I've heard countless times how much everyone loves the Ask An Author feature and want to give a big Thank You to Dark for taking the time to contact all the authors and compile these wonderful Wednesday pieces. Don't forget, if you have a question you'd like to "Ask an Author" all you need to do is send Dark a PM!! Hope you enjoy!!!
Welcome back to another quirky question and answer session with your favorite authors!
In AtA #12, we had questions for authors Cia, Riley Jericho, and Thomas Nealy.
In AtA #13, we hear from authors Andrew Q Gordon, Layla, and Nephylim.
For their protection, the members who asked these questions shall remain nameless (unless they choose to reveal themselves). 
Please note that all author replies are copied as is, spelling errors and grammar eccentricities original to the individual.
Today’s first author is published and Hosted Author Andrew Q Gordon, aka Q. 2011-2013 are proving to be a few momentous years for Andy. First, there’s Lil’ Q; then there’s that fiasco with a creep on Amazon; plus, don’t forget Andy’s website, and the 3 novels that have been published, one co-authored with friend and fellow GA author AnytaSunday. But above all, Andy and Mike celebrate 18 years together in 2013. Congrats, you love birds.
To Andrew Q Gordon: As writers we covet, and pull from the things we know and see around us. Our characters are formed from stereotypes and enhanced with parts of our memories; places are put together from things we have seen; conversations are repeated from real life; and even whole stories are retold on paper. If you were a character in one of your stories, what would you draw from the most to ensure the character would be most like you?
You mean I'm not a character in a book already?
To answer this would depend on what type of character. For instance, am I writing about me now? As a teenager? College? Work related? Home? Each of these would result in a different character unless it was autobiographical and that would be boring.
But, I think if I had to draw on anything it would be my location. I think that accurate, detailed location make it easier for the writer to 'see' the scene. To me, that is most important. Try describing something you've never seen. So you're making it up whole cloth. That is one of the big difficulties in Sci-fi/Fantasy - these places do not exist so you're forced to make it up. And since the world evolves over time, it makes sense that the scene you 'see' would change and become more vibrant as you 'live' with it longer. So if I were adding myself in as a character, I'd draw up my time in a specific environment in order to make it feel more real and give me more depth to the reader.
Our next author is Layla. She’s a Midwestern girl who you don’t want to mess with in a dark alley (she has a black belt in Tae Kwan Do!). Besides taking care of her family, writing, and winning acclaim for her photography and jelly, Layla is also going to school for animation. If you don’t think that’s quite enough yet, Layla made a list for her New Year’s Resolutions, like camping and hiking and hunting and gardening and music and …. And don’t forget to check out Guitars and Crossdressers, a story about figuring out what’s important in life -- and let’s not forget the endearingly flawed characters.
To Layla: Your characters are so flawed, which I think is brilliant, but do you worry that you make them too unlikable for the reader? What keeps them redeemable?
Yes, there are many moments in a story when I do worry about the way that the readers are going to perceive the actions of the characters and if it will turn them away from the story. I guess in the end, I try to think about what motivates the characters to do the things they do and how much growth can come from their flaws and failures in the end. People don’t learn and grow and in a day, and more often than not we heap mistakes on top of mistakes before we find the right path. I kind of look at my stories as journeys that the characters are on, and I think what keeps them redeemable is the changes they exhibit along the way. My characters are going to fall down and they are going to fail many times over the course of a story, and for all of them, I try to show shades of gray. Few characters are going to be completely bad (like Jasper in Angels), and few are going to be completely good, because that just isn’t how real life works. There is a brutal honesty to the pain and follies of the characters, and I think that makes them redeemable too; that the readers can see past the cracks and the flaws to the people the characters could be.
Today’s final author has also become published here in 2012-2013. That would be Hosted Author and fallen angel Nephylim. These days she spends a lot of her time publicizing her work and putting herself out there through weekly flash fiction on her website. Lucky for us, she’s also posting her flash fiction here on GA and the first of those was In the Arms of an Angel, a charming story about what might happen if you -- quite accidentally -- run over an angel? Of course it was an accident! Don’t be silly.
To Nephylim: How do you come up with the titles of your stories? How do you know this is the one?
It really varies. i always give the story a name at the beginning, when i open the Word document I'm going to write it in and there is only one story i have ever changed the name of afterwards. That was 'Fallen' which started off as 'Vampire Lightly'. The reason I changed it was because I thought people would be confused by the name, not because I didn't like it. As for how I come by them, the answer is very simple and somewhat boring.\All my stories start with a flash of inspiration, whether initiated by a dream, a TV program a conversation on a train etc, and the name usually comes with it. I very rarely have to think about it.
That’s it for now! For more info on these authors, go check out their stories, post in their forums, and/or catch them in chat!
Coming next time: Comicality, dkstories, and Stellar.
Want to ask your favorite author a question? Simply PM me (Dark).
Until next time!
Dark
Please note that all author replies are copied as is, spelling errors and grammar eccentricities original to the individual.
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