I suppose I get degree-of-difficulty points for putting the toxic trio in a novel. What I really want is more readers. Not because I’m pursuing either fortune or fame from my writing. I knew before I wrote my first novel that I would never find a place on anybody’s bestseller list. I write because I love it. People ask me how I discipline myself to write. That’s never been my challenge. Rather, it takes a monumental effort sometimes to tear myself away from writing and tend to my financially sustaining pursuits.

I want more readers because The Gray Radiance is the best thing I’ve written, not despite the “difficult” themes, but because of them. And because it has the other elements of any novel that deserves to be read—an original, compelling plot, memorable characters, and a style that focuses attention on the story, not on the writer.

There are readers who seek those elements; perhaps I should have directed my publicity towards them. The Gray Radiance will find its audience, sooner or later. I call attention to it now, before it gets lost in the shuffle, for those readers who have the curiosity, intellectual capacity, and desire to read challenging books and have rarely found them. For those readers, I make a simple statement: here is a novel that deserves to be read and will reward the investment of your time and emotional energy.

This is an excerpt. For the complete article, please click the above link.