Seems like I'm constantly behind lately, but never fear, I didn't forget! For those who have been waiting, here's this months' Ask An Author feature that has been provided to us by Dark! Thank you, Dark, and all the authors who participated and the readers who asked the questions in the first place. Hopefully you enjoy this month's contribution!
Welcome back to another quirky question and answer session with your favorite authors!
In AtA #37, we had questions for authors Bill W, Robert Rex, and Sasha Distan.
In AtA #3, we hear from authors Andrew Q Gordon, Sammy Blue, and Valkyrie.
First up today is the amazing Classic Author Andrew Q Gordon, a good friend known to many of us simply as “Q.” He, Mr. Q., and Little Q have had a tumultuous few years and though Q doesn’t spend as much time on GA as he used to, it’s fun to watch his published career blossom. He’s a good person to be envious of, no doubts there. Do you remember Second Shot? It’s the story that really started it all, filled with some of Q’s favorite things. It’s funny how when one thing changes suddenly everything else seems to happen all at once. For example, Lil’ Q, being published, and getting married – a real whirl-wind! It may seem like a fairy tale, but it’s a lot of work. Just reading about it makes me tired. Take a look at Q’s website these days to keep track of what he’s writing next. And don’t forget to ask about the online publisher he helped get started.
To Andrew Q. Gordon: What was it like collaborating with another author to write a novel such as you did in (Un)Masked?
Working with another author is hit or miss to be honest. It depends on the other person. Anyta and I worked very well together - at least I thought we did. (And I suspect she thought so too.) Working with someone else requires that both parties can accept the other person not liking what they did enough to put their name on it and being open to change. We went through about 6 or 7 versions of each chapter. We'd write it, send it to the other, make changes, send back until both were satisfied. It's harder than doing it yourself, but I think the end result can be much better because you each bring strengths to the work. The difficulty is finding works you want or are willing to share. That's the hardest part. Overall, it was a wonderful experience. I think it was the most fun I had writing.
This is the first time showcasing Author Sammy Blue in the blog. A member since 2013, he was gone awhile, life being what it is, and at 25, he’s still a youngster to many of us, though we still remember those days! 
Hailing from far away (from me) in Germany, Sammy has posted one complete story with a holiday theme, and one story still in progress, Gemini. This is a story about teenage Josh and his crazy public school life. With as down as the beginning is, you know it can only go up, and we know that Sammy is himself a sucker for happy endings. Of course, a number of memorable characters pepper the way and I know I’m not the only one glad that Sammy didn’t leave us hanging at chapter 23! Welcome back, Sammy, and write more!
To Sammy Blue: How do you get your American settings so realistic when you're not an American yourself?
Research, and lots of it. Actually, some things I just 'know'. That happens when you reads millions of words here on
GA
. If you've read more than a hundred high-school stories, at some point you have a general idea of what to expect. I also tend to ask people if I'm unsure about details. Often I visit the
GA
chat or ask one of my American friends on Skype.
For example the chapter I'm currently working on is set in Washington D.C. - Rigel (Editor here on
GA
) has been so kind to help me out by giving me general information about what areas he thinks my character's grandparents could live in and what locations they would visit with him during the weekend. From there I worked with Google (search, maps, images), and you can find out pretty much anything with Google, and Wikipedia, if you just spend some time with it.
.
Last but not least is Promising Author Valkyrie who is also being featured for the first time. Valkyrie is also enjoying her third year on GA and has graced us with many short stories. She’s also a regular on the Friday Prompts. The myriad experiences she’s had over her lifetime so far make for fascinating reading. I think my favorite so far is the one written for the 2015 Secret Santa: The Old Ways. Valkyrie skillfully mixes historical with spiritual and since it’s a love story, you also get the romance. It’s a touching tale of acceptance, all the more poignant in our troubled world that’s more concerned with finding boxes to shove people into or labels that supposedly “define” us. This is one of those stories that sticks with you long after reading. I have to say I hadn’t read this author before this anthology, but it certainly made me come back for more! Looking forward to seeing what more the author has in store for us.
To Valkyrie: What inspired the creation of Alex from Alex's Legacy? Was there something that prompted his story?
Sam and Alex appear in the story that I am currently writing, The Hollow Hills, very briefly. This story has been in my head for many years, predating Alex’s Legacy. They made such an impression on me that I felt like I had to know more about them. They were the inspiration for my response to Prompt 305, but after writing the prompt I knew I couldn’t just stop there. The ending of the prompt came as a big surprise to me when I wrote it and I felt compelled to tell Alex’s story.
Now, as a little bonus, how about a bit from yours truly? Considering the dearth in my own writing, I’ve recently gone back to being a regular Author here on GA. There’s been a lot of changes in my life over the past few years: I got my teaching credential and moved to Alaska, my brother and his wife had their first kid (my parents’ first biological grandchild), my parents divorced after 30 years of marriage, and despite the fact I’ve developed some fairly serious arthritis in multiple joints, I recently came to the conclusion that I’m the happiest, most content I’ve been in a very long time. It’s weird talking about myself! But I’ve received a handful of questions directed at me for this blog feature, and I’ve finally gotten to a place where I’m comfortable answering them, so here goes!
To Dark: How did you write Ben, from The One I Want, so well? Specifically, his anxiety and panic disorders?
In short, I can connect to Ben so well because I was him. Inside I was lost and afraid, but I’d gotten so adept at portraying the “perfect life” that I even believed it myself.
On Christmas this past year (in 2015), my brother decided to apply his fist to my sister’s face in front of our mother and my sister-in-law. He had to set the baby down to go after my sister, so draw your own conclusions there. After the cops left and the family sort of dispersed to lick their wounds, my sister turned to me and said something to the effect of, “Finally, they’re paying attention.” I gave her a questioning look and she said, “If it had been you, they’d have just shrugged it off again.” It gave me a start, because she’s right. Nobody batted an eye when he and I fought growing up and nobody gave a second thought to the fact that he and I have talked maybe once a year since I moved out. It was only about six years ago when through counseling I realized my underlying anger issues probably started from his harassment of me as children. I was always told that since I was older and “more mature” that it was my responsibility to get along with my brother and that I was the one who needed to stop “picking on” him. The double-standard and middle-child invisibility I felt turned inward because I didn’t feel I was allowed to act unhappy or hurt or scared. That’s not including all the confusion about gender and sexual identity or later the knots I twisted myself into when I got involved with a man who shared far too many characteristics with my brother.
Though he never raised a hand to me, being with my ex was just as damaging. I remember one night sobbing into my phone, leaving a voicemail for my ex’s mother and feeling so alone I couldn’t catch my breath and my heart was racing so loud I couldn’t hear myself talk. My ex got pissed because I woke him and he couldn’t get back to sleep. He left the room and played on his computer until I had to leave for work. Later he yelled at me for not waking him first and why did I have to bring his mother into it? She is still a good friend and I knew better even then to wake him in the middle of the night, though he had yet to be diagnosed with sleep apnea or chronic depression.
Looking back now, it’s easy for me to see that when it came to writing Ben, he became the receptacle for all that baggage. He became a mish-mash of myself and my ex, complete with our health issues. All the crap I considered “evil” then got lumped onto Will. Rick was that desire for someone to rescue me. I thought at the time that I had brought all this onto myself. Pretty textbook stuff, really. Knowing what I do now, it’s not surprising that the social anxiety I’d been fighting my whole life went bonkers and I tried to deal with it by trying to control everything. I went through a series of different medications and counselors until a combination of things seemed to snap me out of the bad spiral I was in. The worst part was getting better enough to see how bad it was but still not well enough to do anything about it.
Just thinking about spending holidays with my family (and brother) gave me panic attacks and bursts of depression that could last weeks. This year, I looked at him in the middle of his domineering and felt nothing. When he couldn’t get a rise out of me or my youngest brother, he went after my older sister with whom he’d never shown this side of himself. Despite how awful the whole thing was, I realized that I had healed enough that he could no longer hurt me. It was liberating.
Yes, I originally wrote “Dinner with Gran” for a friend of mine. I wrote the other short stories while in and out of my first counseling sessions. Pretty easy now to see those mood swings in the early drafts as we tried to figure out the correct balance of medications and behavior therapy. Tenormin was one of the first medications we tried, and I kept it for Ben because originally he was a recovering drug addict, that’s how he dealt with his issues. When I did the revisions that became the version now on
GA
, that tidbit was dropped, along with several other sections that I felt no longer made sense. My last counselor ended up in the story, though he was not a rugby player. My sister was Shelly and my best friend was Hunter. Parts of other people I knew made up the rest of the cast. I have toyed with re-writing “The One I Want” again, but there’s enough distance now from that “old me” that I’m afraid I would ruin it. I guess that’s life. Gotta keep moving forward.
I apologize for that long ramble. You’ll be glad to read 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!
See you next time, with authors Billy Martin, Dayne Mora, and Mark Arbour!
I’m always in the market for new questions! Simply PM me (Dark).
Hailing from far away (from me) in Germany, Sammy has posted one complete story with a holiday theme, and one story still in progress, Gemini. This is a story about teenage Josh and his crazy public school life. With as down as the beginning is, you know it can only go up, and we know that Sammy is himself a sucker for happy endings. Of course, a number of memorable characters pepper the way and I know I’m not the only one glad that Sammy didn’t leave us hanging at chapter 23! Welcome back, Sammy, and write more! 
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