Clarke, Will 1969–

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Clarke, Will 1969–

PERSONAL: Born August, 1969, in Shreveport, LA. Education: Louisiana State University, B.S., 1993; Southern Methodist University, studied creative writing.

ADDRESSES: Home—Dallas, TX. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Simon and Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Advertising copywriter and creative director. McCann-Erickson, advertising director; DDB Worldwide, former creative director. MiddleFinger Press, Dallas, TX, publisher.

AWARDS, HONORS: Gold Addy, for television advertising for Attorneys.com; London Advertising Award.

WRITINGS:

Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort Of), MiddleFinger Press (Dallas, TX), 2002.

The Worthy (novel), MiddleFinger Press (Dallas, TX), 2003.

(Editor with Harry Hunsicker) Don't Abuse the Muse: The Middlefinger Press Mixed Tape of Fiction and Reality, MiddleFinger Press (Dallas, TX), 2004.

ADAPTATIONS: A film option to Lord Vishnu's Love Handles was sold to Paramount Pictures.

SIDELIGHTS: First-time author Will Clarke self-published his novel, Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort Of), and then sold it through the online services of his own Web site and through Amazon. From there, sales picked up and the book was ultimately brought to the attention of Paramount Studios and film producer Michael London. With sale of the film rights, the novel was sold to New York City publisher Simon & Schuster in 2005. One of a small number of self-publishing success stories, Lord Vishnu's Love Handles is a tale, as described by Robert Wilonsky for the Dallas Observer Online, "about a shallow, golf-loving, booze-swilling Lakewood [an exclusive Dallas suburb] dot-commer named Travis Anderson who is cursed with being able to read and influence minds even as he loses his." Wilonsky further noted, "It's Kurt Vonnegut by way of Alfred Hitchcock, a screwy comic thriller involving CIA agents, vacuous Lakewood dinner parties, wives who cheat with their spouse's business partners, albino wannabe vampires who could either be brother and sister or lovers, an apocalypse that threatens to destroy Disney World and a holy man who believes himself 'death,' shatterer of worlds." When Anderson gets into trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, he agrees to allow the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to tap into his miraculous brain, locating missing persons in exchange for the agency taking care of the five million dollars in back taxes he owes. Part of the reason for Anderson's financial troubles is that his partner, Reed, when not busy having an affair with Anderson's wife Shelby, has been using tax money to fund his cocaine habit. Even as Anderson's tax problems begin to dissipate following his devil's bargain with the CIA, new urgencies take their place, including his wife's possible pregnancy and the sudden appearance of a blue god in Anderson's life. In short, according to Wilonsky, Lord Vishnu's Love Handles is a "work of anarchic satire."

Other reviewers tended to affirm this assessment. For a Kirkus Reviews critic, Clarke's book is a "chaotic but often amusing first novel." Bob Lunn, reviewing Lord Vishnu's Love Handles for Library Journal, similarly noted that "Clarke is adept at pushing all the buttons—middle-aged angst, religious yearning, [and] a careening, breakneck plot." Less impressed was a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, who felt that the "overblown" climax "finally pushes the book from campy and fun to silly and showy." Mike Shea, reviewing the work in Texas Monthly, allowed that Lord Vishnu's Love Handles is "flawed," and that "its slapstick action makes for a story that's broader than it is deep." However, Shea also felt that "a spoof this promising is cause to celebrate."