Some Recent Q's And A's

Dear Joshua, I have observed that most of Ballantyne's stories are in the West and not in the East. (China, Australia, Middle East, Spain, and ect...) Do you know why that is? Thanks -Dakota

Dear Dakota,

Thank you for this insightful question. After writing his first couple of books, Ballantyne developed an important rule for himself: He would not write a book unless he had A) visited the location of the story, B) knew someone very close who had visited said location, or C) read a book which covered the location in depth. These points helped him avoid glaring mistakes in his books. I don't believe that Ballantyne ever had the opportunity to visit Asia, and thus apparently did not write any books about it. (It is interesting to note that he actually died while visiting Rome. I can only imagine what great books he would have written about that location had he lived longer.) He did include Asian characters in a couple of his stories, but it appears that he tried to "play it safe" and kept it to characters instead of a whole book. Thank you for your question. -Joshua Titus