Reader Question Day #1

Manwe writes:

Will you be playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim?

Almost certainly. It generally takes me a long time to finish computer games (Knights of the Old Republic took me five years, Planescape: Torment took me six, and I still haven’t finished Dragon Age 2), but I’ll get to it next year. I greatly enjoyed Morrowind and Oblivion, and suspect that I’ll enjoy Skyrim. I do know that I will definitely, this very day, be getting the soundtrack – the composer Jeremy Soule is offering a special 4-disc edition of the soundtrack, and I liked his soundtracks from Morrowind and Oblivion, which are also for sale on his site.

Computer game soundtracks are a hobby of mine – they make excellent music to listen to while writing.

Did you see the last Potter film/do you like the series?

I did see the last Potter film. I thought it was better than “Deathly Hollows Part I”, which should have been subtitled “Harry Potter Goes Camping For A Really Long Time.” I was amused at how they added the teleporting wrestling match between Harry and Voldemort at the end.

The movies are enjoyable. It’s remarkable that the films ended the series with the same actors in every single film. The books, of course, are much better, and exponentially better than Twilight.

Are you interested in “Immortals?”

Actually, I wasn’t even aware of it until just now. So, probably not.

Are you ever going to give “The Old Republic” a try? (or are you not into mmos)

No. I never got into MMORPGs at all, mostly because I wouldn’t spend enough time playing to justify the monthly expense. That said, I greatly enjoyed “Knights of the Old Republic” (which did take me five years to finish), and KoToR remains one of my favorite RPGs.

Needless to say, if I can get my hands on “The Old Republic” soundtrack, I will be buying that.

Kallinikos writes:

Will you get a Kindle Fire?

No. I have a Toshiba Thrive tablet, which does everything a Kindle Fire can do, along with additional functionality (SD card reader, USB ports, cameras, HDMI out, and other functions). That said, if I didn’t have a Thrive, I’d probably get a Fire, even though it is quite obviously engineered from the ground up to hook you into the Amazon ecosystem.

Still, I would wait until I read a sufficient number of reviews before committing to buying one. $199 is cheaper than most other tablets out there, but it’s still a goodly chunk of change.

(And if you’re already into the Amazon ecosystem, you know where you have to go next.)

Philip9432 writes:

As a self-published author, do you get annoyed when traditionally published writers attack self-publishing?

No. I’ve made much more money self-publishing (and through blog ads) than I ever did querying agents and editors. (And I’m very grateful to everyone who’s bought one of my books, or clicked on the ads on one of my sites.)

I remember reading a comment on Jim C. Hines’s blog from a woman who argued that she would never, ever self-publish, that she would work and work on her writing until one day she was good enough to know the validation of seeing her name on the spine of a traditionally published book in a real bookstore.

Bah. Well, just between you and me, I’ve known that validation (with the hardback version of Demonsouled back in 2005), and if I had to choose between that validation and the money I’ve made self-publishing, I’d take the money. Validation’s nice, but validation and a nickel will buy you 10% of a twelve-ounce can of Coke Zero.

johnwellsjones writes:

What was the best book you read this year?

“Knights of Dark Renown” by David Gemmell and “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins.

For nonfiction, “How Rome Fell” by Adrian Goldsworthy.

That’s Reader Question Day for this week. If you have a question, leave it in the comments or send an email to jmcontact at jonathanmoeller.com, and I’ll answer it next week.

-JM