I have received criticism concerning my treatment of Richard Knight, with some understandable allegations of racism.

As an authour, I chose to make Richard black because it would give an extra twist to his accusations against Jamie, because it resulted in the reaction it did with Wallace, and because it makes Jamie's reaction to the whole situation all the more deliciously awkward and uncomfortable. Aside from all that wonderful narrative juice, there was no particular reason for me to make the teenage thug character black.

Richard was a one-dimensional brute, not because of his race, but because he was male, seventeen, poor, stupid, and had a habit of abusing recreational narcotics. I'm not a racist - I'm a sexist, an ageist, a classist, an intellectualist, and a narcoticist! Those are all socially acceptable prejudices.

But racist? Me? Please. What do I look like, a Floridian*?

*(some of my best friends are from Florida)