Ed: This is Ed speaking.
Ashley: Hi, this is Ashley calling from Pop Culture
Madness. Is now a good time to talk?
E: Yes, of course.
A: Perfect. I just finished your book and I was really
intrigued by it. I was interested in how you decided to
write a book because you had done so many other things
before. What was the impetus that made you start writing?
E: Well, I've always wanted to write a book, and I was
waiting for the one thing that would motivate me to do
it. When the O.J. Simpson trial came along, that was it.
I kind of looked at that and went, "This is outrageous,"
and I literally started writing it as the trial was closing
up. I kind of knew he was going to be found innocent.
A: Uh-huh.
E: I started writing my thoughts on the courtroom procedure
and how I would change things, how I would not allow certain
things to happen. It started handwritten, and I wrote
about, oh gosh, probably close to 70 handwritten pages,
and then decided that, in time, I would turn it into a
novel.
A: Okay, so you really started with the idea of revising
the penal code.
E: Yup, that wasn't going to be a real good novel, though.
A: (laughs) So how long did it take you to
write the whole book?
E: You know, that's a good question. I asked my partner
a lot of times - I asked my business partner - when he
works on a piece of wood or a piece of furniture, how
long does it take him? He kind of answered, "I don't
know, I don't just sit there and do it the whole time."
It's the same thing for me.
A: Yeah.
E: Over a 13 year periood this took me to write it and
complete it. But it was on and off. I raised a family
and I got married, I started a business, and so forth
and so on.
A: Uh-huh. So, it says in your biography on the back
of your book that you were a free agent with a professional
player's contract in the NFL, and you were an inventor
and a CEO. How did you bring that background into your
writing?
E: Well, I think it really helped a lot in my writing
that I have such a diverse background. I have a lot of
experience in life in a lot of different areas. It helps
me when I'm building the characters, it helps me when
I'm building the story line because I have all these different
types of experiences in life. When you think about it,
football couldn't be more different from inventing, and
so forth. So I was really able to bring a lot to the table
when it comes to that.
A: I was wondering - since you did start out with
the point system, did you actually plan out the entire
system first?
E: You know, I did. I had a really long document written
about how points would operate, how the courtroom procedure
would operate, how the penal system would operate, how
the prison system would grow and build and so forth and
so on. As I started with this story and I got to the section
where I wanted to introduce the law, I had to start paring
it back. I went from, like I said, 70-plus pages all the
way to seven pages, because people probably weren't going
to be interested in the detail that I had, but would be
interested in the general content as it relates to the
novel.
A: Right. So did you sort of think about contingencies?
One of the things that I was thinking about when I read
it was, I know that points didn't go into effect unless
you were found guilty, but what about circumstances like
if an individual was found guilty but insane, or something
like that?
E: Yeah, I didn't get into the mega detail, I didn't
get into the micro aspects of it. I stayed with the fairly
macro and I went with what we saw would be obvious, such
as murder, rape, battery and things of that nature. And
once they were convicted, a conviction is a conviction.
The points associated with those crimes - they're getting
them, regardless of the circumstances.
A: Right. I really was impressed by the idea of having
just penalties. It's just really interesting due to how
trials are these days; they go for so long and there are
so many appeals. Did you ever think about actually trying
to implement this sort of thing?
E: You know, I've had a lot of people - I've been doing
a fair amount of interviews in that regard - and they
say, "At the end of the day, really, what are you
trying to accomplish? Do you get to the point where people
are just reading the book, or do you really want people
to jump on a bandwagon and go, 'Hey look, take a look
at the way this is working.' " You know what, kind
of both. I kind of look at it and go, "Jeez, maybe
some peolpe should look at this thing and think about
it being the real deal."
A: Mmhmm.
E: I haven't sat down with any lawmakers and talked about
it because, again, it is a novel and it's meant to entertain
people, but people like yourself and people who have seen
some interest in the novel keep coming back to me going,
"You know, you really ought to think about how to
present this and make it constitutional." And uh,
that's a whole different ball of wax.
A: It definitely does seem like it could be an interesting
way to make things more fair, or fairer than they are
now.
E: Well, I think they're in a little bit of a fiasco
with certain situations right now, aren't they?
A: Yeah. I was also interested in the number of sources
for your book. You have the CIA, the Secret Service, the
Senate Ethics Committee. How did you gather information
about these different [and secretive] organizations?
E: Oh, the Internet's a wonderful thing these days. You
can get a fair amount of information on there and, again,
it was all meant for entertainment. Wherever things need
to be bent to make sense for the novel we did that, but
as a rule, everything kind of follows how the program
operates. We went and researched online and when people
looked at the book, editors would look at it and go, "This
is probably not accurate. You don't want to put it this
way; you may want to change it." I'd look it up and
make sure I understood what it was I was writing and then
put it in.
A: One of the things that really stuck out for me
when I was reading it was (edited so the plot is not
revealed)... when he had the accident so he could
cover up the death. That really reminded me of Chappaquiddick.
Was that intentional?
E: (laughs) I actually had that written in the
book at one point or another. I don't recall if we left
it in or not.
A: I don't think you did.
E: Yeah, it was kind of a little bit of a knock on some
of the things we actually see. It's funny how reality
plays into novels and into fiction, and the other way
around, how oftentimes someone's fiction ends up being
real.
A: Right.
E: That's what I found interesting about my book, that
here it was a novel and it's fiction, and I'm having people
ask me all the time, "Hey, how about we make this
thing for real?"
A: Yeah. A lot of the characters in your book - they
make, for lack of a better word, poor choices. So who
did you really see as the protagonists, the ones with
maybe the redeeming characteristics?
E: The most redeeming characters in the book for me were
Frank Farrell and Mike Lane.
A: Okay. The one thing I was wondering about - I don't
want to give anything away to people who haven't read
the book - but the ending was a little bit vague. Did
you make it that way on purpose?
E: Well, the ending comes like the rest of the book -
very fast. I wanted to make sure that people had a quick
read, that they could get through it, that they could
enjoy the read, that they couldn't wait to get to the
next page. I didn't want anything to change in the end.
When you get to the end, it kind of happens very sudden,
and I wanted to leave it that way because I wanted to
work on another book and bring some of the characters
a little bit more in depth in the second book.
A: Ok, okay, so this is going to have a sequel?
E: Mmhm.
A: Okay, great. If this were to be a movie, because
this could be a really interesting film-
E: Can you tell everyone you know about that?
A: (laughs)
E: That's one of the things on my list. I want to make
a movie out of this. I think it's a phenomenal movie.
Everyone who's read the book, one of the first things
they come back to me with is, "Man, this would be
a great movie."
A: Right.
E: I'd really love to do that.
A: Can you sort of imagine who you'd cast as some of these
characters?
E: Yeah, wouldn't you think that - remember the character
that Bruce Willis played in the Sixth Sense?
A: Oh, yeah.
E:I kind of see him starting out as a Frank Farrell,
kind of down and out a little bit in that role, and maybe
a Kevin Spacey-type guy as Senator Wheatly.
A: What about the President?
E: Eh, you know, we could plug almost anybody in there
on that one. I never really sat down and gave a lot of
thought to the President.
A: Uh-huh. Would you call your characterization of
the President almost cynical? Or how would you describe
it?
E: That's a great question. I would say that the President
is realistically deceptive and he's willing to do all
that needs to be done and all he should do, and they should
be in dichotomy with what's going on.
A: Do you think that his intentions were actually
good?
E: At times.
A: Mmhm.
E: At times when he's trying to get the job done, absolutely.
In fairness, he's trying to do the right thing; how he's
going about it... (chuckles)... That's a bit challenging.
A: Actually, at times the book scared me because it
made me think about the way politics are now. It must
be occurring at some level, but hopefully not to this
extent.
E: Yeah, you wonder how deep corruption is or can be,
and certainly one of the other things that I get at book
signings is that someone will come up to me and say, "You
have no idea how corrupt politics are." They may
or may not be involved, but from time to time there are
people in small-time politics talking about it.
A: Wow. So you mentioned that you're working on a
new book, on a sequel. How is that going?
E: It's good. You know, it's not going as fast as I want
it to because I have some other things that I'm working
on, writing wise, but I'm real excited with the premise,
what I've come up with and the first few chapters I've
gotten down. I expect that within the year I'll be finished.
A: Oh, okay, so this one's not going to take as long
as the other one, as the first one. (laughs)
E: (laughs) No, that's be a long time, wouldn't
it? If it took 13 years for every one, we'd be 26 years
other than we are now by the time the second one comes
out. No, now that I know what I'm doing and I don't have
all the other obstacles in the way, I can get through
the second one much faster.
A: Do you envision this being a whole series? Or do
you think it's going to be one or two or three more books
and then that's it?
E: You know, I don't know. I really don't. I'm hoping
that the second one brings out a little bit more popularity
for the first one, because I'm new and people don't know
who I am yet. If that's the case and the folks who are
reading it want another one, I'd be happy to supply another
one.
A: Uh-huh. So, do you think you'll ever do some non-fiction
writing-
E: I do-
A: (Whoops!) Oh, okay.
E: In fact, that's one of the reasons why the second
novel's taking a little bit of time. I'm currently working
on a book right now as it relates to the things I've done
in my life: playing football, owning a business, I'm a
CEO, writing a novel.
A: Do you have anything big that you want to tackle
next since you've already done so much?
E: Yeah, there is. I really would like to get this Point
Guard novel into a movie. I really want to option the
rights to it, and that's really the next thing on the
horizon. We have some things we're working on with our
marketing company, American New Line company. We own a
brand called Ballsy and we're trying to launch the Ballsy
brand, so that's another big project I'm working on.
A: Wow. Well, I would definitely go see [The Point
Guard] if it was a movie, and I rarely see films. Good
luck to you. I hope that works out and please let me know
when you're sequel comes out.
E: Oh, I will.
A: Alright, well thank you so much for talking to
me today.
E: You're welcome. Thank you.