AN
INTRODUCTION
TO
JOHN COWART
Although Stephen King hardly ever loses a night's sleep worrying that
John Cowart will surpass him as America's best selling writer, I do have a few
accomplishments in the field.
Several of my book manuscripts have sold in the past few years:
. &
BOOKS . &
In 1989, Men of Valor, a history of the Jacksonville Fire
Department, was published by the Jacksonville Fire Museum.
In 1991, my collective
biography, People Whose Faith Got Them Into Trouble, was published by
InterVarsity Press, an evangelical publishing house established at Cambridge
University in 1877.
Why Don't I Get What I Pray For?, IVP, came out in 1993. .
Sections which I wrote have appeared in several other books including His
Mysterious Ways, III, a Guideposts anthology; and People Sharing Jesus, a
Baptist handbook, released by Thomas Nelson & Sons Publishers in 1995. .
In June, I received word that Verlag, Schultz & Gerth has published
German editions of both People Whose Faith... and Why Don't I Get...
. Translations of these two books into
Indonesian are also in the works.
Also, I have just finished writing a novel, Glog, about a dinosaur
who lives in the present-day Chesapeake Bay area where he avoids contact with
humans, eats tons of muskrats, and prays for divine guidance. .
My
wonderful published works appeared – then disappeared without a ripple.
They
have long been out of print but I am in the process of reissuing these and more
recent works thru Lulu Press, an on-demand publisher.
The fun and minor successes of my work so far feels great! Makes me
happy. But as John Steinbeck once said, "The profession of book-writing
makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business".
I agree!
BUGGED INTO WRITING
Getting fired from a good job in 1977 pushed me into a writing career.
For six years I had worked for the Duval County Mosquito Control Board where I
grew mosquitoes for test purposes. A budget cut caused 18 of us to be laid off.
I found myself unemployed and -- well, there's no great demand for people who
know how to grow mosquitoes.
Realizing that other people might face a similar dilemma, I wrote a
magazine article about coping with unemployment.
It sold!
But not for much -- so I wrote other articles about coping with
poverty... That's how I got started.
For the past 18 years, working as a free lance writer, I have supported
a family of six -- Er, make that barely, meagerly supported.
MAGAZINES
My magazine and newspaper articles have included subjects ranging from
marriage advice for brides and grooms
to neurosurgical equipment for brain surgeons; from Alzheimer's sufferers to
Zoo computers; from biographies of Christian saints to profiles of successful
businessmen.
Two of my magazine articles won awards from the Evangelical Press
Association, and one was nominated for a Penney-Missouri Award.
For several years I have been invited to teach professional seminars at the Florida First Coast Writers' Conference.
The single honor which pleases me most as a writer is that a few years ago I wrote a profile of a young interior decorator for a business journal. When he died of AIDS, his parents liked that business article so much that they asked their pastor to read sections of it at his funeral.
Over 12 million readers world-wide have been exposed to my writing in such newspapers and magazines as:
Some of these articles have been transcribed into Braille or translated into as many as 11 foreign languages. A dozen or so of my articles have been broadcast nationally as radio scripts. I have written a weekly newspaper column and I'm a life member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
I have also written a science fiction adventure novel which has not sold
-- Yet.
The single theme which I want readers to remember most when they put
down anything I wrote -- no matter what
the specific subject -- is: There Is Hope.
Since writing is such a strenuous occupation, as hobbies I garden and
build model sailing ships in bottles.
I COME TO THE GARDEN ALONE…
Have to… Can’t get my kids to mow.
For further information please
contact:
John W. Cowart
2805 Ernest Street
Jacksonville, Florida
32205
Thank you for visiting www.cowart.info
I welcome your comments at John’s Blog!
You can E-mail me at cowart.johnw@gmail.com
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You can view my published works at