In October 2017, @Renee Stevens resurrected the popular Ask an Author GA Blog. Two months later, I was entrusted with coordinating the monthly feature. Including this month’s entry, the blog has featured 119 responses by 66 different authors. I’ve been lucky with readers asking question and authors providing replies. Over the last 24 months I’ve been astounded by their generosity in answering whatever I asked of them. Only twice was my approach rebuffed for personal reasons.

Out of all the responses shared, @AC Benus leads the pack with nine. Here’s number ten:

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Is a particular form which inspires a piece of poetry, or do you have an idea, then find a form that fits? Is the discipline needed to keep to a form part of the creative process, or does it represent another, different challenge?

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This is a deep question, as it’s a bit of ‘chicken or egg’ coming first. Not everything leading to writing a poem comes from the same place. Sometimes the idea itself comes first. That happened when I was inspired to write one of my Kevin Poems. It was based on how I relished being with him, and how he stimulated all of my senses. As that suggested a form with five something-or-others, I immediately thought Ballade! Knowing I could use those stanzas for various senses in turn came back to inspire me more. My original concept was limited to the five basic senses, but Ballades have a final section called an Envoi, so my poem expanded to include thinking of Kevin with my sixth sense. I’m happy with the way that poem turned out.

 A Ballade being a French form, there are others in that family of poems that are so difficult to render in English, you almost have to decide first “Okay, I’m gonna sit down and write a Triolet (or Sestina, or Pantoum) today,” and then figure out a concept which lends itself to all the elements of repetition needed. Naturally, a poet can get to the point where these forms are keys for them, but it would take work to get to where inspiration comes first.

So, lol, the answer is “Yes!” Sometimes the inspiration leads to a form, and sometimes the form comes first and you have to find a subject that works best with it. Thank you for the question!  

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AC’s position atop the list won’t be challenged for a while; three authors are tied for second place on the list with five responses each. One of them is @Graeme

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Question 1. Presuming your children know you are gay, are they also aware that you write gay fiction? If your answer is no, go to question 2. If yes, go directly to question 3.

Question 2. How have you managed to keep this a secret? Have you any plans to tell them in the future?

Question 3. Have they ever read any of your work? If so was it on Gay Authors?

Question 4. How did they react when you first told them and how interested are they in your work as an author? Are they indifferent about it or do they take a keen interest or even have some kind of input?

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My kids don't know I'm gay. I discussed this with my wife several years ago and we decided that there was little point in saying anything to them. Doing so would potentially have prompted them to wonder if my telling them was the prelude to my wife and I breaking up. Since that's not happening, we decided to keep things quiet. One of the reason (and it's onl yone reason) is one of our boys was being bullied at school. My coming out would have potentially openned him up to more bullying, and there was no way I wanted to be responsible for that. He's now in university, so that reason is now gone, but the youngest boy is still in school.

Having said that, we're not adverse to discussing gay issues at home. During the Australia-wide survey on whether to change the definition of marriage to allow same-sex couples to wed, we discussed the matter with both of our sons. We gave them our views, but we told them that this was a matter for them to decide for themselves. After a lot of thought, our eldest boy (who was the only one old enough to participate) decided that love was love, and voted accordingly.

I suspect my youngest son may be aware that I'm gay, since he's seen me visiting GA several times, but he's not said anything. This is something my wife and I may revisit in a few years time, but we'll probably wait until the boys have completed their education before saying anything.

As for my writing, the boys haven't seen any of it, but my wife has read most of it. She gets copies before they're posted online  I've valued her comments on the early drafts many times. 

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I’ll close this anniversary edition by featuring a younger author. I’ve had the opportunity of working with @WolfM and was delighted by his willingness to learn and interest in improving. I wish more authors would be as interested in improving their craft.

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What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

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The short answer to that is I don’t. On the stories I’ve written so far, the research comes later in the process. In the case of The Journal of Chris Williams, I had the entire outline of the book written in about three or four days. Size wise, it was about half of the final release, but it gave me the framework to fill out the rest of the details. The research came when I did fill in the details.

I’ve never been to the Portland, Oregon area, but knew that’s where the story would take place from his exile in RWTP. Trying to find things for him to do, I spent a lot of time on Google Maps. From there I picked a place outside of the city for the wolf pack to have its hometown and took advantage of the sights available.  Finding a fire lookout tower that is available to rent ended up giving Chris a good bonding experience with his escorts as they did repairs to it. Learning the glaciers on Mt. Hood for a run with friends in their fur, or the tours available at a hydroelectric plant added to things the characters could do. Even finding there is a large rock fireplace in a hotel the family goes to for dinner is something I don't want to overlook. I took the same approach in RWTP. Once I settled on something I wanted to use, I would look for details.

I know a lot of writers spend a lot of time doing research up front, but for me, building the framework and then researching the details seems to work.

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I’ll close this anniversary edition by once again thanking all members who’ve sent in questions and the authors who’ve answered them. No time to rest though. I have next month’s issue set but I’m out of questions for subsequent ones. Take the plunge, pick an author you like, and send me a question for them.