Be My Friend

As an author, everything reminds me of something I read or saw.  The open scene of The Godfather, by Mario Puzo, starts with a distraught father asking Don Corleone for a “favor.” That didn’t sit so well with the Don, because as he points out, Signor Bonasera never came to him in friendship before asking for a favor. To get what he wanted, Signor Bonasera asked Don Corleone, “Be my friend. . .  Godfather.”

Now it might seem odd to start off any relationship with readers by quoting The Godfather, but the implication in this interaction is that by asking Don Corleone to be his friend, Signor Bonasera understood, he would one day need to make good on his end of the friendship. In fact, Don Corleone told him as much as he walked him out.

By asking you to be my friend, I recognize the obligations I assume if you accept. These are not set out in a contract or quantified in neat columns, I won’t know what they are until you ask, but I know I ‘cannot refuse you.’

But before we make it official, it only seems right I tell you a bit about me.  In 2012, I embarked on my publishing journey. It began appropriately enough, with a friend, Anyta Sunday.  Anyta and I wrote a book and submitted it to publishers. To our great delight, Dreamspinner Press accepted our book, (Un)Masked, and Andrew Q. Gordon’s career was born. Sorta.

Back in 2012, LGBT fiction of all stripes needed a romance angle or its chances of being published dropped dramatically. That wasn’t a problem with (Un)Masked because it’s a paranormal romance. But I’ve got a dual personality (more on that in a moment.) I also love fantasy. Five of my next six books were fantasy or urban fantasy. The romance in those is lacking to non-existent. Which is a good thing in a fantasy story, but quite bad for a romance novel. Such a conundrum needed a solution.

By 2015, all of my fantasy books had been moved to DSP Publications, a publisher of non-romance LGBT fiction. Getting my books in the best home only solved half my problem. Many of my fantasy readers didn’t read romance—MM or otherwise. If they chanced upon my romance works, it didn’t encourage them to stick with me and check out my other books. I needed to keep my worlds apart.

In 2017, Anyta and I got the rights back to (Un)Masked. We’d talked about rebranding it with a new cover and that made for the perfect time to separate my two halves. Enter Andy Gallo. This will be the pen name I use for all my books that are more romance than other.  My fantasy—epic, high, paranormal, urban, whatever—will remain with Andrew Q. Gordon.

For those of you who found me through “Andrew,” thanks for making the trip. If you’re new to me, welcome and I’m glad to be your friend.

So where do we go from here?  That’s a great question. “Andy” would love to do more romance books in the future, either with or without a speculative bent and “he” has a couple that are almost complete and others that are in the beginning stages. “Andrew” on the other hand has his own agenda. (And of course real life Andrew has his own demands that have a super priority as they involve work and family.)  For now, Andrew is going to keep the floor until Champion of the Gods is finished. But that will happen soon. Then the battle for time will begin.  Who will win? Stay tuned and find out. 🙂

If you’ve read this far – wow, you’ve got a longer attention span than I do, I clicked on the Youtube links and started watching videos – follow my blog by filling in the form to the left and like my Facebook Page – Andy Gallo – right now I’m my only friend.

Caio.

Andy