What do your fans mean to you?
This is a very good question. A reader is the life blood of the author. It's true that the writer should only write what entertains them, but it's the sharing of that work, from one mind to another, that is essential. There is no greater compliment when a person who has read your book expresses their enjoyment. Without having a fan base you are all alone in a shack on the top of a hill. With your fans there's a party in that shack which has now become a mansion.
What are you working on next?
I'm working on three new books. I'm nearing the editing stage of the fourth book in the RIVERTOWN CYCLE, and have started an Elizabethan murder mystery and a dystopian science fiction.
In the RIVERTOWN CYCLE, the worlds of Faerie and Rivertown are going to come crashing together. This will present some interesting problems for Colin and the gang.
As for the Elizabethan mystery there have been a few problems. One problem I've faced was knowledge based. To acquire knowledge of that time I've had to do a lot of research. This has created a bit of a monster where the history tends to overwhelm the plot. I'm dealing with it by writing a screen play first. A screen play tends to distill everything down into dialogue and description. After that's done, I'll use that as a map to write the book.
For the dystopian science fiction things are a little less clear. The world is a place where sex is mandatory and refusal thereof is an indictable offense. People don't have children in the normal manner anymore. You must apply through the state, then you show up at the hospital and pick the child up. A tidy world that is totally devoid of love and the essence of art. The heroes of this book are on a journey where they indeed do discover where babies do come from.
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