Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Seventeen I didn’t take the opportunity to point out anything at the beginning of this chapter. This editorial–the one I put in the middle of the chapter, rather than at the beginning–was one of those inspired directly by readers. A lot of the fan mail I get mentions that a reader was…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Sixteen Obscure References Chapter Sixteen is the chapter for random obscure references and jokes. Perhaps I did this unconsciously, rather than having more full-blown asides (though my editor did cut one about soy sauce and ninjas from the next chapter–I’m serious) because I wanted things to move quickly. Anyway, here’s a list…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Fifteen Moron. Heh. I was working on this chapter, and I wondered, “Could I be lucky enough to discover that there’s a city out there named Moron?” And indeed there were a lot of them that I found. Most were in South America, however, and had an accent on the o. Same…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Fourteen And here the action picks up again. I love me a good action scene. There’s something very fun about constructing action on the page. Partially, I think, because it’s tough to do. In a movie, you can make the visuals happen the way you want to. However, in a book, you…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Thirteen And I spent fourteen years in prison, where I obtained the learning of a gentleman and discovered the location of a buried treasure. Yes, that’s a Count of Monte Cristo joke in the introduction here. No, things didn’t pass that quickly in that book, but the years did fly by. (If…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Twelve The Alcatraz Smedry you think you know is a farce. And now we get the cynical side of Alcatraz’s character growth. It was an interesting experiment, writing this book from the perspective of someone looking back. I knew what I wanted to have happened in Alcatraz’s life (remember, when I changed…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Eleven Authors like to torture people. If I had to pick, this would be my second-favorite rant. The mousetrap one is fun, but this one actually says something. It offers commentary. Even if it is ridiculous. I’ve wondered about this concept. Why, exactly, do authors do what they do? Why do I…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Ten Are you annoyed with me yet? This beginning is exactly what I like about the form of this book. Here, I can go on and on about how you shouldn’t separate readers from the payoff of cliffhangers–all the while keeping you from getting the payoff of the cliffhanger at the end…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Nine Dinosaurs I’d like to be able to tell you where this came from, why I put it in the book, but . . . well, I have no idea. Remember, this book was–in essence–a long free write. I didn’t have much of an outline, setting, or anything else in mind. When…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Eight Elevators? How primitive. Of all of the things in this book, I think this chapter has the biggest stretch when it comes to worldbuilding. I really liked the concept of Free Kingdomers thinking of our modern world as primitive. Them thinking swords are more advanced than guns is a really fun…