Blade Runner

The intro to my ChicagoWrites.org interview with Chicago author Marcus Sakey...

This is a story about one of those rarest of feats, an aspiring writer who not only beat the odds and hit the jackpot, but did it on his first try.

How he did it makes it all the more surprising.

The beginnings of the story are chronicled in the blog of Chicago author J.A. Konrath. It was a little over a year ago that Konrath introduced the world to  "Cinderella Boy" (aka Marcus Sakey), who at the time Konrath first met him was a master's writing student at Chicago's Columbia College. Sakey approached Konrath seeking guidance. He wanted what most aspiring writers want: the key to writing and selling a book.

Konrath, who teaches classes at College of DuPage when he's not writing and selling his own books, gave it to him straight, telling Sakey that if he really wanted to write and sell a book, he should dump the books and write a book. 

Sakey, an advertising writer, took Konrath's against-the-grain advice and ran with it. He quit school and turned his focus to completing the novel that he'd begun in one of his MFA classes. 

About a year later, he had his book. Not just any book, but a good one. A ''really'' good one. So good, in fact, that a bidding war erupted over it.

Now that book, The Blade Itself (St. Martin's Minotaur), a crime thriller set in Chicago, hits bookstores everywhere Jan. 9. 

And early signs suggest that Sakey might just breakthrough and make it big. His book is getting the kind of pre-publication hype to which all authors aspire. Publisher’s Weekly calls The Blade Itself, “brilliant...a must read”, and Library Journal wrote, “What a thrilling ride Sakey has concocted.” In January, Entertainment Weekly is set to chip in. Lee Child, George Pelecanos and T. Jefferson Parker have already sung the book's praises.

Sakey's quick rise to success is a story in itself, and it's one that any aspiring writer could learn from and find hope in.

Read the interview at chicagowrites.org.