I have been asked the following question ever since I decided to be an author:

“Who is your audience?”

Over the years I have said young adults, college students, fantasy fans, fiction fans, D&D players, and all manner of audiences that came to my head at the spur of the moment.  It’s only recently that I came to the conclusion that my audience is the following:

You, you, me, you, you, that person to your right, and that other guy.

You see, my reason for writing these stories  is because I like seeing the expression of interest and enjoyment on the face of a person reading my story.  I love hearing that there was a character that they connected with or a scene that made them laugh or cry.  I’m not in this to make a fortune (I’d be happy to only make enough to make this a viable career path) and I’m not in this to change the face of literature.  All I want is to tell my stories, give life to my characters, and grant escapism to whoever wishes to step out of their reality.

To that end, my writing style has deviated from the books I grew up reading.  I remember the detailed descriptions of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis from my middle school days.  This style was repeated in every fantasy book that I read, which drew me into their worlds for hours.  I tried to write this way, but found that I naturally moved toward a different focus.  I was more interested in the characters and their development.  I decided that Windemere could always be described and explored through the words, eyes, and adventures of my characters.  So, I found no reason to have my chapters be dominated by paragraphs of descriptive settings.  Also, I found that people who were not interested in fantasy couldn’t read through the descriptions without getting bored.  To each their own.

So, I now have a style that focuses on dialogue, character reactions, and comic-book style action.  As far as I’m concerned, the major plot of story is not as important as the subplots that force the characters to mature along their path.  These focuses make my books relatively quick reads and help them appeal to a wider audience that I cannot specifically describe.  Over the years, many people of various tastes have read my books to give me feedback and they have all told me that they like the characters and my simple style.  It isn’t like they are reading a history book or watching the action from afar.  My goal is to have the reader feel like they are along for the ride and gain a genuine interest in the fate of the characters.

Think of this as my declaration of intent and a reason to give my stories a chance.