffer. However, his suffering was mental, not physical, and with some mysterious growth problems that turned out to be . . . I'd rather not say, but it wasn't what I expected. Suffice it to say that Joby does not turn out to be stunted in any way. Thanks to a demon on his shoulder, he is so clumsy in high school that he never does go out for team sports. The devil's tactic, as hinted on the cover blurb, is to doom Joby to mediocrity. Everything he tries either fails or just seems pointless.

And once you understand just who Joby really is, you understand why this is torture for him. He and his friends Laura and Ben are bound together by something that they have no clue about.

Halfway through the book, Joby has found a place of refuge where even Lucifer cannot reach him. Here Joby (and the reader) has a much-needed respite. Several peaceful years pass, during which this mysterious California town only gets even more mysterious. He is reunited with Ben and Laura, although his parents remain strangely absent. Their absence is not explained.

This novel follows no predictable formula. I cannot imagine what will come next. Ferrari did a nice job of tying Biblical stories to more modern myths, such King Arthur, fairies and elves. This novel doesn't pretend to be a Christian novel, so don't expect it to follow doctrine. However, although I can imagine that it might cause some raised eyebrows, I cannot imagine it causing offense. At least not in a person who enjoys fantasy.

In any case, it is quite difficult to put down!

Guest Post - Mark J. Ferrari

When I asked Mark J. Ferrari, author of THE BOOK OF JOBY (which I'm over halfway through -- progress report coming tomorrow) to do a guest post, he graciously accepted and then proceeded to exceed all my expectations with this wonderful and inspiring post. I was going to include photos from his drawings on his website, but I decided to delay no further. If you want to explore Mark's online portfolio, it is here. I advise you to set aside a good chunk of time; there's a lot of great stuff there.

Thanks, Mark!

When Tia invited me to do a guest blog on her site, I was really honored and excited … and utterly clueless about what to write. When I turned to her for help, she asked how an artist got started as a writer, or got started as an artist for that matter, and I had my answer, though maybe not the one she meant. But thanks Tia.

For almost 20 years prior to publication of The Book of Joby, I made my living, and my reputation, as a commercial illustrator. These days, however, I find myself telling people, with a fairly straight face, that I’ve really always wanted to be a writer, but since writing for a living seemed both unrealistic and irresponsible, I’d decided to be an artist instead. That’s as good a summation of my life as any, I suppose: one long series of improbable pursuits. So, having had the tremendous privilege of answering quite a few questions about The Book of Joby in quite a few places lately, I’ll take this opportunity to set my novel aside for a moment, and share some thoughts about the pursuit of unlikely dreams in general. I don’t think I’ve ever actually written this down before, but here are all 7 steps of my 12 step program for un-recovering knucklehead dreamers:

#1 - Don’t disqualify yourself. That’s everybody else’s job:

Almost anyone will tell you why the unlikely things we wanted to do as children, (be an astronaut, a baseball player, movie star, ballerina, artist, writer, or animal feeder at the zoo …), are “virtually impossible” to achieve. “Just look around!” they say. “How many people do you see doing those things? Go to college, get a ‘real’ job.”

The real question is this: How many people do you see seriously trying those things? What would happen if so many people didn’t decide after just one or two innings that this wasn’t likely to happen, and quietly eliminate themselves before really finding out? While there may not be a lot of openings for ‘huge celebrity’ out there, there is an amazing amount of less visible but very satisfying work in most ‘improbable’ fields, often begging for qualified takers. Do people tell us this?

My youngest brother used to go down into our father’s basement workshop with a bunch of odds, ends, and household trash, and create spectacular model spaceships as good as anything at the movies. I’m talkin’ all the tiny details and surface gloss, lit-up windows you could look into, meteor scars and exhaust stains. He knew what his passion was, but for years he just worked at a Four Wheel Parts Store, and whined about how pointless it was to try breaking in to the special effects industry. So few people did it. You had to have connections. There was no degree in that (then), etc. etc. etc.

Then one day I put a few of my drawings up at a local science fiction convention and was offered a job with Lucasfilm Games. My brother was appalled – and, perhaps, inspired. A short time later, he packed a bunch of his best models into the back of his truck, drove almost 300 miles to Los Angeles without any appointments or preparation, and began walking into big special effects studios, (whose addresses he’d found in the back of Cinefex Magazine), to tell the receptionists he’d just driven 300 miles with a truck full of models, which he’d like to show to anyone who’d look. The second place he walked into was Boss Films, who shrugged and took a peek. After seeing what he’d done with next to nothing, they offered him two weeks work, but made it clear that when that was done, he was outta there! No arguments! He said, “Great!” and they gave him his first day off two years later. After working on lots of films you’ve heard of, (Aliens, Cliffhanger, True Lies, Apolo 13, Titanic, just to name a few – his name buried and misspelled in the credits of each), he now has his own model fabricating business down there, living – for better or for worse – his dream. Don’t believe it? Just go online and Google The Shape Shop.

Think your dream’s impossible? Risk letting the world prove it to you before deciding not to try too hard. … And don’t worry; the next six steps are mostly shorter.

#2 – Go out to play BEFORE you’re homework’s done:

“Go to college first,” ‘they’ say. “Then get some real work until you’ve saved a cushion to see you through in case things don’t work out. Then, if you still really want to do this, as long as you’ve got your bases covered, you can give it a try … and get it out of your system …when you’ve had a little more experience, … and it’s safer.”

This is the perfect recipe to become one of those who eliminate themselves. My advice? Go balls out for your most improbable dream first! There will still be time to do those more ‘realistic’ things afterward – unless, of course, there isn’t ‘cause you’re dead, in which case, it’s not your problem anymore anyway, so why not “die trying,” as the youngsters say? If you’re lucky enough to be reading this while you’re still in high school or college, try your wildest dream NOW. Everyone expects the young to fail, so no one’s nearly as scandalized when it happens. You’ll still have lots of time to get back out of debt, and probably no wife or family yet to cope with while you wrestle with the rest of it. Reckless bets are what youth is for! Believe me, shooting for stars does NOT get easier, safer, or more respectable as you age.

And of course, if you succeed, all your more sensible friends are balding accountants with developing bellies, while you’re a rock star who didn’t waste a moment of your precious life on ‘more realistic’ second choices.

#3 – Do what you love most and do best – not “what will sell”:

When it was time to put together my first serious art portfolio for potential employers, a lot of my art friends advised me to include plenty of black and white work, because 75% of the work for new illustrators out there was B&W only. They also urged me to include a glass of ice cubes full of subliminal nudes, and at least one bright and shiny drawing of either cherry pie or hamburger, because all the best paying work was in advertising.

Finding myself insurmountably uninspired, I went to the illustration teacher at my art school for advice. “Is that stuff what you want to do?” he asked. “Well, sure,” I said, “if there’s nothing else.” He smiled and said, “Mark, if you go get work doing things you don’t really want to do, you’ll either do a crummy job of it and get no more work at all, or, worse yet, do such a good job that you get more of exactly the same work until you’re too miserable to do it anymore. So what do you really want to do?” I said, “Full color fantasy illustration, but isn’t that incredibly hard to make a living at?” He said, “Put nothing but the kind of work you most want to do into your portfolio, and go find out.” That’s what I did, and for the next few decades, I was virtually never short of work – or the ability to do it well.

When I finally sat down to write my first novel, I knew that writing a fantasy that really wasn’t Christian literature, but was set in a blatantly, and not unsympathetically, Judeo-Christian context was probably not the safest marketing scheme. A lot of fantasy readers weren’t going to be comfortable with literature from a tradition that burned witches and thinks Harry Potter is Satanic. And a fair number of Christian readers weren’t going to be comfortable with … well, Harry Potter and those witches. I was writing a book that might well offend just about everyone, and there were nights I laid awake wondering whether my writing career would just sink quietly on launch, or enjoy enough success to necessitate a shared hotel room somewhere with poor Solomon Rushdie. But it was the story I wanted to tell, and the way I wanted to tell it, and why bother working that hard just to succeed at something else I didn’t really want to do? So, I bought a Kevlar vest, and did it. Thus far it’s worked out pretty well. J

#4 – If you’ve really got something to show them, avoid the front door if you can. As often as not, it leads only to the roach motel:

When attempting to enter an ‘improbable field,’ the door marked, “apply here” is often designed primarily to keep you safely out of everyone’s hair until you go away on your own. The people you need to see really are very, very busy.

If you really want in, (and you’ve really got something to show them when you get there), look for side or back doors. You’ll notice those are the entrances used by people who WORK there – like you hope to. Go to events where ‘the public’ can meet professionals in the field, and ask them (intelligent) questions. TALK to them while they’re NOT at work, (if you can be pleasant company). Ask someone who’s NOT supposed to interview or hire you for advice about the business in ways that make you seem fascinating and enjoyable. Instead of making an appointment, walk in and say, I’ve just driven 300 miles with a truck full of models; won’t someone please look at them? Four out of five times you’ll be crossly informed that they’ve, “got an application policy here.” The fifth time you may get someone who will bother the boss.

When I first wanted work as an illustrator, I was invited to leave my portfolio at front desks, and come back for it in a week. Only the receptionist would be bothered that way, and even her not that much. Happily, a friend of mine who was an editor helped me contact a few of her friends who were editors at the big book houses in New York. I told them I was coming all the way from California for just 3 days, (not long enough to leave my portfolio anywhere for the prescribed reception-incubation period), and asked if they’d mind glancing at my work and offering any advice. They all explained that they were merely editors, and had nothing at all to do with art or artists. I assured them that my friend, (who had given me permission to use her name), thought they might enjoy the work, and would know far more than I about whether any of it was on target. When three of those generous editors agreed to give me 10 minutes, I made my gratitude impossible to miss, and showed up promptly for those appointments. In all three cases, after perusing my portfolio, they left me briefly, to return a minute later with the art directors who’d had, (quite honestly), no time, and, frankly, no reason, to see me when I’d tried to call directly. I hope I won’t be skinned alive for relating this subversive story, and I do wish to stress that using such side doors, if you do NOT have something you love passionately and do very well to show them once you’re in, will most likely have only disastrous results. In that case, please do NOT tell them I suggested it.

#5 – The first three things you attempt will fail. Keep trying:

No matter how hard you try, or how well you do, someone along the way will find it either more convenient, or even more satisfying, just to toss your masterpiece into some handy dumpster and go on with what they were doing before you interrupted. It may be your future boss, or just the Fed Ex delivery man who had to choose between delivering your package on time or having an extended lunch with people he knew, that mattered. You cannot avoid this, and it really isn’t personal … unless you actually know a real contract killer, I suppose. When it happens, grin up at the sky like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, and shout, “Is that the best you can do?” Then, as he did, keep sailing.

#6 – The next three things you attempt will fail worse. Try harder:

In my own limited experience, history repeats itself, whether you were paying attention the first time or not. Repeat instructions above.

#7 – You never know what your luck means at the time:

These days, when people ask me how I’m doing, I usually tell them to ask again in six months, because by that time I may actually know how I was doing today. I cannot count the number of times what seemed like really great luck turned out to be the prologue of some tragedy, or things that seemed excruciatingly bad luck turned out to be but prologue to some great good fortune. Getting hit by a truck, for instance, (yes, I have actually been hit by a truck. For further details see my interview on Aidan Moher’s blog, A dribble of Ink), helped turn my life toward writing – and eventually helped resolve so many other more personal difficulties, that I went from imagining some guardian angel helping me to survive the impact to imagining that angel pushing me in front of the truck to begin with. On the other hand, I fell in love once, which seemed like such a great thing at the time …

The Book of Joby was first ‘acquired’ by a midsized publisher in 2002, just months after I finished it, to be published in 2004. Seemed like the best luck in the world at the time. Then, nearly two years later, just a month and a half before the ostensible release date, I was informed that for reasons beyond anyone’s control, that publisher would have to cancel a number of their 2004 titles, including mine. Seemed like the worst luck in the world at the time. Three months later, my heroically tireless agent, Linn Prentis, sold the book to TOR, who has done far more for me, and for the book, than the previous publisher possibly could have. Yet, had it not been for that previous publishing deal, I might never have secured the agent who was there to sell it to TOR. If you were able to follow that at all, keep it in mind when principles 6 and 7 above come into play. If all it takes to thwart your pursuit of improbable dreams is one or two prolonged periods of improbably catastrophic misfortune, well, what are you doing out here to begin with sissy?

Thanks Tia. This was fun!

THE BOOK OF JOBY - Masterful Opening

When I buy a debut novel (although Mark sent me this copy -- thanks, Mark!), sometimes I merely buy it out of curiosity. Why would this concept attract a publisher?

With THE BOOK OF JOBY by Mark J. Ferrari, that was evident in the opening chapters.

The concept was so unusual, even though it is thousands of years old. God and Lucifer are having a conversation, setting up yet another bet similar to the one in the book of Job, in the Bible. They have done this thousands of times, and God almost always wins. However, this time, Lucifer wants to up the stakes. He wants the fate of all creation to hinge upon the outcome.

Right away, we have sympathy for the poor sap that God chooses to be the focus of the bet. And we haven't even met him yet.

The plot jumps to the angel Michael, who is watching over some sort of protected town in California. God stops by to warn him that his candidate will soon be coming through, (although not for years in human-time) and all the legions of Hell will be on his heels. Michael must prepare the town's sheltered citizens for the onslaught.

Then, we finally meet Joby, a 4th grader with a passion for King Arthur and his knights.

Among all this, imagine lush writing that strikes a nice balance between leisurely and fast-paced. Ferrari takes the time for highly literary descriptions, yet the conversations are realistic and laced with humor.

I'm hooked!

Don't forget my giveaway contest for THE BOOK OF JOBY. Scroll down for details.