[WARNING: The post may contain spoilers.]
Well everyone who reads gay fiction online has heard of him. He’s a legend in himself. Comicality has written such stories as Gone from Daylight, Savage Moon, and New Kid in School.
Here is part 2 of the interview.
Q. What are the major themes of your work?
More than anything…I just want the big theme of my stories to be ‘it’s ok’. Seriously. I know that I have a habit for drawing out the angst and indecision of my characters, but there’s really a distinct reason for me to do that. I want everyone reading to know that it’s ok. It’s ok to be gay, it’s ok to be selfish sometimes, it’s ok to be in a loving relationship and still want to sleep with someone else’s boyfriend, it’s ok to be a sucker for attention! Hehehe! It’s ok to be angry, or jealous, or lustful, or depressed, or riddled with guilt over something you’ve done. It happens. It’s normal. I think a lot of people get soooo caught up in this poster boy image of who they’re *supposed* to be, that they forget that the people they admire aren’t perfect either. Nobody expects you to be BEYOND your humanity. Be aware of what you truly feel, and make choices based on what you think is right. You’re not going to HELL just because you’re attracted to someone 2 weeks from his 18th birthday. Geez! There’s so much insecurity and shame and guilt and pain placed upon us because we’re trying to reach a standard of living that doesn’t exist.
You don’t have to be anything other than who you are, and what you feel. It’s *OK* to be scared to talk to the boy of your dreams, even when EVERYTHING seems to be all lined up to go according to plan! Who wouldn’t be? It’s ok not to be the most beautiful, confident, popular, boy in the room. Who says you HAVE to be? I’ve seen some really gorgeous boys on my site who feel soooo ‘ugly’ and unwanted and unloved. And it breaks my heart, because they’re so busy trying to be somebody ELSE that they can’t ever find a way to love the person they see in the mirror every morning. Why? Because we’ve all been taught to wanna be ‘him’. that imaginary person on the sexy magazine cover. I’ve seen people who are so painfully shy that they can’t even talk in the online chatroom. But when it’s just me and them, one on one, they’re the most interesting and wonderfully entertaining people in the world. Where does that person go when people are watching? That strange social ‘image’….that illusion, that false identity….it makes people feel as though they should have everything in their lives all worked out already. They should all be super beautiful, and have lots of money, and they should have a witty and scripted conversation ready any time that they’re in a social situation with other people. And if you DON’T….then there must be something ‘wrong’ with you. You’re the outcast. The reject. You’re falling behind the ‘pretty people’…run and catch up, you pathetic loser. That’s all a lie. People don’t really LIVE like that. Don’t believe the television and the movies and the online stories. That’s fantasy. Sometimes people say something STUPID in front of someone they really like. Sometimes they can’t speak at all. Sometimes they chicken out, sometimes they lust after someone they probably shouldn’t, sometimes they get jealous over something silly, sometimes they stall and don’t move forward on opportunities like they probably should, and sometimes they’re completely oblivious to what’s going on right in front of their faces. But it’s all *OK*!
Make your mistakes and learn from them. It doesn’t make you abnormal or stupid or helpless or hopeless. It’s LIFE! There’s nothing wrong with you. I just want my stories to let people know that, yeah…I get it. Love makes you awkward sometimes. It leaves you vulnerable and confused and sometimes…you lose the game and get your heartbroken. And if doesn’t make you nervous to your very core…then you’re either delusional, overly confident, or not in love at all. Life is scary sometimes…so are roller coasters! Enjoy it!
There IS no ‘normal’. Whoever you are, whatever your quirks or flaws or fears…you’re FINE just the way you are. And other people are struggling with the same issues you are. So don’t ever feel like less of a person just because you think somebody else has got the perfect plan for their life..because they don’t.
Q. Have you written a story you love that you have not put on your website?
PLENTY!!! Believe me! I’ve written a LOT of stories in my private files that have never been finished, and have never been released. About two years ago, I posted (I think) eight of them on the library…and readers really LOVED them…but they’re just not meant for the site. It’s hard to explain, but some things I write just for me. You know? To express a certain feeling or idea. I might, one day, get the urge to finish the stories and post them later…but there are no promises on that.
Also, I wrote a lot of straight sci-fi fiction stuff before the site, that I’d love to one day update and stretch out for everyone to enjoy. I’d love to post them some day. We’ll see. 😛
Q. Which of your stories do you consider your best accomplishment?
Out of everything I’ve written, I think Gone From Daylight is my prize possession. That one series alone has taken sooooo much effort and emotion over the years that every chapter has literally been EXHAUSTING to finish! Hehehe! You have no idea! That is the one story that really stresses me out more than all the others, because I need SO badly for everything to be just right and fall into place the way I envisioned it. My whole life story is told in that series through metaphor, and the big climax ending was chiseled in stone before I even began writing the first chapter all those years ago. So everything has to stay focused and move in the same direction. I’ve really been a serial killer/mad scientist type with this saga! Hehehe! Because I’ve been setting up the apocalyptic ending from the very first chapter (and every chapter since). So when people finally see the finished product…when they see the entire work presented as a whole…I think the impact of it will truly amaze them, and let them know that the wait and the journey it took to get from the first sentence to the last was well worth it.
Naturally, I can’t give anything away just yet…but my hopes are high for this one. And my STANDARDS are really high for this one too. So I hate always having big gaps between chapters, but like I said…this has to truly be thought out to the point of near perfection. It doesn’t seem like it now, but it will eventually become clear that every element of the story ties into something else. None of those little side stories or random character cameos were there without meaning. Everything that happens, everything I’ve written from the very beginning, has to relate to the ending.
Also, just the fanbase that this story has acquired over the years…it’s been an overwhelming joy of mine to see people’s reaction to the series. I’m so happy to know that they relate and understand what the heck I’m talking about half the time! Hehehe, because I worry about confusing them all the time!
Q. Who inspires you to write?
The readers on the website. Without a doubt. I mean, I’m going to write something almost every night whether people ever get to see it or not. But even though I’m writing just for me, and I really have big plans for everything I do, the reader’s interest is a BIG influence when it comes to what stories I post and focus on. So I kinda try to gauge what stories people get the most excited about, and which ones are just kinda…’eh’. You know? And that come strictly from the amount of feedback in my emails and my library. Which can sometimes be deceptive, but it’s really all I have to go on. I know that if I post “Agenda 21” and it gets a few positive comments here and there over two weeks’ time….and then I post “Jesse-101” and it’s like *BOOM*, 50 comments in a 48 hour period…then I know what I should be focusing on more at that particular moment. It’s not that I start IGNORING the other story…because I definitely want to complete my work on all of them and bring them up to date and, eventually, finish them off. But I can’t do both stories at once, so one of them has to suffer in silence for a while longer. I can’t concentrate on a story that’s doing ‘alright’, while a hundred people are getting more and more frustrated with me because they’re favorites haven’t been finished yet. (Hehehe, I’ve gotten some very ‘polite’ and ‘NOT so polite’ HATE mail from people who just like to gobble up stories 100 times faster than I can write them! Believe me! And no matter what I do, I’m pissing off a group of people somewhere!) So feedback lets me know how people feel about certain stories. And if they’re going over well, I get just as excited as they do about adding a new chapter! No better inspiration than hearing from an anxious audience.
As for the other stories that kinda get overshadowed by one series or another…I always come back to them eventually. And I just continue posting them when I have more time to give them my full attention. When readers are more ready to ‘make room’ for it and (hopefully) enjoy it more.
Q. Do you have any little quirks when you are writing?
Music! Hahaha, I probably spend more time searching for JUST the right music to listen to than I do actually writing! Sometimes I’ll have a few songs in mind, and sometimes I have to look through my whole CD collection to find one. Like I mentioned before, I have CDs burned where I put all the songs together that I use for certain stories. “Billy Chase” has three CDs worth, for all of his moods and issues. I have four discs specifically made for “Gone From Daylight”, mostly movie scores and dark brooding music (as well as ‘fight’ music) for that story. But music is a big part of me keeping my mood and rhythm in the same scene. It helps me keep those emotions on the surface where I can really dig into them and put them into words. So I might grab 10 CDs off of the shelf, and go through every one until I find JUST the right song for, say….”Billy and Brandon break up!” Hehehe! And THEN, once I find it, I put it on repeat…and usually just end up tuning the song out anyway while I write! It’s the weirdest thing in the world. But it’s a part of my ‘ritual’, I guess.
Q. What advice would you give to people who “run out of creativity” when writing?
Write something else…and then come back to what you were initially writing later. I really don’t believe in just running out of creativity. If you’re still breathing, you still have something to write about. If you’re out living life and going to parties…write about something fun. If you’re not, and are at home all day….write about the isolation. Those two emotions might not fit into the same story…but if not, then give them two different stories of their own. If an author gets stuck, or loses their passion for a story or series they’re working on or have dedicated themselves to, it might just be because their current attitudes, situations, or lifestyles, in real life have temporarily changed. At least that’s how it is for me. I might be all gung ho to write this really cheerful, cute, story full of jokes and warm gooey feelings…and then end up getting worn out at work, or have a falling out with a friend, or just start feeling down on a rainy day. And it’s hard to write something happy and cheerful when I don’t really ‘feel’ that way, even if I’ve already started it. It comes off as fake, you know? My situation and mood have changed…and if I’m trying to force myself to plug away at this one ‘giggly’ story…I’m gonna have nothing but bouts of frustrating blocks and blank pages. So if I’m having one of my little mood swings happening, and I’m feeling blue…I might just switch over and write about something a bit darker in mood. Some true emotion that I can draw from right then and there.
Most of the time, once I get that out of my system, I can go back to my first story and pick up right where I left off. With no problem. I would just advise authors to write what they ‘feel’. Even if it isn’t a part of what you had immediately planned. Use the emotional energy you have and let the story write itself. Don’t push yourself to write what you think you HAVE to write, just for the sake of putting it out there. Write from the heart, and you’ll never go wrong.
Now…I happen to be the man of a million moods, hehehe! And that’s why I have a million stories in the air at one time. But they all have a different feeling to them. And I only write on them when I’m in that frame of mind. So no matter what, I’m working on ‘something’ every day of the week. No reason to run out of creativity when I can just redirect it elsewhere.
Q. Were you always good at writing?
Hehehe, who says I’m good, NOW? 😛
I’ve always loved writing though, yes! Since about 2nd grade, actually. My best friend Chris and I wanted to make our own comic book company! I did the super hero storylines, and we both did the drawings! Hehehe! We were SEVEN, and trying to sell homemade comic books to strangers in the neighborhood! But what can I say? We were dreaming big! Too bad there was no internet back then! We might have been able to set up a site and make some cash! ::Grins::
Q. Are you planning to publish any of your works?
YES!!! Very happy to say that I am! Actually, thanks to Infinity from the Shack, I’ve got two books published already. They’re “The Shack Collection Vol. 1 & 2”, which are re-edited collections of all the short stories and short series from the site. Volume 1 was available for about two months at the end of 2008, before Amazon.com picked it up. Which…to me was like, WOW! I never thought I’d see my words in print…but to see them for sale on Amazon was a HUGE thrill for me! I’m so easily entertained, hehehe! 😛
Volume 2 was just recently completed (Within the last few weeks, actually), and we had a Shack Cover Design contest on the site. One of our own Shackers, Neyah, won with the most votes, and she came up with a kick ass design. So it’s now HER artwork that is being displayed on both books, and she’s being given full credit for it on the back, of course. We will be re-releasing the books VERY soon! So people can come by the Shack and find out how to purchase their own copies if they want them.
Also, I’m still working hard on a brand NEW sci-fi story at the moment called “The Boys Of Widow Lake”. It’s been just over a year in the making so far (Mostly because it’s hard to work on it with soooo many other things going on at the site at once) but I’m really loving how it’s turning out so far. This will be the very FIRST time ever that I writing a story from beginning to end and making it ONLY available in print! So, I’ll have a ‘preview’ of the first few pages on the site…but other than that, it will only be for sale online. The story deals a lot with human compassion and sexuality, and the common ‘weaknesses’ that we all possess when it comes to raw desire. Even when we try to hide and deny it for the sake of the ‘invisible social judge’. I think people will really get into the feel and philosophy of it. Especially fans of “Savage Moon”. Because where THAT story is mainly about release and letting go….”The Boys Of Widow Lake” is almost a sinful and deadly OVERINDULGENCE of that concept, to the point of being downright evil.
And if anyone is wondering about it, I’m keeping quiet about a lot of the story for now. But I can tell you that it’s about a group of teen boy ‘mermaids’ (yes, you read that right)…and I’m sort of taking that mythology and really turning it sideways and adding my own little modernized touch to it to hopefully make it something new and unique. Something that hasn’t ever been done before. VERY dark, and VERY sexual! So…I’m trying to finish by the end of this Summer and start the ‘painful’ editing process. We’ll see. It depends on how busy the rest of the site is.
Q. Who was your favourite author when you were young?
In all honesty, when I was younger, my favorite stories were all comic books and graphic novels. Not that I didn’t enjoy novels and the classics that we read for school and all….but there was something about comic books that spoke to me more than anything else I read at that time. I know the common perception of comic books is that they’re ‘kid stuff’, but they’re really far from it. Almost everything that I learned about creating complex and emotion filled storylines comes from comics and graphic novels. They deal with some VERY heavy subjects. Death, and drugs, and honor, and suffering, and betrayal…it’s not just super hero costumes and ‘pow’, punch the bad guy in the face.
Earlier, when I talked about the characters in ‘The Stand’, or the characters in ‘Jurrassic Park’ even…that idea of all these intersecting storylines to create a grand and epic picture…my earliest experiences with that type of storyline actually came from the X-Men comic books. And there’s a heavy X-Men influence in the “Gone From Daylight” series because of that. Those fantastic plotlines were mind-blowing to me when I was growing up. Every character had a dark and mysterious past of their own, and secrets were revealed, and characters were haunted by their pasts, and alliances were made, and whole sagas were born….it’s storytelling at it’s finest. It’s an entirely different discipline, writing those kind of long lasting, multi-level, epics…and I truly appreciate that medium as more than just pretty pictures and sound effects. Those were my ‘soap operas’ when I was growing up. Book by book, chapter by chapter.
Q. What is a word of advice for students who do not like reading novels?
Hmmm….well, honestly, I think that everyone that wants to write should at least read SOME novels at some point. It doesn’t have to be ‘War and Peace’ or anything, but reading actual books should definitely be a part of learning your craft, whether you like it or not. Hehehe, it sucks, I know. But it’s a good way to learn about story arcs and character development and stuff. There’s a certain depth that you can go into when you have the time and the space to do it….that you just can’t do in something short and sweet. Just try a few of them out, and see what some of the other authors use to enhance their technique and push foward the emotions that they’re trying to get across.
If you’re just REALLY not the kind of person to sit down and finish a 300-500 page book, try to find a genre you like….horror, sci fi, romance, mystery…and see if you can find, maybe, a collection of shorter stories. Preferably from different authors. Look at the different styles of writing and try to pick out what each author does different from the other. Think about what you like and don’t like. And if you see a story that you think you could have told better ‘your’ way, try it out. Don’t PLAGERIZE it, hehehe! (I’ve had that happen to me a few times, and it was….’weird’) But try creating one of your own stories and see if you can come up with a short of your own. Writing takes a lot of practice, so do it every chance you get.
And if you STILL don’t even want to read that much…hehehe, then go to the movies. Just go back, look at your favorite movies of all time, but look at them with a writer’s mind this time around. Break it down in your head. Listen to the dialogue, look at what’s happening on the screen, find the rhythm. And think, “Ok…somebody had to actually sit down and write all of this before it ever got to the filming stage. Every word spoken, and not spoken. Someone had to describe the location, the action on screen, the look of the characters. How would this look if I was writing it out on paper?” Look at your favorite scenes, and try to imagine how you would be able to type this out on a computer screen. Without the pretty actors, and the sweeping music, and the colorful scenery…how would you be able to still create the same ‘life’ that you see in the movie? How could you build the skeletal structure for what you’re seeing? And it’ll give you an idea of how to create a full experience with what you write.
But like, I said, I think it’s kind of neccessary to at least give a few novels a try, if for no other reason than to truly discover what it is that you DON’T like about them…and then guide your writing in a way that will avoid those bothersome elements completely. Who knows? You could be the one author who writes novels for readers who hate reading novels! Hehehe!
Q. Have you ever noticed any similarities between you and other authors?
Similarities? Hmmmm…not really. I’m usually looking for differences if anything else. Like…I’ll search to see if I can find something that they do different from me. But as far as similarities, I don’t really notice that many. I always try to separate myself from the pack as much as I can when I write. Hehehe, it’s funny, there was an online writing contests years ago, where everybody had to enter anonymously…and I purposely tried to hide all of my little writing ‘eccentricities’ and all so that I wouldn’t be found out. But everybody knew it was me anyway. Don’t know how, they could just tell. But I’m sure that a lot of other authors out there have certain signatures that you can spot right away, and they’re very hard to duplicate. So any similarities are probably just a random occurrence. Nothing intended.
Q. If you were writing a book about your life, what would the title be?
Hehehe, easy…”The Entertaining Stumblings Of A Complete Idiot”! Somebody who’s always falling, always failing, always getting run over, heartbroken, and tripping over his ownfeet…and yet, in some kinda lucky Buster Keaton/Jerry Lewis way…he always manages to just barely land on his feet. Something that I’m sure is rather entertaining for anybody watching. 😛
Q. What are the top 5 reasons you started writing specifically gay stories, when there are several other kinds of stories to write?
Oooh…good question. Ummm, ok, here goes:
1 – The readers are so much more appreciative. By leaps and bounds! I wrote ‘straight’ fiction and sci fi, and posted it in a lot of places. Writing groups and newsgroups and websites online. And nobody cared. Seriously…they didn’t give a damn. I was just another grain of rice in the pot to them. I wrote with the same heart and the same passion that I do now…but surprisingly I found a lot of ‘snobbery’ in straight fiction. Just mean-spirited, elitist, snobbery. Sometimes it was for the sake of ‘competition’, and I get that, but most of the time, it was just a constant cold shoulder for no other reason than the fact that they wanted to look better than everybody else. I could write a 30 page story and edit and feel really good about it…post it in a room with 100 people, and MAYBE get 3 responses. And they’d be responses like, “You misspelled ‘separate’ on page 6.” JUST that! Hehehe, nothing else! Everybody just had their own little world and pushed everyone else outside of their circle. Authors didn’t talk to each other or talk to their readers or ANY of that. I was really disappointed by what I found there. I won’t lie, sometimes it really hurt, and other times it frustrated the hell out of me, because it all felt like a waste of my time. Gay fiction fans aren’t like that. The community maintained between the authors and with the readers is SO much more welcoming. I feel like I can really bond with the people who read my stuff, and I hope they feel the same about me. The emails I get are really heartfelt, and excited, and thankful. They send me soooo much love that it’s overwhelming sometimes. They’re not looking down their nose at me or picking out mistakes. They’re just enjoying the ride and they’re not afraid to say thank you. (And *I’M* not afraid to say thank you, either) It’s such a loving atmosphere, and not a single moment of my time is overlooked, ignored, or wasted, when it coms to gay fiction. I’m sure straight fiction has bullied a lot of people into giving up on writing in general. And if things had been different, I probably would have gotten fd up and stopped writing too.
2 – The gay fiction actually ‘helps’ people. I have thousands of emails saved from people who have truly embraced their sexuality and said that the gay stories online have shown them that they’re not alone. That they’re not weird or abnormal or doomed to a life of misery. There were kids who started reading my stories and trading emails with me when they were 13 or 14 years old…and they’re graduating from COLLEGE now, fully out of the closet, some of them with live in boyfriends. And yet they still come back to say hello every now and then, reminice, check up on the site, etc. Some of them might disappear for YEARS, and one day, out of the blue, I’ll get a friendly email to say hi and thanks and to let me know that they’re doing great. It makes me feel like a ‘big brother’ in a way! Hehehe! But being able to have that affect, that magic touch on someone elses life…as opposed to just writing a good, popular, story…that’s so much more special to me.
3 – Gay fiction, when I started writing it, was a big ‘release’ for me. Because I had NEVER done it before. I had spent my whole life keeping my ‘gay’ side locked up, hidden away, from the rest of the world. I didn’t DARE write it down. That part of me was something that I lived in secret and just kept as a collection of memories and fantasies in my head. So being able to finally bring that part of myself to the surface and explore it through my writing was a challenge that I really enjoyed. The more I got used to it, the deeper I was able to dig and do some real soul searching about who I was as a ‘complete’ person. Not just the socially acceptable half. Believe me, I found out a LOT about myself those first few years that I didn’t know was there before. So I really love the free expression that gay fiction gives me.
4 – I really love the idea of providing these kinds of stories for people who might enjoy and relate to them. Because I didn’t have ANYTHING like this when I was growing up. At ALL! There was no internet, no Nifty Archive, no Queer As Folk, no Wil & Grace, no Adam Lambert…none of that. Hehehe, there were girly teen magazines, and if you were lucky, a really cute boy in the latest Disney movie or TV sitcom. That was it. That may make me sound really old, but I’m not. This stuff has only really been around and in daily use since the early to mid 90’s. I think it’s awesome that gay teens and adults can now have access to romantic/erotic stories that really tell ‘their’ story, you know? That relates to them and their feelings, their passions, their interests. I love being a part of that…’movement’, or whatever.
5 – I really love the added ‘conflict’ of gay fiction too. That is a big part of my writing. Growing up, I was a bit of a shy kid, kinda quiet, and left to figure things out on my own as far as my sexuality was concerned. And I KNOW that a lot of people now kinda ride me for the ‘angst’ in my stories, and end up screaming, “JUST DO IT ALREADY!!!” at my characters. You know? ‘Just’ ask him, ‘just’ tell him you love him, ‘just’ kiss him, ‘just’ leave him, ‘just’ come out to the whole world. That word…’JUST’…wasn’t in my vocabulary back then. There was no ‘just’ going on back then believe me! Hehehe, that was a TERRIFYING concept for me! TERRIFYING! It always baffles me how now, I guess, it’s easier for people to just push and push and PUSH and then assume that everything will be ok. Just tell the most beautiful boy on *Earth* that you love him and fall in love already. There won’t be any consequences, it’ll allllll turn out fine. But thinking back to MY high school years, I seem to remember being scared ALL the time, thinking, “If this goes wrong…my life is OVER! *OVER*!!!”
It’s NOT that easy for everybody. Or even for MOST people. It’s scary and it’s difficult, and it’s nowhere near as trivial as ‘boy asks girl out, girl says no, boy feels bad and moves on’. Not for gay youth. ESPECIALLY not for closeted gay youth. Not at a time when you’re trying to find your identity, feeling uncomfortable in your own skin, and being overpowered by all of these new and strange feelings. There’s a great deal of fear and hesitation and delicacy when it comes to matters of the heart growing up. And FIRST love…when you’re gay….I mean can we all remember how badly we TREMBLED inside when we had to deal with that for the first time? How HARD it was to admit it to ourselves, much less to anybody else…and CERTAINLY not to the apple of our eye! I can’t tell you how many times I was reduced to a quivering mess in front of some the cutest boys in school! And that was back when they all wanted to invite me over for sleepovers and ‘wrestle’! AHHHHH!!! SCARY! And SO hard on the hormones! Hahaha! That’s the kind of feeling that I want to capture with my writing. That’s the story I want my stories to tell.
Q. How did Gone from Daylight get started?
Hehehe, basically what happened was the website was starting to gain a little bit of attention, and “New Kid In School” was pretty stable as a series. The one year anniversary of the site was coming up, and to celebrate it, I really wanted to do something that completely came out of left field. Something that nobody would expect, but would still kinda have that “New Kid” appeal to it. So I mulled it over for a while, and I had a bunch of notes for a vampire story that I wanted to write, but never did. That story was called “Midnight’s Child”, and it was about a boy who dropped out of college, and was addicted to drugs…only to find out later that he was actually a vampire by blood. It would take forever to explain but the idea was he was pulled into this world of darkness and had to find his place among the other vampires in the city. Blood was like a drug to their kind. Once you get a taste for it, you only want more, and become a savage for it. But…there wee vampires that walked a higher path, and learned to take small samples of life force from humans without actually having to bite them and drink them dry. But it took practice, and discipline, and an understanding of life. So it was VERY different from what “GFD” is now, but that was the original idea.
So I decided to take elements from that idea, and combine it with elements of the stories I was writing for the site. Sort of like “The Lost Boys” meets “New Kid”. And I completely revamped (pun intended) all the vampires in the story and tried to come up with an entirely different kind of creature altogether. Added some new rules, modernized some old ones…and I started taking notes. I really wanted it to be the BIG event on the site. I wanted it to stand out, and be three times longer than anything I had written so far. I started making character lists, plot lines and twists, I came up with brief histories for everyone involved….and as the idea progressed, I had the idea to really connect to it and make it about my whole life. From beginning to end. And really give it a central theme that would make people understand who I see the world, and how they might find a new perspective of it themselves. It took MONTHS just to plan out, but I kept at it, everyday, at home, at work, on the train…hehehe I wrote on every flat surface that I could, every time I had a new idea. And by the time I got to the actual writing of the first chapter….I had almost an entire notebook full. The funny thing is…originally, “GFD” was only supposed to be, like 4 chapters long! 😛 That went out the window by the end of the second chapter.
So I worked and worked and toiled over that first chapter…and I started getting cold feet near the end. I started to doubt myself, as I always do, and I thought that it would be silly and people would laugh at it. They would think, “What the heck is Comsie DOING??? He’s weird!” So I remember distinctly making the end of the first chapter an actual ‘end’. Just in case everybody said it sucked. That way I’d have no obligation to continue with it if it just flopped. Then, just to make sure, I sent it to a friend of mine online, Drew Greyfox, just to see what he thought about it. I literally CRINGED when I hit the send button, but I told him to be BRUTALLY honest with me, no matter what. And if it sucks, then it just sucks, and we can celebrate the anniversary without it.
The response that I got back from him….HAHAHA!!! Let’s just say that I was FORCED to post that first chapter under threat of violence! At the time, I had never done anything like that before, and he was and always be the one who got to read it first. So folks have him to thank for all the madness that the series is today! Because if he had said ‘no’, it never would have seen the light of day.
Q. If you could meet an author in person, who would you like it to be?
Hehehe….Jaxsper Finn. I’ve never said this publicly before…but I always kinda had a bit of a crush on him. Ok, a MAJOR crush on him! ::Blush:: I couldn’t help it, he was sweet and cute and passionate about his stories…I was infatuated with him something awful back then.
I still have a bunch of emails that we traded back and forth, when he was writing “Hanson Real World” and “Hanson Road Rules”, and I was writing “New Kid” and something else (can’t remember what). But it was sooo much fun! He’d say, “I’m writing this part where they kiss for the first time right now, check it out!” and I’d say “I’m gonna have Ryan and Randy go to a hotel in the next chapter!” and he’d say, “Cool! I’m gonna put in a shower scene!” That ‘back and forth’ was just a ton of laughs, and he was kinda like my first writing buddy, you know? I really do miss him. He was a natural talent, and a real sweetheart. And undeniably cute on top of it! Hehehe! So yes…BIG crush on Jax…that’s my big scandal confession for 2010. 😛 I never told him about that either, so….yeah….let’s just not ever mention this again.
Q. What keeps your interest in continuing to write?
The endings that I have planned. Before I even start a story, I pretty much know how it’s going to end. I know exactly where I want it to go, and many of the obstacles and plot twists that it’s going to take to get there. I add tons of stuff along the way, and make up a lot of extra stuff as I’m writing if I think it adds to the story. But as far as the beginning and the end of any story (including “New Kid”, “GFD”, “Billy Chase”) it’s already pretty much etched in stone. Because how I START a story is usually done with the eventual ending in mind. I believe in bringing my stories around full circle. So I’m just as inspired to reach the completed ending as people are to read it. I just refuse to rush it. Otherwise, all that hard work would be wasted.
