If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
Jayden: My local writing group. My goodness, they are the best thing that has ever happened to me. It brought me my two best friends and my husband. So yeah, that’s the best gift I’ve ever received.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
August 6 question – What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
Jayden: I assume it’s something in the realm of AI. There are definitely positive uses for AI, but there are a lot of negatives, and a lot of places where it’s causing issues for artists, stolen work, etc. Plus there’s a negative environmental impact. So while I love that my photo app can find all the pictures of me and my husband (even though it’s kind of creepy), for publishing, it’s definitely unethical in a lot of ways.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
June 4 question – What were some books that impacted you as a child or young adult?
Jayden: I certainly was impacted by the Roald Dahl books. Fantastic Mr. Fox will always hold a special place in my heart. Later, Harry Potter became my obsession. It saddens me that the author is… well, I can’t come up with anything nice to say, so I’m not going to say anything else about that. But I remember when Book 6 came out, I had it delivered to my house and I didn’t stop reading until I finished it, including a short period of time where my boyfriend read it to me so I could rest my eyes (he was a faster reader and finished his copy before me; yes we got two copies). But another one was a Choose Your Own Adventure book about the Titanic. I must have read it a dozen times (and determined that if you saw the iceberg, you had to tell someone right away or the boat sinks. Shocking!) Later in life, I wrote my own erotic Choose Your Own Adventure, and that was pretty cool.
Richard: I actually just did some writing about this on one of my other blogs. The ones I usually highlight are:
Animorphs: Like any self respecting millennial, I too was exposed to (deep breath) Cannibalism, War crimes, torture, slavery, genocide, vore, interspecies romance, PTSD, body horror, and drug addiction by the elementary school book fair. Letting the main characters win is for suckers.
Michael Stackpole: There’s an overly complex line from the Battletech cartoon, to the Mechwarrior 2 video game, to the strategy guide, to the X-Wing novels, to the rest of the Star Wars EU (remember, fuck the Mouse!) and the Battletech novels. I like to think I channel a little bit of these in my action scenes.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
Richard:
Fight: Rumplestiltskin. I figure he’s on the short list of ones I could take, since I know his name.
Quest: Samwise Gamgee. Nuff said.
Drink: VOLSTAG could probably drink me under every table in all of the 9 realms, but we’d have a good time with it.
Jayden:
Fight: Oh jeeze, I don’t know. I’m not much of a fighter.
Quest: I’m with Richard on Samwise. No better person to have on a journey!
Drink: Aragorn. Imagine the stories that man has.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
March 5 question – If for one day you could be anyone or *thing* in the world, what would it be? Describe, tell why, and any themes, goals, or values they/it inspire in you.
Jayden: I would be a true kink submissive. No moment out of character. No choices. No outside responsibilities. Just serving my Master 100%. Even thinking about it makes me all horny.
Richard: In the interest of making this as bizarre/awkward as possible: I want to be one of those disposable socks they let you use at shoe stores. Jayden can shove herself in me and stretch me out. I’ll caress every inch of her feet and protect those shoes from her. My values are protecting shoes from dirty sluts who are going to prance around in them to seduce their husbands.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
February 5 question – Is there a story or book you’ve written you want to/wish you could go back and change?
Jayden: Oh yeah. I wrote an entire novel called Slave. The main character never gets a name. I like the story, but the term is…not good. It was the first novel I ever published, and I was proud of it. I would like to go back and edit it. Maybe call it Slut instead.
Funny enough, the book cover is a picture of me with the title on a collar I’m wearing… a collar that says SLUT on it, but I photoshopped to say SLAVE instead. I’m sure the original file is around here somewhere…
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
January 8 question – Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?
Jayden: One of my first crushes was a guy I grew up with. Our moms were friends, and I had this HUGE crush on him. As a teenager, it turned out that he was interested in me in a romantic way. I was thrilled (of course). We ended up dating for a year and a half, and what I realized was that the guy I was in love with in my head was made up. He wasn’t the actual person I was dating. As an adult, we’re still peripherally connected. We’ve both been married and had children. I realize a lot of things about him that were not what I thought when I was a kid, nor what I thought as a teen. No regrets, though. It’s part of my growing up story and led me to where I am today.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
December 4 question – Do you write cliffhangers at the end of your stories? Are they a turn-off to you as a writer and/or a reader?
Jayden: Absolutely! I try to end chapters on cliffhangers, and definitely blog posts. I want my readers coming back for more. As a reader, if there’s a good cliffhanger, I’m going to just keep reading, which is the best case scenario.
Richard: I’m a big cliffhanger fan. They were actually the original topic of my Master’s thesis (though it broadened a little bit by the end). The most important thing to remember is to make sure the energy flows through the cliffhanger. The cliff should be at or near peak tension, but it needs to release in an exciting way after the chapter (or whatever) break.
A “fake” cliffhanger (someone is about to die! but it’s resolved by the second paragraph of the next page) is just a depressing tease for the reader. “I started another chapter for this?” Even worse is the overly delayed resolution (someone is about to die! and we won’t even see them again for three or four chapters), which diffuses the tension of the initial cliffhanger, and tends to undersell when it finally comes back– how much danger could they really have been in if it took 100 pages to get there?
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
November 6 question – What creative activity do you engage in when you’re not writing?
Jayden: My biggest non-writing creative thing lately has been cross-stitching. I recently delved into creating my own cross-stitch patterns, and it’s a lot of fun!
Richard: Probably cooking. I also like to bake (but only sourdough).
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
October 2 question – Ghost stories fit right in during this month. What’s your favorite classic ghostly tale? Tell us about it and why it sends chills up your spine.
Richard: I’m not really a big ghost story person, but I have some ghost story trivia to share. Many people know that A Christmas Carol is part of a broader Christmas ghost story tradition in 1800s England. What fewer people know is that he actually included a similar story as one of many in his first novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
September 4 question – Since it’s back to school time, let’s talk English class. What’s a writing rule you learned in school that messed you up as a writer?
Jayden: I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. I know I had teachers who *insisted* that we write an outline for everything. That works for me for essays, but it doesn’t work when I’m writing fiction. I tried really hard for a while and found I just can’t do it. I do, however, outline after the fact, which might sound silly, but it helps me keep track of details.
Richard: Take yourself out of your writing as much as possible. If you like something, cut it. Find the parts of your story you dislike and spend as much time on them as possible.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
August 7 question – Do you use AI in your writing and if so how? Do you use it for your posts? Incorporate it into your stories? Use it for research? Audio?
Jayden: Nope. I haven’t used it at all, and I don’t plan to. I wish that it were different. I have some friends who use AI art to make social media posts. But I have a lot of artist friends, and my understanding is that they used other people’s art to base the AI art off of without credit. I can’t get behind that. Given my lack of social media posting, I wonder if AI art would help me, but I just…can’t.
Richard: I’m going to assume this question is about generative AI, since AFAIK just about everyone uses at least a spellchecker. I don’t use generative AI in my writing since, for all the headlines it’s grabbing, it still sucks. Also, less fun. If I wanted to not write, I would just not write. I’m sure crafting the prompts carefully and stuff is fun for some people, but not what I’m into.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
June 5 question – In this constantly evolving industry, what kind of offering/service do you think the IWSG should consider offering to members?
Jayden: Is there a way to give me more time to devote to blogging? I’ve, as always, bitten off more than I can chew in terms of my time commitments, so I don’t get done with everything I’d like to. I don’t know what IWSG can do about it, but it’s my single biggest challenge…which might be the thing. If you scroll back through my blog, you’ll notice that we’re mostly consistent with IWSG, we’re great with the A to Z Blog Challenge, and the rest of the time, we’re totally inconsistent. More challenges/prompts?
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
May 1 question – How do you deal with distractions when you are writing? Do they derail you?
Jayden: I am definitely prone to distractions. For a long time, I’ve found that I don’t write well at home. Being quarantined during the pandemic really screwed with my writing process! I’ve learned that I can sit in a coffee shop with music on my earbuds and that will keep me focused. Many less distractions for me. I’m good at tuning out strangers, but I’m terrible at tuning out the things that need to be done at home. We just moved last month, and I have an office for the first time in my life. An actual office! I have hope that it will work out well for me. In fact, I’m writing from my office right now.
Richard: They can derail me sometimes. I find that being consistent (almost ritualistic) is helpful for focusing. Make some tea, put on specific music (instrumental/soundtrack type stuff). If I really need to dig in, I’ll switch off the internet to cut down on distractions.
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
April 3 question – How long have you been blogging? What do you like about it, and how has it changed?
Jayden: Jeeze, in the craziness of life, I forgot about IWSG this month! At least I saw other blogs I follow posting and realized that I needed to post, too! I started blogging in 2016 so that I could take part in the (currently running) A to Z Blog Challenge. I didn’t know what I was doing, but my friend suggested I sign up, and here I am 9 Aprils later, a co-host for the challenge!
I am always the most consistent with blogging during April for the challenge, and I do enjoy it. I have learned that not everyone wants to read long-form fiction, and it’s okay to write shorter snippets. Something that I have found fun is to write short scenes that don’t need a lot of background, etc. We just get to see a snapshot of something. Kind of like an out-of-context picture but with words.
Richard joined my solo-blogging journey at the end of 2020, going into 2021. I have been really glad to have him on board, and he has definitely kept the blog going when I just didn’t have the bandwidth at times. I very much appreciate his help!
How about you? How long have you all been blogging, especially those of you who are here to check out our A to Z posts!
If you’d like to chime in and let us know your answers to the questions or drop a link to your post if you’re participating, please do so in the comments! And check out the IWSG website for more answers!
February 7 question: What turns you off when visiting an author’s website/blog? Lack of information? A drone of negativity? Little mention of author’s books? Constant mention of books?
Jayden: I am definitely interested in hearing all of your answers to this! I think what I don’t like is when they are too long. I don’t have a lot of time to read blogs, so if I get a long-winded post that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, I quickly lose interest. When there are headings for sections, that’s great because I can direct my attention. That being said, as an often long-form fiction blog, I do read other similar blogs and I like when there’s a continuous story I can get invested in! But it has to keep moving.
Richard: Not being updated in a long time is probably the biggest thing. If you haven’t cared enough to update your website in 3 years, why should I care enough to read it? Second is too much non-writing related stuff. You’re welcome to talk about that TV show you like, your job, vacation, or even current events, politics, etc. sometimes. But if your blog looks more like a LinkedIn, mommy blog, travel blog, etc. than a writing one, I’m probably not as interested (unless you’re really good at writing about those things, but you should probably spin it off into its own thing then). Number three is excessive/scammy self promotion. Obviously self-promotion is a big part of why you have the blog, but if every post is, “Three ways to X your writing…” and ends with a, “Buy my book to find out 20 more ways to X!” then I’d just as soon go watch an infomercial or something.
J R Vincente 