Chad Underkoffler <102512.1310@compuserve.com> asks:
> Can you point me to where I can find out more info on this?

Thanks.

The Synanon game is (more was than is, but that
notwithstanding...) used in drug and alcohol counseling programs. If
you'll check the psychology wing of your local library, you'll probably
find information on it there.

Re: the scene you mention you'd've liked to have seen...it was
there, actually. The editor of the book snipped it for length. (I
think there were about six or seven substantive scenes deleted to bring
it under 100,000 words, which was about right for them size-wise.)
With most of them you don't feel the absence; with some, you do.

My appraisal: it's a decent enough first novel. It was
strictly learn-as-you-go, having never done it before, and really only
doing it to see if I could do it, and because I couldn't find the book
I wanted to read, so I wrote the darned thing, never really figuring on
selling it. It sat in the closet for something like 2 or 3 years
before my agent bugged me into letting her read it. The second novel,
OtherSyde, is something of an improvement, I knew a little better then
what I was doing. And the next novel, whenever I have the chance or
time to write it, should be even better. It's going to be a long one,
a 1,000 page contemporary dark fantasy with some interesting edges to
it. Got a great title for it, it's all outlined, just gotta find time
to write it.

jms