Q: What inspired you and your brother to write the Rick and Bobo series?
A: The horrible end of the Matrix trilogy. As serious movie fanatics, we loved the first Matrix, and learned to love the second one. We both waited in line to watch the third one on opening day. After the movie, amidst our preparations for Hari-Kari, we started wondering how they could have screwed up the third one after writing the whole thing out in advance. Then I joked to my brother, “Hell, even we could do better than that!”

We have been working on the series ever since--six years. Of course, we are not comparing our series to theirs. The Matrix was awesome, which is why we felt so bummed after the last one. We just thought if you planned the entire thing out in advance, then each one should have gotten better, not worse.

Sorry Wachowski Brothers. We watched the first two about twenty times if that makes you feel any better.

In addition, each of our four books has a distinct beginning and end, but with characters and an overall story that builds. We hated how the Lord of the Rings and the Matrix ended right in the middle of the action as a lead in to the series finales, like it was one long story broken in half.

Q: Excuse me, Bobo. But that line sounds familiar, “Amidst our preparations for Hari-Kari.” Is that from a movie?
A: Yes! Very good, Bobo! It is a slight twist on a Val Kilmer line from the movie Real Genius. Because of my brother’s nearly eidetic memory, he often mixes movie lines in with his normal conversations. He does it to amuse himself, as normal conversations are pretty boring for him. You have to be pretty good to pick up on them. I get most of them, but they sound exactly like they belong in his sentence. We have added them in throughout the story. If you are pretty familiar with movies, you will pick up on a bunch of them. I’ll start a thread here where we can talk about the ones people found, and the ones they didn’t.

Q: What if someone isn’t a movie buff, will certain lines not make sense to them?
A: No. They just won’t notice, or the line will be explained by one of the characters afterwards.

Q: How smart is your brother?
A: Let's see...he took an IQ test once and they estimated his IQ at 200+. But that’s the boring answer. How about a story? Like to hear it, here it goes. We went to a party once and I told a few people about my brother, which he hates. So of course, they all wanted to test him.

    One person was a lawyer. “If you’re really a genius, then you should be able to tell me what Corpus Delecti means.”

    My brother looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Do you know?”

     “Of course.”

     “Are you a genius?”

     “No.”

     “Then why would it make me a genius?”

Another example is when he had to take a logic test to get into a tough technical school. The head bean gave my brother a 15 question spatial logic test and said he only had 30 minutes to take it. He gave him some scratch paper and went to another room to get him a pencil.

     When he got back with the pencil, my brother was already done. “You answered every question?”

     “All except for number 12, which I assume is a joke.”

One last story, I love telling these. He briefly attended UNLV, enrolling in a double major program of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He took Calculus 1 and Calculus 2, at the same time, over the summer! His teachers found out and complained to the Dean because you can't take two levels simultaneously.

When the Dean saw that my brother aced both classes, he told the teachers to shut up and let Nick take the maximum number of classes allowed by State law. But he eventually dropped out, finding the pace of the classes so slow that he couldn't stay interested.

I have a million of them. Of course, with this level of intelligence comes a short temper and a ton of attitude. But after almost 40 years, he has finally developed a more personable demeanor. In fact, one might even say pleasant. Although he is still working on his temper.

Q: How did you get the name “Bobo”?
A: My brother gave that to me a long time ago. He uses it to this day. If I get something wrong, he will say it while correcting me. Here is an excerpt from the book which was based on a real conversation we once had…

     “Evil begets good, and good begets evil,” Richard said.

     Ray put his hand on his brother's shoulder and spoke in a calm, patronizing tone, “Ricky. I'm not interested in your fancy circular logic, nor do I care what bread has to do with the balance of good and evil. I just want to know, are you gonna make me a superhero or not?”

     “Uh, Bobo,” Richard lifted Ray's hand off his shoulder with his index finger and thumb as if it were diseased, then dropped it away. “A baguette is a narrow loaf of French bread. Beget means to cause or produce an effect.”

     “What are you saying? If we build it, evil will come?”

He does it all the time, I guess with good reason. By the way, did you catch the movie line in there? It's a twist on a very popular line.

Q: No, which line was it?
A: Jeez, Bobo. You only saw the movie 50 times. Tell you what, here's another line from the same movie, then you're on your own..."You're a pacifist!" But this is a good example, the movie lines enhance the dialog, they don't detract from it.

Q: Since you wrote the entire series before publishing this first book, are there any secrets you can reveal?
A: Nope. But you can find them yourself. For instance, in this first book you can decipher the powers other characters will develop in the sequels. In fact, the last line of dialog of the very last book is also hidden in this first book. Plus, there is another clue that identifies the basic plot of the final book, but I doubt anyone will get that one. It took my brother a week to find it.

We have spent many years trying to make this a series people will really love, so one day they can be made into movies. That is our ultimate goal; to see Rick and Bobo up on the silver screen.

Q: Come on, can’t you give us one clue, reveal some secret?
A: Well, okay. Check out the chapter heading images. They are letters from an old language, and spell out a secret message. No, it's not "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine" for all you "Christmas Story" buffs. But we considered it.

Q: Cool. Thank you, Bobo.
A: No problem, Bobo.

Q: What’s with the dragons on the cover?
A: Actually, it's a Hydra. Rick and Bobo may seem fanciful in concept, but it was written to be as plausible as possible. No instant super powers here. Everything that happens makes perfect sense. That is what makes the story so much fun. The best fantasy, in my opinion, is fantasy that you can believe.

Q: One final question. Who is the better writer, you or your brother?
A: Well, if you're asking who is the most creative, then the answer would have to be me. But if you mean who writes the best dialog, then I would have to say me.