Where did Crossworld come from? What were your inspirations in creating this other world?

The CrossWorld Saga began as a story I wrote to my friends in Raleigh, NC after I had moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. I wanted to keep in touch with them. I had had a series of bad dreams that had a constant theme through them, so I strung a plot between them and dropped in some people like my friends and called it a book.
A few years later (around 1999), I went back and was reading over it and I decided it was a lot better than I remembered. I had just graduated from high school at the time, so I spent two years working on the manuscript and it got released in 2001 was the original release of Crossworld.

About the serials, which is your favorite? What do they each mean to you?

Neo-Romance. I love all my serials, but that one holds a special place in my heart, partly because it seems nobody else liked it! But I enjoy doing different types of writing with each serial. For example, switching to first-person for Deadman was amazingly hard, but I really enjoyed the challenge and discovering all the different things I could do with that. Each serial is an attempt to try out new things with my writing, either with new story types, new characters, or just flat-out new ways of writing.

Where do you find all of the quotes you use at the beginning of every episode or chapter? How do you keep track of them all?

I love epigraphs (quotes at the start of chapters or episodes). They are one of my favorite things about reading, especially when they’re real (rather than simply made up by the author – I’m looking at you, Jack MicKinney). So I have a huge collection of quote books and my own database of quotes that I collect. If you ever see me at a convention, you’ll probably spot me scribbling in my little pocket notepad. That’s usually me writing down a quote to use later, either in story or as an epigraph.

What kind of research have you done to create such detailed fight scenes?

Well, for starters, that’s where my love of video games comes in. If you get two good players at any fighting game and if they get into a groove, you’ll see some amazing fights, even if its on the old Kung Fu game for the Nintendo. I’m also a pro-wrestling fan so I watch to see what they do. A lot of guys in wrestling, especially the lighter wrestlers, are constantly testing to see what they can do physically.
Personally, I’ve studied a wide variety of martial arts. So I draw on that background for many of the fights. Throw into the mix my dedication to the UFC and other mixed martial arts venues as well as my general love of action movies and you can see I have a wide source of material to work with.

Are any of the characters based on real people?

A few. Some of the characters in the CrossWorld Saga are kind of amalgamations of people I knew in high school. But as the story’s gone on, they’ve been rewritten and reworked to the point where only the basic persona of the character remains. Marilyn in Teach the Sky was also inspired by a friend of mine, but that’s really about it.
Unless you count the lieutenant Jacobs and the big guy in Deadman being based off of . . . wait. I’m giving away the plot, aren’t I?

You write literature, so why do you have art in your books? Is it that important?

The art is there to help people make the connection that the books are intended to be part of the anime world. The idea of taking a visual medium like anime/manga and turning it into a non-visual medium’s a bit difficult. If you at least have a visual reference for what the characters look like and it’s anime, then it’s a lot easier for people to accept.
Plus, come on. Books without pictures are boring!

Do you always know where your story will go when you begin writing it?

Yes and no. One of my favorite quotes about writing came from Fred Gallagher over at MegaTokyo when he said ‘writing is an organic process’. I certainly think it is. So I do begin every story with a very clear-cut plan as to where it’s going to go. But after I set things into motion, I let the characters run wild. In a lot of ways, the characters will take control and they will tell there own story and all I have to do is kind of dictate it. That certainly happened a few times in Teach The Sky as well as in Deadman. Looking at how Deadman ended compared to where I had originally planned for it to end, it looks like a completely different story.

What does the V, in Robert V Aldrich, stand for?

I can’t tell. That’s the source of all my power. If that gets out, then the forces of evil will win.

What do you do about writers block?

Usually sleep. I don’t actually believe in writer’s block, in the sense that there is some magical thing that happens to your brain where you just can’t write. I think there’s always a psychological or physiological reason for it. For me, when I’m having trouble writing, I’ve usually found it’s because I haven’t gotten enough sleep (a common problem for me). If I take a nap or go to bed early, I’m usually fine.

I should point out that there are certainly times when I can’t get the creative juices flowing for a given project. What I usually do in that case is work on a different story. Between my novels and my serials and my short stories, I’ve always got something else I can work on. And doing so usually is enough to help me switch back over to the other story.

If all else fails, I just throw up my hands and go watch a movie or play some games. Anything that I find inspiring will usually work.

How many hours a day do you write? How many hours would you like to spend writing?

Ooh. That’s a toughie. I’d say I spend about four or so hours a day writing, which is definitely not enough in my opinion. I’m still in school and I’ve got a lot of other time commitments (training being amongst them). If I had all the time in the world, I think I’d prefer to write maybe six or seven hours a day. Yeah, I think that’d be about enough.

What would you tell someone looking to get into writing and publishing their own stories?

Don’t. Oh man, I hate this gig. Do you know how little money you get as a writer? Go out and get a job with computers. It pays a lot better.

No, seriously. What advice would you give them?

Well, since you insist, I guess what I would say is don’t listen to most experts. A lot of people in the industry are still stuck in the model of thinking from before the internet revolution. The internet and everything it offers has just flat-out changed the industry, but the industry just doesn’t seem to know it yet.

For example, Print-on-Demand publishers used to be the realm of vanity presses and books that no one wanted to publish. Now days, they’re seeing some of the brightest up-and-comers releasing work that way, both permanently and as a way to prove that their work has value to the big publishing houses.

I don’t mean to discount major publishers or the ‘traditional publishing path’; far from it. But just be prepared to go a completely different route from your predecessors. Possibilities that didn’t exist ten years ago are commonplace now.