Interview: Mark T Perini

So... this really happened. Jessica and Marisa convinced an international model to visit Hot WIPs & Sassy Chicks! Enjoy and you're welcome!

Hi Mark! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jessica: Do you try to portray the book's character for a cover shoot?

Marisa: Or does someone give you direction? Do you read the arcs before the cover shoot?

Mark: Usually, when I get to a cover shoot all I know is the name of the character and the title of the book. Sometimes they have a comp. (Which is a stock photo that they use for inspiration.) Other times, the art director is there or the editor is there, and they usually give you an overview of the story and the characters arc. I don’t get to read the arcs or anything… I wish I did because there have been a lot of cool shoots I’ve done where I would really have liked to read the book. To be honest, a lot of times I don’t even see the finished product because they are shot a year before the book is actually available in print. Sometimes when I am perusing the bookstore I’ll randomly find a cover I did from a year before that I had forgotten about!

Jessica: I love the idea of you stumbling across yourself at the bookstore. Too cool! How are covers different from your other modeling work?

Mark: Cover modeling is a lot more like acting than modeling is. You have to portray a dynamic character that changes from the start of the book to the end. With print or catalogue modeling, you are portraying yourself in a static moment that the art director has dreamed up.

Jessica: What do you want to be when you grow up? (I, personally, have decided not to grow up.)

Mark: I’m with you Jessica, Neverland forever! I went to school for Business and Spanish, I had always wanted to do international relations or some sort of management consulting. Recently, I started an online custom suiting business called Stature with my cousin, so I’m a part of that. And of course, the modeling stuff has kind of given me the freedom to travel and pursue the things I always wanted to do, like writing. I would like to be a writer forever. I find that it’s freeing and for me has been an amazing creative outlet.

Jessica: When you joined our agency, I bragged how I "knew" an international supermodel. No question here, I just wanted to tell you to feel free to brag about how you know me too. ;)

Mark: Well I’ve “E-met” very few authors. So you are on a very exclusive list in my book as well!

Marisa: ...and what about that one website for that one book where you're wearing only a towel?

Mark: … I’ll point you in the right direction but I won’t give you a direct link! Click HERE to view the Wild Cards Reality Show on YouTube. I shot the cover of Wild Cards, which is an awesome book by Simone Elkeles. I portrayed Derek who is a class clown that doesn’t play by the rules, although he’d rather die than hurt the people he loves. He’s fiercely loyal but he likes to have a good time. When I finished shooting the book cover, Simone contacted me and flew me out to Chicago to film a pilot for Wild Cards. It was an amazing experience; Simone is such a great writer and an awesome person to collaborate with.

Jessica: And where would one get a poster-size--OW! (Marisa just elbowed me.) Okay, okay. I'll be good. Mark, I hear you co-author with Julie Cross. Tell us a little about the book. What's it like to write with someone else?

Mark: Hahahaha… Well, our book Halfway Perfect features eighteen-year-olds Alex and Eve so it’s New Adult, but would fit the mature YA bill just fine, too. Alex is a model on the rise, he’s living and working in NYC full time and his career is skyrocketing. Eve was that model on the brink of stardom two years early, having begun her career at fourteen years old. She vanished from the scene and is now she’s back in NYC as a photography student at Columbia University. When Eve’s photography professor offers her the chance to spend a day on the job with famed photographer, Janessa Fields, an ex-protégé of her professor, Eve doesn’t hesitate to accept this amazing opportunity. In a strange turn of events, Eve finds herself following Janessa onto the set for a Seventeen Magazine shoot. Right back in the world she has so desperately been trying to avoid. To make matters worse, one of the male models agents is none other than Wes Danes — the other half of the torrid love affair that ruined her life the first time.

To be honest working with Julie Cross has been awesome. Writing can be a really lonely undertaking so it was so nice to have someone that is just as invested as you are that you can bounce ideas off. Plus Julie let me in on all of this knowledge about the publishing world that would have taken years to glean on my own. I’m really thankful for the opportunity to be working with her.

 

Marisa: So what’s the major difference between the girls/women you’ve met as a model and the girls/women you meet as a writer?

Mark: Well right off the bat I can say the girls I’ve met being a writer are a bit better read. Honestly, I think there are a lot of similarities with the two professions, maybe more than you would think. But, both offer you a lot of freedom, the ability to be your own boss and are both pretty independent careers.

Jessica: Writing is like modeling? I love this analogy! If you had to write in a genre other than the one you're writing in now, what would it be?

Mark: I would love to write a Sci-Fi, Fantasy book. I grew up reading R.L. Stein, Harry Potter and I really loved the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Something set in a dystopia where the hero has to conquer the monster of government that’s temporarily been put in place to keep the peace. Reading this back I’m just proposing a re-write of 1984. Well that’s why it’s my favorite.


Marisa: How can fans connect with you?

Mark: I am really loving Twitter nowadays @MarkTPerini and I have an author/modeling page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/marktperini.

 

 

 

 



Oooooh! Hot WIPs & Sassy Chicks can't wait for Halfway Perfect to release! Yay, Mark and Julie!

xoxo