My guest for this talk is a member of the JUDD team, one of the many who’ve helped me achieve my dreams of being a published author, Tim Alexander. For some background, I held my auditions on ACX, the audiobook service for authors to find the voice for their narration. Many of the voice actors on there didn’t have a photo and honestly, that was preferred as I didn’t specify what I wanted with the exception of Samael being a teen struggling with his sexuality.
I myself am biracial—black and white—so is Sam, I didn’t put that very intentionally because I wanted a person who connected with Sam’s coming out more than his race as it’s not a thing he deals with too much, everyone around him being rather accepting and diverse in at least that. I recognize my privilege as a mixed race person of color but I felt, since I didn’t focus on race in this story, the audiobook role of Sam could go to any of the three categories, being black, mixed or white as long as they connected with the story of his queerness.
This one is a long one, but I’ll leave it at that as we do speak on it in this discussion! I’m trying something new instead of name tags, Tim is going to be the bold text and I the regular. An audiobook preview will also be placed after the talk.
Audiobook Links
How are you been, Tim?
Pretty good, pretty good. Busy, very busy, but in a good way. I’m doing enough voice acting now that I’m debating whether or not it’s worth keeping the day job, which is a good problem to have but also a scary one.
Yeah, I get that.
It’s weird.
I’ve been think about getting a part time. I’d have to figure out transportation but yeah, thinking about it.
Yeah. Authors and actors man, they’re not well paying jobs.
No, they’re not but I don’t mind how much, I just want to be a storyteller, that’s all and I think it’s actually doing pretty good. There’s almost 20 audiobook sales so far and almost fifty of everything else.
That’s cool, congratulations.
I know it’s going to take a while to pop off but that’s okay.
Yeah, it’s all about the grind.
Exactly. So what made you want to be a part of this project? When you saw it what made you think it was one you could put your name on?
Well, admittedly at the time I was just scrolling through, looking for any auditions that caught my eye and, well, high schoolers with super-powers is just a fun thing, right? [laughs]
I completely agree. I have always loved superheroes and I JUDD is just an amalgamation of the things I grew up with and still love—comic books, anime, fantasy novels.
Yeah, I still remember that conversation we had towards the beginning where I was like, “How anime can I make this, because it feels pretty anime and I want to make this anime, how much will you let me get away with?” [Laughs]
[Falls over laughing] As much as you want.
How was it working with us on the audiobook and reading JUDD?
It was good, it was really fun. You’re writing style frankly has a very similar cadence to the way that I speak, which made it very easy to read. I’ve not always found that to be the case with scripts or manuscripts.
That makes sense.
So yeah, it was, just on a strictly writing style level it was great. And the characters were fun, I read through it once before, then I had to take some time off due to a physical injury.
I remember that.
But when I came back to it, I got to kind of experience it again, you know? The twists and turns.
That’s awesome.
It was a lot of fun.
In my writing style I to go with a lot of things people seem to say not to go with in writing. I guess I don’t follow a lot of rules when I write.
Well, that’s what makes it unique, right?
Yeah, especially because it’s in the perspective of a specific character, it should be in that person’s voice, since it’s first person.
Mhmm, exactly.
What do you like about this project? In terms of a message you felt it had.
Out of the messages, I think the biggest one to me is, nobody is what they seem. Not a single character—whether it’s Sam with his sexual identity that he’s hiding and his powers that haven’t arisen, or Raneé who has a very different past and her Madness arising from that, or the twins with their kind of sleazy behavior tucked under this shiny veneer. It just felt very high school, ya’know? But nobody is what they seem and that’s kind of my favorite thing about it that idea of, you never really entirely know someone unless they’re willing to let that armor down.
I have a lot of fun with characters, I’m definitely a character writer.I have thought about the plot as well, and I think about it and try to write down the ideas for the plot of the whole series every day but I do it all for the characters.
A lot of a time the characters will have that story to tell for themselves which is nice.
Right.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Raneé, hands down. From the first moment of rolling up in a cowboy hat with no shoes on, to when they’re in the combat arena, to when she’s in a coma telling off her Madness. Just beat for beat, I love Raneé.
Raneé is really popular, I’m pretty happy about that. I tried to create a good female character, I personally have never had the teenage girl experience but Erika helps me out a lot with that. I’m glad Raneé came out really well.
Yeah, she definitely did.
What part is or favorite or stuck out to you?
[Ponders] Ah man, it hurts to say it’s my favorite part, it’s not my favorite in the fact that I support it more in that it’s so interesting—at the end when Vanessa outs Sam and his powers are revealed.
Oh, really? [surprised Pikachu face]
Because the powers are almost an afterthought and it’s so focused on the hurt and the betrayal that he feels in that moment and disconnectedness that he feels for the rest of the world. He just stops seeing anything else around him. The whole book he’s talking about his powers, his powers, his powers, his powers, “Oh, I don’t have them yet. Blah, blah, blah.” Then when he gets them, it’s all overshadowed by that pain, which I just thought was incredibly interesting, because you kind of see it coming, [the outing] right? Because Vanessa sucks. [Laughs]
I definitely didn’t hide that she’s an asshole. [Laughs]
Right, but then the response to that was very unique. So that’s my favorite part.
I really had a hard time deciding if that was going to be the end. I didn’t know how people would react to a kid being outted like that. But then, like I put in a recent blog post I said that Simon vs. the Homo Sapien Agenda really inspired me in ways and that’s the major way. Simon is practically forced out of the closet too. A similar situation happened to me, not as dramatic as in JUDD but I did want to tell that story of a not so ideal coming out, because it’s not always perfect, sadly.
Yeah, yeah.
As you know, Sam is biracial, half black and half white and I’m aware people may comment that you’re not, I personally, when I hear your voice I hear Sam’s voice as well. While I believe giving correct representation, in my mind, Sam also has white in him. How do you feel about that subject?
So, this is an important topic, I’m really glad you asked this question, it’s a very important one. People of color should absolutely have access to roles of color, I’m not saying go for white roles, totally go for white roles. But I don’t think white people should go out for roles of color. Here’s my caveat with this—so when I first auditioned for it, I didn’t realize that Sam was biracial. It wasn’t until someone says it in Chapter two when someone says it…
Right, Vanessa says it.
And I said, “Well, hang on…” so I really had to sit and deliberate over that for a while and that’s a big part of why I read it before I recorded it because I needed to know whether or not that was a story I could tell with any authenticity. So Sam is biracial and part of his experience is that, because it is a part of him, right?
Yeah, definitely.
But there’s also so much of his story that focuses on the fact that he is queer and struggling with whether or not he can tell people about that and where that identity lies. His struggle with his family and friends and particularly in the sense of struggling with your identity.
I identified with that very well, I lived with that for many, many, many years. So I was like, “Okay, if this is the focus of the story, that is a story I can tell. That is a story that I can connect with and I can tell with authenticity. If the story had been more about racial issues, or if it had been more focused on race, I wouldn’t have been able to do it, I would have had to call you up and say, “Yo, J. like, I’m sorry, man.”
I have heard the argument made, Joe Maginello did this—I think he has changed his tune over the years but—in an unfortunate documentary called I Know That Voice, he said, “I’ve got the blackest voice of any white guy, I’ll play anybody. We’re voice actors, we can play any character.” And I just don’t think that’s true.
I agree with that.
Because you can’t tell that story authentically and on a double layer of that, I’m a white guy, I’m a straight-passing white guy. Even though I’m not straight, I’m straight passing. So, I am never going to be pigeonholed, because of that. I think it is very important to always be aware of that and I did try very hard to keep that in mind. If anyone does have a problem with that, please give them my contact information so I could talk to them and understand where that line of authenticity is.
Right. Honestly if it had been something like an anime for example—like I’d really like it to be—if the cast was bigger, I’d definitely find somehow who did look more like me and Sam.
And that is the other thing, if I had only been play Sam, I couldn’t have done it.
If it was an anime you’d definitely be… [thinking] I can hear Taven’s voice in you too. You’d be Taven for sure. I like Taven, he’s cool. But yeah, I agree with that. The series itself is going to be more him struggling with his powers, he finds out a lot about his those around him feel too but the series as a whole is about him learning more about his powers.
The same could be said also for non-queer people playing queer roles. Like when Halle Berry was up for a transgender role.
Yes, same thing there, if you can’t tell the queer story, you shouldn’t take the queer roles.
That’s so true.
Yup, I absolutely agree with that. Both for the queer community and for race, if you can’t tell that story—and here’s a something, a director told me this and I love it so I’m going to pass this on, because, you know, occasionally people get mad about that statement. Well why can the queer community play straight roles but not the other way around? Right? The thing is, in the America we live, whether it is better or worse—and the answer is for worse—people in the queer community are forced to live as if they are straight for many years. Many people have to pass as not queer, or for African American’s, you were forced to live under white people’s rule which is ridiculous. But, because you had to do that, you learned how to tell that story. So not only do I think it’s perfectly fair, it’s accurate.
Right, I get that.
Every gay man I know can tell the story of a straight guy because there was a point in time where they had to pretend to be straight.
Right, and there’s a tiny bit of race politics in it but not really because it’s not what I wanted to focus on for this particular story. For Sam I initially wanted to focus on his sexuality and then going forward, the superpowers. I’m very excited to continue writing the series and delve more into the powers of it all.
Is this a series you’d like to continue narrating?
Oh absolutely, it’s a fun one! I’m here for it.
In addition to that, is there anything Erika and I could have done better to help you along in the process?
It was great, you guys were really understanding, we always had a really good back and forth. Probably the most telling thing to me was that, one of your characters, who is black, uses the N-word and I was just not very comfortable saying that.
I remember that conversation and I definitely wanted to have that conversation with you when starting, because on ACX no one really had any pictures of themselves and that’s kind of why I didn’t make Sam’s race a big deal in the audition, because I didn’t really in the book either and if I’m going to blind audition I might as well listen to the voice and find Sam’s voice. When I heard yours, I was like “Yasss.” I didn’t even know what you looked like until our first Zoom call.
I did really appreciate that I was like, “Hey, yeah…”
I’m very glad we had that conversation to change it to “bro” in the audiobook because it wasn’t really a needed thing to say at that specific part. It can just be in the text and the audiobook be different, it’s not that that doesn’t happen in Audiobooks all the time.
Right, yeah.
Because, yeah, I like to sit there and read the book while the audiobook is playing in my ears sometimes.
Catch all the little flubs and changes.
Yeah, I’m weird, I know. [Laughs]
If you were a Fragment, what abilities do you think you’d have and why?
I used to joke because my build I’d either be stuck with super-intelligence or super-speed because I’m just tall and lanky. But I don’t want either of them, really I think the most interesting to me is Casey’s power, the um—
Agrokinesis.
Right, that was a cool concept, that would be fun, I just want to be Poison Ivy.
Pretty much, I did kind of want to make a male Poison Ivy, she’s one of my favorite Batman villains. Casey’s like my best friend wish fulfilment character insert. He’s really cool, I actually go into a bit more of what his powers can do in Fragments, the prequel novella coming out May 7th. Have you read that at all yet?
I do have the PDF you sent me, I haven’t read it quite yet.
There’s like a really intense scene in there that involves Casey’s powers that made me cry, I had to take a break anytime I went to draft it was just so intense for me.
Fair, Interesting.
But yeah it delves into more about his powers, I’m always thinking of new things, thankfully at the most opportune times. Since I’m in the beginning still, it’s really easy for me to add stuff and sprinkle it into the second book as well as future books.
Kind of like you’re doing improve.
Pretty much. I try to preplan everything, sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it just stays in my brain and I should write it down, but I always seem to remember it and I think it was Stephen King who said if it’s a good idea, you won’t have to write it down, it’ll stay in your mind.
Yeah, sounds like a Stephen King.
Tim and his crew with Tales From The Under Room (YouTube link) stream Dungeons & Dragons every Tuesday at 9 o’ clock central time and you can contact him on Twitter under @TheSoundOfTim. Fragments releases May 7th and will be available for free on Kindle Unlimited as well as being $2.99 without, and $5.99 amazon paperback. Amazon doesn’t allow pre-orders for paperbacks so I have to be sure to upload that on the day!
Note: I think I spelled Joe Maginello wrong, if anyone can correct me, that’d be great!
And thank you for reading,
~ J. D. 💙🖤
Make sure to follow me here on my WordPress homepage as well as these:
Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr | Facebook | Goodreads
Get your copy of JUDD NOW!
& FRAGMENTS available on Kindle Unlimited May 7th!
JUDD Links
Queer Lit – if you live in the UK get your paperback copies here. Hopefully they’ll be able to ship outside the UK soon, too.
Barnes & Noble – hardcover, paperback and NOOK eBook.
Books2Read – eBook at major eBook stores.
Goodreads – don’t forget to add this book to your Goodreads shelves, rate and review it. Reviews help authors, especially indies!
FRAGMENTS Links
Chapter Previews
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
These chapters do not reflect the final product, it is a draft prior to the final draft.
J. D. Toombs's Website 