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This month's story is all about a day... My Last Day Without You by QuinnDK. This was announced on the first Monday of the month, so I hope you had a chance to read it? Don't be shy, share your thoughts below! But first, enjoy this interview with Quinn. What’s something personal about you people might be surprised to know? I really love washing dishes and doing the laundry – for some reason it’s a huge stress reliever for me. Yes, gentlemen, I’m single. Did you like to write as a kid in school? I did! When I was about 10 years old my mom took a screenwriting class and I would stay up at night reading through her course materials and books. So I actually got my start as a kid writing these terrible little movie scripts, and I eventually moved on to write terrible fanfiction as a teenager. No amount of money in the world will make me share it, by the way. What brought you to Gay Authors? I wasn’t all that satisfied with the content I found in mainstream fiction writing sites (such as FictionPress, Wattpad, or AO3) and started searching for a writing community that had an LGBT focus but also a sizeable and active reader base. To my astonishment, I found just that with Gay Authors! What book(s) or author have most influenced your personal writing style? Romance novelists such as Lori Foster, Linda Lael Miller, Jayne Ann Krentz, and Diana Gabaldon inspired me the most, I love that their styles range from lyrical and sweet to smutty and hot. I aspire to have that same range for my own stories. I also drawn inspiration from literary writers like Michael Chabon, humorists like David Sedaris, and quirky chick-lit authors like Helen Fielding. If I can become some combination of those three, I’ll be a very happy writer. What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story? Reykjavik! An adventurous tourist and a hunky Icelandic local, plus those steamy geo-thermal spas… that sounds like the start of a very hot story to me. What do you like to do when you’re not writing? When I’m not writing, or working, or studying for school, I either have my nose in a book or my eyes glued to a videogame. And I go to the gym, but that’s only because I’m always testing out new cookie recipes. Your characters have great, distinctive names: Ezra & Henrik. How did you come up with those? Oh gosh, naming my characters has always been a laborious process for me. I think main characters with unique names that you don’t necessarily hear or see every day stick out in your mind more vividly. And I like having names that sound different from each other, too. I could never write a romance about a Matt and a Mitch. It’s important to me that names reflect their characters. Henrik has such a strong, solid, Scandinavian connotation, while Ezra sounds more ethereal and artistic. One of your main characters, Ezra, likes to draw. Is that a personal hobby of yours too? I’m a terrible drawer! I’m actually terrible at anything artistic. But I knew I wanted to give Ezra a hobby he was passionate about. He already worked as a writer in his day job and I thought drawing would contrast that very well. The fact that he’s so good at it but is constantly second-guessing himself was inspired by an interview I read with someone who used to draw Batgirl for DC Comics. Do you have a favorite scene in My Last Day Without You? The epilogue where Henrik surprises Ezra in the courtyard is probably my favourite. There’s no more tension or deadlines or pressure, they’re just two men allowed to enjoy the moment and each other. It’s just such a pure and sweet romantic moment. The scene before that with Ezra on the phone with Marvel was also very fun to write, I liked turning the story into a screwball comedy after so many chapters of drama and angst. What’s next? Is there a sequel for these or other characters coming? A sequel is planned, though it probably won’t be a full blown novel-length story. I’m thinking of writing it as a novella. Some readers have said they really enjoyed Xavier, so I might explore something with him as well. Two stories that I’m writing concurrently on Gay Authors, ‘Fire and Icing’ and ‘Safeguard’, feature different characters but they take place in the same narrative universe and my fictionalized version of Toronto. So, you never know who might show up and where…

Have you taken a second look at @MericCotton's completed story if you read Second Chances once before? Or was this your first time reading it? Either way, this month's CSR selection was something a little different than the usual teen or twenties or even thirties fair. Sometimes life passes before we know it (How is it almost April already?) and things happen.... Make sure you share your thoughts about the story in the comments, but first, as always, my interview with the author first! Are you a person who makes their bed in the morning, or do you not see much point? ** I make the bed when it absolutely must be made – usually after the sheets have pooled on the floor… If you had 30 minutes of free time, what would you do? ** Walk the dog … take a short horse-back ride … or maybe just play piano – though all of those are better for at least an hour J What brought you to the site? ** I was searching for somewhere to share my writing that often touches on gay/straight issues. Mostly somewhere with other writers sharing the same. Somewhere to grow my skill by interchange with other like-minded people. What do you like to do when you’re not writing? ** As mentioned couple questions ago – spend time with the puppy. Actually full grown, just loves to act like a puppy – reminds me to think young. Can spend hours at the piano. Right now recovering from shoulder surgery – so puppy gets most of my attention. What’s the first thing you do when you start to write a story? ** Hardest part for me seems to be that opening hook. How to say enough without saying too much. I’m sure I’ll anger my past English professors – but I almost never do an outline other than mentally. Is there anything you find particularly challenging when it comes to writing? ** Opening and closing. Whether the book or chapters. If there’s a break inside a chapter, that’s always been a challenge. Did something specific inspire you to write Second Chances? ** I lost my partner to cancer a few years ago. I was actually thinking of a long “chapter story” kind of thing – not sure what got me to go with a married man in a straight relationship – but it seems to have worked. Did the characters or the plot come to you first? ** Story idea came first along with the main character. Not really the full plot. Certainly didn’t know where it would end when I started. That came like half way into it. What do you think makes Second Changes stand out compared to similar contemporary stories? ** Awkward question … I read a lot of historical fiction or SciFi. The thing that comes to mind might be the story deals with both straight and gay relationships for one character. Can you sum up this story in one sentence? ** A recent widower learns to follow his heart while keeping his mind and soul open to what life presents to him.

Welcome to our last CSR Discussion day of 2021! What better way than with this interview with Headstall's story, Sidewinder. Did you read it? I admit I'm a country girl so I enjoy a good western tale done right. What did you think of the story? Share your thoughts in the comments below, but first you get to enjoy my interview with Headstall! Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate, hands down. If you were an animal, what would you be? A faithful, devoted companion, like a dog or a horse. I might also have a little bit of tiger mixed in. What’s something personal about you people might be surprised to know? Something surprising? Hmmm. I’m pretty much an open book about my life. Maybe it would be that I’m a pretty good public speaker—I seem to have an easy time of fitting in and making people laugh—and I’ve usually been successful in the things I’ve wanted to accomplish. I’m struggling to come up with something interesting, but I’m drawing a blank. I guess I can add that people tend to confide in me, and look to me for advice. I’d like to think that means I’m a good listener. Sorry… that’s all I got. What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story? Oh, that’s a tough one. I’ll say the Yukon, but Greece and Switzerland would be up there. I have story ideas for all those places. Actually, since I’ve been watching Yellowstone, I might choose a working horse ranch in Montana if I could go somewhere tomorrow, but that would be for fun as much as research. Do you have any writing rituals or concrete habits when writing a story? I don’t believe so. No… not really, although I most often tend not to read what I’m writing when I’m on a roll. Does that count? Sometimes that will go on for an entire story, and then I’ll have to divide an 80,000 or so word document into chapters after it’s completed. That was the case with “Endings”, and “Sidewinder” was pretty much that way (other than I did separate chapters along the way after I got a ways in). I just kept writing and researching, and had no idea whether my western would be good enough to post when it was finished. Once done, I read through the whole thing in two sittings, editing the obvious stuff here and there as I went along. It was a relief to feel it was good enough to post (the pandemic was still screwing with me). After that, I spent weeks editing and reediting… and researching. I continually edit right up until I post, with every story I write… and am usually still editing in the GA editor before I submit a chapter. I’m a tough man to please in that regard. Others, stories that don’t flow so easily, that’s not the case. I might write a few paragraphs, and then go back over it right away. So, I suppose that means I was right that I don’t have concrete writing habits. I don’t usually listen to music, but sometimes I do. I might have the TV on in the background, or I might not. I write when I’m tired… or not. Sometimes I write for twenty minutes, and sometimes I write all day or evening. I guess I do have a habit in where I write, though. In a big, usually empty house, I always end up writing in one corner of my bedroom at my desk. My chair is comfortable and the lighting is good, and I can stare out the window at the trees when my eyes need a break. What book first inspired your love of the western genre and why? I’m not sure how to answer this. I was a voracious reader, but I don’t remember the names of a lot of books I read as a kid. I do know a lot of the westerns I did read were by Louis L’Amour. I remember someone giving me a box of them. “Hondo” was one of those, as was “Sackett”. And of course I read “Lonesome Dove” by the incredible Larry McMurtry when it came out. I don’t think my love for westerns came entirely from those books, though. I’m sure some of it seeped in because of reading—I’ve been horse crazy my whole life, and read all of Walter Farley’s books about “The Black Stallion”. I also devoured Marguerite Henry’s books, like “Misty of Chincoteague” and “Justin Morgan had a Horse” to name a couple. But even those weren’t the reason for my love of westerns. I would watch any TV show or movie that had horses in it, and I came to love TV shows like Bonanza, The Big Valley, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, Rawhide, The Cisco Kid, Have Gun—Will Travel… I could go on. All of those spaghetti western movies too, were like candy for me, so that’s where a lot of my love for that genre came from. To this very day I will watch just about any western that comes on television. Even so, I’ve always known, even as a kid, that a lot of what was presented was not true to life. Indians weren’t savages, and the bad guys didn’t always wear black hats. One of the most powerful movie experiences I’ve ever had was watching a ‘western’ called “Soldier Blue” in the theater. The Indian massacre in that movie devastated me in ways I can’t even describe, and continued to affect me for many years. I’m not sure I could ever write about something so tragic. What part of writing a western story came easiest? Was the hardest? Easiest? I think that would be how I understand that pioneer spirit. I might have been born in the wrong time period. I’ve built two farms from almost nothing, and I had that drive to work from sunup to sundown, building barns and fences and clearing land, all while doing any chores that were required to be done… and working fulltime. Showing horses successfully takes tremendous dedication and a strong work ethic, and is a dream that takes a lot to achieve, and I rose right to the very top. So yeah, I’m familiar with the challenge of that kind of life. I can even make my own horse shoes, being a trained and licensed blacksmith/farrier. The hardest? That would definitely be creating a dialect that sounded authentic to my own literary ear—one I felt comfortable using for my characters. I did a lot of research, and believe me, it is sporadic when it comes to how folks talked back then. There existed such a regional variation that it was almost a series of different languages. Tenses were the biggest thing… they were often mixed up and improperly used, and word choice was vastly different. Language relates to the time period we are in, and so much was different in those times on the frontiers. It was a process, but I believe I found the rhythm, cadence, and word choice I needed to make the characters come to life. I actually find myself ‘thinking’ in that dialect now. Your story description mentions a lot of research. When it came time to write, did that help you develop Boone and Coy’s characters or was it more about the setting and authenticity? It was definitely both. Let me clarify. I needed to understand what made these guys tick, like with any characters I write, and research gave me the biggest key for that. It soon became clear that despite the lawlessness of the time, most folks were god-fearing. Their faith was what kept them going through the tough times in the harshest of environments. Sometimes a cowboy had no company but the Lord’s for miles around, and for months at a time. Faith wasn’t something they paid lip service to… it was the backbone of their existence, and once I understood that, I had my characters. And of course there were a lot of scenes in the story that had to feel right. They included aspects of hunting, weapons, terrain, types of game and edible plants, equipment, and cooking—even types of cattle. They are just some examples that required a lot of tedious research (not that I really minded). I did go down a few rabbit holes… okay, a lot of rabbit holes, but I believe I ended up with an authentic feel to the story. If that isn’t the case, it wasn’t from a lack of trying. And word choice! I can’t forget that. There are so many words we use without thinking today (like ‘okay’), ones which would seldom or never be used back in those times, so I spent a lot of time searching word origins and when some sayings came into existence, or when they were popular. That was ongoing throughout the entire story and its sequel. What is your favorite scene or line in Sidewinder? Can you share anything new about your current or upcoming work with readers? Sure. I am working on chapter eleven of a new story. It’s been waiting in the wings a long time, and it’s just a simple human drama set in contemporary times. I started it a long time ago, but the pandemic played games with my head, and I lost my desire to write. After writing my anthology entry, “Finding Refuge”, I’d always wanted to write another western, so out of the blue I started “Sidewinder” late one evening… and my research began. Later, I returned to this story, only to leave it again to write “Larkspur: A Sidewinder Tale”. Those voices wouldn’t stay quiet. I must admit I am having strong urges to write another western, so we’ll see if this one gets set aside again. I’m not doing a good job of selling this new work of mine, am I? J Thanks for the great questions, Cia. This was fun.

Welcome to the CSR discussion day for July with Love is Blind by Nick Brady! Did you have a chance to read this story? Nick was kind enough to do an interview for me and share some of his thoughts on what he learned while writing Love is Blind. He also filled in a few thoughts on his favorite cartoon hijinks character, tall or small, and his hobbies outside of writing! So enjoy learning more about Nick, and then share your thoughts on his story in the comments below. Who do you like best, Jerry or Tom? Probably Jerry because he always outsmarts Tom the cat. If you had to choose between being eight feet tall or four feet tall, which would you choose and why? I might choose to be 4 feet tall because little guys get away with more. What do you like to do in your free time at home when you’re not writing? I like to read and work in my garden. I'm also an amateur photographer. What brought you to GA? I read a few stories here quite a long time ago and posted one of my first stories with you. GA is a very professionally managed and I appreciate having my stories hosted on your site. What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story, in modern time or the past? California during the gold rush. There were a great number of men there all trying to strike it rich with little constraints on their behavior. There has to be a good story in there somewhere. If you had to try method writing (like method acting) for research on a story, what type of plot or character research would you like to do? I have always been drawn to characters who seem to be very different then discover that they have a great deal in common. I find relationships between people of different ages, abilities, backgrounds, and races to be interesting. Can you sum up Love is Blind in one sentence? What begins as a casual friendship between a blind and a sighted college student evolves into a lifetime commitment. What is the most interesting “I never would have thought about it like that” thing you learned from your research from others who faced similar challenges as your characters? Sometimes what appears to be the weaker of a pair turns out to be the strongest. What was your favorite scene in Love is Blind? That's hard to choose, but I will say that the episode in Chapter 5 where Ian and Andrew try their hand at home brewing was fun to write. It was easy because it really happened to me when I was in college. You might say it was a learning experience. Can you share a little of your current/future work you plan to post on GA with us? I make mental notes of various characters and situations that accumulate in my head until they form the basis of a new story. Sometimes they come from my own experience but more often from observation. The erotic parts are almost always fictional. My life has not been nearly as interesting as my characters. I'm working on several new ideas. Stay tuned.

How did the month end so fast? We've passed the equinox, the seasons are changing, and it's time to share your thoughts on northie's story, Willpower. How did you feel when you read it? Then check out some of northie's feelings, thoughts, and maybe a few things you didn't know. Like... Why was northie frustrated after finding GA? 😲 You'll have to read on to find out! Of course, make sure you share your thoughts on the story too! Are you a person who makes their bed in the morning, or do you not see much point? It depends. I live in a small flat where an unmade bed isn’t out of mind. However on work days, I’m not one of these people who get dressed early to go for a stroll / walk the dog / have a leisurely breakfast. I emerge about 20 minutes before I’m due out the door with lunch made. If you think that’s not enough time to eat breakfast as well, you’d be quite right. The bed gets left to air until I return (or so I tell myself). On non-work days, I allow a couple of hours before giving it a cursory going over. What’s something personal about you people might be surprised to know? I’m not one for disclosing much about myself. From my writing, photos, and status updates, people can get a reasonable sense of who I am and what I’m interested in. Other than that, I’d struggle to find something surprising about my life to tell, because there isn’t anything. What brought you to GA? Reading gay fiction / erotica connects with me for reasons I’ve only recently unravelled. Like so many people, I started with Nifty. Once the novelty wore off, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the general standard of writing there. Browsing through their ‘Best of Nifty’ introduced me to other sites, of which GA was one. I lurked for a while, then joined, hoping nobody would notice me. Although I enjoyed the reading, and slowly coming out of my shell, the overriding emotion in those first few months was frustration. Why, I didn’t know, until I was introduced to writing. And all became clear. (I thought) This was the longest story you’d written (or shared) on GA when Willpower was posted for the anthology. Had you written anything this length before and was it a challenge? Funnily enough, it wasn’t. My first ever anthology entry, ‘The Bard’s Tale’, all 16,500 words of it, has that honour. Was it hard work? Oh, yes. With only 4-5 months writing experience (most of which was spent writing the quite simple opening chapters of ‘Never Too Late’), I embarked on this massive experiment. For reasons I can’t recall, my muse wanted the story to appear as a quasi-playscript. So I had to get my head round that, invent my alternative Earth, write American dialogue, and plot across a much wider canvas than I’d ever done before. It’s a piece I regard with affection, and I learnt a huge amount while writing it. Do you prefer to write any general length of story over others? Why/why not? Currently, I write everything from prompted microprose (stories of less than 50 words), through short to medium size, standalone pieces, to longer, multi-part stories. I enjoy all of them, otherwise I wouldn’t write in the forms. They each challenge me differently, making individual demands on my creativity, and allowing for experimentation. If you could give advice to yourself when you first started writing, what would it be? It’s been such a short time since I first put pencil to paper (3 years), I’m not sure there’s much stored advice to give. I remember bristling the first few times my writing was edited, though even then, I took in the comments. So maybe, just to accept constructive criticism positively from the start. Other than the prompt for the anthology, how did you come up with the idea for Willpower? One theme that occurs is my writing is that of getting older; the problems which may accompany this aspect of life also concern me. Another theme is concealing who you are, or maybe discovering what it is that’s been concealed. With an ageing population, dementia is a fearsome condition, robbing people of their cognition and dignity, and there is little-to-no medical solution. Put that all together with a good dose of drama and you have ‘Willpower’. What do you think makes your story stand out compared to other “similar” stories using timeline jumps to alternate the main characters and tell more than one story? Does my story stand out for that reason? I have no idea. Certainly I worked hard to make both timelines work on their own, and together. The flashbacks weren’t decorative; they served to push the plot forward as much as the present day storyline, until they joined. When Saul speaks to Max’s son, what he says becomes the flashback, taking the reader again back to the early 1990s. Do you have a favorite line or paragraph in the story that you hope evokes emotion/response in readers the most? What is it, and what emotion were you going for or have readers told you it created? This is the crux of the story, the reason for everything that follows. There should be shock, sadness; anger, perhaps. And recognition of the impossible situation the two men found themselves in. Several readers commented on this aspect of the story from personal experience. It told me I’d got that element right. ****** “So, it was the guy in the bar? The one who caused the trouble.” Will was back talking to the image of Saul Edwards. He was amazed at the details the older man could still recall. “We'll never know for sure. But a few weeks later, Max told me that rumours were starting to circulate about his sexuality. One of his acquaintances in the City had mentioned it during the course of a conversation the week before.” Will saw the sadness etched on the other man's face. “Max let the comment pass…” Will couldn't believe it. “What? He should've denied it, categorically.” “And, so… deny our love? Deny who he really was? For once, your father didn't know what to say. Put on the spot like that? He was damned either way, in his mind, so he let it pass. I kept my counsel, and offered what support I could.” ****** How about a favorite story among all the tales you’ve posted on GA? Which one would you pick and why (you can pick a current story if you are in love with something you are currently writing/will post soon)? God… while I’m not an author who loves everything they write, I have a number of favourites. It means that when I get asked this sort of question, I can change things around. This time I’ll go for the ‘Never Too Late…’ series. Eric Whitehouse, the older, lonely principal character, is someone close to my heart. He appeared, fully formed, in my imagination early on in my writing career. As you might expect, he mirrors some aspects of me. He also embodies some of my concerns. Little did I realise when I posted the first chapters, just how unusual a character Eric is in the GA milieu. Against the odds perhaps, he has garnered a following; some of those readers honour the story by sharing their life experiences in the chapter comments. It is a privilege for me, the author, to read and respond to their thoughts and reflections.

How's your August? Happy to be over? My summer vacation is rapidly coming to a close, with this being my last week "off" so I am cramming in everything fun and relaxing I can. Of course, I spent a couple of hours this month completely absorbed into Mike Arram's story, The Heart of Oskar Prinz, which was a thoroughly enjoyable escape. Did you? If you did, I'm sure you have some thoughts to share in the comments. And you CAN'T miss the answers he shared!! Make sure you read on, comment, and prompt your fellow GA readers/fans to come visit this blog too! If you had 30 minutes of free time, what would you do? I retired from my academic job last year, so this is a question that I’ve been daily confronting since. I no longer have the daily 120 administrative emails to deal with and one remorseless deadline after another, which is quite the relief, but I now have the odd experience of free time. It’s pushing me in unexpected directions, like for instance birdwatching. I never knew I was interested in birds, but apparently I am, and they’re such demanding little creatures. They fill in quite a few half hours, and though it shouldn’t surprise me, there are birding apps, and I’ve bought books! Also there are author questionnaires. If you were writing a book about your life, what would the title be? ‘Adolescence is the weirdest time’ What brought you to GA? Ah well, that was a personal invite from Wildone, which was very kind. But it did hit my particular anxiety which is the longevity of existing posting sites, which in most cases depend on the commitment and enthusiasm of single, devoted individuals for whom there cannot be enough praise. But in the end that makes them vulnerable. GA has the advantage of a broader base of support and an institutional framework, as well as its large and enthusiastic base of writers and fans. Is there anything you find particularly challenging when you write? Not now I have so much free time. Though maybe the lack of routine demands on me may remove that need to balance commitments I used to find made me productive, hopping happily from one activity to another. If you could give advice to yourself when you first started writing, what would it be? Sex scenes really do move the process of writing along, just remember that an excess of graphic details isn’t necessarily erotic. What’s the first thing you do when you start to write a story like The Heart of Oskar Prinz? Tough question. That particular story came out of ... ermm ... a deep fascination with the products of the Belami studio and a fixation with one particular model of the time, the amazing “Josh Elliot “. Like Will, I got all the videos and trawled the basement shops in London’s Soho; this was just before online streamed porn revolutionised the activity of male masturbation. When I finally emerged from the erotic daze the man inspired, as one does, it left me with a different sort of curiosity, such as how such an industry worked, what might get such an amazingly beautiful man involved in gay erotic films, how could such a remarkably fit and intelligent-looking man get tied up in having sex with strangers for the voyeuristic amusement of the likes of me. Surprisingly, it was possible to find quite a bit about it if you have the research skills and the odd half hour you steal from doing something else. And it was that research which stimulated my imagination towards a story to further explore that world. It linked with several of my enthusiasms: exploring a fictional east European nation (as first created by Anthony Hope), and how it might have developed into the 20th century; its history, nobility and language. So the story of the trapped, driven and tragic figure of Oskar Prinz emerged, and he told his tale. Do you have any ‘interesting’ online or in-person research anecdotes from writing this story to share? I think you can guess where a lot of my research happened and perhaps we need not go there. But I travel a fair amount, and since I was in Prague I could not resist looking up where the offices of Belami were on Wenceslas Square. They’re as described as Falkefilm’s Rodolferplaz HQ, off a pasacz. You probably don’t need to be told that very few young Czech (or Slovak) men actually measure up to Belami standards, so mooning around that pasacz is a waste of time, as well as being creepy. Who is your favorite secondary character in the story [not Will or his lover(s)] and why? If you take out Will and his various partners, then you’re left with Friedrich Franz, or Fritz, Oskar’s little brother. In due course he became an even more interesting character to explore than his driven brother: Imagine a boy with every gift of personality, full of love and humour, and with looks far beyond the ordinary, yet with one defect of character caused by his early poverty and loss of his parents: a need to possess utterly those he loved and too ready a need to love. No human can be perfect and one small flaw can darken every aspect of a life. What is your favorite scene in the story? The whole story’s plot is highly contrived, which you can take as a homage to the ultimate inspiration of Anthony Hope, who wrote in the romantic Victorian vein which made much of the unlikely coincidence. But I really did enjoy crafting the double coincidence of Will meeting both his erotic heroes in Strelzen, and finding them not at all what he expected, rather more so than less. You can see it coming a way off, but I don’t think that lessens the fun. Can you share a little about your current story or future projects? I can’t not write by now, so there’s always one on the go. My three Crown of Tassilo historical novels were always intended to be more, but for years I’ve failed to find the plot and characters that would carry the story on into and beyond the Second World War era. But recently it occurred to me that prequels can be as important as sequels. So early this year I began the epic tale of Sergius von Tarlenheim-Olmusch, a young nobleman who arrives at the court of Ruritania in 1690 to join the household of the 16 year old Crown Prince Henry and there meets the prince’s bastard cousin, which is the pairing that energises the story. It will take you across the battlefields of the Hapsburg wars with Louis XIV and the Ottoman empire. Meanwhile something is definitely amiss in the Marienkloster of Medeln, and on the streets of Old Strelsau the ragged street boys of the Conduit meet an elf on a quest, the nature of which only slowly becomes apparent. It’s about three-quarters done, and one of the things that’s moving it along is the good fun of working with my current editor, Peter, who shares many of my personal manias as well as being a very gifted linguist.

Well, the end is near! The end of June, that is! Did you check out this simple short story... or is it as simple as it seemed? Exit to Redemption introduced readers to characters who could be the driver in the next car, the man in the next office, or the jerk at the next table disturbing your dinner. Learning about Valkyrie is a lot more simple than the choices and changes faced by the characters in her story! Check out my interview with her and then share your thoughts about that or her story in the comments below! Do you eat your fruits and vegetables? No and yes. I don’t like a lot of fruit and it’s also too sugary for me. While there aren’t a ton of veggies I actually like, I do eat a lot of the ones I do like. I also sub cauliflower for a lot of starches, so I get my fill of veggies that way. If you were an animal, what would you be? Being a dragon would be pretty cool, but I’d probably be something more mundane like a cat. I could get into sleeping 90% of the time and eating and randomly spazzing out the other 10%. If you had 30 minutes of free time, what would you do? Probably play Candy Crush or watch something mindless on TV. Absolutely nothing productive. Has your writing evolved over the years and changed in any way? Yes, it’s definitely evolved. I’ve worked hard to hone my descriptions and convey the emotions of my characters. I think my stories have also grown in their complexity. Penguin is pretty straightforward, while The Hollow Hills is much more nuanced. Do you prefer to write short stories for a reason beyond time constraints? I like using short stories to explore questions I’ve asked myself. For example, I wondered about why people react differently to adversity and tragedy, and the result was my anthology story April’s Fool. I also asked myself what would happen if someone with a disability reached beyond the special ed classroom and tried to be friends with someone in mainstream education—like Peter from Downhearted. The flexibility of short stories allows me to capture a moment in time or create character sketches without following the traditional story format of beginning/middle/end. I’ve also used them to experiment with descriptions or writing in a different point of view. When I first started writing, I was more comfortable writing in first person, so I challenged myself to write some anthology stories in third person. Now I’m pretty comfortable using either. Sometimes I use short stories as jumping off points. For example Faeries Anonymous and Igneous are both slated to become longer works. Just how many of your stories interconnect? Good question! I had to go look because I wasn’t sure. A lot of my early prompt stories are based off peripheral characters from The Hollow Hills. There’s also a connection between THH and Alex’s Legacy. Quite a few of my prompt responses build off each other. One of the projects on my list is to take some of those multi-prompt serials and post them as their own stories, like I did with Thanksgiving Knight. And of course, there’s the Max and Elliot stories, with Exit to Redemption as a spin-off. Have you ever experienced a moment like Henry did with Pete at the start of the story or was that just made up? I’ve seen my share of rude jerks, but that scene was made up. Change… Redemption… is it possible, or more of a romance story construct? Yes, I do think it’s possible to change and redemption isn’t just a fictional construct. However, true change is difficult at best, and redemption is even harder to achieve. Sometimes we have to change habits to improve our health, which can be easy or not, based on motivation level or certain diagnoses. Changing things more ingrained to our nature is difficult, if not impossible. Learned behavior can be unlearned, but personality disorders such as sociopathy or narcissism can’t be changed. In your mental story after the story, are Henry and Pete living happily ever after now? I’d like to think they are. I can’t say Pete doesn’t still have his moments, but I’m guessing Henry’s influence is enough to keep him in check. How about sharing some of your upcoming writing adventures with readers… what’s in your pipeline?! I have a few exciting things in the works. I’m currently working on a novella/novel length story based in the Igneous universe. I’ve wanted to write this story for years and finally have a working outline and a couple of chapters in the first draft stage. I’m going to finish it before posting, so it will be a while before it’s done. In the meantime, I’ll have at least one story for the fall anthology. Right now, I’m planning on writing a story based on Taylor from my Pride and Premium story, Deal or No Deal. I guess I can’t resist interconnecting my stories! I’ll have some prompt stories and also an upcoming collaboration to tide my readers over. And my biggest news… drumroll… is the future release of my Premium novella A Leg to Stand On as an e-book.