ADjoined The destinies of two creative crusaders

ADjoined traces the development of two creative people destined to help each other meet the personal, ethical, and societal challenges posed by a world in flux.

Ted, a White male, growing up in the optimism of postwar America sees the world through rose-colored glasses, marries classmate (Kelly), has a son (Josh), and enthusiastically dives into his career as a gung-ho advertising copywriter in Chicago.
Riva, a Black Millennial female from St. Paul, Minnesota, has a more challenging childhood. Developing emotional difficulties in the wake of her parents' divorce, she finds comfort in social media, where she develops an online identity that eventually leads to an interest in copywriting.

These two disparate lives unfold separately in alternating chapters before converging in a college classroom. As teacher and student, Ted and Riva bridge their diverse life experiences with creativity, intelligence, and humor. Forming a symbiotic bond, they grapple with the ethical dilemmas facing advertising creatives engaged in a profession as all-encompassing and paradoxical as humanity itself.

ADjoined should captivate anyone involved or interested in the evolution of media, pop culture, and White/Black relations from the postwar era to the digital age.

As a copywriter and creative director, Art Novak worked at ad agencies in Boston, Chicago, and Minneapolis. Along the way, he won an Emmy, One Show pencil, and numerous other awards. He then enjoyed a successful run as proprietor of his own freelance copywriting business, The Art of Copy. This was followed by ten years as an Advertising professor at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). While there, Art was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to write his first novel, "Doglegs," and received Educator of the Year honors from the American Advertising Federation. After leaving SCAD, he wrote a second self-published novel, "The Rabbi Wore Bell-bottoms" as well as his latest novel, "ADjoined." Art's academic credentials include a B.A. in Journalism from Northwestern University and an M.A. in Advertising from Michigan State University.