"Your book is really long, almost an epic."
I wasn't really going for any specific length. I wanted it to be a good size work and I knew I had to lay a good amount of pretext and background story as well. I wanted to give a great amount of detail while not letting the story get too boring so while there is a great amount of material there, I hope I was able to keep the story interesting by keeping it on the move and rarely letting characters just sit around while they watch paint dry. I wrote the book with the idea that I could let it be a stand alone , but I also wanted to give myself some room to continue the story if I chose to. Obviously, I am choosing to write more on these characters so the works following this one will not be nearly as long as most of the groundwork has already been set.
"Your book is $2.99 while some authors have chosen to make their books even less expensive."
Oddly enough, this was not really my idea. When I'd finally tested the waters on pricing, I was considering making the book very inexpensive, but then I found that because of the size, Amazon wouldn't allow me to make the book any less expensive because of the costs associate with its delivery. I actually reformatted the original release to make it slightly smaller and reloaded it to Amazon, but they still did not allow me to lower the price which is why it's still currently $2.99. Regardless of the price, I would like to think that $3 is not a huge amount to ask for my work considering its size and I also feel that the overall quality is relatively good when compared to other independent authors. If in the future I am allowed to lower the price on RH, I will seriously consider it. BN.com doesn't put such constraints on pricing, but for the sake of continuity, I left that pricing the same to match Amazon. I am considering a BN only sale where I price the book even lower, but I am trying not to isolate my fans who use a Kindle.
"Do you think your book is being looked at in an unfavorable light considering the article you wrote about Casey Anthony?"
In some circles, maybe. I've made it well known that I don't always say things that are popular among certain crowds, but the book has absolutely nothing to do with Casey Anthony. It was thought of and written well before the verdict made the news. I think less than a few pages in, people will see that it has no connection whatsoever. I occasionally write up articles on current events. They are separate from my novels. I doubt I will ever write a book on a topic such as Casey Anthony as that's not really my style. I can write up a few pages about it, but after that, I tend to get bored with it. I thought the article I wrote was good, but it's far from perfect. I'm not saying that my views are the be all, end all of the way people should look at it. I was just trying to make the point that we all have our own opinions on it. Another was that we need to do our own research and then perhaps come to a decision on how we feel about it. There was irony in the article to a certain extent, but people didn't seem to understand that.
"What about the death threats?" (followup to previous question)
I'm not worried about it. I seriously doubt that anyone would try to hurt me. If they did, they would just be tarnishing their own cause. There is nothing wrong with feeling passionate about a cause. I've felt that way about things that I've seen and heard of, but never to the point where I considered killing someone. That just seems completely unreasonable to me. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm not violent by nature. I would rather hug someone than strike them. As with many things in life, we should simply agree to disagree. I don't dislike anyone for having a different opinion than I do. Kind of like people getting at me for saying things that they think are mean and rude. You may think it's ride, but I don't. We just see it that way. I'm not trying to tell you that you should be like me, yet people still feel the need to tell me that I am falling out of the social norms by saying certain things. At the same time, I have others telling me that if I am pissing people off with my words then I am doing something right. I don't say mean things to get a response from people, but some are going to think that way regardless. People have said means things to me and I am ok with that. I think one difference could be that at least I feel I know who I am. I know I'm not easy to get along with and I know that bowing out of a friendship or relationship would be better for certain people in my life. Up till now I've made it well known that I know I am at least a little crazy. At least I admit that. I think it's also good that I at least admit that I come across as an ass sometimes when compared to other people's ideas on social standards. If I am an ass, so be it. I am what I am. People either tend to love me or hate me. If you choose to threaten my life or to severe ties with me if I do not change, then just save yourself the breath and do it. If someone chooses to separate themselves from me, there isn't much I can do about it, now is there.
"4 a guywho writes bad poetry and blogs out of boredom, U sound terribly interesting." (Via twitter)
I don't think I am all that interesting. I'm just a guy who says things that cause a stir. I don't wake up in the morning and think to myself about what I should do to piss people off. As far as poetry goes, I know I'm not great, but I like to play around with the format. Some people have told me that my poetry is quite good, but I am my own worst critic. I am the same way with my novels. I suppose I owe my small, poetic accomplishments to a handful of poets...people such as John Keats, Billy Collins, and Emily Dickinson. I also looked at a work by Stevie Smith call "Not Waving, but Drowning." In it, she alludes to suicide and speaks about what one person sees, another might not and so on. As far as blogging, I really do get rather bored at times so I type up articles on various topics. Some are good, some are not so good.
"Are any of your characters based on real life people?"
I wouldn't say they are based wholly on a single person. When I was coming up with the characters, it was very much on the fly. I simply thought to myself what would someone in this situation do in regards to a certain circumstance? I wanted the characters to have a very human side to them. I didn't want these characters to be perfect or come across as "Holier than thou" or anything like that. I wanted them to be people you could possibly know. In a way, they are all small extensions of me. John is obviously quite calm in a lot of cases unless things go absolutely haywire in which case a disturbed reaction is understandable. If he stayed perfectly calm during say a nuclear attack, that would seem a little odd. Emily is quite different from John. She tends to be a little more off the cuff and direct while John tries to be a little more diplomatic. She has a mouth on her, but not to the point where you question her intellect. Chris is kind of like how I see most twenty-somethings in this world. They are looking to dig in their heels and get their life started, but it doesn't always work out. They lack the wisdom that someone even a 5-10 years older than them has. Trevor is somewhat similar to Chris in that he is also in his twenties, goes to college, and thinks he knows exactly what he wants. Like Chris, he also is often blindsided by things that he doesn't see coming, but not because he keeps his eyes closed to them. He just never thinks certain great things could ever happen to him and when they do, he loses his cool because he doesn't know what the next steps are. He's never been through them so he is flying blind in a sense.
Look for part 2 to the questions and comments on RH.
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