The Big Question

Q: Is this book fanfiction?

A: Short answer: No. The characters, the show, and the world are all my own original creations and they are not meant to particularly resemble anyone or anything, real or fictional.

Longer answer: No.

I have been writing since I could hold a pen. I have been writing fanfiction (stories based on other stories/characters/worlds) since I was a tween, and slash fanfiction (which features same-sex characters in a romantic and/or sexual relationship) since high school. I both read it and wrote it and believe that it can be incredibly high-quality and emotionally complex -- though it can also be very bad, just as any form of writing can be.

I am interested in the portrayal of gay characters on television, including the subtextual (intentional or not) portrayal of gay characters. I think television in particular has a wealth of subtext of all kinds, and I believe this probably has a lot to do with the communal nature of television production. So many hands and minds are involved in the process, sometimes something entirely new emerges -- sometimes on purpose and sometimes not.

I wanted to explore that, and I wanted to do so with characters and a world created to suit the purpose, so I built them, from the ground up.

I also wanted to be playful, though, knowing that much of my audience would be television fans and fanfiction writers/readers. The television show I created for the characters therefore intentionally mirrors aspects of many genre television shows and genre television tropes. If you think you see a bit of X-Files in there, you do. If you think you see some Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you do. Etc. Good for you, you got my in-joke, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)

What you will not find is any character that maps directly onto a real or fictional person. Like any writer, I drew inspiration from my characters from various places, including friends and celebrities, but they are all original creations made from bits and pieces held together with pure imagination.

To sum up: I Just Play One on TV was written with love and fond exasperation for fanfiction, fandom, and genre television, but the book itself is most definitely not, in any way, fanfiction.

Featured Author

I was the Featured Author on August 23rd at Torquere Press's Romance For the Rest of Us blog. Here is the text of that interview.


Tell us about I Just Play One on TV. What inspired you to write it? How long did it take to write? 

I have always been interested in the portrayal of gay characters on television and in the closeting of Hollywood actors, so the idea sprang from asking myself what it would be like to be in that position. I also thought it would be interesting to explore the divide between fiction and reality in acting, particularly when there's romantic attraction between the characters as well as the actors. Once I'd started thinking about all that, the two main characters started to form in my head and become more and more real, until finally they just had to be written about. 

After I'd written my first draft, a television writer read the draft and actually got me onto the set of a major television show to watch them filming for a couple of hours, which was an incredible experience that helped me out a lot with the technical details in the revision. 

All in all it took about three years from the first spark of the idea to the completed, polished novel. The writing of the first draft took about four months, most of it after work in a Starbucks or a local library, since I couldn't get myself to focus properly at home. 

Tell us one thing about yourselves that your readers would be surprised to know. 

By day, I am a cytogenetic technologist. Basically, that means I am a medical lab tech who looks at human chromosomes for abnormalities. Specifically, in my case, I mostly look at samples from cancer patients. 

And if that's not shocking enough, before that, I worked in a sperm bank. True story! No, I didn't "help" collect the samples. 

What’s the best thing about writing? How about the worst thing? 

The best thing about writing is when it flows. The worst is when it doesn't. 

To be less glib, the best thing about writing is being read. I thrive on readers' comments more than anything in the world. I have never put stock in that "write for yourself" mantra. To me, it is all about engaging an audience. 

The worst thing about writing is how it never comes out quite like it looked in your head. 

Character or plot, which comes first? 

Character, hands down. Like Stephen King, I'm the type of writer who writes to find out what's going to happen, and my characters' voices in my head are what guide me from point A to point Z. They become like their own people to me... which at times can become a bit annoying when they begin to disagree with me about which direction a story should be going.. 

I read and watch other fiction for characters, as well. Something without strong characterization is very unlikely to hold my interest for long. 

What is your favorite way to spend a rainy day? 

I live in New Mexico, and we're currently in the middle of one heck of a drought, so when it rains, I sit rapt at my window and watch it, listen to it and smell it. I may be moving to rainier climes, however, and if I do, I imagine I would spend rainy days reading books, watching movies or playing The Sims. Or, you know, writing. 

What’s the best writing advice you ever received/found? 

Once, when I was attempting to write a British character and worrying that I would get it wrong somehow, the best advice I got was, "Don't write a Brit, just write the character." To me it is a reminder that we are not whatever we can be categorized as (like, for me, Writer or Lab Tech or Cat Person), but we're all fully realized people with our own quirks and traits. I have applied that advice to all of my characters since, and it helps me tremendously. 

Oh, and don't be afraid of the word "said." 

What are you working on now? 

I am working on a couple of things, very slowly. One is a contemporary sci-fi thriller loosely based on the idea behind the television show in I Just Play One On TV. Since it's very plotty, it's a struggle for me, but I'm enjoying learning new things about writing. The other is a male/male suspense/romance about a private eye's secretary and his frustrating and confusing relationship with his boss... which also has some murders.