Achieving what?

I’ve been doing the interview thing again and recently I was asked something that I hadn’t been asked before. The questioned posed to me was, “what do you hope to achieve with your writing?” Now, I had to think about that one for a bit before I could give a response. For you see, I’m actually not looking to achieve anything with my writing except to provide people with entertainment. I’m not looking to win any big awards (though I’m not opposed). I don’t think I’m going to get rich from this (though that would be nice, too). And I’m not looking at my writing as a way to meet women (I’m married). So what exactly am I doing? Well, I describe my books as quick, exciting reads, without mind-numbingly boring character details, but memorable ones, and plots that are both absolutely unique and jarring at the same time. I don’t think my books will ever hit the mainstream market, but I could get a viral following of readers who want to experience a different kind of story. As one of my fans put it in an email to me, she said “I love your novels because I can read them in a few hours, which is good, because I can never put them down once I start one.” Such high praise makes me blush. But seriously, the freedom of writer’s these days is crazy. I will NEVER have a publisher or agent tell me to rewrite a novel again! In the early days, I had several publishers tell me to take out the best parts of my novels because they felt it wouldn’t sell to the mainstream public. Well, guess what? I don’t want to sell to the mainstream public. I want to sell to people who are interested in reading something they’ve never read before. No boring, conventional, formulaic, mainstream stories here. Check them out.