Unwelcome Dental Advice

So, the book has been out about a month now (and if you didn’t know this, I’ll link it at the bottom), and I’ve already had several people ask me questions about it and the process. As promised early in my campaign to release these books, I said this website would be a platform for asking questions regarding the book, as well as for supplemental material for said series. Before I get to answering a few of these questions, I wanted to shed some light on a few things.

These works have been inspired by a few artists I’ve grown to love in the past, but none more than two of them specifically. The first being the prolific Stephen King and his The Dark Tower series. This series takes place on multiple planes of existence, much like my own first book. In The Dark Tower, you have characters existing on Earth and in multiple timelines. The same goes for my book. James exists on Earth in one year, but you get glimpses of people from other years as well. The Dark Tower also takes place on Mid-World, a place that has “moved on.” My book has a place that exists out of time that people merely called “Paradox” because of the way time works there. King’s series was clearly a huge inspiration for my ideas.

The other artist I took a lot of ideas from was George R.R. Martin, writer of the A Song of Ice and Fire series (colloquially known as A Game of Thrones series), specifically, I took his chapter idea and made it my own. In his books, each chapter is written from the perspective of a single character, and the chapter title is reflective of that. For instance, one chapter may simply be titled “Eddard,” where the story there represents what Eddard Stark is experiencing. Another chapter might be titled “Arya,” and it follows the exploits of Arya Stark. I did the same thing but took it a step further. My first chapter is about James Harrington, the second is about Lucy Albright, and so on.

This brings me to my first question (and SPOILER ALERT for anyone who hasn’t read it): “Why aren’t the chapters numbered normally?” Several readers have asked this, including my own wife and mother-in-law. They want to know why I didn’t go a traditional route and number them like “One/1, Two/2, Forty-Six/46.” To them, my chapter sequencing of “I-I-V-I” seemed needlessly convoluted. But the answer to that query is this: These numbers mean something. I don’t want to give away the game just yet but know that these chapter titles represent something. You might have seen that the book title itself is “I-I: Departure.” This represents something, and I wanted my readers to uncover that meaning themselves. Eventually, when enough theories come about, I may reveal that meaning, but for now, I merely want readers to know that there’s more to a title chapter than its location in a book.

The second most asked question revolves around some of the characters that get less “face time,” like Dante Mason and Daniel Moore (at the time of writing this, it was unintentional that their initials be the same). I was asked why they felt shoehorned into the story that is clearly meant to revolve around James Harrington and company. Incidentally, this book was not initially meant to be the first book in the series. I actually wrote Book 2 (which will be titled “I-II: Arrival” – coming soon!) first. Book 2, which was originally Book 1, was heavily inspired by Stranger Things, and takes place in the mid-80s with a younger James Harrington. James is the focal point of that story, too, but it also revolves a lot around Daniel Moore, who is only a few years older than James, and Dante Mason, who is in his early 20s at this point.

Basically, I Georged Lucas’ed myself in my writing by writing the past first but releasing the future before it. Still, I feel like it’s a decent storytelling method, even if it feels “trope-y” to do so. You’ll also read a lot more about Paula Byrne in Book 2, and you’ll finally meet the enigmatic Callie that James is always referring to.

My mother-in-law also asked me when I plan to release the second book, and others have asked the same. I’m currently working on releasing a second book this year! However, it’s going to be a book taking place elsewhere and not continuing the story of James Harrington. Instead, I’m releasing “II-I: No Return,” which takes place on another world. This is still part of the same overarching series, and make no mistake, these stories will all intertwine at some point. There’s a method to my madness, and you all have yet to peer into that just yet.

II-I: No Return will follow a new set of characters in a fantasy setting, but there will be more about The Eight on this fantasy world. It will be up to my readers to decipher what’s truly happening there. I’m more than excited to eventually share this new world with you all. In fact, I’ve been running a Dungeons and Dragons campaign on that very same world, but in the past. So, you’ll see a few odd references here and there about people that shaped the past of this world, and those people are in fact the adventurers my wife and her friends are playing as in the campaign I’ve made. It’s exciting stuff.

As always, don’t feel too shy to ask questions about my book or future works. There’s a comment section below that’s simply screaming to have questions added to it, and I’m more than happy to answer those questions without spoiling the whole series to everyone.

And for those of you still wishing to read, here is the Kindle Direct link to the book. It’s only $4.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GG4JCWNJ