Thoughts on Reader’s Thoughts

Occasionally I’ll take time out to see what readers are thinking when they post reviews. I may (or may not) incorporate some of those thoughts in my novels. For example, someone opined that they just finished the Corps of Discovery trilogy and was hoping it would be a longer series. Short answer, it is (working on Book 4, but mostly focusing on Book 1 of the new Chronicles of Hayek series (set in the time when Tim Bowman first opens the gate).

Somebody else suggested that having a spin-off series with Drew in it would be interesting (taking that one into consideration, but I’ve got a huge backlist of stories I’m working on).

Then again, there are those readers who find fault with me at the personal level, such as I’m unpatriotic (not really – I love my country but hate our politics), I don’t know anything about firearms (I’m sure those Expert and Sharpshooter medals I have, the fact that I was on my college’s rifle team, along with a confirmed 1,200 yard hit on a target after some intense precision rifle training I undertook, belies that), I hate the military (again, not really – I’m married to a war veteran and have many friends in the military whom I respect, and I support a strong national defense – I’m actually just against war and using our military frivolously), and that I never lived in the south so my version of the South in Explorer is all wrong (again, not really – I lived in Virginia and Georgia for approximately 8 years, so, yeah, I have lived in and traveled throughout the south). Besides, my version of an independent south is what we call speculative fiction, with the operative word there being speculative.

Just a thought to those posting their thoughts on how they think I feel about things- get to know me before posting something about me (or posting your projections), and remember, I write speculative fiction, not memoirs. If you actually think I feel a certain way about something, shoot me a message. Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. But, you won’t know unless you actually ask.