The most successful authors I know enjoy the process of learning and got into the business from the pleasure and challenge of writing.

Impatience, mistrustfulness, and competitiveness with other writers can be very damaging to a career. Focus on your own content, find your own best voice, and enjoy the ride. This can be a wonderful business.
--John Talbot

By: Marc Cerasini

Inspired by the life of legendary athlete Jim Braddock, a once-promising light-heavyweight boxer forced into retirement after a string of losses. As the nation enters the Great Depression, Braddock works any job he can get to support his family, until a twist of fate puts him back in the ring against the second-ranked world contender. To everyone's amazement, he wins. Despite repeated injuries and being pounds lighter than his opponents, Braddock continues to win. Carrying the hopes and dreams of a disenfranchised nation on his shoulders, Braddock, dubbed the "Cinderella Man," must ultimately face Max Baer, the heavyweight champion of the world, renowned for killing two men in the ring.

An inspiring, beautifully written novelization, based on the Oscar-worthy Cinderella Man movie (a pic that just may be the best of the year). This finely written book, gives wonderful depth and context to the movie story, putting you firmly in Jim Braddock's boxing shoes. You really get to understand the man from the inside out.

In addition to telling the movie story, the book also provides historical details of Jim Braddock's life (that are not in the movie). Drawing from Braddock's own out-of-print 1936 biography and other sources (given at the back of the novelization), the author gives background on Braddock's youth, how he met Joe Gould, how and why Jim started boxing, what Jim had done in his early and later career and after he won the Heavyweight title. The author also provides much more background on his relationship with his wife, Mae--how they met and married and her constant issues with the dangers of Jim's boxing career during their long-abiding love for each other.

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By: Marc Cerasini

The two most terrifying forces in the universe are about to fight to the death ... and earth is their battleground!

A mysterious structure has been detected via satellite far below the ice at the bottom of the world. Assembled by a billionaire industrialist, a crack team of scientists, drillers, archaeologists and adventurers has traveled to the Antarctic wastes to make history by exploring what is believed to be a fully preserved pyramid predating those built by early Egyptian and Mexican civilizations. But once this expedition crew enters, there will be no way out -- and no hope left for humankind. Because deep within the labyrinth, a terror is stirring -- an alien monstrosity more vicious, cunning, evil, and unstoppable than any species in the universe -- except one: the otherworldly Predators who brought the nightmare to Earth to begin with and who are now returning here to face the beast once more in the most unholy combat.

The battle is about to begin -- and to the victor will go the planet.

By: Marc Cerasini

Wolverine, the popular mutant comic book hero, makes a successful fiction debut in Marvel's first tie-in novel aimed at adults. Cerasini (O.J. Simpson: American Hero, American Tragedy) delivers three stories in one, each liberally supplied with flashbacks, dream sequences and expository lumps about high-tech hardware.

The main story focuses on the imprisonment of Logan, as the future X-Man is called, at the Weapon X laboratory, where he's treated as an experimental animal. Attacks by wolves and a bear are just part of his transformation into Wolverine (aka Weapon X). Logan's principal tormentors—the Professor, Dr. Abraham Cornelius and technician Carol Hines—all have their own past traumas to explain what they're doing to him, but nothing excuses their behavior.

Later, the Canadian Intelligence Service sends Logan on a covert mission to North Korea. In the third and final section, Logan/Wolverine runs amok in a virtual reality sequence, then returns to the Weapon X laboratory's reality to fight his way free. Novelizing a visual medium is bound to involve compromises, but this admirable effort works well enough as action-adventure fiction to lure readers who don't know an X-Man from an X-chromosome.

By: Marc Cerasini

"In a remote region of the Colorado desert, far from any town, radar dishes scan the skies over America..."

Meet Jimmy Neutron, boy genius and inventor extraordinaire! He bounces to school in a gravity bubble. His custom-built dog, Goddard, has more uses than a Swiss Army knife. And he navigates outer space in his homemade rocketship.

One night while Jimmy and his friends sneak out to the Retroland amusement park, his satellite is detected by evil Yokian aliens who kidnap all the grown-ups of Retroville! When Jimmy discovers what has happened, the kids blast off to rescue them! But will Jimmy and his friends find them before it's too late?

By: Marc Cerasini

Something's fishy in Bikini Bottom...

When King Neptune's crown is stolen, Mr. Krabs is held accountable for the crime! So it's up to SpongeBob and his trusty sidekick, Patrick, to make the dangerous trip to Shell City to retrieve the crown and save Mr. Krabs's life. Meanwhile, the evil Plankton has set his plan into motion: to steal the secret Krabby Patty formula and rule the sea! Will SpongeBob and Patrick be able to save the crown and make it back in time to save the fate of Bikini Bottom?

SpongeBob SquarePants and all of Bikini Bottom are very excited about the grand opening of the Krusty Krab 2, which conveniently is right next door to the first Krusty Krab and looks exactly the same. SpongeBob can't wait for Mr. Krabs to announce who the restaurant's manager will be--he's sure it'll be him! But SpongeBob is shocked when he finds out that Mr. Krabs hasn't picked him--he's picked Squidward.

As SpongeBob goes through depression, a jealous Plankton comes up with a plan to make King Neptune think that Mr. Krabs stole his very important crown. Now an angry Neptune has frozen Mr. Krabs ice cold. SpongeBob comes to Mr. Krabs' defense--he says he'll travel to the terrifying city of Shell City and get back that crown. And if he gets back the crown, Neptune needs to turn Mr. Krabs back to normal. Neptune agrees, but SpongeBob doesn't realize that the road to Shell City will be a scary one.

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