A friend of mine walked up to me at a party holding my novel Sorry and Morticum in his hand. With a straight face, he asked me why anyone would read a book in this day and age when there are so many other media options.
I cringed; my throat constricted. I studied his eyes to make sure he was the same person I thought I knew. I mentally lowered him three positions on my speed dial. I answered:
“There is no comparison with any other media to the relationship a reader has with a book. It’s like having a friend who always has something he wants to tell you. In this busy, complicated world, it is a private, uninterrupted thought. The reader gets to interpret all the words himself, what the characters look like, their interactions, their feelings, not have them spelled out for you by the director of a movie. The reader gets to experience the limits of the author’s imagination and take on life, and in fact, forms a kind of friendship with an author he likes. I have always enjoyed hanging out with good friends. I feel comfortable with them and the comical ways they interpret their own lives always amuses me. A book can also be a friend that provides a starting point for good feeling.”
His question made me look at the reasons I write books. Mostly, it’s to share the incredible experiences I’ve had in a rather ordinary life. I want to provoke your mind and make you feel something that you don’t feel every day, something to get you excited about life again. It’s my way of saying I love you to the world at large. I know that when I write, there is a chance of reaching the souls of my readers and in so doing, possibly pull that thread that runs through all of us a little tighter. I believe the world will always respect the author that tells the true st story. That is all I hope to do.
I wrote Enigma, discovering the moments that form your life in 2014 to explore the real moments in our lives that determine who we eventually become. It isn’t just the weddings and big promotions. Sometimes it’s a difficult choice we have to make or the way we choose to look at something.
In 2015, I wrote The Time Thief to unravel the concept of time. Because I have seen the effect of having very headstrong personalities come together with unexpected results, I used five very determined main characters whose combination can end wars.
Sorry and Morticum was written in 2016 to discover the limits of my imagination. An aging wizard and his werewolf husband must clean up the mess in Daytona a thousand years hence. Working with Mutmuts, Freemonkeys, mutants, sea sprites and twelve foot cockroaches, they must restore civilization.
I hope my novels provide a little more than just entertainment, but also leave my readers with a new thought to consider or possibly even a new perspective on life. My wish is that you enjoy them all and make them friends of yours.
