January  Interview

Q: I wanted to do something a little different this month and ask some more generalized, personal questions but you're gonna throw a wrench in that cause I know you have some things to announce. But first, how was your Christmas?

RJ: That's me, always throwing a wrench into the plans. My Christmas was good. The kids got a bunch of stuff and we got a new 42" tv which I'll certainly enjoy.

Q: Last month we mentioned you starting a street team can you tell us more about it now?

RJ: It's basically just your fans going around and trying to generate publicity. It can be passing out flyers, contacting bookstores or newspapers, doing on-line publicity, getting family and friends to buy books. A lot of things like that which gets your fans involved.

Q: How do fans benefit from doing that?

RJ: They'll be a drawing each month for a $20 gift card, you can have a character named after you in a future story, they'll be contests for autographed merchandise, and they can conduct a Q&A session with me for the website.

Q: Sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

RJ: Yeah, well, I hope so. Music bands have been doing it forever and I just thought it was worth a try. It gives fans a chance to become more involved in my career instead of just buying my books whenever they come out. Now, they can get exclusive access to me they wouldn't otherwise get and try to have some fun in the process while also generating more exposure for me than I could otherwise get on my own.

Q: So the Deadlock release date has finally been announced as January 17. How excited are you about that?

RJ: I'm very excited. Whenever you put something new out there's always a combination of excitement, nervousness, anxiety, because you don't know how it'll be received yet.

Q: How do you think it'll be received?

RJ: I hope well. But it's like everything else. Some people will like everything, some will only like some things, and some won't like anything. You just hope that the ones who do like it severely outnumber those who don't.

Q: What will we have to look forward to after Deadlock?

RJ: That's still to be decided. I'm still working on Empire, which is the next closest book to being finished, but I'm pretty sure there will be a few short stories released before that comes out.

Q: Anything specific?

RJ: Well I have ideas for a few Bounty Hunter short stories, and a few Nick Mason stories. I'd also like to get started on my Robbery Homicide series which I've been wanting to do forever.