William wrote Miracle
Man because of its humanistic and spiritual messages and because he feels
that in our current times--when meritless celebrity has eclipsed accomplishment
and the only heroes are those based on comic books, the world needs a real
hero--and that, of course, is Robert James Austin, the protagonist in Miracle
Man.
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Title: MIRACLE MAN
Author: William Leibowitz
Publisher: Manifesto Media Group
Pages: 385
Genre: Thriller
REVERED REVILED REMARKABLE
The victim of an unspeakable crime, an infant rises to
become a new type of superhero. Unlike
any that have come before him, he is not a fanciful creation of animators, he
is real.
So begins the saga of Robert James Austin, the greatest
genius in human history. But where did
his extraordinary intelligence come from?
As agents of corporate greed vie with rabid anti-Western
radicals to destroy him, an obsessive government leader launches a bizarre covert
mission to exploit his intellect. Yet Austin’s
greatest fear is not of this world.
Aided by two exceptional women, one of whom will become his
unlikely lover, Austin struggles
against abandonment and betrayal. But
the forces that oppose him are more powerful than even he can understand.
Miracle Man was named by Amazon as one of the Top 100 Novels
of 2015, an Amazon Top 10 thriller, an Amazon bestseller and an Amazon NY Times
bestseller.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Tell us a little about
yourself.
My full-time gig is being a
lawyer in the entertainment/media industry.
I’ve always loved the written word and had a sensitivity to language,
but in law – it’s non-fiction, of course.
As a writer, I’m interested in fiction.
When did you begin writing?
Miracle Man is my
first book. I’m pleased to say that it’s
getting a terrific response from readers.
Describe your writing process.
Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants? When and where do you write?
I plot with a detailed outline
but the outline is often in flux and is modified. I find that once I get deep into the writing,
ideas come to me that often take me in directions that I did not necessarily
anticipate when I did my outline.
Can you tell us about your most
recent release?
Miracle Man tells the story of Robert James Austin, the greatest genius in human
history (we’re talking 10X Einstein’s brain power), from the time of his birth
and tragic childhood through his extraordinary accomplishments in curing
diseases. The book is a
psychological/medical thriller with a fast paced twisting plot as Austin battles powerful forces, external and
internal, that seek to destroy him.
How did you get the idea for
the book?
I wanted to create a believable
modern day ‘super hero’ who is an ‘anti-celebrity’. I thought that such a person could be
inspirational when contrasted with the meritless celebrities that dominate
media today (e.g., the reality TV stars who are famous for being famous, but
have no real talent). I also wanted Miracle Man to be the vehicle within
which I could convey, in an entertainment context, certain spiritual and
humanistic messages that are important to me. One of the underlying themes
in Miracle Man is the sanctity of
each and every human life. As the story
of the protagonist unfolds, I think the reader will come to appreciate that one
can never predict the ramifications of one person’s death. Robert James Austin should have died as a new
born, but he was saved in the most unlikely of manners; he then went on to
change the world in extraordinary ways.
His life was not expendable. We
all are bombarded every day by statistics of death –how many people died in the
latest war, or from famine, or epidemic or other manmade or natural
cataclysm. People’s lives are jumbled
together by the media as meaningless numbers.
But what I want the reader of Miracle
Man to think about ---is the individual.
That’s why Miracle Man begins
with the quotation from Scriptures – “To destroy one life is to destroy an
entire world, and to save one life is to save an entire world.”
In writing Miracle Man, I also wanted to get readers thinking about a
real-life problem that affects us all. One of the powerful forces fighting
Bobby Austin is “Big Pharma” which views him as their enemy since he cures
diseases and thereby makes many of their “cash-cow” drugs obsolete. In short, Austin
is bad for their business. Like Austin,
I find it incomprehensible that virtually no major disease has been cured in over
50 years. How can that be the case when
so much money has been spent over the decades on research? Simply put, there’s a lot more money in
treating symptoms than there is in curing diseases. Austin
realized that Big Pharma has no interest in curing diseases. It just wants to keep on selling expensive
symptom treatments –and as we know, many people are on expensive ‘medication
maintenance programs’ for years, sometimes for life. Austin
wanted to change that. I think people
need to start questioning Big Pharma on many fronts –from the price of drugs --
to why there aren’t more cures.
Of all your characters, which
one is your favorite? Why?
My favorite is the protagonist,
Robert James Austin. Unlike him, I’m no
genius—but in developing the peculiarities of his character (he’s a complex
individual), I was able to imbue him with certain aspects of my personality
that work well to make him believable as a flawed individual. So, despite the disparity between his intelligence
and mine, we share certain behavioral traits.
What was the most challenging
aspect of writing your book?
I needed to do extensive research because of
the nature of the plot in Miracle Man. I researched two
areas: (1) the nature of human intelligence (particularly genius), and (2) diseases,
treatments, attempted cures—and the medical/scientific methodology relevant to
formulating cures. Regarding #1 – I researched the lives of actual geniuses so
that I could understand how genius manifests itself at various ages –and the
behaviors often attendant to genius.
Because Robert James Austin has an intelligence that is unique in human
history, I extrapolated from my research and “pumped up” various things about Austin so as to
reflect his extraordinary abilities. So
while I highly magnified elements of Austin’s
behavior and thought processes –they are grounded in documented realities. Regarding the medical/scientific aspects of
the book, I didn’t want to ask the reader to take giant leaps of faith when
reading Miracle Man, so I knew that in
order for the story to be credible, it had to have a plausible scientific
foundation for the ways in which Austin invented
cures and the way that the cures worked.
At the same time, however, I was mindful that I had to minimize the
science so that it didn’t bore the reader.
Which authors have inspired
your writing?
Michael Cricton, Ken Follet and
Daniel Silva.
What projects are you currently
working on?
Miracle Man is the first book
in a trilogy. I’m currently writing the
second book.
What advice would you offer to
new or aspiring authors?
Be your own toughest
critic. Set your standards high and
don’t think you’re done until you know that you’ve done the absolute best that
you can.
William R. Leibowitz is giving away one autographed copy of MIRACLE MAN, 5 e-copies and 4 pens!
Terms & Conditions:
- By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
- Ten winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive prizes.
- This giveaway ends midnight May 31.
Good luck everyone!
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