John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars

For this guest post I was asked to write about my writing experience and the genre. I will attempt to make it interesting for those of you who simply like to read books as well.

Writers by and large, at least the ones who hook us, are generally undiagnosed individuals, or at least it seems that way. How else can a reasonably sane person explain the minds which give us such concepts as “Middle Earth” and “Hogwarts” while building a road we never knew existed? A road we freely choose to walk down mind you, not the tollway we have to take to get to work.

One of the truest phrases ever uttered about writers appeared on a T-shirt. “Be careful or you will end up in my novel.” That one line sums up the isolation and oddity most see as “the writer's life.” Every writer is the sum of their experiences. When they have too many for the moment they trap themselves in isolation to tell the story or stories the collision of those experiences bring about.

If you have trouble grasping that concept, don't worry, so did I. Most of my writing career has been spent writing “geek books” which went nicely with my career in IT. I had read interviews with many writers talking about “a story that had to be written” or “a character demanding their story be told” and thought it was just marketing or evidence of a chemical dependency. Couldn't understand it in the least. Then it happened. The ill-advised trend of off-shoring, a tanking economy, and someone at Citi Bank honking me off. Three seemingly unrelated things caused me to remember that phrase from a T-shirt, “Be careful or you will end up in my novel.” I wrote “Infinite Exposure”, a novel telling people about a very real attack on the financial system just waiting to happen. If you think the current news about the identity thefts at Target and other retailers is bad, it is small time compared to what is coming.

“Infinite Exposure” lead to questions from readers. Not the questions writers hate to get such as “how did you come up with the idea...” Trust me, every writer groans massively hearing that question. Unless it is a book written to market something else and a PR firm has prepared the perfect pitch as a response, think self-help seminar sales, no writer wants to hear that question. Why? Because no reader wants to hear or accept the answer. The answer is, “we don't.” Characters enter our minds and demand we tell their stories. The character making the most noise gets the ink. We do this knowing it will provide only temporary relief. In a short period of time another character will begin demanding just as much noise demanding ink for themselves. Adding weight to that character's demands will be this tiny voice softly uttering one phrase which cuts like a knife, “you've done it before.”

The most interesting of the unanswered questions began “what happened too...” It is only a short step from “what happened” to “what if” and “what if” is the key which unlocks doors nobody can see. “What if” took computers from massive machines of limited capabilities occupying whole floors of buildings to the netbook, tablet, and dumb phone.

Yes, some people call them smart phones, but putting that much personal data on something easier to swipe from you than car keys is rather dumb in my professional IT opinion. A phone that is just a phone is a lot smarter if you actually think about it. So what if they know the numbers you call and run up a bill? At least that is all the damage they can cause. If you have an unlimited plan they can't even run up much of a bill. That banking app you saved your password in is another story entirely. If you hadn't considered such a possibility you really need to read “Infinite Exposure.”

The character making the most noise about the “what if” questions eventually turned out to be John Smith. I say eventually because he didn't have a name for much of the book. John needed someone to tell his story to and Susan Krowley asked to listen. Like all reporters she identified herself at the beginning of the story so it would have less chance of getting cut during editing. In some ways Susan is the reader's questions. Susan wants a specific answer to a specific question. John wants to give her answers she really needs to questions she doesn't ask or even know to ask.

Writing John Smith, really just writing it down as the characters told it, was another author truth I didn't completely understand until I experienced it. All authors answer questions as long as you don't expect them to answer the question you asked.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Roland Hughes is the president of Logikal Solutions, a business applications consulting firm specializing in VMS platforms. Hughes serves as a lead consultant with over two decades of experience using computers and operating systems originally created by Digital Equipment Corporation (now owned by Hewlett-Packard).

He is the recipient of the 2008 Best Books Award Winner in the category Business: Computers/Technology/Internet for his book, ” The Minimum You Need to Know About Service Oriented Architecture” and a 2009 Finalist Eric Hoffer Awards.

Website: http://www.johnsmith-book.com