Today I'm featuring an interview with Rob as part of his Signature feature. Btw, did you download your copy of the background yet? Now, Rob is a popular man, so we've featured interviews with him in the past, so I didn't want to go with the usual author questions. This time I asked him a different series of questions, so I hope you'll enjoy this insight into the flash group, writing Noah's New Plan, and Rob's future plans!

What brought you to the Wednesday Briefers flash group?
I was contacted by Julie Lynn Hayes, who runs the group. We knew of each other through another Wednesday Briefer, M. A. Church. I thought it would be a great way to practice my writing and to get something “out there” every week, during a time frame when I didn’t have any new books coming.

Did you like having the prompts for the following week posted just 7 days in advance?
Seven days works – it’s a perfect timeframe. If it was longer, I think you’d lose some of the spontaneity the briefs group inspires.

Was writing in short bursts, just 500 to 1000 words each week, easier or harder than your normal method?
Most weeks I didn’t have an issue with the word count, though several times I went over the 1000 limit by a few words. Having a deadline was definitely the worst part – I’ve found I just don’t write that way by default. I needed to have it ready before Wednesday each week, and there were plenty of times where I struggled with that.

Did the inspiration for the characters or the plot of Noah’s New Plan come to you first?
The character inspiration definitely came first. When I wrote the first chapter, all I really had was Noah’s backstory: a man who has to start over after a long-term relationship. Eli would come along to shake things up, breaking Noah out of the rigid shell he’d boxed himself into.

Your story—as most of them are—is unashamedly sexual, but in this one that contrast was made far more marked by the lack of sex in the long-term relationship Noah got out of before he met Eli. Was that aspect written purposely or just part of the evolving changes in Noah as you wrote the story?
Oh yes, that was an aspect of Noah’s life I knew in advance. Eli busted onto the scene and turned Noah’s world upside down. Noah didn’t realize that passion was missing from his life until he met Eli.

Eli worked as a security guard and a bar bouncer… but he seems like a very multi-layered character. We don’t see any career aspirations outside of his current jobs, but is that something that might change, say in a sequel?
It’s not fair for me to say Eli doesn’t have ambitions; he is just happy where he is. He’s a laid back kind of guy, but he knows what he wants and goes for it. And in this story, he decided he wanted Noah. By the end of the story, I’d say he has everything he needs.

Do you have a favorite scene in the story?

Noah’s New Plan had a great stopping point—which I won’t spoil for potential readers—but do you have any plans to go back and share more of Eli and Noah’s story?
At this time I don’t really have plans to revisit Eli and Noah. I think they ended on a great point, as you said.
I did continue the story in a sense, though. Rex, Eli’s friend and boss at the bar he works, gets his own story in “The Buckle” – part of the Stranded anthology of short stories, published by Wayward Ink Press. Eli makes a brief cameo at the beginning of the story.

Can we expect a new Wednesday Briefs story from you?
Yes! I plan on starting up a new short story for Halloween.