Carlos Hazday

Twenty years on...

“That’s enough, Carson. Put the brush away. There’s no more lint on any of us.” CJ marveled at his former college classmate’s dedication and attention to detail. Carson Sawyer had served him well as chief of staff—a role the man was about to reprise—and more recently as campaign manager. Unmarried, Sawyer’s focus was on his job twenty-four hours a day. He followed CJ to Havana when the man was appointed U. S. ambassador to Cuba. Returning to Washington, Carson served his friend through two elect

The long-awaited conclusion to the CJ Series.

Watch it boy! Didn't you follow me to GA? Doesn't that mean I have the first shot at spankings?

Thanks for the continued work, Boss. I particularly like the move of writing-related forums closer to the top. This is a writers/readers site first, everything else is secondary. At least that's my opinion.

LOL Some of us are just a royal pain in the ass...

@Mikiesboy Thank you for sharing, my friend. @Reader1810 That reads like a description of my characters! Maybe because I'm an immigrant and also a member of so many minorities I value the American 'melting pot' a bit more than others. It's also why I speak so loudly about injustice. May we as a nation rediscover our values soon.

Check the story title's spelling.

@Thorn Wilde Sorry... bad cut and paste on my part. @northie No idea. Since my PM inbox is usually near full capacity, I delete messages as soon as I pass the question on. I rarely remember who send it in.

Ask an Author 2.0 #21 Twenty-one! At last. Somebody wanna get me a cocktail? @northie has a knack for delivering the unexpected. Ghosts in her most recent anthology offering, the travails of old age frequently, or I understand horror in other works. I don’t do scary flicks or stories so no comments from me on those. The point is she buckles trends and offers tales unlike what most GA authors do. You should give one or two of them a look. What weighs you down the most in your writing? Err... I started off by wondering whether my mystery questioner had mistaken me for someone else: a writer who committed their creative struggles to the page, or one who mused on the essence of being an author. Nope. Just me. It is an interesting question though. Who can truthfully say, writing and posting a story causes not a single doubt or moment of hesitation? When setting out to write something – be it a flash piece or story chapter – I don't often have concerns. The story comes out as I imagine it mostly; scrapping something is an option that's only been used 3 or 4 times. So far, I've felt content in my identity as an English author writing for the most part about English things. What I didn't appreciate starting out was how that would limit my stories' appeal. Factor in older characters and some less-than-feelgood subject matter, and sometimes I'm surprised anyone comes back for more. A reader described one of my ongoing serials recently as 'quotidian'. That's a pretty fair description. If you're looking for sizzling sex scenes, inter-galactic battles, werewolves, or fairy tales, I'm not (yet, at least) the author for you. As my writing continues to improve (I'm still less than three years into this writing lark) maybe I will branch out. The on-going serials are 'kitchen sink' dramas. Sounds boring perhaps, but I find there's still plenty to write about, to examine, to explore. This is where things can weigh me down a little. I'm getting better at pacing, mixing things up, and plot development, but there's still a lurking suspicion that quotidian actually means pedestrian or mundane. Despite accepting my stories are never going to be many people's cup of tea, I'm not one of those authors who posts a story or chapter and couldn't give a damn about who reads it. On the contrary. It's been the hardest thing to deal with. Self-confidence isn't my strongest suit, so whenever the latest product from my pencil is posted, I watch what happens. If it gains little interest, I have to tell myself it's a bad day / time of day. Or maybe someone with more clout has posted a lynchpin chapter. Or it's just not what the GA community expects. That doesn't make it a bad story, or me a poor writer. It happens. Another way to look at it is this: if the reception of my stories is the worst issue to be faced, I should get a grip. I write freely, enjoy it wholeheartedly, and am willing and able to learn. There must be many authors out there who would love to swap places. People who struggle to get the words out; others who are prevented from seeing the fruit of their labours in the public's hands. I am lucky. Another author who does not fit the mold is @Thorn Wilde. His stories often feature off-beat characters with my favorite one so far being Deadpool. If you’re a Marvel Comics’ fan—and even if you are not—you should check out Holding Back. What connects and or distracts you to/from the emotion and characters in your stories? This is kind of a hard one to answer. What connects me I guess is that they're mine. I write them, so I feel them, if that makes sense. That can be unpleasant sometimes, too, when I feel characters who do bad things, or when bad things happen to my characters. I can get pretty emotional. It can be hard to disconnect. Sometimes I just have to remind myself that they're not real (which is very hard to do because they're real to me). Don't know if any of this makes One of GA’s signature authors, @Valkyrie seems to be everywhere. She writes, she edits, she helps coordinate the site’s anthology connection… You get the idea. Busy, busy, busy and she still finds time to read and comment on other stories. Don’t ask me about her infatuation with cats and penguins; still have’t figured that one out. Was there any book/ author you read that changed the way you approached or thought about your writing? I gave this a lot of thought, because I initially couldn't think of anyone. But the more I thought about it, I would have to say reading Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles opened new possibilities to me in my writing. Her stories were the first I read with an m/m component. I've always loved vampire stories, and even started writing one of my own, but after reading about Anne Rice's vampires, my story took a bit of an unexpected turn. @Wayne Gray made a big splash in the GA pond when he published Guarded. Since then, he’s become an active participant in the community and has a couple of stories now posting. I am really enjoying your stories. To date, what has been your hardest scene to write? Thank you for the question. It's a great one. The toughest scene I've ever written is included in a tale that is finished but has yet to be posted anyplace. That'd be a scene in Fleeting Eternity. The reason it was difficult is that it was a gut-punch, emotionally powerful moment - one I spent days writing because it was just so hard to get through it. Annoyingly, I can't divulge much more about it, for fear of ruining the story. I do plan on posting Fleeting Eternity to GA one day. So you'll get to tell me if you agree when you read that piece of work. 🙂 That’s it for this month. I’m serious, guys. I need questions. Unless you want me to start asking authors about their reality TV watching habits, you better send me some good ones.

Bravo! Sounds like love and maturity. I often upset purists because of how I dress at time. Not proper biker attire, I'm told. My reply's usually that it's proper for THIS biker. Beat your own drum and screw anyone who can't march along.

I have big plans for Lincoln if I get to write everything I've outlined. You'll hear a bit about him next Friday.

I have a regular, plain, old Gold Amex. Whenever I go to their website, an offer pops up telling me I'm pre-approved/qualified for the Platinum one. I don't need it. If I was constantly traveling and a lot of it was international, I might consider it. But I don't need all the bells and whistles when I usually charge less than 2k a month on it.

Don't go too far. I have something going on next Friday!

I thought I'd replied but I must have had a senior moment. The amount of tears the story's generated has been a surprise. For the most part, I've tried to write a light-toned story. As for the music, I have a playlist with most of the music referenced in the series. Yesterday I teared up when I heard Snow Patrol's "Just Say Yes" the song CJ used when he proposed. I'm turning into an old softy.

If CJ was still a teenager, I might be scared of his initial reaction. Not saying he wouldn't use Lola under the right circumstances, but he's definitely calmed down a bit.

An open-air BJ and everyone gets excited. LOL I stopped describing sex scenes between the two when I figured everyone knew they were a pair of horn dogs who went at it all the time. It gets boring to repeat the same thing so now I just mention it when it's something special. Glad I did this time.

I hope you realize you've made me smile a lot recently. Tracking your binge reading through chapter reactions was such a pleasure, it told me I'd written something that captured your imagination and kept your interest. The emotional connection readers built with CJ and the rest of the cast has been surprising, and I'm glad I was able to elicit such a range of feelings. I hope you enjoyed the Australia scenes. I'm sure I mangled the language a bit but hopefully it conveyed the love I have for Owen, his family, and his land. Drop in next week. I have a little something going live on Friday the 5th.

Sorry about the delayed response. I didn't travel with the laptop, I have enough problems typing on a full keyboard, and wasn't willing to try responding on my phone. I'm glad we took this trip together. Thank you for always responding when I had questions, you helped make some of the New York scenes much better. Last year I gave you an idea of what my plans were after this book; I'm happy to report so far we're on track. Make sure you take a look next Friday; I have something for the adults. Then, in August, it'll be Liebe's turn. Let's see how readers react to those two. I'm so glad we met and look forward to traveling to NYC again sometime soon. I always had Jamie and Steven, now I have you and Sal too. Since Trump screwed up the trip to Cuba, you may see me this fall.

OMG! You left me out! Oh, wait. Never mind. I didn't post anything this week. Did I scare you, Steve? LOL

I was left wanting to know more. The bare bones approach lacked something for me. In today's health care environment, finding a doctor who cares and is willing to persevere is a minor miracle.

You're such a tease. But that was a tasty morsel.

@Nahrung Brett may not be as high-strung as Cesar or CJ, but he's no airhead. I thought it would be cool for him to speak publicly about his feeling for his son. The problem with my cast of characters is almost every time I come up with a story idea, someone for the CJ series jumps at me as a candidate for MC. I wouldn't mind a spinoff or two. Let's see what I come up with. My personal experience is too often writers, like some athletes, don't realize it's time to wait until it's too late. In an effort to keep stories going, the devise ever more convoluted plots. I'd rather leave readers wanting more but satisfied with what they got. Yes, I can return to the series, but I don't think I want to write much more until after next year's elections. If Trump gets four more years, whatever I write would be different than if voters toss his lying, fat ass out of the White House.

That man needs a beat down. You're too damn nice...

I'm already teaching Mann Spanish ones for a story he's writing. Maybe CJ has time?