Gary Richardson Author Blog

Being an author, I follow and interact with other authors. I read their blogs as I hope they do mine. I post on their social pages. I stay abreast of...

I’m not the kind of author who wrote books to make money. I wrote my books, beginning with The Ascension Legacy series, to be read. To me, a book that...

One of the best things for an author are reader reviews. Most people shop online these days through digital retailers like Amazon and those websites/apps use algorithms to determine which...

Growing up, I had a friend that lived “a few houses away” and by that I mean like half a mile or so. His family ended up moving away after...

Regardless of your thoughts on ghosts and the afterlife, growing up there were things that happened around our house that left me certainly open to the idea that ghosts are...

Growing up in the country in the 80’s with few neighbors meant that there were a number of times where I had to find or make my own entertainment. Some...

Books generally revolve around one or more main characters. This is an essential part of cohesive storytelling. Without a central figure that the plot more or less revolves around the story feels disconnected. Could you imagine a story that has no central figure and just a plot? How does a plot become a plot with neither an antagonist nor protagonist? Nature versus all of humanity? How would that work? Well, there would be some respected world leader who takes the reigns, some imminent scientist who would be called upon to find a solution, a courageous military commander willing to lay his life on the line to save his country out of patriotic duty, or someone who would step up into a centralized role as the hero, or heroine. There is no excitement in a story if all of humanity comes together and changes our ways to defeat climate change through recycling. There has to be some conflict, someone pulling the strings towards destruction, and then someone fighting to save their family, their country, their world, etc. That's just the way stories work.

Recently, I was giving some thought to book reviews and then noticed a new Game Informer sitting on my desk. I opted to put aside my own thoughts for a...