Actor, fitness model, personal trainer and author John Prather released his first fictional book, The Nephilim Virus, in 2018. In it an ancient virus has infected two-thirds of the world’s population. The main character, Nick, may have the cure.
We took time with Prather to not only talk more about his book but also have him model for the April/May 2018 cover of Faith & Fitness Magazine and talk about how his faith in God helps him to ride high in his career, physical fitness and family life.
It turns out the virus in his thriller isn’t the only thing that’s contagious. In #ourpartycalledlife he wants to help you see that joy in Christ is not just communicable – it can go viral.
MY STORY AND MY STORY
I’m one of those crazy people that moved out to LA. I threw a bunch of clothes in the back of my truck when I was twenty-eight years old and drove out here without any kind of home or job or prospects or any idea of what I was doing whatsoever. So, it has been quite an adventure. I always knew that I was going to move to LA. I always felt that this is where I was supposed to be.
I did a little bit of modeling and acting in Memphis. One of my buddies in college told me, “Hey if you want to make some extra money, I can hook you up with my agent.” So, I did a couple of small time modeling things there, got into fitness modeling just a little bit.
Then when I moved to LA, I looked into getting an agent to get going full time. I did the modeling at first, which led to working with Men’s Health Magazine, GQ, People Magazine and Muscle & Fitness regularly.
As an actor, I’ve done commercials and television. My agent sent me on an audition shortly after I moved here for a commercial where I played a super hero. I had no idea what I was doing. I showed up at the audition, went to the wrong room and got yelled at by the casting director. Yet, I ended up booking it and it all grew from there.
Here in LA I do a little of this and a little of that. I’ve always been a writer. So, writing the book, The Nephilim Virus, was just a natural progression for me because I’ve written so many stories and parts of manuscripts over the years. I decided a few years ago that I needed to stop being the person that says, “I’m going to write a book” and be the person who could say, “I wrote one.” Then I decided I could be the person who could get one published.
For quite some time I’ve had a story idea about a blood virus that infects most of the world. I kept the plot in the back of my mind but never knew how I wanted to develop it. Then one day I was leading a Bible study. It had nothing to do with the book but my mind was wandering I suppose because it was late at night. I started thinking about a couple of Bible verses in Genesis that talk about the Nephilim [the offspring of the “sons of God” and the “daughter of men”, interpreted to be fallen angels according to some classical Judaic explanations. –Wikipedia].
I started batting that around in my mind and had the idea of bringing these historical creatures back to life. So I traced them through history and used them as the dispensers of the virus. So, the idea grew from there.
The story is about this guy who wakes from a coma that he has been in for three years. He realizes that during that time the world has completely changed. This virus has taken over every thing and infected about two thirds of the world’s population. It kills a lot of people. Others however become these crazy creatures with animalistic tendencies who wipe everything out. Yet others become these super intelligent super-humans who are trying to take over the world. So, this is the world into which the main character Nick awakes. He doesn’t know whom to trust. He doesn’t know from where the virus has come, leaving him to trace it through history. Thus the book has a bit of a detective feel to it.
It’s a thriller. As soon as he wakes he has to go, go, go! He has to stay alive, dodge all these things coming at him and figure out why everyone seems really interested in him and his blood in particular.
Certainly there is a little bit of me in the character of Nick. Being an actor and going through the whole entertainment world here in LA, I wrote it in first-person. I want the reader to feel like they too are waking up from this coma not knowing what is happening. So they are thrown into the story along with the main character. Every character I write has a little bit of me in it. Like acting, you choose a few things and exaggerate those parts of your personality. You can really only act or write by showing parts of yourself. I think it’s the only true way to do it.
In the case of Nick I really got into his story. There were times I’d be sitting at dinner with my wife and she’d say, “I can tell you’re not here right now.” I’d apologize and then go run into the other room, write what I was going through then come back to dinner. She was very understanding — She was great!
I’m a Christian. So, everything I do comes from that worldview. I’ve always wanted to create something that engages the culture. Often Christians can tend to ban together, get in their own circles and create stuff for fellow Christians. Certainly some of that is needed. I wanted to create something that is entertaining for the person who is not a Christian. I wanted to write a book that reads like a NetFlix series or movie where they are entertained yet get a deeper meaning with themes and symbolism. The goal is that when they get to the end they have that moment where they didn’t see what was going on but now they realize what I’ve been saying the whole time.
I wanted to create something that would be great from a spiritual perspective but can also draw people who don’t identify as Christian to give them an opportunity to think about things like hope.
Hope is a main theme of the book and such a big thing to me. Even though all these terrible things are constantly happening you can see this strand of hope running throughout. I think people need that. I like to tell messages like this in a way that aren’t overt or obvious or preachy. Jesus never did that. He told stories that sometimes were in religious circles and sometimes in the public but always drew people into His message.
