I think that many of us here at Reality Dish would acknowledge The Mole as one of the best reality shows of all time. And now, we finally have a book out about the show, from the second Mole, Bill McDaniel. Bill was somewhat different from the other Moles on the show – first, he’s not a good looking woman, and second, he’s got the type of pedigree that made him such an obvious Mole that you’d be asking yourself “can it be that easy?”
Bill’s book, Reflections of The Mole, is now available from Intellect Publishing, and should prove to be an interesting look at the show and reality competitions in general. Below, we have some words from Mole Bill McDaniel himself about his book:
People often ask me why I wrote this book?
First, to my knowledge no one has written a complete book looking at the totality of the experience of being on one of the major reality shows. I have given lots of talks to groups about the show, and a great number of the questions are the same. ‘How do you get on a show like this? How did you get along with the other competitors? Do you keep up with them? How did the producers communicate with you? Did they tell you how to sabotage the games, or were you left on your own?’ These and many other questions cropped up time and again, and I thought it would be neat and more efficient to try to answer the many questions that came up with a book like this.
Next, I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of this show. Sticking around didn’t depend on having a good personality, being clever or cute, or back-stabbing others and forming coalitions that would fold under the pressure of the show. This was a show where we could all be cautious friends while understanding the rules of the show. One of the most often repeated things I have been told by many, many fans of the show was that they thoroughly enjoyed the fact that we did not have to resort to cheating, lying, and being mean to each other. Although everyone understands that the best way to stick around is to ‘game’ the others as much as possible, it is not in a mean spirited way. There were more subtleties to this show than any other one around. For all these reasons I want this show to be done again, and I thought this book might help stimulate interest toward that goal.
Lastly, I’m a retired Navy Admiral. It amazes me how many of my Admiral and General friends envy me doing something like this, so unlike our life in general. I wanted to give them (and you) the inside on this entire process, and to explain in some depth how and why I did the various things I did. One of my guiding principles in doing this show was to do it my way; i.e., not be embarrassed or ashamed of what I did and how I did it, nor to cause embarrassment to the Navy and my family. I accomplished those goals to my satisfaction, and wanted to tell more about the making of this most enjoyable endeavor.
I also included a lot of my personal background and history — lots of it is tongue-in-cheek and intended as fun, but is all (mostly) true! I’m proud of my Navy career and wanted to briefly catalogue it for this book. After all, the producers picked me as the Mole mostly because of that background, and the book would not have been complete without its inclusion.
I’m most happy with the end result, both of the book and the show. And, honestly, I would have done nothing differently.
Reflections of the Mole is my interpretation (very important to note) of what went on, and explains my incredible angst, paranoia, and reasoning behind the many things the viewing public saw me doing, and those many things they never saw but which impacted the show. I do not claim that every conversation quoted is accurate to the word. However they are as accurate as I can remember them (after all, I am retired). This is, in other words, an interpretative painting of our show, not a photograph – although there are plenty of photographs on the web site www.TheMoleBook.com.
One last item of business: my intention is that this book be enjoyable to read for all! The readers will have to decide whether or not I have succeeded in making the book enjoyable to all.
