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Q: Tell us a little about yourself! What's your favorite kind of writing, and does it differ from your favorite kind of reading material?
A: I'm a newly-minted doctor of medicine who's about to begin residency in pathology. I occasionally glimpsed at some Spyro the Dragon fan fics in my teenage years, but didn't look at anything related to Pokémon until I'd graduated college and only (foolishly) began writing once I was in medical school. I tend to write things that are zany and over-the-top, with shonen-esque power scaling involved. Dialogue in particular tends to be the most fun for me to write. In some regards, I could point to multimedia writers like Ian Flynn, Evan Stanley, TJ Fixman, and Lauren Mee as inspiration.
I also vastly prefer writing and reading pokémon to humans. I know that puts me at odds with a lot of TR authors, but I personally tend to find the humans to be the least interest aspect of Pokémon. Probably why I gravitate more toward the Mystery Dungeon spinoffs and other media elements where the 'mons overshadow the humans. That said, I tend to be too picky when it comes to what I read, but unless there's some sort of even going on I will mostly stick to PMD fics because my time is limited and will only be getting more limited from here. I wouldn't be surprised if I have to drop reading fics all together. [nervous laugh]
Q: What piece are you the most proud of from your body of work?
A: Uh, I only really have two pieces to my name. PMD: Guiding Light is actually done, so I think that kind of wins by default?
Q: How about any short stories or segments of a larger work?
A: The thirteenth episode of Guiding Light comes to mind. I affectionately refer to it as the "electric rave arc." It sees, among other things, pokémon going Mantine Surfing, performing in musical numbers, and spoofing the Team Rocket motto from the anime. It's very silly, but it's one of my favorite things I've written.
Q: Do you have anything you're excited about planned for this year? Any goals or major milestones?
A: No specific goals or plans for the remainder of the year, given the major life changes. Hopefully I'll be able to continue working on PMD: Path of Valor and continue to entertain the folks willing to give it a read.
Q: What was the most challenging thing you've had to write?
A: I think that would have to be the seventh episode of PMD: Guiding Light. It's a very emotionally heavy set of chapters that sees the main protagonists at their absolute lowest and deals with incredibly serious themes. Things ended up having to be rewritten a bit, too, based on feedback from others. I'd like to think it paid off because, for the people willing to read up to that point, it's where they really believe the fic takes off.
Q: If you could tell yourself of the past any one thing regarding your work, what would it be?
A: Learn what third-person limited narration is and use it. Would've saved my past self a lot of trouble. XD
Q: Sell your work! What's one thing you want people to know about your writing?
A: It's really entertaining, I promise! Sometimes you just need to read something that's unashamedly wild and crazy, with incredibly quirky characters and references aplenty. And that's exactly what Path of Valor is: a wild and crazy ride.
Q: Is there anything else you'd want to mention?
A: There's a reason Namo and I beta for each other. We basically share a brain.
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Thanks, Amby, for your interview! And I can attest that we have had a LOT of accidental overlap in some of our stories' plot beats. We still nervously laugh at each other's new beats now and then.