The King Henry Tapes (By Me!)

I like that you are kind of kicking it up a notch, a la Dresden (whom I love). Even though the first book was a fairly big "event" with Annie B and the Shakey Stick, it still felt fairly "contained" as did the Coyote stuff. Now we have a clear indication that bigger shit is going on, and King Henry is going to be pivotal in how it turns out, so that really makes me look forward to the rest of the story. Not to mention that it seems as if he has a nemesis now with significantly more power.

In particular I'm intrigued by your opening up of other worlds/realms in what was a pretty solidly grounded "real world" book. I mean, clearly we have the Mancy which takes it out of the true real world, but you know what I mean. I think you did a great job of introducing it. This is particularly relevant to me because the story I've always wanted to write involves a kind of "genre shift" if you will, somewhat similar to yours. My biggest fear would be losing the audience at that point. I'm probably not explaining it well enough, but you did a great job of integrating the Mancy into the mundane world of Fresno, Lake Tahoe, etc. so that it was easy to forget you were reading a fantasy book, and now you stepped up the fantasy element quite a bit with black elves, dragons, elemental planes, etc. Did you worry about how readers might respond to that? Was that always the plan, or did it grow as you realized you had a setting and characters worth building upon?

I also want to compliment you on your foreshadowing via characterization. I knew the moment that "Val" pulled him into the science room at the dance and said, "Do you like this body?" that it was Isabel. I'm not saying that in a bad way, but a good way, because anyone paying attention could spot it but many others would probably pass over it without thinking, and when they go back and look it will make complete sense. And the way you played out the scene it was fairly obvious that King Henry wasn't thinking clearly enough to spot that obvious giveaway either, so it made sense that he missed it.

Along those lines, thanks for making Val a cool chick, and even explaining away her craziness. I told you I was looking forward to seeing her in action before this book came out just from the way you had King Henry describe her, and I wasn't disappointed at all. You portrayed her perfectly as the chick that any guy would fall for, but still fairly normal. I will give you this one warning, however. I understand if she's not always a prominent character in the future, but if you take her away from King Henry due to some retarded chick-TV/book-drama just to create tension when we all know they belong together, I will come for you. I live in Sacramento and went to college in San Luis Obispo which gives me enough familiarity with Fresno. I have a certain set of skills (usually involving spoiled milk), and if you mess with Valentine Ward in any way, I will find you, and I will milk you.

To be honest I had no idea it was Isabel up until that line, but I'm fairly dense as far as these things go. I mean, it completely makes sense as soon as you say it, and everything clicked into place immediately, her constantly trying to seduce him, Val acting weird and incomprehensible at times in King Henry's memory, etc. But it never occurred to me that it actually happened until that line. Unless I was supposed to have picked up on it before then, I think you did it perfectly *because* it was all laid out, yet I didn't see it until you made it fairly clear. I still think some people will probably miss it at that point too, but for me I felt it worked out perfectly.

I totally understand that King Henry is probably going to fuck up at some point, so I'm fine with that. But you know what I mean, the typical dumb bullshit that happens way too often when an author or TV/movie writer wants to extend the tension. The girl sees the guy having dinner with a new girl and immediately assumes he's cheating on her and refuses to let him explain, or even tell him what's wrong, and in the end it turns out it was his sister, or a surprise birthday party planner, etc. That kind of crap drives me nuts! If King Henry is a dumbass, he deserves some pain until he learns. But artificial tension...I will find you!

About the fans, I feel much the same way. I want to write something simply because I want to see the story come to life after being stuck in my head for decades. But I haven't ever written anything for the masses to read, so it always sort of scared me to think that they might love it up to a point, and then when I throw a wrench into things, they hate it because I was leading them to think it was one thing (which they were interested in), and now it is something else (which they might not be interested in). It would still be the story I wanted it to be, of course, but I do want to entertain people as well. I'm glad to see that you've had a plan for it all along, and that you're sticking to it...and most importantly, that it is working out wonderfully for you. I look forward to many, many more King Henry books, and anything else you decide to write in the future.