Hey SuBe, thanks for giving my little tale a try! Hope you enjoy the read. I have not, in fact, ever read The Stand. Joby's quest does get a little grim at times, ... well, pretty DARN grim at times, but there's humor and wonder in there too. I have never liked books that just drag you through the mud for 90 miles only to leave you in the middle of a bog at the end ''cause that's the human condition,' and I hope not to have written one. I think the end of a tale should leave you with something worth the travel. Hope you'll let me know - one way or another - how I did when you've finished it.

:-)

We went to Barnes and Nobel and purchased your first book...at first we could not find it so we asked for assistance...you'll be happy to hear the lady who helped us said "oh that one, I remember it clearly, it stands out because of the unusual cover" and indeed she found it for us!

St. Joby, just out of curiosity, have you read The Stand by Stephen King? It is about the fight between good and evil too...nightmare material.

Although we didn't get to it in the interview, Mark's got another novel in the works.  We'll have more on it in the future!

Very nice. Some people never learn the lessons of life, let alone be able to define them.  Keep up the good work.

Hi SuBe. Glad you liked the three lessons. They really are invaluable. I wear a helmet almost everywhere now: to bed, in the shower ... ;-) But seriously, I had a blast doing this interview with Paul, and am glad you found some inspiration there. If you do check out the book, I hope you'll tell us what you thought - good or bad. All reconnaisance is good reconnaisance. ... (did I spell that wright?)

:-)

Hi Lori. Mark Ferrari here. (Author of The Book of Joby) In regard to your question about whether I illustrated my own book, the answer is, not really. There's a little dragon on the cover breething fire on an 'O' in the title, which was clipped out of a larger piece of my art - (in fact, the piece of art shown in Paul's video interview with me). But the larger piece of my art once slated to decorate the cover was vetoed at the last minute when buyers for the big book chains told Tor, (the publisher), that they wanted to market the book to a larger audience than just the fantasy market, but to do so would need it to have a more 'literary' cover. ( ie: a non-fantasy cover that 'normal people' could read on the bus without embarrassement. :-)). So, my art went away in favor of the more ... restrained cover which graces the novel now. Am I complaining? No. It's clearly working. A lot of 'normal' people are reading this book and letting me know they liked it quite a lot. So I'm as happy as a clam. (clams, apparently, are extremely happy.) Afterall, if I'd just wanted people to keep looking at my art, I wouldn't have become a writer! Glad you liked my art though! If you want to see more, just follow the link right above the interview to my website, where you can access whole galleries of the stuff. Thanks a lot for your interest! :-)

Very well done! I'll have to check this one out. Loved the Chronicles of Narnia. Ferrari expressed himself in such a way as to inspire while showing what inspired him. I like his three lessons learned! Reality check!

I love the artwork.  I may have missed this....but did he illustrate his book, as well?