Front cover
Back cover
I'm aware that there are already at least two other self-published novels with the same title that have come out in the last five years or so. But I guess one of the few advantages of self-publishing (and I cannot place enough emphasis on "few") is that there probably won't be a lot of audience crossover.
All the Lonely People is a weird book; I can easily see it going down as the Simon's Quest of my oeuvre. It isn't much like The Zeroes at all (it has a plot, for one thing), nor does it resemble else I have in the pipeline. It also bears mentioning that the protagonist for most of the proceeding is a woman, which was something I'd never tried before, and is certainly one of the reasons the book had to undergo so many fucking rewrites.
As the alternate gag title (Love in the Time of Dial-up) suggests, the book is (mostly) set in the 1990s. It's not that I'm trying to capitalize on nostalgia—the story simply wouldn't fit into the context of today's internet, where we export our whole identities, names, faces, locations, and all, to any number of social networks embedded in the very fabric of the web. The necessities of the plot placed the narrative in a period when mutual and almost absolute anonymity was pretty much a given where interactions between web users was concerned, and so I followed it to 1998. Of course, for those of you who spent hours a night answering the question "A/S/L?" will find a veritable banquet of reminiscence.
I'm not deluding myself. I don't expect more than a handful of people to read this thing. But I hope it gives somebody out there something, sweet, salty, and satisfying to chew on for a while. I'm just glad that it's finished, that I can wash my hands of all the sweat and grease and ash of its production before getting elbow-deep into the next project (working title: "Eddie's Big Day.")
What a life.
If you intend to read All the Lonely People, I recommend the print version. Not because I get more royalties (I'd mail a paperback copy to anyone who asked if I could afford to), but because a few formatting tricks that make parts of the text nicer to look don't carry over to the Kindle format. The eBook is still readable, of course, but it doesn't look quite as good as I wish it did.
I've known you since the days of your Rise and Fall of FF.
ReplyDeleteOne question: How do you get down to writing a novel, what methodolgy do you use, ways to get into the mood, tackling it.
I do miss your Final Fantasy Recaps...like an old friend whom I haven't heard of in a while.
Thanks for being around.
Obsession, cigarettes, caffeine, isolation. That should answer each part of your question (in order, too!).
DeleteHonestly, there's no secret. It's just about making yourself work at it until it's done.
I don't see myself doing any more Final Fantasy writeups, unless someone were to commission them -- and get me a PS3/4 and a TV to play them on. I'm really behind the times.
But perhaps you'd enjoy something on MOTHER 3 instead?
http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=mother3
(Thank YOU for being around!)
Man, am I glad I read this comment. I figured that Mother 3 writeup was never happening - as expected, it was a great read, so thanks for that!
DeleteActually, just out of curiosity - I don't read much about video games, both because I haven't had much interest in where gaming's at right now and because I get a sense that a lot of games writers are trying too hard to validate games as "important". Are there any people writing about games that you enjoy reading or think have worthwhile things to say? I'd say I'm more interested in film/TV atm, but every once in a while I'll come across something like this Mother 3 piece or your Final Fantasy articles and have my interest in video games momentarily revived, haha.
Thanks again for all your writing, and good luck with your novel!