Andrew Q Gordon

Glad to see you're happy and reading, you're just a beltway ride away so I don't want to make you angry.

I've wanted to get back to soccer boy and karate kid but didn't have time or a fully formed story in mind. That and all the stuff with the publisher. So this seems like a great vehicle. I'm pretty sure I can manage a 1000 word or less a week. But no promises other than I'll try. Glad you're happy with their return. Andy

Gee Lily I wonder who that 'friend' might be? Glad to see you made your way. I'm pretty sure you're like the people here. Just don't make some of them mad, a few of them bite. Not that I'll say who, I don't want to get bit.

GeR, a) not going to neglect other projects, these are by nature short so as to provide authors a short break from larger projects well I hope this won't fall flat, I'm thinking **Mash** or Highlander or Stargate when I said movie-tv, [yeah I dream big - ]. As for entering in the middle, we did. I'll get to explaining that in the next few installments, but in the true nature of 'good' flash ficition - I think everyone knows Blake and Ethan hooked up in some fashion. So if everyone understood, then I did good. Thanks for coming by and and yes, same Shot time, same Shot channel

Thanks Benji. I beg to differ that it is so seamless. It is taking me a bit to get back into their heads. But I'm getting there. Thanks for reading. Andy

Thanks Benji. I beg to differ that it is so seamless. It is taking me a bit to get back into their heads. But I'm getting there. Thanks for reading. Andy

If the world is good and the planets align right, the hope is there will be new 'chapters' every week. But no promises because life does interrupt at times. Andy

In a sense this is kinda sorta a sequel, but I think the better word choice is spin off or a new book in a series. I really don't know what to call it as I'm not sure there is a word for it. Think of it like a tv show that is based on a movie. The movie was a one and done, and the tv show picks up and follows a character or maybe all the characters in different episodes. Is that a sequel? I don't think so, but it is certainly related. So, as you said, give me a chance to see how it plays out and if it sucks - please tell me. Since this is something of an experiment, I need to know what people really think. Thanks for the review and for reading. Andy As for the other point, I don't think this will be the same as Second Shot. In Sec Shot there was an end that the characters needed to work toward. Here there will probably several 'ends' along the way. As in I'll probably close out several story lines along the way and pick up new ones. But they will all be related to each other and build

Jo Ann - what you say is one reason I've never seriously contemplated a sequel. I doubt strongly I can duplicate the elements that drew people in to Second Shot. This is a bit different. It's not going to be a 'story' per se, but more like snippets into their lives. Basically I've wanted to do something like this for a time and the Wednesday Briefs format is giving me a platform to try it. Folks may say, this is crap - stop it. or they may like. At this point I'm only committing to try it for a time to see how it goes. I may end up shifting my flash fiction focus elsewhere, but I figured this would be a good way to use characters that people recognize without needing to write an entire novel and find an interesting story/plot to write about. Short flash fiction is easier to come up with a conflict for the characters involved to over come. But I appreciate the honesty and hope that if this seems like it's falling flat, you and others will tell me the truth. I can easily shift my focus to ideas to do the flash fiction if this isn't working. Andy

Blake Finch massaged his temples pushing his brown hair back. “But we’re so different, Jase.” “And?” Jason Tellerman paid the clerk and grabbed their drinks. “Why does that matter?” “It doesn’t, it’s just that Ethan’s so…so….” “Out?” Jason’s raised eyebrow told Blake how his friend felt. “Yeah.” Admitting it almost made Blake feel worse. No not worse. He didn’t feel bad, just confused. “Not that it’s bad, but…well you know, I’m not.” “No. Really?” Rolling his eyes, Jason took a sip. “Look B

Flash Fiction that will follow the characters from Second Shot during Jason, Peter and Darryl's senior year.

Congrats to everyone!! Well deserved indeed. And I'd like to take this opportunity to claim front row seating - Next to CJ - for the coronation of the new queen!!! All Hail - CIA QUEEN OF CLIFF!! Long may she reign!

Email me the info so I can talk it up a bit for you. Not that I've got a huge following, but every little bit helps I suppose.

Got your attention? Good. I don't know if people on GA are aware of it, but most authors hold book giveaways every time they release a book. - I say most because I wasn't smart enough to know I should do this when (Un)Masked was published. Entering to win is simple - leave a comment at the end of the post. For example - I did a few book giveaways for The Last Grand Master and one of the winners was G.A.'s own Rush. Right now Lily Velden is doing a book give away on my website. you can enter here: http://andrewqgordon.com/2013/02/28/author-profile-lily-verden-book-giveaway/ Dreamspinner Press holds author chats every saturday on it's Facebook and Goodreads pages and they do a give away every time they hold a chat. And if you don't win the first time - follow the authors you like. I can't speak for other publishers but Dreamspinner Press gives each of it's authors five free eBooks to use in give aways. Most established authors will do more. SJD Peterson - who wrote Plan B, which if you haven't read it, is a great book - gave away a $25 gift certificate for Dreamspinner Press. I actually won that - I entered to win the eBook and won the gift certificate which I used to buy her book and two others. Kim Fielding gave away things from Venice which were related to her new book - Venetian Masks - in addition to copies of the book. Tali Spencer held contests for copies of Dangerous Beauty recently. The point is, if you follow authors you like, you will read about these contest as well as those of authors they help get out the word for and given how easy it is to enter, you have a decent chance of winning. Typically authors - depending on their following - will get from 10 - 25 entries. Those aren't bad odds and if you enter enough, it might keep you in reading material for a while. But for now, swing by my site and say hi to Lily and make yourselves eligible to win her new book: Gay As Madri Gras Andy

I wrote this so long ago, I forget and have to go back and re-read. Thanks for reading. I think Marcus and Kenard were a precursor of Farrell and Miceral, but I won't swear to it.

Recovering fanficaholic? is there 12 step program for that too now?? Welcome and enjoy. Andy

Today my newest book - The Last Grand Master is released by Dreamspinner Press. For those who've followed me, you know what it is, but here's a bit more for those who don't know. Last year Myr asked me to write something for the Premium Content sections of GA. I did. It was titled Chosen of Honorus and it is still available in Premium - always will be. After it finished posting, I was able to shop it to a publisher and Dreamspinner Press bought the book. They renamed it The Last Grand Master because they felt the made up name - Honorus - would make it harder to sell. The two are not identical, but as far as I can recall there is nothing of substance that has changed. So basically what I'm saying is it's free for anyone who helps support GA. I anticipate the entire series being bought and published by Dreamspinner, but I also expect they'll probably appear in GA premium first. Just saying. Okay so, now for the hard sell - yeah I'm gonna tout the book a bit. First, if you've read it on GA already and you liked it, it would be helpful to me - and I suppose GA if the book becomes popular - if you could do a few things that won't cost you anything. 1) Leave a rating on Amazon, B & N and Goodreads. More ratings and a higher rating are very helpful to the author. 2) Leave a review - please. On Amazon for instance, the more reviews you have, the better they rank you - who knew right? I thought ranking was based on sales. Nope. Reviews and especially reviews from people who bought the book on amazon increase the books ranking. 3) If you know anyone who likes Fantasy that is not a GA Premium Member, gently suggest they buy it cause it's good. 4) Share the links. Okay, that's all for that. The publisher is giving away a free copy on Saturday to anyone who stops by their Facebook Page to chat with me. I'll be hosting an author chat from 3-6pm East Cost US time. All you need to do to be eligible is leave a comment. At the end of the chat, the publisher will give one lucky person a free eBook. You can RSVP and I think grab a link from here : Facebook Chat RSVP There will also be several chances to win that I'll post on my website. To get notice, sign up on my website for email notices. Last, if you'd like to see what one book reviewer thought - it's the only review so far so I'm not cherry picking just yet - you can read about it here: The Last Grand Master - First Review Thank you to anyone who read it on GA that can help and to anyone who buys the book. Here is a link to my Webpage for the book. For those interested in buying the book, there are links for various places to buy it at the bottom. Andy

It's not the family time that I feel bad about, far from it. 'lil and Mike get my attention first - always have. It's that I in the free time I have I don't seem to have enough of it to go around. At the risk of spreading a forest worth of sap around, I was welcomed, well received and encouraged by the GA community. So I feel some obligation to return the love so to speak. It's just hard now that i have these other demands for my 'writing' time. But I'll figure it out. I'm Italian, we don't forget our friends. [or our enemies, but no one here fits that description]

Back in July '10 when I joined GA I had these 'dreams' for my writing life. I wanted to get get better, write more and one day get published. I suppose I believed the last part wasn't a pipe dream, but a part me also expected to get shot down by the readers here and told, 'yeah, you need a lot of work.' So fast forward two and a half years and I've been fortunate to say the least. One book out, one book due out in three days, and a third July. The GA readers have been extremely generous with the time, comments and encouragement and that is where I feel I've not ben reciprocating. In my naiveté, I assumed I when I got published, I'd have to cut down on what I posted, but could still post. I expected I'd be able to keep reading and commenting like I used to. I wanted to keep beta reading for folks and trying to help them as much as people helped me. Sigh, so much I haven't had time to do. The one thing I learned about being published is that it takes almost as much if not more time to promote your work as it did getting it published. I promised Cia I'd write something for the site blog and I will have that out soon. But I do miss how easy it used to be to write, have reviewed, correct and post. I miss reading stuff and leaving witty - well I thought they were witty - comments. I want to have time to beta read for folks again, but I've been so busy, I had to stop before I really got started with someone. Right now I'm only able to work with one person and even he has to badger me because I'm so bad about getting things out in a timely manner. I want to say, okay, it's going to get better and I'll reclaim my GA Mojo, but I can't. I hate being unable to live up to a promise so I won't make any. My plan is to try to get something out for the Spring Anthology. When I finished Second Shot, I had plans for a spin off and a sequel, but I've yet to have time to work on them. I'm hoping to do something with a couple characters from Second Shot for this Anthology, but it might not get done in time. If not I'll post it as a short story instead. Sigh - I do miss things being less complicated. But then again, it has been very cool and exciting seeing my work get published. Now if I could just get the word out and see a few more sales. But that is a story for another time. Andy

Happy Birthday to GA's official birthday greeter. Thanks for all the birthday wishes over the last few years. Now go have yourself a rabble rousing day.

I posted an 'after' picture of 'lil q. Y'all wore her out.

You go girl, have a great day. Andy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLEU! Congrats on surviving another year - celebrate by doing something wild and crazy and if you get naked doing it - take lots of pictures

Welcome to wonderful DC. They've already got the barricades up around my building and others in the city. Do you have a firm number yet for us to discuss places to eat? Andy U should have my cell, so text me at some point and let's chat.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RILEY!!!! Oh to be 'just' 30 again. Enjoy your day.