Why should someone buy your work?
Because it's awesome. (laugh) I also donate a portion of the profit to charity.
Need even more reasons to buy my books?
Click here.
Why the name SeaMonkey Ink?
Why not? (grin) What's
not to love? I mean it's Ink squirting out of a Seamonkey.
I mean sure no one has ever witnessed such a phenomenon but that doesn't
mean it couldn't happen. (laugh)
Seriously?
Seriously, when
I was in school (high school and beyond) I used to play pranks under
various code names - one of which was Seamonkey. I also have
always enjoyed writing and back when I started to do so, I used to
write everything by hand (which requires either lead or Ink) even
long after I got my first word processor and computer. After
I finally started typing directly, it still took ink to print.
Hence SeaMonkey Ink.
Have you ever actually owned Seamonkeys?
Actually
I have and I'm pretty well convinced that there is a wanted poster
with my name and likeness up somewhere in the SIA (Seamonkey
Intelligence Agency) headquarters for mass genocide. (laugh)
I try but I fail.
Where is SeaMonkeyInk online?
Here on SeaMonkeyInk.com of course. I'm also on
Are any
of your characters based on people you know/knew in real life?
Not
really. Most are composites. However, I will say that
more than a little of my own personality/thoughts/expressions pop
up in my stories and among my characters.
For instance, in Rebellion
Book I: Book of Quay, Phong Quay makes a statement that one day he
is changing his name and not telling anyone what he changed it to. I've said that to people since I was like 5 - particularly when I
get agitated at being disturbed.
So if any real life person is
used as a template for some of my dialogue and character behaviors
it would be myself.
You write some historical novels. How
accurate are they?
Accurate enough. (laugh) I always say
I do just enough research to be dangerous.
I enjoy history and find some of the portraits of these figures, times and places to be fascinating. I actually do put in quite a nice chunk of time trying to make the story as historically accurate as possible though I would like to think my work is more character driven then driven by the time, places and figures that inspired it.
You
write more novellas than traditional 50,000 + word novels. Why?
Because it's the wave of the future? (laugh)
It's probably
because I have a short attention span sometimes. It's true. Just give me the remote or put me in charge of the radio and the channel
will be changed between every commercial/song. I scroll ALOT.
I also don't like the practice of padding. Many traditional publishers force writers to add unnecessary bolly hollicks to reach a desired word count or page number. I prefer to present my work exactly as envisioned. Although it's hard work to be your own editor and marking department, etc, it's one of the reasons I like self-publishing. It gives you 100% creative control over your work.
Let's
not forget also that if someone is like me, they may actually
have a life outside of my books (scary to imagine but true). They may not have the time or inclination to read a 1,000 page monster
novel or they simply may not care about how 3 paragraphs of comfortable
the chair in the center of the room is (unless of course its comfort
is caused by the corpses stuffed inside of it or something of the
like). They may have a low threshold for magazines with all
of their endless pages of ads, tireless celeb gossip dribble or writers
telling them (and quite authoritatively at that) what’s best for them
and how they should live their life (not to mention that that’s my
job). They may also be wanting something to read a little more
substantial than how to wear stripes or position their package in
their underthings for maximum effect. Then again, they may just
have a really, really short attention span like I do.
That’s
were a novella comes in handy. It’s just long enough to keep
them occupied for a nice chunk of time but not so long that they end
up neglecting their family (thus resulting in divorce and CPS involvement),
spending their whole vacation in a book (thus being mugged by local
thugs) or going to work the next day a stressed out, sleep-deprived
wreck because they just HAD to finish it (thus causing them to get
fired for sexual harassment).
Not only that, several completely fabricated studies show that people who do not add novellas to their library diet run a 300% higher risk of stroke, heart disease, impotence, diarrhea, brain damage, Tourette’s, drug, alcohol & gambling addiction, schizophrenia, depression and Alzheimer’s than those who don’t. If they can’t do it for themselves, they should do it for their families.
