All the Lies - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,47

don't really exist out there in a voice.”

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“Well, you know the role these podcasts, YouTube channels, and blogs play. They’re about how to write and how to publish, etc. I think that your perspective is really needed and yet it's not available.”

He shrugs his shoulders and says, “I don't like to get involved.”

“I know, it's outside your comfort zone, but you have a lot of valuable information to offer people. You yourself have said that you rely so much on these Facebook groups and blogs for information that others have put together in order to start your career and to keep it going.”

He furrows his brow and puts his cup on the slab of granite masquerading as the coffee table.

“Is this your, not so slick, way of getting me to go on the record with you?” he asks.

28

Liam

I haven't talked to anyone that honestly outside of a conference in a while. The people that attend those writing conferences are interested in becoming professional writers and ever since I started selling more and more books, I’ve realized how important it is to give back to the community.

The self-publishing/independent publishing community exists entirely as a result of successful authors telling their stories, along with the mistakes that they have made so that others can learn from them.

I don't know if Emma will actually finish her book. Many people say that they want to be writers, but they don't actually devote themselves fully to it.

My hopes for her are high.

She's a determined journalist.

I have read a number of her stories and they are all well researched and insightful. She might make a good thriller writer.

“So, are you pretty much saying that you’re not going to let me write the story?” Emma asks.

I bite my lower lip and look out of the floor-to-ceiling window that looks out onto the desert.

“I’d prefer it if you didn't,” I say after a moment.

“Why?”

“I like my privacy.”

“I wouldn’t have to say your real name. It could just be an article about you,” she suggests.

I shake my head and add, “I'd rather not.”

She doesn't press it even though I know that she's disappointed.

I don't really have a good reason for saying no to her. I have said yes to a number of writer conferences and other author events, but then again, I never used my real name. Everyone there just met me as D. B. Carter. Whatever article she would write would be about who I am as a person, where I live, and probably even sketches about my home.

I don't need that.

I can’t have that.

When she tells me that she lives near downtown, I tell her that I used to live in West Hollywood.

“I lived on the second floor of a four-plex, in a one bedroom apartment.”

“Did you have any roommates?”

“No,” I say. “The rent was a bit cheaper then.”

“What made you move out here?”

“Look around,” I say, pointing at the enormous blue sky and the boulders rising out of the earth out in the distance. “I love it here. There's so much nature – ravens, eagles, coyotes, rabbits. They all come out when they think that I'm not home.”

“How much land do you own?” she asks.

“Forty acres. I was planning on building a new house, but then this one showed up and I had to have it. It was beautiful and it fit my aesthetic perfectly; midcentury-modern with some inspiration of adobe.”

“And back around the corner?” she asks. “Is that a pool?”

“Yes,” I say. “I love swimming. I had that put in. It's not very warm now, but I also have a hot tub and there are only a few pleasures that are as wonderful as sitting in it in the middle of the night and watching the Milky Way.”

I watch as she makes a quiet mmm-mmm sound, imagining it.

Her hair falls casually to her face and her eyelids grow soft. She props up her head with her hand and looks around my home.

I have transformed the dining room into a library.

I still have a dining room table there. It’s sleek and low-profile with spindly midcentury modern style legs. The walls of the dining room are lined with books.

I read a lot on my iPad and Kindle, alternating between two of my favorite retailers, but there are other books that I also like to have in paperback and hardcover.

Emma points to all the books.

“I'm not much of a consumer, but when it comes to books, I don't tell myself no. As a