by Ross Browne

It's always thrilling when a deserving author with a promising body of work lands a terrific literary agent, but for many of us here at The Editorial Department, this news is especially welcome.

Part of the reason for this is the nature of what John writes. In his nonfiction, John has taken on the noble challenge of promoting adoption as a better way of dealing with unplanned pregnancies and cultivating a more supportive attitude toward birth mothers who make this choice. In his fiction series starring a down-and-out pilot with a passion for vintage amphibious aircraft, John has come up with smart, fun and relentlessly entertaining mix of adventure, suspense and humor that while light and full of charm has some real soul to it.

It's been such a pleasure working with John in the development and editing both these projects, and because it was so much of a team effort here at The Editorial Department there were quite a few of eager to see John find a home with an agency that was a good fit for the unique demands of his situation. We were especially pleased that it happened so quickly and also that a new marketing service we just began offering this year--our series package proposal--proved very helpful in sealing the deal with Steve Troha at Folio.

Many authors have the dream of taking their imagination and creating an universe full of adventure on the printed page.  Of course, it's not always quite that simple...the idea needs to be focused, the characters need to seem real, the language has to be perfected, somehow the resulting product needs to be printed, and then the final product needs to get in the hands of an audience.

It's not every day you read a novel that you find actually inspiring.  It's definitely not every day that you read an inspirational novel set in a tuberculosis sanatorium.  However, it's not every day novelists like James Markert are born, so at the Editorial Department, we make an effort to appreciate his gifts.