In a new mb feature, authors discuss the business behind the craft: This month, journalist Tom Zoellner reveals what it took to get his first book, The Heartless Stone, into print and on to bookstores:

How did you set out to make your proposal different from what had been written in the past?
I realized quickly that unless I went to Africa to do some original reporting, this project stood little chance of being sold. So I went even deeper into debt than I already was: I put a $2,000 plane ticket on my credit card and on Dec 25, 2003, myself and a close friend of mine, who went along to take pictures, were on our way to the Central African Republic-an obscure, extremely impoverished and somewhat violent nation at the heart of Africa.

I reported what I found out about diamond smuggling. When I was there, I found myself thinking a great deal about the ring left behind from my broken engagement. I kept dreaming about my ex-fiance. I was taking an anti-malarial, and anyone's who's ever taken this will tell you that it lends itself to very frightening, strange, surreal dreams that-nevertheless-seem so real. That broken engagement kept occurring to me. The shadow of it was looming large.

More here. And you can read an excerpt from Tom's book here!