Ask Author: Ask Vicktor Alexander 30 Questions

One of the biggest things that I have noticed when authors do interviews is that they are usually almost the same questions each time. The “acceptable” questions from other authors or professional bloggers or publishers, but in the Yahoo groups, on Facebook, and even on Twitter, the readers have free reign to ask the authors whatever they want, like: “When is this book coming out? Why do you write shifters? Can you never stop writing?” And I love that because in those moments you, the readers, are actually getting an answer to the questions that you really want to know. And for that reason I decided to start up the 20 Questions With [Insert Author Name Here]. I can’t guarantee that I’ll always have authors you want to hear from, I can’t even guarantee that I can get more than three or four on here (fingers crossed), but I can promise that I’m going to try. I can also promise that the questions will be your questions. I won’t interject at all (unless it’s to ask when a highly anticipated book that I want to read is coming out). Finally, finally, you, the readers, control the interview. There will only be 20 questions, so make sure your questions are good, and try to ask them first. If you want to leave your name you can, and if I get an author with an overwhelming number of questions, I’ll ask them to come back to answer more.

But to kick things off, I am throwing myself into the hot seat first and with 30 questions instead of the usual 20. And oh man, did it start off hot. You guys did NOT take it easy on me. Right out the gate, you went for the personal question (remember no personal questions unless the author gives you permission to do so):


1. Let’s start off with: how come you claim you are loveless when you are such an interesting man? - this is the only personal question I am going to ask.

LOL. I don’t honestly know how interesting I am. I think I’m kinda boring. I don’t really like going to clubs anymore. I’m much more of a theater, opera, movies, dinner, family time at home guy. I wouldn’t say I’m “loveless” (wow, where’d that term come from?) because I have the love of my daughter, family and friends, and that of my readers (I hope. You guys love me right?) but I AM single. This is not from lack of trying on my part, but I did just recently move to Polk county (Lakeland), Florida and it’s not really San Francisco when it comes to the gay community. Plus I don’t get out much and I’m always at home working. Honestly at this point, some guy would have to start a relationship with me online because that’s where I always am, and then slowly draw me out into the world.

2. Do you have a special someone? Or someones?

I have a lot of special people in my life. My daughter, my friends… oh, did you mean like “bow-chicka-wow-wow”? Oh, then, no. Not yet. I’m working on it though. I do have someone, Lor Rose, that I call my wifey, because she’s pretty much just like my wife, but other than her, no.

3. If what you really claim that there is really NO ONE, what would be your ideal?

Are we talking like dick size or personality traits? Because dick size I’d say anywhere from 8-12 inches. LOL. Personality wise: Someone who’s trustworthy, faithful, who doesn’t play games, who gives as well as takes (that’s a big thing), who’s open-minded, who wants a big family, who wants to settle down, who’s okay with not going out all the time, who loves to travel, who wants to help the world and make sure we leave it better than how we found it. Someone with a sense of humor, who wants kids (did I say that already?). Someone who is supportive, understanding, loving, caring, forgiving. Who is slow to anger, slow to judge, quick to love and quick to forgive. Someone not given into pettiness, who knows how to submit as well as how to lead and dominate. Someone who can be my champion, my hero, but who will also let me help and rescue them. Someone who I can vent to and know my words are safe with. Someone who will take care of me and who will let me take care of them. Someone who wants to be a husband and a father, not only to the children we will have together but to the daughter I already have.

So… pretty much somebody perfectly imperfect, you know, since John Barrowman is married and Shemar Moore is still under the assumption that he's not gay or at least bisexual.

4. Who are your favorite authors?

Oh man. This list is almost as long as my ideal man. (takes a deep breath): Stormy Glenn, Gabrielle Evans, Ally Blue, Lynn Hagen, Jana Downs, Mary Calmes, Amy Lane, Andrew Grey, Toni Griffin, Piper Vaughn, TJ Klune, Cardeno C, Tara Lain, Tia Fielding, Joyee Flynn, Scarlet Hyacinth, Susan O’Mallery, Eloisa James, Brenda Jackson, Zane, Ariel Tachna, Lor Rose, Patricia Lynn, Jambrea Jo Jones, Jaime Samms, Lori Toland, Stephani Hecht, Carol Lynne, Jackie Nacht, Amber Kell, Stephanie Laurens, NJ Nielsen, Faith Aisling, Gale Stanley, Pelaam, Iyanna Jenna, Shawn Lane, Kimberly Gardner, SJD Peterson, Shae Connor, Kim Dare, AKM Miles, Marie Sexton, Heidi Cullinan, Xara X. Xanakas, and Charlie Richards, just to name a few off the top of my head.

5. Do you read MF or MFM books?

I do read some MF books, though not as much as I used to and only by a select few authors: Lisa Kleypas, Susan O’Mallery, Brenda Jackson, Eloisa James, Stephanie Laurens, Sabrina James, Zane

6. How about the FF genre?

I haven’t read any yet, but that’s only because I haven’t looked for any. I’m sure if someone mentioned or suggested one to me I’d read it if it sounded appealing to me. I mean the thought of two or more men getting it on is
definitely my biggest trigger, but love is love to me and the gender of a person is not really a deterrent to me anymore.

7. It is quite noticeable that female writers of the MM genre outnumber that of men – why is that you think?

I think it’s because women outnumber the men in actually being the READERS of the genre and no one knows what a woman wants more than another woman (it’s why so many lesbians are happy. J/k. I jest… well… sorta). For a long time men were raised to believe that men were too busy working and providing for their families to do any type of recreational reading unless you were wealthy and then it was only action, horror, and mysteries. Then science fiction (if you were a nerd), or the paper or a book about sports. Romance was really a “woman’s private reading genre.” Something housewives read when the kids were napping or off at school and they’d finished cleaning. While we know that these images aren’t true, that’s the subconscious belief that I believe has been perpetrated and passed down from generation to generation. As more men, more gay men, realize that it’s okay to read romance, they’ll feel more at ease to write romance and then maybe the numbers will even out. Even so, the women writers we have now are FANTASTIC and I wouldn’t trade one of them for a male writer any day. Add to? Yes. Trade? Absolutely not.

8. I have noticed that there are only a handful of successful male MM genre writers out there, you being one of them. What makes you different?

I have absolutely no idea. When you find out let me know. LOL. I just know that I write what I like to read. I don't turn away from certain genres or ideas or pairings if it's something that I'd like to read. Hell, if I had a story I’d try to write a book about twelve men all falling in love with each other. Everyone's tastes are different. What I enjoy reading someone else might not. So what I enjoy writing is unique unto me, even if it's in the same genre as others. My stories are my own. I just know that while I write for my readers, I mostly write for myself. I write the stories that I would love to read if
someone else had written them. Stories with interracial couples, because I’m one half of an incomplete interracial couple. Stories where men can get pregnant because if a man could impregnate his lover and a woman could impregnate hers, so many things in this world would be different. I write about shifters because I love the idea of someone being created for someone else. The idea that a little possessiveness is okay. That there’s a beast inside of all of us just waiting to come out and growl and charge and snarl to protect our loved ones. I write it all, I don’t try to write like Chaucer or Alfred Lloyd Tennyson or even Shakespeare. I write how I talk. I write so that people can read it and understand what I’m saying. I write so that one day, when I’m old and starting to go even more senile than I already am, I’ll be able to read and understand my own damn writing. I think that appeals to readers when they don’t feel like the author is talking above their heads like we all speak in fifty-dollar words and they also don’t feel like the author is talking to them like they’re dumb. It’s that middle ground. That language, those stories, that line right in the middle and I cross it every so often because I don’t see it’s there, but I never stray too far in one direction.

9. Why mpreg books? Of all things to write about, why this particular focus on men getting pregnant?

I think it’s fascinating. It all started with that movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger getting pregnant. You know the one, Junior. When I was a kid and I saw that movie, I was equal parts horrified and fascinated. Fascinated because I thought about how great it would be for a man to give birth to a child for the person that he loved and horrified because I could only conceive of one place for that baby to come out of and that was just DISGUSTING! LOL. I have since matured about things going in or coming out of that region and it’s still such an amazing, fascinating idea to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of a surrogate and adoption. I’ve done one and I’m making plans to do the other one very soon, within the next year, but the idea that two men could have sex with each other and create a child that’s a part of both of them, or three men or four men or five… you get the picture. We always hear how a woman getting pregnant is the most beautiful display of love and I always think of how it would be JUST as beautiful if a man did it.

10. When can we expect the next installments for the Wilgrin Chronicles and Passion’s Hero as we are on the topic of pregnant men?

LOL. They are both on my short list. I have to finish up the first two books in The Dom series, but after that I’ll be moving on to Passion’s Hero and HAIC and Wilgrin and Ti Voglio Bene and a host of other books that would take up too much space for me to name here.

11. Jumping to Marriage Groups – again, another mpreg series - do you think ménage relationships could work/could not work in real life?

I know they can. Not necessarily from personal experience, but when I was in college at USF, my freshman year, my roommate had a boyfriend and a girlfriend and last I heard they were still together and that was over 12 years ago. They fuss and fight, have disagreements and get mad just as much as other couples, no more and no less just because there are more people, but because there are more, there’s a lot more talking and communication required. The best thing for them is that there’s a lot more sex as well. Because if one of them isn’t up to it, but the other two are: YEEHAW!

12. Some actors cannot watch themselves onscreen – as an author, What goes through your mind’s eye when you read your own work?

Who told you that vicious lie that I read my own work?! LOL. I don’t really read my stuff once it’s published. I used to skim it for character information but that was before I discovered the wonder of the notes form (shared with me by Cherie Noel who I believe got it from another author). I listened to my book Unthinkable for the first time when Sean Crisden did the audio for me and I enjoyed it. I really did. Then I listened to the rest of the books he’d done for me as well. I also read The Alpha King… three times. I really loved that one. The reason I don’t read my own stuff is because I constantly catch mistakes or I berate myself over lines or descriptions or, what mostly happens, the entire book. I’ll get to the end and go “Why the FUCK would someone want to read that? That was utter garbage! They should never let me write again. Never buy anything of mine again!” And then I don’t want to write for a while and I go weeks without writing. See? Bad spiral. The good thing now is that I have all of these wonderful readers, who call themselves The Vicksters (yes, I call them that too) and they constantly encourage me. It’s awesome.

13. Have you ever thought of collaborating a book? If yes, who would be the author that you would want to work with? If no, why not?

Oh hell yeah! I’ve collaborated a series already but if I could write a book with anyone? Well I have a few on my list but I’m going to pick the top four: Mary Calmes, Stormy Glenn, Gabrielle Evans and Ally Blue. The reason for this is because I have bought almost every book of each of these women at least twice, but more often than not four, five and six times (I bought one book of Ally’s six times and read it each time I bought it) because I love their writing so much. I love their characters. I love the way their characters stay with me even when the book is over. I love the way their writing speaks to me. And I love that I can tell you which book of theirs helped me through a painful situation or a low point in my life. I would be BEYOND honored to have my name on the cover with one of theirs.

14. If you were stranded on an island with 3 authors, 3 items, what would they be?

Only three authors? Well hell… Stormy Glenn, Gabrielle Evans and TJ Klune would be my three authors. Stormy and Gabrielle because we’d eat, drink and be merry and TJ because he’d keep me
laughing so hard I’d forget I was stranded on an island. The three items would be: An endless supply of liquor. An endless supply of food, and a cellphone that I would hide until the right moment to call for help. Or no, a laptop. Because I’d make them all sit down and write whatever book of theirs I’m waiting on (Stormy: Viking Lore, Book 2. Gabrielle: Boomshackalaka-LOL. TJ: BOATK 3 or Elementally Evolved 2.).

15. What is your favorite genre to write about? Shifters, Scifi or like alpha king a mix of both?

I love trying to see how many genres I can mix into one book or one series. I love shifters with a passion, but I grew up a Trekkie child and so Scifi is in my blood. Mixing them together gave me delightful little author mini-multiple orgasms. But I don’t really have a favorite to write. I just write whatever. Although if interracial is a genre, that would probably be my favorite because in so many different romance books (except for African-American romances), black characters aren’t written about. And in the M/M genre it’s starting to grow and more authors are writing about them (Charlie Richards is like my she-ro when it comes to this and Ally Blue’s Graceland is amazing and so is Mary Calmes’s Mine) but I want it to be to the point where writing an interracial couple or writing a black gay character or writing a black main character in a romance isn’t abnormal or seen as a “extraordinary situation” but it’s the norm. I want my daughter to come and tell me about how many book covers she saw in the bookstore with couples of all ethnicities, genders, sexualities and beliefs on them.

16. If you couldn't write what would you do?

Well if that last answer didn’t clue you in… I’d be a diplomat or a philanthropist. I’d be a business owner. Own a restaurant, a club or something and then take the money and pour it into a charity or group home or something. I’d make sure I was doing my part to help to change the world for the
better.


17. What is your favorite thing to do to decompress from life(stress)

Smoke (yes, I know it’s bad for you but it’s what I do to decompress). Read. Take a long hot shower. Sing along with my music, listen to a movie, do Yoga.

18. How long have you wanted to be a writer?

It all started when I was ten. About nineteen years ago. My family and I were on a road trip on the way back from a family reunion. My brother and sisters were making a lot of noise in the car and it was starting to bug my mother and grandmother so I, being the eldest, decided to tell them a story to get them to go to sleep and quiet down. I didn’t like any of the stories that I could remember so I told a story about a young girl named Lisa, who destroyed the world with her breath. The story made my entire family laugh so I moved on to a story about a young boy named Stephen, who destroyed the world with his body odor. And then one about a girl named Tina, who destroyed the world with her stinky feet. Those stories got us about halfway where we needed to go and then after that I told the story about a little girl who had a doll and the doll’s eyes would come to life at night and terrorize the town. When we got home and no one left the car, not even the adults, until I’d finished telling the story, I realized then that perhaps I should try to be a writer.

19. What made you start to write about paranormals?

A couple of things actually. I loved reading about paranormals so of course I wanted to write about them. It’s my response to the whole Twilight thing and my obsession with True Blood. Then there was the whole someone created just for you thing that I mentioned above. But quite frankly it was Mary Calmes’ Change of Heart series and Stormy Glenn’s Wolf Creek Pack series.

20. Do you write about more than one story at a time?

Of course I do. When you have a WIP list that might last you for the next ten or more years, you have to write more than one story at a time, that way you’re that much closer to finishing more than one book. Each of my WIPs have been started and have at least 500 words to them. At least.

21. Do you plan on writing for a while to come?

Yeah, my whole 200+ WIP list sort of demands it.

22. Would you ever write about a man and a woman?

I actually have an entire series that’s M/F. But it’s Historical/Interracial/M/F. I started writing it back in 2005 and I’m definitely going to finish it. I’ve got friends waiting on it.

23. Have you ever wanted to write any other types of books like horror, mystery?

Funny you should ask that. I have a book that I write in between everything else called: Evil’s
Midnight Kiss, and it’s a murder mystery. No romance, no sex. Just gritty, blood, gore, guts, murder, mystery, criminals and law enforcement.

24. Will there be more books like The Besties book you have written

Do you mean more in The Besties series or more romantic comedies? Because the answer is yes to the second and no to the first. The Besties was a standalone and while there are many who want more of Kelly and Hawk, they haven’t told me that there’s more to their story. Then again, The Tate Pack was only supposed to be 5 books and it’s now turned into this whole 30 book dynasty or whatever. So don’t quote me that there won’t be any more of The Besties because there might be.

As far as romantic comedies. Hell yeah. I can totally see me writing more of those. As a matter of fact my Ti Voglio Bene series is a romantic comedy series centered around a group of gay, Italian guy friends who all work in the restaurant business in some way. Hilarity, mayhem and foolishness will ensue.

25. What would you recommend to other people who would like to start writing for the first time?

Start writing. You’ll get better as you go on, but start writing. Write for yourself before you write for
anybody else and even if you never get published, if you write for the pure love and joy of writing,
then never stop.

26. On a rainy day when you feel like just laying in bed and cuddling what is your go to book? Ya know the one that always feels good?

Change of Heart by Mary Calmes. Every. Single. Time.

27. What are some of your favorite books? Not just recently but what books did you enjoy as a kid? teenager?

I loved “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein. The Secret Diary of Miranda Cheever. Any book by Brenda Jackson (especially her Delaney series). Any book by Zane. I was obsessed with William Shakespeare as a kid. The Hawk and the Jewel by Lori Wick. A Wife for Donnigan by Janette Oke. Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke. Bamboo and Lace by Lori Wick. Change of Heart series by Mary Calmes. The Matter of Time series by Mary Calmes. The Wolf Creek Pack series by Stormy Glenn. The Blachleah Brothers series by Stormy Glenn. The Haven series by Gabrielle Evans. The Marius Brothers by Joyee Flynn. The Farm series by Andrew Grey. Promise Rock series by Amy Lane. And the Bay City Paranormal series and Untamed Heart by Ally Blue.

28. Did you ever think you would become a published author? or did you always think it was only a "dream"?

I didn’t think I was ever going to be an author. I thought that I’d be a pastor or a teacher or a soldier or a business owner or a philanthropist and writing was going to be my hobby. I never thought that I’d be a published author and able to make a living at it. I’m humbled by the whole concept of it. I used to write little short stories and never let anyone read them because I thought they were stupid or that people would laugh at me but it’s great to know that there are people out there who want to read my stories. It’s amazing. I never thought it would happen.

29. If someone were to make you a present of a hardback print book of any book you like, which one would it be? or is limiting it to one an impossible task?

It is almost impossible, because I like so many books but I think if I got a hardback print book of
“Where the Sidewalk Ends” or “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein that would be the greatest gift because I loved that book when I was younger. I used to try to memorize everything in it so I could recite it for people. I just love the ideas and the stories and the lessons that float within that book. It would be like recapturing a part of my childhood.

30. If you could have any of your books presented to the Library of Congress and displayed in the great hall (or whatever they call it nowadays) which one would you pick?

Damn. Only one? Probably The Alpha King. Not just because it’s a fun book with lots of steamy man-sex but because of the fact that it starts off with humans appealing to other planets to save them from the destruction of Earth because they were going to die. All because they didn’t take care of the
Earth like they should have and Earth had turned on them. TAK has got a very good lesson in there… a few of them, and that’s the one I’d choose.



Thank you all for your questions! (And many thanks to my baby sis, L, who added the pictures to the blog) They were good questions and actually made me think before answering. And now…

WHO DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE AN AUTHOR IN THE HOT SEAT?

Leave a comment to let us know who your choice is, the top three authors will be put in a poll and you guys can vote on who it is. After the author is chosen I'll start accepting questions to my email address: vicktoralexander@vicktoralexander.com, please put "20 Questions for [Author's Name]" otherwise it's just going to get lost in the pile.

NEXT WEEK GABRIELLE EVANS WILL SIT DOWN WITH US AND ANSWER 20 QUESTIONS, SO YOU HAVE FROM TODAY UNTIL THURSDAY EVENING TO SEND ME QUESTIONS FOR HER TO CHOOSE FROM.

The week after The Purple Fantasy Den will welcome Lor Rose and then the week after that we'll be welcoming Stephani Hecht.

Also, leave a comment and be entered for a chance to win either my next release, Impossible: Tate Pack Book 6 or any book from my backlist. I'll try to do this either every Monday, every other Monday or the last Monday in every month, depending on the authors and the questions (try not to be too filthy you all!)

Thanks for stopping buy! Hope to talk with you all next time!


-Vicktor Alexander