Some musings and response to private emails.

Ok, so the London Book Fair has a profile page. Guess that speaks to the amount of people that are attending. It is more than a month away and there are already over 300 authors attending. Crazy! The profile is kind of cool as it lets you interact with others in a much more dynamic environment.

On another note the book went live in the United Kingdom as well. So it is across the pond and will no doubt generate a few more private emails! Some have been very nice and others well…guess the old saying “discovery is to be disowned” is true. Too which I say “Its Fiction!” Yes it is close to some truths but all good fiction is!

Some words about my writing style and layout. Yes I am aware that it is 2011 and prologues went out of favour years ago. In defence the main character Rhys Munroe is someone you won’t initially like. You will grow to like him trust me. But if I had started the book at the bar like I had originally, many of you would have put it down after the first chapter. So I needed to provide you a context for our broken antihero. Give you a reason to keep discovering who he is and why he is. As for my usage of the English language I am proudly Canadian and proud of our mixed French/English heritage and so I wrote using the language of the land. This is not a slight to our neighbours to the south. Just drop a few of the “U’s” and keep reading.  Finally on setup. I get the standard rationale that you create great characters and put them in conflict and let the reader dress the stage. I know many of you read fiction for this exact purpose so you can exercise your creative muscle giving the location a feel and colour as you go. What I set out to do was different. I wanted to force you into the world Rhys Munroe lives in. Make you see it and feel it from his perspective. Force you into his reality tunnel. I tell you the colours, and the vibe because I want you to truly understand the mind of the Mercenary. Mercenaries just don’t brush their teeth and walk into an adjoining room scratching their balls and thinking about breakfast. Each transition is viewed as a threat, real or possible is the same thing. So yes I bounce tense around to keep you off-guard. I am overtly descriptive about scenes and feelings, so by the middle of the book you’re getting it. If you walk to your car and notice stuff parked differently, or you turn to look at the person leaving a shop, I have done my job. You have a small understanding of how these predators among us live. I really hope you enjoy living in the world thru 544 pages. Pages that don’t just have you arrive, magically in an African nation, or jump from place to place with the typical “We arrived in London on time, my car to the hotel was waiting and I took a moment to light a smoke.” Or  “Cape Town 1430 Jan. 1, 1999.” It would have been easier to do so and would have speeded up the pacing and shortened the book. However it isn’t real. While I understand this is a work of “fiction” the suspension of belief is a VERY small one. You will not find the Deputy Director of the CIA renting choppers on his personal Visa card.  Besides you’re not paying for the word count your paying for a book. The bigger the book the better value, and weapon should you need to brain someone on a train with it! See now your thinking like Rhys!