User Profile

I’m an author. The purpose of both the Jerol Johnson site and my Live Journal is to create a web presence that will hopefully catch the eye of a prospective editor, publisher, or agent. I have been working on this book off and on for a number of years. The first draft is completed and I am working hard to get what has turned into a painful rewrite completed.

The book has the working title of “Little Victories”. It is about a cartoonist and his wife who move back to a small town in western North Dakota after the death of their son. A friend called it “Garrison Keillor with sex, drugs, and rock n' roll” and that comes close enough. It's about coping with change and loss, and maybe a little hard-won redemption. In a way it’s the classic tale of the prodigal returning home crossed with the heart-warming look at small town America. Except this prodigal has a skewed view of the world and this view of small town America is etched in acid. It’s my world and I’ll make what I want of it.

I am an editor - or as the corporate overlords now call me, a publishing specialist. I prefer editor, it has a cache that “publishing specialist” never will. I work for a large legal publishing company and I don’t really edit anything. Right now my job consists of running programs and cajoling/supervising/befriending a bewildering group of testers/developers/programmers. It’s not sexy but it beats the hell out of working in the insurance industry. I spent ten years imprisoned in health insurance and drop to my knees everday that I escaped it. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to work in health insurance.

I am a husband, though I must confess a less-than-perfect one. Still, I have been married for 27 years, which means my wife is the most tolerant and loyal human being on the face of the earth. I am not a father of any sort, unless you count 5 Maine Coon cats and a young Swede who never answers my emails.

I am a media junkie. Our home is overflowing with CDs, DVDs, LPs, books, games, and electronics. I read whenever I can; our library is a bewildering combination of speculative fiction, mysteries and thrillers, history, classic and modern literature. We have seen the Lord of the Rings movies more times than we can count and my Netflix queue is absurdly long and about as eclectic as my book collection. I have one seriously kick-ass stereo that I will happily demo for anyone who makes the mistake of crossing the threshold of our front door. See, I really do need help.

I enjoy a good beer. OK, I better qualify that. I am a total beer snob. Don’t bother me with your tales of some mediocre lager you tried; I tried it years ago and it didn’t impress me then. I like micro brews that are both consistent and push the envelope of what beer should be. Tell me about an IPA that is only available three months a year and is only on tap if you know where to look. Yeah, I’m that kind of beer snob.

If you have followed me here from one of the boards I post on, welcome my online friends. If you’re a friend or family member in the real world, glad to see you – you owe me beer. And if you like what you see here, spread the links around. This book is not going to get published by itself.

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