Somehow, some way, I've been given a coveted slot in the extremely popular r/Fantasy AMA (Ask Me Anything) forum - Yikes! Tuesday, March 1, 2016, I'll be fielding questions about, well, anything! My upcoming novel Paternus, books, movies, acting, writing, fantasy, self-publishing, the film business, my dissertation on the The Lord of the Rings films, the fabric of my underwear, it's all fair game. Wade in, put me to the test, watch me fall on my online face.

As soon as the forum goes live in the morning on March 1, I will post a direct link to the AMA to all my Social Media accounts, and pin it to the top on Twitter and the Paternus Books Media FB page. That will help you find it.

BUT, I know there are a lot of folks who aren't familiar with Reddit, so here is some info that might help:

• You need to have a Reddit account. All you need is name and email address. Go to https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasy, in the upper right you'll see "Want to join? Log in or sign up in seconds."
• My AMA thread will be posted and open at 12 Noon EST on Tuesday, March the 1st. Any time after that, anyone can post questions throughout the day. I may check in and out, but it is recommended I wait until 6PM EST to start answering questions. I’ll be “live,” then, from 6PM til 10PM or so EST.
• To find me and my AMA on the day:
  • Go to https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasy and log in.
  • On the main page of r/Fantasy, you'll see a whole list of threads. Mine might be right there and easy to see, but it might not. It will say something like : "I'm Dyrk Ashton, Author of Paternus. Ask Me Anything!" Click on that and you're there. You can enter questions and participate just like in any discussion forum.
  • If you don't see it, you can search my name in the search box under "Welcome to /r/Fantasy" in the upper right of the main page. The AMA should be the first on the list that shows up.
  • OR, you can go to the upper left of the page and click on the "New" tab. Newly posted threads show up there, and mine should appear there pretty much all day.
  • If you get lost in Reddit, which I do all the time, you can get back to r/Fantasy by going to the far upper left where you will see "My Subreddits." Click on that and scroll down to "Fantasy." That will get you back to the r/Fantasy page where you can find my thread or search my name again.

Some tips:

• To the left of my thread, you'll see a sword. If you click on that it will flame - that means you like the thread - so go ahead and do that ;)
• You'll see up and down arrows next to people's question posts. Those are for you to vote the post up or down on the list. Up if you think they are relevant, down if you think they are not. This is not for like or unlike, just relevant or irrelevant. You can only click these once, and no you can’t click your own. You can ignore them entirely if you like, I think most people do.
• Formatting is a little weird on Reddit. There are special things you have to do to put in a link or make text italics or bold, but I don't think you have to worry about that. One thing that might help, though, is to know that you need to hit two hard space returns to make a new paragraph.

(Note - in the right column of the r/Fantasy main page, there is a list of AMAs. Clicking on my name will NOT take you to my AMA, it will take you to my bio on the paternusbooks.com website)

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I might even know the answer.

That's it, thanks everybody! Hope to "see" you there!

Vty,

D