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.