Q&A

Luckily, I’m not shooting for extremely young audiences.  Most of my readers should have seen an action movie already.   I do have more than a little fighting, as it is about newly appointed knights going up against whatever is out there.

I try not to be too graphic or just have random violence for violence sake.  Each battle should tell a story in itself, hopefully making a point.  If not, I can just delete those pages.

Yes, the three should be there in some capacity.  At first, they will be locked at the hip pretty much.  They’re friends, so they will want to hang out with each other even outside of work.

Many of the books characters outside of the trio will show up in later books.   I think it will be a nice treat for people dedicated to the series to see a reappearance of past player.

Since this is a series, I have time to define them with each book.  I need to educate the people about the Dark Beast fast so that they know him well by the end of the book.

Although, I don’t go absent on the three leads.  I talk about the Dark Beast through stories.  However, I let the audience get to know the trio through their interactions with others and themselves.

This is a concept that I have developed from my art teachers, mainly the painters.  I remember one of them said something to the effect of don’t draw every detail.  If you leave some empty space or vagueness in your work, you will let the viewers put themselves into the space.  By not defining the characters much outside of their personalities, I’m trying to allow the readers to fill in that void with their own imaginations.  Each person may have a different idea of how those characters should look.

Right now, I don’t see an end.  I have a very large over-arching story that can last a long time.  Plus, each of my 3 characters has their own path to go down, complete with the unexpected.  At this point, I’m committed to writing these characters as long as my audience allows me.

For now, I would like to see each of the trio have a full look into their character and complete their growth journey.  I also have some big reveals along the way.  So, as long as we can hit all of those points I will be happy.  I don’t have an actual end at the moment.  The series is made such that even though there are overarching plots, there can be a continuing adventure through the kingdom and the world.

If I had to be pinned down to a specific group, I would have to say ages 8-14.  I don’t like demographics, so I hate having to pick an age group.  Instead, I decided to write for people who don’t like to read but still appreciate plot driven stories.

Ultimately, I am trying to make books for the non-traditional reader, maybe those who don’t like to read.   It sounds a little oxymoronic, but I think there are people who would read more if they were presented with alternative writing stories.

I do. I even pass it to my wife (and son) first, who has a great eye for those things. Then, a professional English major is in order. That is one area where I am lacking. I’ll let story take precedence over grammar and good prose. I think that I would be a horrible editor of other authors' work.

No, I wanted to get moving on my project so I didn’t want to shop it around.  There’s a lot of competition out there, and it is hard enough to get a review.  I thought that it would be quicker and simpler if I completed the process via the hybrid model.

I got it professionally done.  I have decent skills in that area, but I don’t have the time.  I find the time to complete promotional work overwhelming as it is.

If I made every cover, I’d hem and haw over every art detail, just trying to get it all right.  I’d take even more time to get my books out!  Plus, the artists that I have used have done a bang up job.

I want to say all of them.   I met quite a different group of people when I was a Pizza Hut delivery guy than when I was a Mechanical Engineer.  So, all of those people go into the stew when I write.

The different type of creativity, or maybe it is the flexibility from doing all the different tasks, really opens your mind.  I had to write on about 2/3rds of the jobs as well, and not just a little.  Each of those writings could vary much from each position.  It really broadened me as how I get information across, what makes sense to different readers that might not to others.  I developed a simpler style that is a bit more straightforward.