There used to be more small presses. Today many of them have been snapped up by larger companies. These companies now concentrate on "winners" - they are no longer as interested in taking a chance on a new author. That's one of the reasons we have seen so many deals recently with celebrity projects. If a writer has no name recognition, no platform, no track record, it's a minefield out there.
4.SR: Your publisher's slogan: "Literacy is not an option. It is a necessity", is a very true statement. What are your personal thoughts on this issue today?
MEA: Because I was a reluctant reader, I am more aware of the significance of this every day. We owe it to the next generation to force them to become readers if we have to. Reading and success in life are inseparable. I see this in my own children. My wife stressed reading in our home. If it had been left up to me, with my questionable reading history, it never would have happened. My daughter entered a highly competitive program to prepare for teaching early education and my son is in a prestigious law school today.
I don't know how different my life might have been, had I become an early reader. I did manage to earn my B.A. in Psychology, but I wonder how much better I might have done? I know I'd have tested better.
This is an extremely competitive world. If we hope to pass on the same or better standard of living to our children then we must also give them the tools they need. Reading is one of the most basic in my opinion, although I arrived at that party a bit late.
5.SR: Are you like any of your characters such as, Tom Steven's in "Newspaper Caper" or Eddy Thompson in your book, "Terror at Wolf Lake"? If so, how?
MEA: Writers are told that their work often exposes who they really are. I'd have to say there's a little bit of myself in every character that appears in one of my books. Tom is an entrepreneur and that characteristic is also very much a part of my life. But Eddy is a lying, cheating, rule bender. Looking back, I did a lot of that, too, but not to the extremes that characterize Eddy. Sometimes my characters reflect a flaw that I'm trying to point out to readers so they might avoid falling into certain traps. Other times I might point out a positive trait that a reader can aim for in life.
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