Questions & Answers

A collection of questions asked and answers to them.

## Common Questions

1. Are Avios hybrids?
	* No. Avios are not hybrids. None of the ARCDA synths are. They only mimic features from organic creatures, but are not perfect representations of the bases they are designed off of; ie - colourations and patterns may be different, or other features and traits may present themselves unintentionally. I also refuse to refer to them as Avians or Bird-People.
2. *
3. *

## Duke-Chainsaw Q&A

* This is the first book of a series, right?
	+ Yes! Stormbite is the first of the Storm/SB Triology, with the 2nd being Silverbird, and 3rd being Skybourne.
* Where the heck did you get your inspiration for the storyline and characters?
	+ So many years of daydreams of flying and having wings and what I could do and what I would be with them. Initially, to avoid writing everyone as having the same personality or looks, I asked some friends who I had a little book club with about; if I made a book, what kind of character would you like in it? Do you want to work with me on designing a character for this thing I’m writing? What is your favourite bird? If you had one key skill what would it be? What is your biggest issue, (being teenagers, the answer was unbridled anger and depression). And then I started people watching to see what makes everyone different and what little quirks they have and using some of my own emotional states to influence how the characters are. When I had these characters, I started to write banter for them, figuring out how they all interact and how they are and began to build a story up around them. The actual storyline though went through…god, it must have been at least 14 different versions from start to finish? SB as it is now looks and flows nothing like what the first draft was.

* How did you start?
	+ It started from a white-hot teenage rage and spite, as during the 2009-2012 era, I did a lot of reading where literally every book was *‘girl ignores the responsibilities she ha and the issues of the world around her to use her abilities to chase or be chased by dick,*’. I really hate that, and so did my friends who read a lot of the same books with me. So I decided to go by the old adage of that if you want something done right, the best way is to do it yourself, and started writing. It may have taken 6 years and lots of rewrites but It eventually happened. It did start off as the first chapter of a very messy comic, the same as what has happened with Sirocco, but I feel that helped a lot in thinking about layout and behaviour a lot more than I would have done if I had just written the thing straight. Then realizing how long it takes to draw everything, colour it all, and edit it, I switched to just flat out writing it.

* How much research went into this?
	+ Initially, none and I was just winging it. And then I got serious and did a whole lot of research into how flight works, how birds and bats and other flying creatures evolved, what could be done with synthetic DNA over organic DNA and if that would change anything, why and how that would work, how animals and people behave in certain situations, so much stuff. Luckily I enjoy reading and researching up on topics of science so it was pretty fun for me.
* How long do you think the series will be?
	+ 3 Books for Stormbite, 4 for Compass though they are much shorter than SB, and there’ll definitely be quite a few short 1-5 chapter mini stories (some which are already half done).
* You may have stated this, but did you self-edit and publish? (If so, that's so impressive!)
	+ Yes, lots of self-editing which is terrible, so I had to keep asking Pendulum read over some parts where I had no idea where I was going to see if some bits made sense or not. There were a lot of dead-end chapters and bits cut out, and honestly, if I had a chance to rewrite bits of it or make better decisions I would have done a lot more to it. Trying to edit your own work when you don't have the focus or ability to recognize your own mistakes is really difficult and I highly recommend having someone else read over it to find the errors, and then getting a whole army of highlighters to colour code different mistakes for yourself during proofing.

It's all about learning and getting that experience to know what to build upon and what to remove. Editing was hard work but self publishing probably gave me one of my top 3 anxiety attacks of all time. The daunting realization of *"oh, I'm letting people read it, and I hope its something they enjoy and that they like the characters and- and- and-*" gave me some pretty intense anxiety dreams.

* If you don't mind me asking, when will Silverbird be out?
	+ Depending on how much time for writing and energy I have, possibly at the end of 2020. Though I’m currently in the hype of writing the Compass series, which is a little bit useful as there’s a lot of carry over between them books and the SB series.
* I know another person asked about Sirocco, but what is it going to be about? Could you give me a few details?
	+ Sirocco, if you may have noticed, is another of Eve Mira’s projects. I cant really say much about it yet, other than whilst Storm provides an outside-of-ARCDA view of the world, Griffin provides an inside-of-ARCDA perspective and understanding as well as knowledge that Storm doesn’t have, and that it will be a supplementary of sorts to the SB series with a lot more lore and expansion on critters, ARCDA, Preternaturals, and other side projects and workings going on that Storm and the Rogues have no idea about.

* How do you plan out your stories?
	+ Chaotically. So chaotically. Half the time it involves extended daydreams set to music, other times it’s fleshed out through theory questions posed by Pendulum. Sometimes it involves making a new character because I drew a pretty pattern for wings and want to use it somewhere, them making a story around it during a wild daydream during a chore or long journey.
* What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
	+ Sitting still long enough to write anything. And trying to remember what version of the story was canon. Hardest part overall was Storm getting angry and upset with Wilny for his behavior. There was a lot of emotions in that chapter.
* What was your favorite part of writing Stormbite?
	+ Malana’s birthday! Both the first flight and the party, because it was a much softer chapter than all the others and I liked having lots of characters interacting together in a safe and happy environment. I also liked the chance to write about the way they all fly and how it must feel for someone new to flying.
* This may be a stupid question, but did you use other books to help with ideas?
	+ Yes, and whenever I get stuck with bridging bits of the writing together or I cant find the right words to use, I’ll binge read to help take note from others. It helps to problem solve areas like transitioning from one scene to another, or reactions to certain events, or what is actual medical advice for CPR vs fictional responses to it. Michael Crichton, Phillip Pullman, Ali Sparkes, and Nalini Singh, are some of my go-to resolvers for different parts.

* Do you have a special interest in science? Because if you do, so do I! I've been reading up on the Fandom for more information, and I noticed the detail to science and synths. So dang cooool!
	+ Absolutely. I am a complete nerd over tiny random details in biology and love looking up new science and technologies being developed and wondering how and where I could integrate them. Biology and ecology I like the most, though I have to make sure I'm reading several certified and cited works rather than someone's opinions so that I can better and more accurately understand things. Part of the reason that I set up the Wikia is to allow me to have an accessible database to my own lore so I'm less likely to create conflicting facts or contradictory abilities, and so that I can ramble about the biology of the different Synths without clogging up the main storyline with exposition that most people would want to skip over.
* Do you personally relate to any of the characters?
	+ Storm mostly. Her struggles with trying to be happy and take on far more responsibility for things than she needs to, and making herself feel like she needs to help people even if she has no idea what she is doing and likely doing more harm than good, as well as some of her outbursts of anger; they're just some of the things that I have done or been through. Also how she is happy to help others, but shuts down and blocks other people from helping her and acting as though she is self-sufficient in dealing with her own troubles, another unfortunate trait of mine. She went from being a fun carefree character to a mirror for me to recognize my own faults and how I should really solve them. We're getting there.

* Also, how does Storm not accidentally hurt herself with her sharp teeth? What happens if she is eating and accidentally bites her lip or tongue?
	+ She probably bites her tongue all the time. Same with all the other Synths who have sharp teeth.