Let's call the Harry Potter series what it is: a freakin' publishing phenomenon. It truly blows my mind how big this series got. Folks of all ages are very serious about their Harry Potter. It's almost scary. I have to admit I've never read any of the books. People have already deemed me crazy because of this fact. As a result, I feel like I almost have to read at least one. How can I say I've never read one Harry Potter book? I did try a long time ago, but couldn't get through the first one. Perhaps I didn't try hard enough. But I do wonder how well the seventh book concludes the series. Fans out there can let me know.

Anyway, as HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS breaks sales records, there's a new series published by Simon & Schuster that's being hailed as the Black Harry Potter.

THE MARVELOUS EFFECT by 28-year-old Troy CLE (pictured left) is book one of the Marvelous World Saga. It's about 13-year-old Louis Proof, an around-the-way kid who has just awakened from a three-month coma to find the world he loves in total disarray. The young hero, who eventually comes across some special powers, is forced to set things straight. About his book, Troy CLE describes the tale as, "What you get when you take classical literary and philosophical themes and merge them with pop culture, video games and hip-hop."



I met CLE at BookExpo back in May. He doesn't necessarily embrace the claim that his series is the Black Harry Potter, because he wants it to have its own identity. But, he told me that he has pretty much planned his life around it. He began plotting the books at age nine. Yes, age nine. His inspiration was Steven Spielberg's children's adventure and cult classic The Goonies. "There were no black Goonies, but I still loved the movie," he said. "In order for my dream movie to be a fantasy like that, someone would have to take the time to write it. I made sure that someone was me."

CLE centered his education around gaining skills to write the book series and bring it to film. He studied English, minored in education and went on to get a masters degree in digital design.

He eventually self-published THE MARVELOUS EFFECT, and has already written several of the books from the series. So he hustled the book at places like the Harlem Book Fair. His hustling paid off when he was offered a six-figure book deal from Simon & Schuster who published THE MARVELOUS EFFECT in May. The hustling doesn't stop. CLE's working hard to make the film(s) a reality.

The East Orange, New Jersey native and NYU graduate said about his recent success, "Coming from where I'm from, you're not really expected to do anything like this. I couldn't find any action hero kids who looked like me in popular literature. That's what sparked me to write this book. I just got lucky in that being true to myself was something that was commercially viable to the mainstream. I'm showing people that if you have a dream and you don't give up, you can really achieve it. That's what I want the kids who read THE MARVELOUS EFFECT to walk away with."