* Iyana writes M/M short stories and novellas. Her works have been published by Evernight Publishing, JMS Books, Books to Go Now, Torquere Press, Bitten Press, Leap of Faith Publishing, Breathless Press, and Alfie Dog Fiction.
* Iyana lives in Jakarta, a city famous for its traffic jams, a lot of cars and motorcycles, and people selling stuff on the roads. You can spend two hours on the road going to a place you can reach in half an hour in a normal situation. Thanks to the traffic jams, though, Iyana can come up with a lot of stories, mostly shorties, as she prefers to spend the time during her trips writing into her cell phone rather than sleeping.
* Another thing Iyana loves is kitties. Right now she has three of them. Their names are Cil, Horus, and Betsy, and one kitten. When she doesn’t write, she plays with them, or they would play with her when she writes.
How do you handle balancing life and writing?
* First off, thank you so much, Casey, for the chance to be on your blog. Your question here is interesting and…tough. :) Let me try to answer it.
* Honestly, right now, I find it’s very hard to balance my life and writing. My life, or let me just say my job here, demands quite a lot of my time. I work the usual 9 to 5 job as an English course book writer and I teach at the evening from 7 to 9 after that. It has always been like that for the past years but it used to be a lot more relaxing and easier for me to focus on my life as a story writer as well. What changed? Well, since October last year, I got promoted as the head of the department where I work. I feel excited and honored, of course, and I try my best to fulfill all my responsibilities.
* I feel proud to be the manager and to tell you the truth, as I’m always quite an ambitious person, this has been one of my goals in my career. To say that I’ve never thought it would be hard to have this position will be a lie. I kind of guessed what being a manager would entail. All those meetings, taking parts in various activities and committees, not to mention taking care of the department itself and my staff. One of the things my former manager told me when they appointed me the job was exactly this; that I would have to step back a little from my writing world (yes, I told her that I publish my stories but I didn’t mention what kind of stories they are. LOL.) to concentrate more on my job. I knew I would have to do that. What I didn’t know was that it wasn’t to step back a little. It was a lot and most of the times I feel too tired and sleepy when I get home. All I want to do is close my eyes and, well, sleep.
* I have to ask for apologies from my friends. I’d still love to put up their promo post on my blog but with the condition I’m in right now I can only post on weekends. I want to ask for their patience because sometimes, no, most of the times, it will take a long time for their post to appear.
* I’ve always said that I like writing into my cell phone when I’m on my way to the office or home. I still try to do that but what usually happens after I write one or two sentences? I nod off and fall asleep. I won’t say I have a writer’s block. I’m just too tired to write.
* Well, this is only the fifth month of me being a manager. Maybe I just need time to adjust. I hope I will get used to everything soon and I will live my other life as a story writer as actively as I did. :)
* Thank you so much for reading!
A look into the story
* Sean's suspicions grow after his search for a boy who stayed in Jonah's house, Ryan Godfrey, turns up nothing. It’s as if Ryan no longer exists. Can Sean save his boyfriend, or will he lose Jonah forever? And perhaps the most important question is -- did the alien queen really die?
* Jonah crept toward the car. After some time he realized it was Sean's car. What is it now?
* He could make out Sean's shape sitting behind the wheel. The boy literally jumped when Jonah rapped on the window with his knuckles.
* "Jonah!" Sean rolled down the car window.
* "What're you doing here?" Jonah hissed, heedless of Sean's reaction.
* "Jonah, get in the car." The heedlessness was infectious.
* "What? No."
* "Wilder, don't make me force you."
* "What do you want, Sean?" Jonah felt sweat break out on his brow and his hands felt cold. His heart beat so fast he thought he could pass out at any time. He didn’t remember Sean ever being so harsh to him, but he knew the boy was not a bad person. Jonah could easily trust him just as he trusted every single friend at school. What was this all about?
* But first of all he needed to save himself from Sean, who in the meantime had got out of the car.
* "S-Sean ..." Jonah whimpered. Before he knew it, a hand lashed out and his wrist was trapped in an unyielding clutch. "Let ... go! Let me go!" But it was hopeless trying to shake Sean’s hand off his. He couldn’t release himself. Sean wouldn’t let him go.
* A shriek tore out of Jonah's mouth when Sean suddenly whirled him around and squashed his hand to the small of his back. Another hand clamped over Jonah's mouth.
* "I just want you to get in the car, Jonah," Sean whispered in Jonah's ear. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you. Now come."
* Sean mustn’t realize that he’d hurt Jonah and frightened him. Shaking violently, Jonah could only submit as he was dragged toward the car. He muttered under Sean’s hand.
* "Huh?" Sean said in a low voice, and lowered his hand from Jonah's mouth.
* Jonah huffed and turned slightly. "You don't have to do that. I won't make a sound."
* Sean released Jonah's wrist as well. He gave a small nudge to Jonah's shoulder. "Sorry, Jonah," he muttered.
* Jonah flashed a small smile to say that it was okay, and shifted around to get in the car.
* Frowning a little, Sean stepped into the car.
* "Trust me, Jonah," he said slowly. "I won't hurt you. I just ... "
* Jonah stiffened and his eyes bulged as Sean unhurriedly brought his hand toward him.
* "Do you want to kill me, Sean?" Jonah quivered, thinking that there was a knife in Sean's hand.
* Sean's jaw dropped. "What? No." He showed a spray bottle to Jonah. "Don't you remember? It's pepper spray. Give me your hand."
* Jonah complied uneasily. "What are you doing?"
* “Jonah, don’t you remember?”
* Jonah just stared. He really didn’t get it.
* "I’ll just spray a little of it onto your skin, Jonah."
* “And?”
* “You’ll burn if you’re, well, if you’re ...”
* “Burn? If I’m what?” He couldn’t understand Sean. At first he thought no harm would come from the guy, but now he might burn him? What did he actually want from Jonah?
* "Sean, I think ... I think you have to go ... mmp!"
* All of a sudden Sean clamped a hand over Jonah's mouth, effectively cutting off his words and partly obstructing his breathing. Jonah panicked and began to twist about. But Sean, who was much stronger than him, squashed him to the car seat, and even Jonah's flailing free hands could do little to help him.
* Sean seemed to wait for some moments until all Jonah could do was to breathe through his nose. Then he felt something spurted on his skin, and nothing happened. He didn’t know what he’d do or say to Sean, not even to yell at him for having risked burning Jonah’s skin.
* Jonah threw a hand over his brow. His head throbbed all of a sudden. "What did you do to me, Sean?" he mumbled. "My head hurts. I ... I can barely see." Jonah scuffled toward the door on the other side, crawling farther away from Sean. "I ... I'm going to be sick."
Buy It Never Left here...
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Thank you for joining us here today, Iyana Jenna! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.
1 comment:
Thank you again for the chance to share my story and to tell a bit about myself. :)
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