Question 1: What do you wish people would ask you about your writing?
I wish people would ask me anything at all. I see people who tell me they've read my current book, N-hanced, and don't ask anything. I wonder, did they like it? Did they hate it? What surprised them? I have had a few interesting responses. One group liked the first two-thirds of the book because it was more science-fictiony. Another group preferred the last third because it was more courtroom drama.
The main character, Charlie, is framed when some of the testers of his intelligence-enhancing app commit suicide under mysterious circumstances. For quite a while he's able to evade authorities by using various advanced tech devices. But he is eventually arrested and charged with negligent homicide. I wanted to see what the law of the future had to say about who might be responsible for errors in software regardless of those EULA agreements none of us read when we get new software.
I think of it as a techno-thriller, full of twists and turns the whole way through.
Question 2: Which one of your characters would you most want to meet?
I don't need to meet my characters—I already know them very well. One thing we do when we write is create these people (some of them genetically modified!) and learn about them as we go. In the novel I'm currently writing, I'm interested in noir PI, Nick Austin. But he's pretty dark. Definitely not somebody I want to hang out with. But I sure enjoy writing about him.
In N-hanced, I like Anton, the leader of the underground Luddite group. He's smart and funny and loud. But I don't think I'd have much of a conversation with him. I'd just have to watch him talk to everyone else.
What I would like to do is use the N-hanced software and be my super-smart self, where I remember everything that ever happened to me and know the answer to any question I come up with. Now that would interest me!
Question 3: Would you rather be living now, today, or in the future world you describe in your novel N-hanced?
I definitely want to try the future world I created. That's why I wrote the book. I wanted to live there for a while. Buildings and people will have virtual reality "skins," and life will be all-round easier—if we're not monitored to death.