Virtual Tour & #Giveaway for Beautiful Mess by John Herrick

Welcome to my stop on the Virtual Tour, presented by Goddess Fish Promotions, for Beautiful Mess by John Herrick.  Please leave a comment or question for John to let him know you stopped by.  You may enter his tour wide giveaway by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.  You may follow all of the stops on the tour by clicking on the banner above.  The more stops you visit the better your odds of winning.  Good Luck!

THE GENIUS AND TRAGEDY OF A BLOND BOMBSHELL

To some, she was beloved. To others, she was a joke.

But Marilyn Monroe was never ignored.

She’s become a piece of Americana, one of the most celebrated—and tragic—figures in pop culture. In those pieces of specialty art we all recognize, she’s earned herself a barstool beside Elvis Presley and James Dean at the Gone-Too-Soon Saloon.

Why does she continue to fascinate us today?

Perhaps because we’ll never know what might have been.

Marilyn’s film career lasted 15 years, from a minor part in Dangerous Years (1947) to her portrayal of a divorcee in The Misfits (1961). Personally, I rank The Seven-Year Itch among my list of Top 10 favorite films. She died while filming George Cukor’s Something’s Got to Give with Dean Martin, a project that went unfinished. On August 5, 1962, her life was cut short.

Watch Marilyn’s films and you’ll find a range of emotional capacity, from her famous bubbly demeanor to the determination in her blue eyes in The Prince and the Showgirl when she toasts President Taft.

Her official cause of death was suicide via barbiturate overdose. But speculation abounds, with one conspiracy theory winding all the way to the Kennedy White House.

Marilyn died at the top of her game. Tragedy thwarted the opportunity to fail. While many actors and actresses watch their limelight fade as they mature, that never happened to Marilyn Monroe. When it comes to her career, we only know the celebration.

What could have been?

She possessed savvy marketing instincts. The persona she maintained—the bubbliness, the platinum-blond hair, the sex appeal—was her claim to fame. It opened doors. But like Madonna, another twentieth-century marketing mastermind, Marilyn considered her persona not her destination, but her vehicle for getting there.

In her heart, Marilyn Monroe knew she was an artist.

Marilyn was deeply insecure. You might trace its roots to feelings of rejection that resulted from spending time in an orphanage and most of her childhood separated from her mother. She never knew the identity of her father. And Marilyn married too young, before she identified who she was.

She craved acceptance. Creative people are prone to that, as I can attest. And the fact that many of her peers in Hollywood didn’t respect her talent disturbed her. She recognized the potential that lay beneath the surface and fought to bring it to light.

An avid reader, a thinker, she married author and playwright Henry Miller, with whom she wanted to mother a child. On every set, she retained an acting coach to help her improve.

Marilyn was also a pioneer, one of Hollywood’s first female producers. Her Marilyn Monroe Productions produced The Prince and the Showgirl.

When I considered these things, it made sense to me that she might try writing a screenplay of her own. An emotional outlet for her intellectualism, for the pain of rejection, for the paranoia that must have engulfed her after being locked in a mental institution.

Those musings formed the impetus for my novel, Beautiful Mess.

Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn’s second husband, fought behind the scenes to free her from the mental institution. DiMaggio was one of the few who knew the true Marilyn. He recognized the beauty and the tragedy of this woman who experienced the messiness of life in inordinate proportions. A handful of others knew her, too. My protagonist, Del Corwyn, serves as a fictional example.

So what might have been?

None of us knows for sure. But with Beautiful Mess, I asked that question and tried to craft a plausible answer. And in doing so, I gave my best shot to capture the Marilyn Monroe we celebrate—and the Marilyn Monroe that lay trapped inside her own heart.

Beautiful Mess is a romantic comedy with a dose of tragedy. A celebration of life, fiction and one of Hollywood’s greatest legends. I hope you’ll give it a read.

Thanks for letting me stop by! You can find out more about Beautiful Mess and my other books at my website, www.johnherrick.net and on my socials. I love hearing from people!

Beautiful Mess

By John Herrick

Beautiful Mess, Book 1

Publisher: Segue Blue

Release Date: July 30, 2017

Genre: Romantic Comedy/Mainstream Fiction

Length: 295 Pages

ISBN: 978-0991530960
ASIN: B07119JLBY

Buy Links:  Amazon | B&N | IndieBound

About the book:

A fallen star. Four Los Angeles misfits.
And the Marilyn Monroe you only thought you knew.

Del Corwyn is an aging relic. An actor who advanced from errand boy to Academy Award nominee, Del kept company with the elite of Hollywood’s golden era and shared a close friendship with Marilyn Monroe. Today, however, he faces bankruptcy.

Humiliated, Del is forced to downgrade his lifestyle, sell the home he's long cherished, and fade into a history of forgotten legends—unless he can revive his career. All he needs is one last chance. While searching through memorabilia from his beloved past, Del rediscovers a mysterious envelope, dated 1962, containing an original screenplay by Marilyn Monroe—and proof that she named him its legal guardian.

Del surges to the top of Hollywood’s A-list overnight. But the opportunity to reclaim his fame and fortune brings a choice: Is Del willing to sacrifice newfound love, self-respect and his most cherished friendship to achieve his greatest dream?

A story of warmth, humor and honesty, Beautiful Mess follows one man's journey toward love and relevance where he least expects it—and proves coming-of-age isn't just for the young.

EXCERPT

“In that case, the first thing we need to do is establish its authenticity. I’ll get the proof lined up and we’ll keep it in our back pockets. Next, we’ll hold a press conference to announce the existence of the screenplay—but let the press speculate about whether it’s authentic. We’ll hem and haw for a while, tease them a bit, make them think they have us cornered.”

         

Del didn’t want to look like a fool in public, regardless of how temporary or intentional, but he was willing to hear the rest of the idea. He stroked his chin and clasped his hands upon his chest. “And what happens next?”

“Then, when attention is at its peak, we release the evidence. It’ll be good for another round of marketing. So instead of releasing the evidence at the first news conference, we’ll get twice the bang for our buck.”

“Makes sense to me.” Del felt much more at ease. He exhaled and took a swig of water. The bottle’s thin plastic crackled in his grip.

“We’ll need some time to strategize this while the thumbprints are verified. I know a guy who can get it done under the radar. Meanwhile—and I’m sure you know this, but I’ll stress it anyway—don’t breathe a word of this until the day of our big announcement. Not to the media, the studio people, producers—not even to the chef at your sushi restaurant. The element of surprise will strengthen our bargaining position. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Arnie exhaled, as though in relief, and scratched his bald head. His fingers left behind red streaks. “This is big, Del.”

Del’s pulse increased with anticipation, yet he maintained his composure. He finished his water and crumpled the bottle.

‘Big’ didn’t do it justice.

This wasn’t just Marilyn’s final chance.

It was Del Corwyn’s, too.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

A self-described “broken Christian,” John Herrick battled depression since childhood. In that context, however, he developed intuition for themes of spiritual journey and the human heart.

Herrick graduated from the University of Missouri—Columbia. Rejected for every writing position he sought, he turned to information technology and fund development, where he cultivated analytical and project management skills that helped shape his novel-writing process. He seized unpaid opportunities writing radio commercial copy and ghostwriting for two nationally syndicated radio preachers.

The Akron Beacon Journal hailed Herrick's From the Dead as “a solid debut novel.” Published in 2010, it became an Amazon bestseller. The Landing, a semifinalist in the inaugural Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, followed. Publishers Weekly predicted “Herrick will make waves” with his novel Between These Walls.

Herrick's nonfiction book 8 Reasons Your Life Matters introduced him to new readers worldwide. The free e-book surpassed 150,000 downloads and hit #1 on Amazon's Motivational Self-Help and Christian Inspiration bestseller lists. Reader response prompted a trade paperback.

His latest novel, Beautiful Mess, folds the legend of Marilyn Monroe into an ensemble romantic-comedy.

Herrick admits his journey felt disconnected. “It was a challenge but also a growth process,” he acknowledges. “But in retrospect, I can see God's fingerprints all over it.”

Website: www.johnherrick.net

Facebook: www.facebook.com/johnherrickbooks

Twitter: www.twitter.com / @JohnHerrick

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/johnherrick

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