The Lion's Way

Retailers Click Here

BUY NOW!

Synopsis:

The Lion�s Way is about empathy--the ultimate problem-solving tool. Juve, the story's hero, is a highly trained member of an elite, law enforcement organization, the Indomitable Lions. In his thrilling struggle between might and right, Juve is transformed from a rebel, eager to use force to achieve his ends, into a man willing to follow his principles to the point of self-sacrifice. TOP
Why do you consider empathy the ultimate tool for problem solving?

When you look at the world's most influential problem-solvers--Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.--you can't help but see that it was empathy they all advocated. We admire them because they showed us how to empathize and because we understand that they're right. We just don't follow their example often enough. Even though when we do, we enjoy remarkable results. TOP
How can empathy help deal with issues like racism, poverty, or war?

Problems like racism, poverty, or war involve conflicting needs. They are best solved by compromise. But you can't compromise unless you can empathize. And only when you honestly walk in someone else's shoes, really understand their plight, and actually feel their pain can you understand what needs to be done much less have any chance of doing what empathy requires to solve the problem. TOP
Why did you write The Lion's Way?

We wrote The Lion's Way, in the first place to tell a story and give whoever picks it up a good read. At the same time, we took on the issues raised in the story in order to instigate debate on a number of issues confronting us today. And to show how the empathy of our hero, Juve, affects these issues.

We deal with corrupt government, the erosion of civil rights, civil disobedience, and religion. Juve and his crew of Robin Hood-like insurgents rebel against a corrupt government that has been methodically eliminating the rights of its citizens. TOP
Is this your first book?

The Lion's Way is Marco Marsan's third book, his second with co-author Peter Lloyd.

Other books by Marco Marsan:Think Naked: Childlike brilliance in the rough adult world by Marco Marsan and Peter Lloyd, 2003 Who Are You When Nobody's Looking? by Marco Marsan, [date]
TOP
You are not novelist but business people. What qualifies you to tackle this subject?

We're professional problem solvers. We help companies develop new products—solve the problem of meeting consumer needs.

In our work, always looking for more effective problem-solving tools, we found that the most effective way to understand and address consumer needs was to apply the principle of empathy--to feel the consumer's pain.

It turns out that empathy can help solve all kinds of problems--whether you're dealing with consumers, employees, family, friends, neighbors... So when it came time to write our next business book, we decided to tell a story with empathy in the heart of it. TOP
What are some of the major companies you�ve problem solved for?

General Mills, Cadbury Schweppes, Lipton, Pepsi, Coors, Goodyear, Burger King, Del Monte, Pizza Hut, Gatorade, Absolut, Crayola, Clear Channel, Capital One, Universal Studios, Coca Cola, P&G, Gerber, KFC, Warner Brothers, Motorola, Quaker Oats, and many more. TOP
What prompted you to move from non-fiction into fiction?

We decided to write a novel to show rather than tell our readers what we've learned. To entertain rather than instruct.

First, we came up with an allegory along the lines of Animal Farm and then a Robin Hood-like story. But we knew we struck gold when we decided to tell the story of empathy from the point of a highly trained hired assassin fed up with the rotten government that employs him. With Juve, our main character, you can see someone grow into real empathy in action. We've populated the story with secondary characters you care about in a story that will keep you turning pages. TOP
What was it like collaborating on a novel?

We're believers in the power of collaboration. As professional innovators, we couldn't make a living without. So it was easy, because we're good at it. It was fun, because we genuinely love working together.

With collaboration you double your possibilities, if you do it right. More possibilities are always good. And we didn't stop there. We asked a lot of people for help. We could have asked more. TOP
What roles did each author play in the creation of The Lion's Way?

Marco led the overall creative process. The story line and characters were principally his ideas. He acted out many of the scenes. And he paid for everything. Marco felt the pain of The Lion's Way.

Peter brought it all to life on paper. He took Marco's rough drafts and developed them. He recorded Marco acting out scenes and turned them into dialog and narrative. He took characters and gave them depth and dimension.

We both developed the story, massaged it, and made it all come to life. TOP
The Lion's Way takes place in the future and in the past. Yet it speaks so clearly to the present. How did you achieve this?

You can't write about anything without reflecting something about your present circumstances. So we allowed the events that we imagined taking place in the future as well as those we imagined happening in the past to unfold naturally.

We did not set out to create a story like The Wizard of Oz, in which each character stands in for a contemporary figure. But we couldn't help letting some of our characters show surprising similarities to people we know or know of.

But remember, The Lion's Way is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either a product of our imaginations or are used factitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. TOP
Your story involves futuristic marvels including time travel, yet you don't call it science fiction. Why not?

Because it's not science fiction. For example, we have a high-tech device called a wayfone--a wafer you slip behind your ear and use as a hands-free cell phone. We quickly describe it and let our characters use it. A science fiction writer would give you the wayfone with a whole lot more technical detail, for example, how it works neurologically. The wayfone in a sci-fi story might also do more to drive the plot.

The science fiction writers want to make your mouth water over exactly how certain high-tech, other-worldly things work. They have to do that to satisfy the sci-fi reader. While we welcome science fiction readers, it would be unfair to pitch our story to them as science fiction. TOP
You take us to an invented future and a liberally altered past. Where do fact and fiction meet in your story?

If history repeats itself, our story is always true, probable, and believable. It's about the struggle between taking forceful action to achieve your goals or incorporating the needs and feeling of others into your plans. It's force v. cooperation with empathy as the key to getting out of the blind that makes it impossible to see that there might not be anything to fight about. TOP
How do you pronounce "Juve"?

Several of the proper names in The Lion's Way are inventions of the authors. We assumed certain pronunciation but have found that readers have assumed their own. Which is fair. Other names are from other languages and, likewise, unfamiliar.

Some readers have asked us to how to pronounce these unfamiliar names. Enough have asked that we have recorded and now offer a Pronunciation Guide. TOP