August flew right on by, and if you were a science fiction geek like me, or if you love dragons, you enjoyed reading about the flying in Dark's Pern fanfiction, The Seventh Wing, that was featured earlier this month. Make sure you share your thoughts in a comment below his interview! 

If you were an animal, what would you be? 

Vampire Deer

What do you like to do when you’re not writing? 

Read, read, read!  I also sing in a choir and paint DnD miniatures for my brother and his players

What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story? 

I would have said Alaska, but I live there now, so I my next wish is Australia or New Zealand.

If you could give advice to yourself when you first started writing, what would it be? 

Don't be the dad in Back to the Future.  Be bold and let people read your stories.

What’s the first thing you do when you start to write a story? 

Backgrounds and settings, like what does the place look like?  any important, relevant history?  cultural norms?  and a basic outline.  But most of my stories realistically start with a scene that just plays on repeat in my head.  I write it down to stop the madness and then get into the details.  I love making the details, even if I don't end up using them (see the extra files for Waylon's Crossing as a prime example).

When did you first read one of Anne McCaffrey’s stories? 

I think I was in 6th grade, maybe younger.  My mom loved Pern and had saved up her money to buy the People of Pern book, with all the images of what the main characters were supposed to look like, painted by a real artist and then pictures were made into the book.  My sister and I were both there that day and kept asking "who is this?" type of questions and getting her to tell us about each character.  My sister and I found it so fascinating, we eventually begged to have access to our mom's books to read them ourselves.  Besides:  dragons!  I was hooked at the idea of people riding dragons.

What was the hardest part of writing a fanfiction story? The easiest? 

The hardest part was sticking to the POV originally chosen.  I hated it, LOL, but I didn't know that at the time I started writing.  If I had to re-do it, that would be the first thing I'd change.  I ultimately felt a bit caged and wanted to explore more sides of the story.  The easiest part was actually the characters.  They were based on people I knew and loved, friends and coworkers.  It's funny that one of the comments I received on it said that he didn't like how F'rian was acting so girlish.  I had a good laugh, because that guy ... he was a good friend but he drove me absolutely bonkers with his attitudes and behaviors, and I'd had the exact same thought when I first met him!  I never did get to a point where I could predict what he was going to do or say or behave.

If you were to Impress, what color dragon would you hope for? 

I would want a green because they're fiesty and have attitude, and they're small like me.  But, knowing myself and how everyone knows me as the steady, dependable type, I'd probably Impress a brown.  Which is cool, because I prefer being the right-hand of the leader.  I can be the person in charge and I often do very well, but I prefer to be the power behind the throne and deal with a much smaller sandbox.

Do you have a favorite scene or line from The Seventh Wing? 

There were several scenes based around the flying games that spun me into this story.  Many did not survive the final version, but I had a background in ROTC, marching band, and various other types of similar exhibitions and I had dancing dragons in my head for months, flying those routines I'd seen (and been a part of) on the ground.  And there was one scene where G'day found out F'rian designed the wing's patterns.  That was the one I envisioned where he really started seeing F'rian as more than just a pretty (if exasperating) face.

If you were to write The Seventh Wing again, would you change anything?

I think I mentioned this earlier.... but to be frank, this is very early writing for me and there's loads I would want to do better.