Friday , March 29 2024
"An author has to view his writing as an art form in the same way as a painter, even if the author isn’t trying to create great literary fiction."

Interview: William R. Leibowitz, Author of ‘Miracle Man’

William LeibowitzWilliam R. Leibowitz is a lawyer in the entertainment business who practices in New York City and lives in the village of Quogue. Over the years, he has represented many famous recording artists, songwriters and performers in addition to major entertainment companies. He’s currently touring the blogosphere to promote the release of Miracle Man, his “cross-genre psychological thriller that explores extraordinary genius, Big Pharma corruption, CIA machinations, metaphysical forces, and one man’s tireless quest at terrible cost to validate his life.”

Congratulations on the release of your latest book, Miracle Man. When did you start writing and what got you into thrillers?

I began writing Miracle Man about two years ago. I picked the thriller genre because it allows me to tell a fast-paced story with enough twists, turns and surprises to keep readers entertained, but at the same time develop complex characters and convey humanistic, spiritual and political messages that are important to me.

What was your inspiration for Miracle Man?

In writing Miracle Man, I wanted to create a modern-day believable “super hero” who is an “anti-celebrity.” I thought that such a person could be inspirational when contrasted with the meritless celebrities that dominate media today (e.g. the reality TV stars who are famous for being famous, but have no real talent).

What do you hope readers will get from your book?

One of the underlying themes in Miracle Man is the sanctity of each and every human life. As the story of the protagonist, Robert James Austin, unfolds throughout the novel I think the reader will understand that one can never predict the ramifications of one person’s death. Miracle Man 7Robert Austin should have died as a newborn, but he was saved in the most unlikely of manners; he then went on to change the world in extraordinary ways. His life was not expendable. We all are bombarded every day by statistics of death – how many people died in the latest war, or from famine, or epidemic or other manmade or natural cataclysm. People’s lives are jumbled together by the media as meaningless numbers. But what I want the reader of Miracle Man to think about is the individual. Has anyone ever thought how likely it is that the person who would have cured cancer was killed in a concentration camp?  That’s why Miracle Man begins with the quotation from Scriptures, “To destroy one life is to destroy an entire world, and to save one life is to save an entire world.”

Did your book require a lot of research?

Yes. Because of the plot line in Miracle Man, I needed to do extensive research in two areas: (1) the nature of human intelligence (particularly genius), and (2) diseases, treatments, attempted cures – and the medical/scientific methodology relevant to formulating cures. Regarding #1 – I researched the lives of actual geniuses so that I could understand how genius manifests itself at various ages, and the behaviors often attendant to genius. Because Robert James Austin (the protagonist in Miracle Man) has an intelligence that is unique in human history (i.e. 10x that of Einstein), I extrapolated from my research and “pumped up” various things about Austin so as to reflect his extraordinary abilities. So while I highly magnified elements of Austin’s behavior and thought processes, they are grounded in documented realities.

Regarding the medical/scientific aspects of the book, I didn’t want to ask the reader to take giant leaps of faith when reading Miracle Man, so I knew that in order for the story to be credible, it had to have a plausible scientific foundation for the ways in which Austin invented cures and the way that the cures worked. At the same time, however, I was mindful that I had to minimize the science so that it didn’t bore the reader.

What is success for you?

An author has to view his writing as an art form in the same way as a painter, even if the author isn’t trying to create great literary fiction. Whatever the author is trying to do, he needs to set his standards high and do the absolute best he can. Success is being proud of what you have written when you go back and re-read it 12 months later.

Do you have a website or blog where readers can find out more about your work?

Readers can go to the book’s website which contains an interesting video, book reviews and author interviews. I’m also on Twitter (william leibowitz@miraclemanbook) and Facebook.

Where is your book available?

Miracle Man is available in paperback and on Kindle from Amazon, and on Nook and iBook.

Do you have any tips for aspiring authors?

Be very demanding on yourself. The written word is not ephemeral. It will define you. Seek the criticism of others as you write and re-write. Be patient with yourself. It’s better for your work to be great than for it to be “quick.”

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About Mayra Calvani

Mayra Calvani writes fiction and nonfiction for children and adults and has authored over a dozen books, some of which have won awards. Her stories, reviews, interviews and articles have appeared on numerous publications such as The Writer, Writer’s Journal, Multicultural Review, and Bloomsbury Review, among many others. Represented by Serendipity Literary.

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