The Watchman of Ephraim - Gerard de Marigny

Cris De Niro worked his way up to the top of the hedge fund world. Yet all of his money couldn't protect him from losing his wife on 9/11. 10 years have passed since the tragedy. Turning to his faith, De Niro now lives for a higher purpose. He acquires a lackluster counter-terrorism agency, in order to transform it into The Watchman for the United States, but there's not a moment to lose.

De Niro and his new agency unknowingly become targets when they stumble upon a connection between a rich Iranian businessman and a Mexican drug cartel. First, their agent sent to investigate goes missing and then strange events start to unfold at the border. Making matters worse, they suspect that there’s a leak among them. It’s up to De Niro and his new team to protect America from a possible terrorist attack more catastrophic than 9/11 …and it appears he and his children are targeted too!

Bio:
Gerard de Marigny (pronounced de-Mar-E-nee) has been a successful musician and entrepreneur and now intends to bring his passion for his faith and writing together, in his novels. During the 1980's and 1990's, Gerard was the lead guitarist for a rock band that sold many thousands of records all over the world. His band won the Best New Video award on MTV in1983, but a life-threatening illness (cancer, Hodgkins Lymphoma) and an epiphany of faith inspired him to leave that lifestyle and devote himself to living his faith.


Gerard continued writing music for TV and a movie, while branching out and starting his own businesses in the transportation and financial industries. Yet, his lifelong ambition was to bring to life righteous characters that would inspire others.


In 2007, Gerard was awarded the prestigious Fischer Family Scholarship for the Arts from Penn State University, for a 5,000-word autobiographical work he was commissioned to write. He has also recently been featured by Penn State in their Be Exceptional series, with full-page advertisements in U.S. News & World Report (September 2010) and the Penn Stater magazine.


In 2011, he completed his debut novel, THE WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM, a political thriller which is book one of his WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM series. (July-August 2010) magazines. The sequel, SIGNS OF WAR is due out in September.

Q: What will readers like about your book?

I try to write books that I want to read. What I like about The Watchman of Ephraim is that it's a fast-paced thriller based around a lead character (Cris De Niro) whom Id like to be, who is surrounded by people Id like to know, who is doing something Id like to do! (grin)


I hope the reader feels transformed into the story. I hope the settings, backgrounds, details, etc. of all of my novels are perceived as real (I put lots of time into making sure they are) because those are the things I like when I read thrillers.


To me, fiction is at its best when most of it isn't fiction when it's believable because when it's believable, I care and when I care, I'm hooked. Ive felt very blessed from the messages that readers of TWOE have sent to me, telling me about how they were brought to tears in the beginning and how they were cheering for my man, Cris De Niro, at the end in other words, they cared, which means I did my job.

Q: Why did you self publish?

I owe my decision to self publish entirely to a great fellow writer and teacher, my guru, Dean Wesley Smith. I had written a manuscript a year ago and shopped it to a number of agents. I learned a lot from the experience but I was also left frustrated. I'm an entrepreneur at heart, so I've never been satisfied with leaving things to others. Traditional publishing is about leaving your fate up to agents and publishers. Nowadays, there is no reason why a writer can't make their works available to the global audience. I say, let the people decide what they want to read.


Dean Wesley Smith publishes a number of revolutionary blogs (all must-reads for any potential self-publisher) - Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing, The New World of Publishing, and his newest one, Think Like A Publisher that have totally changed my life! They corrected my wrong-thinking about self-publishing, they informed me how to do it all myself and most importantly, they inspired me. I feel like I'm utilizing all of the gifts that God has given me from writing to technical skills to marketing I've never felt more satisfied.


Bottom line: After writing unpublished works for the last 25 years then trying to sell my manuscripts for another two after reading Sensei DWS and following his humble teachings, I was published (and earning money from my writing) in 30 days! It's changed my whole life. I owe a world of gratitude to Dean which will probably translate into picking up his bar tab whenever he and his lovely wife Kristine Rusch (another great writer and teacher) come to my home town of Las Vegas, NV from now on. (grin)

Q: Who are your favorite authors in your genre?

My genre is thriller. If you want to drill down to subgenre, The Watchman of Ephraim is a political thriller or geo-political thriller. In those genres, the writer who inspired me most was/is Tom Clancy. However, I'm probably most influenced by W.E.B. Griffin. I absolutely loved his The Corps series and although he writes mostly historical, war fiction WEB is/was my favorite! His son W.E.B. is now doing most of the writing, also a great writer.

Links:

Purchase personalized, signed hardback and paperback editions of  TWOE_ at the authors website.
Purchase hardback, paperback and eBook editions of  TWOE at: Amazon.uk, BarnesandNoble, Emporium Books (based in Australia), and Smashwords (all eBook formats)
Tune into author Gerard de Marigny's irreverent blog, The World According to g
Paperback Available at CreateSpace, Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com!
Hardcover Available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com! Signed copies Available from my website!
Available for most eBook platforms at Smashwords.com, for Kindle at Amazon.com, for Nook at BarnesandNoble.com!
My Website: www.GerarddeMarigny.com. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace!