Do you have any tips for readers?

When it comes to reading my books, readers need to take their time and really focus on the story. My books are complex. I’m not going to shy away from that. They’re written at a higher level than most other writers. I’ve said it before that they’re very descriptive and detail oriented so you’ve got to pay attention. If you don’t have the time, you may want to wait to read my books when you can dedicate a little time here and there. If you start reading the book then put it down for a week, you’ll probably forget some important things when you start reading it again.

In a larger sense, I would encourage readers to try writers that may not necessarily be in the mainstream. There is a lot of unique talent out there that’s getting published by smaller presses or that is being self-published. It’s not all good, but then again neither is all the stuff that the mainstream writers are putting out. I would encourage readers to expand their horizons when it comes to writers. That really helps out writers who are good but don’t have the name recognition or distribution outlets that come from being published by a major publishing house. I think readers need to approach non-mainstream authors with an open mind. If you look at the work that is in the mainstream, it’s all pretty much the same. It’s really uninspiring in most cases. It’s written at a much lower level to appeal to a wide commercial audience. Writers outside the mainstream aren’t necessarily catering to a wide commercial audience, so you’ll find a much different style in many cases.

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

As a matter of fact, I do hear from my readers quite often and on a regular basis. Much of the time, readers will send me messages to tell me how much they liked or disliked the book they just finished. They’ll tell me what they thought was going to happen or what they wanted to happen. I always love the e-mails I get that tell me how I should have written the book or how I should have made one of the characters. It can be very interesting and sometimes very insightful as to where other people thought I was taking the story or what they would like to see happen. It doesn’t change anything with the book, but it’s a good way to measure if I was successful in throwing the reader off or if the red herrings worked in the mystery. And to be fair, nine times out of ten, the readers’s feedback is positive. There’s very little negativity amongst the readers.

In addition to the general comments about the book, I get a lot of questions, much like the one that I’m responding to. I guess there are really three categories that the questions fall into. First, I get the questions about upcoming books or if there’s going to be a sequel or prequel to the last book they read or if I’m working on any series of books. The majority of the questions are about the books or the characters or my writing in general. The second set of questions is usually asking for advice if they want to write a book or what other authors they may like since they’ve read all my books or how they can get their book published or how I did it and things like that. Then the third set of questions are usually a bit more personal. They want to know what I like and dislike or what I watch on TV or what I do in my free time or how they can meet me or do I have a girlfriend. They’ll get pretty personal at times too.

It’s always very flattering that readers actually take time out of their lives to reach out to me with feedback or questions. I really appreciate that. It’s real encouraging that there are people out there who like my work enough to respond and get excited about it. There’s no greater satisfaction for a writer, no greater inspiration as well, than to have a responsive and interactive group of readers, to have your book read by complete strangers and accepted as good and to have these people become fans. To have someone say they enjoy your work is the greatest thing to hear when you’re a writer. It’s so rewarding that words can’t begin to describe it. And despite the fact that I get a lot of mail from the readers, it never gets old. Believe it or not, I do read each and every one that gets sent in. I may not be able to personally respond to the readers, but I do read all the fan mail.