"The Author's Show"; Who's the Book For?

Recently, I had the pleasure and privilege of being interviewed by Don McCauley for “The Author’s Show” (you can find the interview at https://www.georgemoakley.com/new-events).

I was particularly impressed by the process. I was sent a set of potential interview questions to help me prepare. At first glance, they seemed simple, straightforward questions.

Then I started jotting down notes.

Here’s what I wasn’t expecting.

I wasn’t expecting these questions to inspire so much introspection about my writing and my novels.

With that in mind, I thought I should not only post the above link to the interview, but also offer distillations of some of the notes I wrote in preparation.

I was asked who I wrote the book for.

That’s actually an interesting question!

I wrote the book I’ve always wanted to read. If you’re like me, and you enjoy science fiction or monster stories, you’ll enjoy my books.

But I also have readers, and this really surprised me, that are NOT science fiction fans and still love the books.

Why?

I love a story that takes me someplace else. Makes me feel like I’m part of a different world.

Doesn’t have to be an alien world. Could be the samurai culture of feudal Japan or life as part of an organized crime family. Just take me to a different world and make it so vivid, so realistic, that I feel like I’ve really been there. Give me characters I grow to love, and miss when the story’s over.

If you want to be immersed in an alternate reality, you’ll like my books.

But don’t break the mood. I’m the kind of guy that watches a movie set it southeast Asia that gets distracted by actors walking by central American trees, or seeing some character tap a few keys and magically hack into a top-secret system.

That’s why I love hard science fiction. Everything about this story is as realistic and plausible as possible.

If you love hard scifi, like “The Martian” or the original “Jurassic Park”, you’ll enjoy my books.

If you like thrill rides, if you like plot twists that surprise you but make perfect sense in hindsight, and characters that prevail through not just strength but smarts, by solving a complex puzzle through science and critical thinking, you’ll enjoy my books.

Now, I must say, my books aren’t for the squeamish. The monsters are truly monstrous.

And when a younger reader expresses interest, I explain to parents that it’d probably be rated PG-13 or R for the intensity of the alien attacks. There’s some strong language, but not that much. When it happens, well, you’d swear, too!  And sexual behavior is referred to but not graphically described.