HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It’s such a fascinating question! And even more fascinating to look back on it now, and maybe wonder: How did I know?
Or…what was I thinking?!
I still insist I would have been a great rock star except for my unfortunate and ineducable lack of talent. But we persevere.
And talk about persevering! With the hilarious and wonderful Marshall Karp, the world may have lost a brilliant and tooth-saving "Dr. Karp," but it gained a brilliant writer.
(And read on for the giveaway!)
SO… WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?
I always wanted to be a writer.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. If you check my high school yearbook, you’ll see that my classmates all signed it with variations of “Good luck in dental school, Marshall.”
That’s right—despite my passion for writing, and ignoring the fact that I have all the manual dexterity of a drunken monkey, I decided that the world (i.e., my parents) would be happier if I became a dentist.
But the world lucked out. I flunked Biology 101 in college, started writing for the school newspaper, and co-opted my girlfriend’s dream to go into advertising.
I was hired as a junior copywriter and handed my first assignment: Rewrite the label on a can of Empress tuna fish.
I put my heart and soul into that label, and when I was done, the client bought it, and I thought, “Nailed it! I’m on my way.”
That may not sound like a career highlight to you, but I believe that humble beginnings should be preserved.
I quickly worked my way up from canned seafood to major television campaigns for blue-chip clients. My work won awards. I got plum assignments. And then I was promoted. Top of the ladder. Corner office. Cool title. It sounds like a highlight, but my new job was to oversee a hundred-person creative department. Translation: I was being paid not to write.
I was pretty good at it, but the closer I got to 40, the more I was haunted by those five words that so many of us mutter as we wander through that unsettling neighborhood known as midlife.
Is this all there is?
So I set my alarm for four every morning and wrote a play, a comedy called Squabbles. It was produced, which got the attention of the TV networks, and within a few years I traded Madison Avenue for Hollywood. I wrote and produced TV sitcoms, a feature film, and worked with a lot of fascinating, talented people.
And then I came back to New York to face the ultimate challenge: Write a book. I sat down at the keyboard, stared at the blank screen, and started to type. Chapter 1.
I thought The Rabbit Factory would take six months. Ha! A year went by. Then two. Then three. But I had seen a quote from the writer Richard Bach that inspired me.
He said, “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”
So I kept slogging along. Five years into the slog, I got the phone call every writer dreams about. “Marshall, we’d like to publish your book.” (Major highlight!)
But before I could cross “write book” off my bucket list, the publisher added, “And we’d like the next one in the series.”
I wrote three more and got another phone call. “Hello, Marshall. It’s James Patterson. You want to cowrite a book with me?”
I said, “I’ll think about it, Jim.” Just kidding—you can imagine what I said.
Two years later, James called again. “Congratulations,” he said. “You’re a #1 New York Times bestselling author.”
And just when I thought it can’t possibly get any better than this, I pitched an idea to James. A handpicked squad of NYPD cops who answer the call whenever a crime is committed against New York City’s rich and famous. An elite task force called NYPD RED.
He loved it. And so did millions of readers. We wrote six NYPD RED books together, and then James passed the torch to me to continue writing the series on my own.
The new one is called NYPD RED 7: THE MURDER SORORITY. Last spring, I asked Hank Phillippi Ryan to read it, and she came back with a glowing review that included such phrases as “Marshall Karp is a genius storyteller,” “absolute must-read,” and “the essence of entertainment.”
It’s hard to read words like that without thinking, “I wonder what font I should use for the tattoo?”
Publishers Weekly agreed with Hank, giving RED 7 a coveted starred review and calling it “the best yet in the series.”
That’s it. The highlights of one writer’s career—so far. And to think it all started with a can of tuna.
HANK: Wow. What a voyage. Marshall gave up a successful career in advertising to follow his dream.
What major life decision life change decision did YOU make, and did it pay off?
(Or: what’s your secret to perfect tuna salad?)
(Or, as the title asks: What did YOU want to be when you grew up?)
PLUS: I wanna know what the tuna slogan was!
And Marshall is giving away a signed hardcover copy of NYPD RED 7 OR an NYPD RED 7 Challenge Coin to one lucky commenter he’ll choose at random.
(US residents only, sorry you all!)
MARSHALL KARP is an international #1 bestselling author, TV and screenwriter, and playwright. Working with James Patterson, Marshall co-created and cowrote the NYPD Red series. After six bestsellers, Marshall has carried the series forward on his own, beginning with NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority. Marshall is also the author of Snowstorm In August, as well as the critically acclaimed Lomax and Biggs novels, featuring LAPD Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. For over twenty years he has worked closely with the international charity Vitamin Angels, providing tens of millions of mothers and children around the globe with lifesaving vitamins and nutrients. More at WWW.KarpKills.com
NYPD RED 7: THE MURDER SORORITY.
FINDING A SINGLE ASSASSIN IN A CITY
OF NINE MILLION PEOPLE IS DAUNTING.
FINDING FIVE IS A NIGHTMARE.
Lower Manhattan: A sniper’s bullet ends the life of a high-profile New Yorker. Five miles uptown, a second prominent victim has his throat slashed.
And that’s only the beginning. A network of professional assassins is on the loose in New York City. Trained by the US military, they’re on their own now, with a new unit called Kappa Omega Delta. Killers On Demand.
NYPD Red detectives Kylie MacDonald and Zach Jordan are called in to hunt them down, but these mercenaries are as gifted in the art of escape as they are in snuffing out lives.
It’s the biggest professional challenge the Red team has ever faced, and before it’s over, both Kylie’s and Zach’s personal lives will change. Forever.
