What motivated you to become an indie author?
I think authors have to be true to the stories that they are inspired to write. The stories in my head that wanted to come out don't match what agents or publishing houses are looking for right now. That doesn't really affect their marketability, just who is interested. By going it as an indie, I omit the agents and publishers and their attempts to find the next big thing. Instead, I market directly to readers. My Ven Zaran and Galactic Confederation stories are just the sort of thing I have always enjoyed reading - character driven science fiction like Brian Daley and A.C. Crispin's respective Han Solo Trilogies, C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith stories, Asimov's Foundation traders, etc. There is a market out there, it is all a matter of finding it. After I realized that my books that were getting good reviews from people who read them, but just weren't selling to agents or publishers (and figuring out why), going indie seemed natural. With the publishing industry in flux, this seems to be the best place to be.
What's the story behind your latest book?
My latest novel, Interlude of Pain, probably evolved out of several things. Tragedy changes us, sometimes for the better, some times for the worse. My protagonist, Ven Zaran, has a drug problem and people relying on him. What if one of the things he holds most dear, his family, is taken away? When tried like this, how will it reforge him? I had those questions in my mind and a note on his personal history that his wife died. I don't know why I wrote that. It was before I had even given him the drug problem. I felt it was something that shaped both him, and his descendants, so I kept it and used it. What resulted is a complex story of his personal journey as character driven science fiction.
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