Al Ross - An Intense man with a Rough Attitude

Character Interview

 We are honored to be helping the 

WoMen's Literacy Cafe 

with a wonderful Book Launch Party 

that is taking place this month! 

Please welcome character Al Ross to our blog today!

Al is the star of The Geronimo Breach

We left Al's creator Russell Blake home while we spoke with Al!

Al can you tell us about your part in the book: 

My name is Al Ross. (crowd murmurs, shifts uncomfortably) Russell Blake wrote a book about me, and I'm thinking about suing. (polite tittering, distant coughing) Really. The man ruined my life. 

In The Geronimo Breach, I'm painted as a misanthropic alcoholic grifter who would do the wrong thing even if the right would save my ass. It's an unfair, mean-spirited character assassination thinly veiled as a breakneck-paced roller coaster ride of a thriller set in the jungles of Panama and Columbia, involving a U.S. government conspiracy so damaging to the integrity of the nation that it would bring down the administration if it leaked. 

Sure, it's unlike anything you've ever read, and is filled with Byzantine twists and Machiavellian schemes and a climax that shocks while raising troubling questions about our politicians, the media, and our clandestine intelligence agencies. But what I mainly get out of the book is me being dragged through horror after horror for your diversion, which by the way also might be actionable... All I know is I'm tarred with a brush so ugly and foul that readers are rooting for the bad guys to finish me off, or the burro to bite me, or both.

It's vicious, mean-spirited vindictiveness of the lowest order. I'm not a bad guy. I've just had some lousy luck lately. It could happen to anybody. Hey, I'm trying to quit smoking, so I don't carry them - can I bum one? I'd buy some, but I lost my wallet today. You gonna drink that?

Yes, I'm going to drink that.. and after I do.. I'll help you find your wallet Al!

Before you take off on us, do me a favor and answer some questions for us.  If you do, I'll even pour you a glass to drink with me. 

We all want to be different, so what is the one thing you wish your creator had done differently with you?

What, are you kidding me? Let's start with making me thirty - okay, forty pounds lighter, with thicker hair or a discernable jawline, or some kind of game beyond being the most miserable sh#tweevil on the planet. How much time do we have here? The one thing? How about EVERYTHING? How about keeping me from going through a week of misery that makes the seventh circle of hell play like a trip to Club Med with teen strippers sponge bathing me? Pull up a chair, sweetie. I don't bite. Much. 

Thanks... but I think I am going to sit over here (pushing chair back just a little bit)

What do I wish Blake had done differently with me? How about envisioning a universe where God didn't single me out for punishment and contrive all events to create maximum discomfort in my life? Could I please have that behind door number one? Thanks Blake. Thanks for the f#cking memories. I'm broken inside because you wrote me that way. Hope it was fun. Hope you got a chuckle. Glad my active suppurating misery could distract you from pulling the wings off flies or microwaving kittens or whatever you normally do for amusement. I hope you don't die of something really horrible, like flesh eating bacteria of the brain, while cashing your first meager royalty check or anything.

Angry much there Al? 

If you could have added something to the story, and your creator would have let you, what would that have been?

Hmmmm. How about a vampire and a hot teen, so it didn't all have to be about my frigging character arc, while the entire might of the U.S. was trying to grind my bones into jelly and dance on my muddy grave? Could we catch that on rewrite? Or add a talking dog that tosses out sassy asides that we all learn something about ourselves from? Or something besides me taking body blows and nearly being vaporized more times than Snoop says "endo?" I'm just spitballing here...

Mind hitting those spitballs away from my desk? 

What do you love best about yourself? What do you like least?

I think my positive life outlook, naive charm and belief in the goodness of people are my most appealing characteristic. I don't really have any negative attributes. That's all lies and deliberate distortions by my venomous, toxic creator, who by the way his mother never loved and who better be looking over his shoulder, if you know what I mean.

Yes, Yes of course they are... (clearing my throat and rolling my eyes here)

What part of the book was the hardest for you and your creator to work through?

You mean besides how to make the most horrible human being on the planet, the way he'd tell it, wind up being a protagonist you actually root for and care about? Oh, I don't know. Probably how to write a scene where food poisoning saves my life while I'm humiliated by a donkey as the CIA blasts me with incendiary devices. For starters. But I'm not bitter. I want that underscored here. I. Am. NOT. BITTER.

Not sure I believe you.. but okay.... underscored.  

Is there a sequel for this book? If so, what do you want to accomplish in the next book.  If not, do you wish you could continue your story?

You know what? I don't want that miserable c#ckbiter anywhere near me ever again. I'm doing fine now that he's gone on to other things. Sure, I'm a fascinating example of humanity everyone should be riveted to read more about, but realistically, my story goes somewhere that is best kept private after this. Put two and two together on that after reading the final chapter.

I look forward to it! Thank you so much for visiting Al! 

Wow... O.k. did that man scare anyone else?  He was kind of really intense!! I know I really want to check out his book, but from now on, I sure hope he stays within the pages!! 

So that you don't have to meet that man in person - you can buy his books here at 

You can also visit the creator at the following locations to learn more about him and his writing.

Website: http://RussellBlake.com

Twitter: @BlakeBooks

Facebook

Goodreads

The Geronimo Breach is part of the 

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