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The past 12 months have been fruitful ones for Michael Lister.
The author has seen the release of five books he either wrote, edited or to which he contributed as well as a review of his latest novel in the prestigious Publisher’s Weekly and a Florida Book Award.
First, there was the release late last year of Double Exposure, a nourish thriller set in the swamps of the Apalachicola National Forest. Lister also wrote a screenplay of the novel, the play staged by the Gulf Coast Community College Theater Department.
Double Exposure also received a Florida Book Award and has been translated into several languages, including German.
Thunder Beach, a mystery set against the backdrop of the annual gathering in Panama City Beach followed as did Delta Blues, an anthology of crime stories set in the Mississippi delta and having a taste of the blues.
Lister contributed a story to Delta Blues, which included an introduction by actor Morgan Freeman. The launch party, which Lister attended, was held at Freeman’s home in Mississippi.
Florida Heat Wave, a crime fiction anthology Lister edited, was released a few months ago and just out is Body and the Blood, the third in the series of novels Lister has written involving the character John Jordan, a chaplain and detective.
“For all to happen in one year is staggering to me,” Lister said. “I’m so grateful to be in print and to get the feedback from readers and the reviews that I have had. It’s been an incredible year and I am so grateful.”
Lister has paid his dues.
He started on the John Jordan series in 1994, the idea for the series seeping into his gray matter while he was in training to become a prison chaplain, which Lister was for more than seven years.
“I liked the idea of a clerical detective,” Lister said, noting that the genre dates back centuries. “But there has never been one in hard-boiled detective form.”
After living with the characters of the series for some 16 years, they have become old friends that he greets regularly when he sits down each morning at the keyboard to begin his daily regimen of writing.
“No question these characters are real people to me,” Lister said. “They are organic. They have evolved. I try to honor those characters when I write.
“If I wake up in the morning and I’m anxious to get to the keyboard to see what happens next, I think the reader will have the same feeling of wanting to turn the page. It really takes over. There is no set time I write, but it really does take over.”
Lister said he is happy with where John Jordan is at this point in the series and he is as a writer, believing the Body and the Blood represents growth for character and author.
“It is by far the best book of the series,” Lister said.
Getting to Jordan to the page is one thing, securing the character a place in a published book is quite another.
Lister said the already tough task of getting vision to print is even tougher in difficult economic times. Publishing houses see hundreds of titles each year but will publish just a minute fraction of those submissions.
“It is harder now,” Lister said. “Part of the reason I’ve had so many books come out this year is because I’ve had to secure a different publisher for each book. I have had three different publishers for each of the John Jordan books.”
The latest is being published by 5-Star Publishers, part of large media company.
On the flip side are rewards such as the review in Publisher’s Weekly, not an easy thing to secure for any rising writer.
“It is a big deal,” Lister said. “It made me feel so good. Someone noticed that this book (Body and the Blood) is something good and unique.
“It is more than entertainment to me. It is art.”
And the past 12 months have showcased the variety of that art.
* The Gulf County Chamber of Commerce will hold a book launch party for The Body and the Blood during the monthly Business after Hours at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 21
from The Star by Tim Croft
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