First off, I want to thank you all for your kind words and support for The Ghosts of Saratoga. It really was rather surreal to hold it in my hands. If you actually read the thing, our publisher has suggested we ask you to leave a rating or review on Amazon or Goodreads. I don’t think Steven King is looking over his shoulder yet…
Second, I was unprepared for questions. But I will attempt to answer a few. Please excuse this rather verbose post, but this way I can bore a larger number at one time. Let me know if you feel cheated and I can try to bore you on a more personal level. To save space and add a gimmick I have left out the questions and will stick to the answers:
1) We didn’t exactly keep it a secret but we didn’t really introduce it into conversation either. It just seemed a bit pretentious, “Oh well, you know, I’ve been writing a novel…”
2) Well, we’d like to compare it to the superb Civil War novel, Killer Angels. Of course, in a Revolutionary era, young adult level, amateurish way. How’s that for pretension?
3) No
4) That would be the tidy and logical answer but it really was a total collaboration. We both wrote and both researched.
5) Nope, we’re storytellers. For an historian see Doris Kearns Goodwin.
6) Oh yes, and their sheer mass probably is more than the book itself. My favorite was one that in a very pleasant way, said it was a nicely written book but we were dopes to be writing about American History ‘cause nobody is really interested in it.
7) No, because part of this from the start was to prove things to ourselves. We wanted to prove we could do it, more as a challenge. Once we’d actually written it, we wanted to prove it could be good enough to interest a traditional publisher. Self-publishing wouldn’t have stroked our egos in the same way. We, perhaps naively, wanted to see if a book without zombies, vampires or sado-masochism could be of interest.
Last, I just wanted to say that if you were considering buying multiple copies as gifts to loved ones but were worried that it would throw us into a higher tax bracket, we appreciate your concern, but not to worry. It’s more likely that the royalties will go to a six-pack. Besides, as schoolteachers, Dave and I are used to coping with immense sums of money.
Anyway, thanks again.