Iraq vet, triple amputee and Purple Heart recipient Bryan Andersen has lived an extraordinary and inspiring life, and now he is sharing his experience in the memoir NO TURNING BACK, written with David Mack. Recently, MSNBC interviewed him to talk about his November release and new television show.
Countdown to Turkey Day with The Knight Agency: David Mack
UPDATE: The winner of a book by David Mack is Alim S. Gafar. Congrats! Please email your physical addy to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net.
We have an awesome post from STAR TREK TYPHON PACT: ZERO SUM GAME author David Mack, who's talking about what he's most grateful for this year below. But before we dive in, I wanted to stick in a plug for our chat with N.K. Jemisin, fantasy author of THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS and THE BROKEN KINGDOMS this Thursday, November 18th at 9pm ET. Find out more info on the chat in our sidebar ad featuing the author or in this post.
And without further ado, take it away David! Remember to leave a comment to win. The prize will be the winner's choice of either STAR TREK TYPHON PACT: ZERO SUM GAME, VANGUARD: PRECIPICE or THE 4400: PROMISES BROKEN. The winner will be announed in this post tomorrow morning.
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On Being Thankful
It’s easy to be thankful when our circumstances are good, but it’s even more important to remember to be thankful when they are not. This is an idea that’s been much on mind this year as Thanksgiving approaches.
I won’t bore you with specifics, but I’ll confide that it’s been a difficult year for me, my family, and my friends. There have been professional disappointments and financial difficulties, deaths in the family and serious medical crises that have changed our status quo, and numerous small moments that add up to a dispiriting year. It is one of my greatest personal shortcomings that, at times such as this, I tend to focus on the negative and blind myself to all that is right and good.
The question most of us are asked to consider at this time of year is, “What are we most thankful for?” In my case, the question is not for what am I thankful, but for whom.
I am thankful for my wife, Kara. She is my compass, the one who tells me whether I’m on course or steering off the map into a sea of dragons. She sees through my strange habits and gloomy moods and reminds me to stop being a writer every once in a while so that I can just be me.
I am thankful for my parents and for my brother and his family, who all continue to be my biggest fans. They celebrate my successes and sympathize when life deals me lousy cards.
I am thankful for my in-laws. Their generosity, kindness, and love of life makes every visit with them something to anticipate with excitement and remember with fondness.
I am thankful for my friends, who counsel me when I need advice, share the small moments of fun that break up life’s monotony, and remind me that I’m not as great as my best reviews or as bad as my worst. In particular, I am grateful for Glenn, who is my voice of reason and occasional source of ideas; for Brandy and Peter, who share their love and knowledge of wine; for Keith, who can always make me laugh; for Alan, who reminds me that creation is supposed to be fun; for Emily, who brightens rooms with her smile; for Brenda & Rob and Vanessa & Eric, for never failing to surprise, amaze, and impress me; for Marco, who helps me shape dreams into something just this side of real; for Margaret, who shows no end of faith in my abilities; for Dayton and Kevin, who have become more like brothers to me than collaborators; and for Aaron & Jen, and Dave, and Mike, and so many others who remind me my life has a cast of thousands.
I am thankful that I had eighteen years of companionship with my beloved cat Ripley, who passed away this fall after a brief and terrible struggle with cancer; I am thankful that our cat Puck is healthy; and I am grateful for our friends Amy and Paul, who rescued a beautiful stray kitten from a dumpster behind a strip mall in Houston, paid for veterinary care to nurse the kitten back to health, and at their own expense brought that adorable creature to New York City so that my wife and I could adopt her and name her Freddie (actually, her name is Winifred, but we only call her that when she misbehaves).
I am thankful that, despite not having had the kind of year for which I had hoped, I still get to work from home, writing for a living. As a boy, this was the life I dreamed of, and thanks to my wife’s unwavering support, it is now my reality.
I am thankful for every fan e-mail I receive, for every reader who is affected enough by my words that he or she feels motivated to write to me and share their feelings and opinions. I’m grateful for every fan who asks me to sign a book or a comic.
I’m grateful to the fine folks at BOOM! Studios—especially Ian, Matt, and Chip—as well as Farscape creator Rockne S. O’Bannon, for letting me script the eight-issue limited series Farscape: Scorpius.
I am grateful that my agent, Lucienne, still believes in my potential as a writer.
I am grateful that my body has not yet completely fallen to pieces (despite a number of prominent malfunctions) as I start my slow slide into middle age.
I am thankful for my wife’s cooking, for good wine, for a world filled with ephemeral moments of beauty, for random acts of kindness, and for flashes of inspiration that make me ache to return to my keyboard and set myself back to work.
I am grateful that there are so many more people and things I could write about, but that space limitations prohibit me from listing them all here.
As I reflect on how rich my life is in family and friends, it occurs to me that the most important reason for us all to be thankful is that it gives us hope. Focusing on the things that we treasure and that make our lives worth living is how we find the courage to weather Fate’s fierce storms.
Here’s hoping Fortune smiles on us all in the year to come!
UPDATE: The winner of an autographed copy of THE CALLING by David Mack is heidi2524! Please send your physical addy to contests @ knightagency.net (remove spaces). Big thanks to everyone who participated and especially David for writing such a fabulous post!
At first glance, my new urban fantasy THE CALLING might look like yet another "good vs. evil" showdown of super-powered people. I don't deny it has those elements, but this isn't merely a book (and, I hope, a series) about mystical heroes and villains who face off just to put the hurt on each other. THE CALLING is about a need I think many of us share: a desire to find something good in ourselves and in other people.
Several years ago when I first began working on THE CALLING, I knew I wanted to write a supernatural thriller about a protagonist whose "job" involves helping people in dire need. The challenge I faced was how to involve my main character in people's lives. I thought about some mainstream TV series that had solved this problem in simple ways. Should my hero, Tom Nash, place classified ads as on The A-Team or The Equalizer? Should he wander from place to place getting into adventures, as on The Incredible Hulk or Kung Fu? How was my hero to know who really needed his assistance? Then the answer came to me: he hears them pray for help. Once that "hook" was in place, I realized this needed to be the story of people who are called to take action in the world, to get involved when others turn away.
As peculiar a notion as my hero's "calling" might have seemed at first, I soon saw it as not all that different from the way some people feel their purpose in life is to put themselves at risk for others by serving as police officers, firefighters, or soldiers; or the way some people are drawn to professions in which they care for others, such as doctors, nurses, paramedics, psychologists, or the clergy. That became my touchstone as I considered my tale's "big picture." Behind its action, grit, and mystery, THE CALLING is about people struggling to bring out the best in each other as well as in themselves. So how about it, readers? Do you feel your profession is your calling? Or is your calling one you have yet to answer? Share your thoughts in the comments and leave your name for a chance to win a free copy of THE CALLING, personalized and autographed by yours truly! (U.S. and Canada residents only) Thanks for reading!
