​Who is our first character guest?

The votes were tallied.
The count is in.
Please welcome...

Mr. Mosby!

Mr. Mosby is one of the lead characters of my current WIP, the title of which has been fluctuating this past month. I can tell you that he owns a luxury hotel run by demons. 

I feel a little guilty about offering him up after putting him through so many character chats already, but I didn't realize how many opportunities he'd have to speak when I began the character poll. Nevertheless, the people have spoken, and he will be the first contestant. 

Starting on January 5th, you will see the freshly illustrated portrait of Mr. Mosby, created by @Lailamon and answers to the questions you've asked! 

Leave your questions for him below! 
And I will pin a place to Tweet questions, too!

With 2017 coming to an end, I've been toying with some new ideas to keep me writing focused and engaged with the writing community. I have been thoroughly enjoying participating in the different writer chats on Twitter, and so I've decided to start one of my own, and you guys get to join me!

At the Holiday Market, I put up a sign on my table that asked for questions. I want to gather as many possible character questions as possible, ones that YOU want answered, and then every other month I will have a character answer them, a few at a time, on Fridays. 

There are three ways that you can get in on this:

1) You can send me questions that you want answered!

Here is a look at the first board of questions from the Holiday Market (I had to erase it and start a second one). The questions asked so far include: 

• What is your biggest regret?
• What would you order at Wendy's?
• How would you eat a potato?
• What is the best hiding spot?
• What is your favourite song?
• If you could change any one thing about your best friend, what would it be?
• If you could transform into something, what would it be?
• Which celebrity would you want to meet?
• How would you rate yourself as a swordsman/swordswoman?
• Boxers or briefs?
• Where would you like to vacation?
• Describe your perfect Sunday.

I would love to get such an abundance of questions that I couldn't possibly get to them all, so, please, keep your questions coming. I will collect them from the comment section of this blog, from Twitter, and via email.

​2) You can join me on Twitter with a character of your own to answer the #AskMyMC questions. Either one that you are writing, or perhaps you would just like to have fun roleplaying your favourite characters from your own reading! You have time to think about this for the new year.

3) You can subscribe to the newsletter and get first dibs on picking which character gets interviewed each month. 

My newsletter group will get exclusive access to the character poll and have the chance to suggest characters that they want to see interviewed. Sometimes, however, I may need a tie-breaker vote, such as now, and then, my friends, you can cast a vote too!
The poll won't be open long, so get your vote in while you can!

Thank you in advance for your participation! I can't wait to get started!

It's Sunday, which means that I'm flooding everyone's feed with twitter posts from writing chats. I really like these. It gets me thinking about my stories, my processes, and feeling a little less isolated.

I am not a social person. If you haven't yet seen all the sides to Ashley, then you need to count yourself lucky that I've formed sentences to speak to you, not because I feel that you are beneath me, but because I probably feel so unworthy of recognition that mustering the courage to make commentary about the weather has me internally spazzing, wanting to crawl back into my hole where I belong and leave you other socially capable people to carry about with your much more important business of just existing with confidence.

Writer chats help breakdown some of those barriers. One, because without making small talk we all understand that we have something in common. Two, because we aren't forced to invest in these conversations any more than we feel comfortable. I can step back, or jump in, and people are free to chat back or ignore me without any expectation of investment. Three, we're all a little insecure and vulnerable. 

I love these chats, but it's also a reminder that my real life is seriously lacking in the ability to jump into these kinds of conversations whenever inspiration strikes. Especially today. 

The theme for today's #JustAddTea is friendship. My initial response was to skip this one. Not only is a touchy subject for me right now, but the project I'm working on has a lot of links to my own real life struggle with friendships, so the timing couldn't be worse. It's not something I was sure that I was ready to put into words, especially into words that will be livestream displayed. 

My thoughts on friendship haven't changed. I still hold that real solid friendship is something that can handle all of the good, the bad, and the totally confused. It's something that always comes from a place of love, where you share in joys, despairs, and quirkiness. You don't have to agree, have the same hobbies or favourite genres, but you have to connect with mutual respect and sense of goodwill for the other person. 

I like to think that I'm a good person, but when I think about how my friendships have changed throughout my life, I can't but wonder, "is it me?". There are very few people from my childhood that I still speak to. It isn't because of a fight or anything, it pretty much always comes down to a drift. I don't necessarily feel bad about losing some childhood friendships. When you're young, your sense of self and life is pretty different than what you'll grow into. I've always had a pretty strict moral compass, and there are things that I don't invite into my life, so when those around me venture elsewhere, I refuse to feel obligated to follow. I'm not an impulsive person. Makes me a bit dull I'm sure, but it's who I am. I'm not secure enough to not think about the future.

The other huge impact that I've had to contend with is moving around. Again, not losing friends from any kind of conflict, but that drift always comes about. Some friends and I can jump right back to where we left off when we reconnect. Others, I guess it just seems so forced, that without that one common activity we once shared, like a class or job, it's hard to keep that momentum going even when reconnected. 

I don't live in the same city as my closest friends. Most of the time, not even in the same province. That adds a lot of strain to friendship. Add to that the life changes that start making us different people. Very few of my friends are married, it doesn't change who they are to me, but it does result in different realities. Add kids, and then for some reason the game really changes. I love my family, but it is all-consuming that I often just don't have the mental capacity to add checking-in to my daily to-do list. I try to keep tabs, but there's no knowing when I'll find that spare minute. Add distance, add insecurities, and add the fact that one of the commonalities that I have with my friends is that social insecurity, and then friendship turns into a guessing game of "Do I bother them or wait for them to want to talk to me?"

Having my son, and having his medical complications that have been the focus of my life since before he was born, has really changed the way that I fit with my friends. Those I was closest to have decided on my behalf that I don't have room for them, while others who I might not have claimed as my own friends have gone above and beyond to make sure that I'm okay.

I've read countless times how common it is for everything to change when kids come into the mix. The thing is that I don't feel any different. Sure my day has a few more demands in it. I have to adjust things around doctor's appointments and nap times, but the things I love haven't changed. My desire to be involved in my interests hasn't changed, my need to be silly with people I'm most comfortable with hasn't changed. I will admit that my ability to deal with bullshit has changed. I do not feel obligated to just go along with people's lies or showboating just to keep the peace. And, I guess, the other new obligation is that I need there to be acceptance of my son. Just as I probably wouldn't be able to maintain a friendship with someone who either hates or tries to ignore the fact that my significant other exists, I can't handle that about my kid. My family is not something that I have, they are part of me, and I guess understanding that is yet another one of those drift-making things.

I guess my dream is to have my university friendships back in the state that they were, but until then, I'm just going to keep doing me, the me that I am now, and the me that I strive to be. And all I can do is wish those who have come in and out of my life the same: the confidence to be themselves as they are and who they strive to be, regardless of what role I may or may not play in that journey.