Balancing Acts Q&A
This is the Q&A post I promised for Balancing Acts hope I answer most of your questions with this!
Warning: May contain possible spoilers
Q: What inspired you to write Balancing Acts?
A: Balancing Acts was inspired by me wanting to do at least one standalone story that wasn’t in any way connected to Demi’s Way. My upcoming stories The Summer Daze and Quentin’s Way are both connected to Demi’s Way and I was like, I need to have one story that’s set outside of the Demi’s Way universe. I also wanted to show a reality that I rarely write about, gay black men involved in long-term committed relationships.
Q: Why did you write the story from Julani’s perspective and not Brandon’s?
A: I wrote the story from Julani’s perspective because from the very beginning of my brainstorming for this story, I wanted the main character to be someone who would both literally and metaphorically represented balance throughout the story. I could have written it from any of the characters’ perspectives because most of the characters went through some sort of moment that required them to do a little give and take. However, because Julani had only ever been with two men in his whole life I figured I could only do a sort of counter-balance with his character that I couldn’t do with the others. It wasn’t about him being caught between his two loves, but about him striking a necessary balance with respect to his past with Tyree and his present with Brandon.
Q: How come you made Julani and Brandon’s relationship a typical top-bottom relationship instead of having them be a versatile couple?
A: This actually was a difficult decision, believe it or not. I actually could have extended the theme of balance into their sex life by making them a vers couple; however, there actually are many gay couples where you have a top and you have a bottom. I did explore the struggle with this topic with the whole Izzy, Myron and Lance triangle. The Myron character is vers and it causes a problem with him and Lance prior to where the story starts off, hence one of the reasons why Lance cheated with Izzy. These things really can get messy in relationships.
Q: What was the point of adding the Caiden and Marquell characters?
A: There were many reasons why I added the Caiden and Marquell characters to the story. One reason was because I didn’t want Julani to just have some assistant you only heard from every now and then without a real backstory. Another reason is because I wanted to show how natural teaching came to Julani, he often times helped Caiden with just a simple conversation or with small advice. The main reason why I added them was to show what possibly could have happened had Julani and Tyree stayed together after graduating high school. Caiden and Marquell are in many ways the reincarnation of the relationship between Julani and Tyree and they found a way to make it work whereas Julani and Tyree didn’t.
Q: Why did you make Brandon’s family the homophobic ones and not Julani’s?
A: It actually wasn’t because I think the South is more homophobic than other parts of the country, but actually because I’d already decided to set the story in Julani’s hometown and have him and Brandon settled there; therefore, there had to be a reason for that. The men in Brandon’s family represent the damage caused by hyper-masculinity passed down from generation to generation. It wasn’t until Brandon’s father was dying that his brothers finally allowed themselves to cry and be more loving towards one another, leading them to reach out to Brandon and finally accept him. They were raised to never show emotion except anger. Julani and his brothers were raised the exact opposite of that. They had a loving father and I made it that way to show not all black men are hyper-masculine and pass it down to their sons and grandsons.
Q: Brandon cheated but you didn’t balance it out with Julani cheating, why not?
A: The sole reason for not making Julani get even with Brandon by sleeping with Tyree was to show the growth of Tyree. Remember, he was selfish and didn’t want to compromise on anything when he and Julani were young. After the whole letter situation and being outed the way he was later, he was practically forced into changing who he was and how he looked at life. His growth is displayed the moment he tells Julani no he will not sleep with him and tells Julani to go to his husband, which ends up being the beginning of Julani and Brandon working out their issues.
Q: What’s next for Tyree?
A: That’s up for the reader to decide. Tyree’s journey in this story is told in parts and I did that to leave a little suspense in the story overall. We find out early on that he was outed after getting involved with a messy person and then we learn about the letter and how deeply his breakup from Julani affected him. We also see his strong compassionate side when he saves Izzy. While some readers may feel that Tyree wasn’t given enough backstory, my intention was to show his growth through his words and his actions as opposed to constantly having him in every single chapter. Due to his experiences, he knows what to do and what not to do now and when he does find the right person, he’ll have an advantage. He’ll be coming into a relationship as a whole person who knows what he wants and realizes what he has to offer.
Q: Why did you have to make Izzy so messy?
A: LOL! Izzy and Andre are both my favorite characters in the story. I loved writing their dialogues and acting it all out in my head because I have friends in my personal life that are like both of them. They are the two realest characters in the story because I’m sure we all know people like them. The reason why I made Izzy messy was because I wanted to show just how connected he and Julani were. It was like no matter how much Izzy fucked up, Julani had his back. He could’ve shot someone and Julani would’ve had his back in the trial! It wasn’t until the letter situation that Julani finally stepped back and got a good look at who his best friend truly was. The friendship was 100% toxic, no matter how real Izzy was with everyone. So he loses his friends and then he’s gay bashed, and who ends up saving his life? The same guy whose letter he ripped up all those years ago and caused a long time of emotional pain towards: Tyree. In that sense, Izzy’s messiness ties in with the backstory of Tyree’s personal growth and turns into a small redemption story. Tyree didn’t have to do what he did, but he saved Izzy because even though Izzy caused him pain by ripping up the letter, he still saw Izzy as a human being.
Q: Do you have any visual depictions of the characters?
A: I wasn’t going to provide any except for Brandon and Julani, but I decided to search for some pics that are close to the descriptions I gave in the story of some of the characters. Click the link to see the pics (remember links may not work in Tumblr app so use my morrisondauthor.tumblr.com url to see the pics if links don’t work in the app):
Brandon & Julani {LINK}
Myron {LINK}
Andre {LINK}
Izzy {LINK}
Tyree {LINK}
Caiden {LINK}
Marquell {LINK}
Lance {LINK}
Rayshun {LINK}
Omari {LINK}
Junior (Julani’s brother) {LINK}
Julissa (Julani’s sister and surrogate for Jeremiah) {LINK}
Lily (Brandon’s first-cousin and surrogate for Elijah) {LINK}
Q: Will there be a sequel or a spin-off to the story?
A: No. As stated before, I wanted to do this story so it would be a standalone from the Demi’s Way universe. I have another story planned that will also be outside of that universe. I was thinking about doing a prequel that showed Julani and Tyree’s relationship and then after their breakup doing the rest of the story from their individual POVs as Tyree goes off to college and into the pros and Julani meets Brandon at Howard. However, I have too many other projects planned and I do want to make my first novel, so that prequel will probably never come to fruition.
Q: What was your process for writing Balancing Acts?
A: Unlike with Demi’s Way, this story wasn’t already completed where all I had to do was some minor editing and then post. That’s why I was able to post chapters of Demi’s Way every night. With this story, I brainstormed what I wanted to do and did outlines. I used those outlines to write a first draft of each chapter. After reading and rereading each first draft, I made changes that were sometimes minor and sometimes I did a complete rewrite. As you could imagine, this took more time so I tried to stick to a Monday & Thursday posting schedule that worked most of the time but I had a few hiccups in scheduling due to personal issues. I had a lot of fun writing this story though and it did come to me naturally most of the time.
