Q: Kicking things off this Q&A on a somewhat heavy note, can you talk to us about how you came up with the backstory for Leona?

  Suchan came up with the base concept, though I have to admit—I dramatized it far beyond what she originally intended. It needed more weight. Finding Leo abandoned in an apartment?

  That never quite sat right with me. Why would Leo have just stayed there, starving and alone? The real Leo would have taken to the streets, begged, done whatever it took to survive some time after Albert ran off in his grief. Begging from the neighbors would have most likely gotten him a temporary home, warm meals and anything else he needed until Goonie was contacted.

  The solution to that problem wasn’t easy to stomach, but it made everything click. What kept Leo there? If she had been thrown into her mother’s dress chest—that would not only trap her physically but compound the depth of Albert’s abandonment and abuse. It tied everything together in a way that felt real, painful, and inevitable.

  I’ll provide the snippet covering the moment Goonie finds Leo in their home. Keep in mind, this is entirely in Suchan’s style—none of it was written by me:

  01 - Into a Loving Home

  “Leo … Leo, come here, it’s OK.” His aunt’s voice is calming, gentle as she calls out to him. Leo emerges from his bedroom with red-rimmed eyes, sore from crying at being left alone for a couple of days. He rushes over to her and hugs her as tightly as his eleven-year-old body can, having been without supervision or food for a little over a day now. She catches Leo in her arms and he starts to sob a little.

  She embraces Leo, rubbing his back. “Shh … shhh, it’s OK, Auntie Goonie is here,” she says, holding him for a while. When his stomach lets out a very audible growl, he blushes and she chuckles. “I guess someone is hungry. Why don’t we go get some food. Can you get dressed for me, sweetie?” she asks.

  Leo rushes back to his room and starts getting dressed as quickly as he can. He gets into a set of mostly clean overalls, a shirt, and his favorite shoes with the image of the heroine Mistral on them. When he returns, he rushes over to his aunt, who lifts him up with a soft grunt, holding him in her arms. “Come on, time for food.”

  “Can I stay with you tonight, Auntie Goonie?” Leo asks, watching the small apartment slip away as she carries him out the door.

  “Well … I don’t see why not … maybe we can let you stay a little longer, huh?” she asks, rubbing his back. “Come on, champ, let’s get you fed.” She shuts the door and locks it, beginning down the stairs with Leo in her arms.

  As you can see, SuperLuminal has evolved significantly from its original wireframe form. The earliest parts—like this—were the simplest, ying the groundwork before the story expanded into something much rger.

  I tend to have a habit of starting stories simply myself, letting them grow and take shape as I write, so I understand why SuperLuminal had a gentle and simple beginning.

  Q: How has your interpretation of Leona’s backstory evolved over the time you’ve been writing the character?

  In a way, she grew up alongside me. And while my condition presents its challenges, I’m grateful that writing tools have evolved enough to help me reach my full potential.

  Leona has changed a great deal since I first decided to convert the original works into books.

  Honestly, back then, I had no idea if I was even capable of doing that. It took writing a few books—Mouikkai Musume, Mouikkai Musume Mohitotsu, and finally Saving Face/No Face, No Life—before I felt even remotely confident enough to touch SuperLuminal without worrying that I’d ruin it.

  My health issues struck between Mouikkai Musume and Mouikkai Musume Mohitotsu. Writing the tter—and my third book—became a way to test myself, to see if I still had what it took to publish books online. When you experience strokes, you start questioning everything—your life, your abilities, everything you once took for granted. My skills fade over time, but I do my best to stay ahead of it. Losing my hearing, while others go about their lives never thinking twice about losing this sense to the point where I can’t quite identify things that I hear, has been an especially frustrating complication. I used to listen to music while writing—that’s something I can’t do anymore. Nothing sounds the way it once did.

  All of it—the uncertainty, the changes, the losses—made me incredibly anxious about getting everything wrong.

  Even after releasing SuperLuminal online for everyone to read, all these doubts still lingered. I had already surpassed the amount of work Suchan had originally put into it, yet I couldn’t convince myself that I was worthy of carrying her torch. By the time we reached the end with Saucery, the one really negative review given back in Second Flight had dug into me the whole time, wearing down what little self-confidence I had left. And beyond that, I had been persuaded to try and get SuperLuminal published on Amazon. I gambled and lost profoundly.

  I reached out to Moonquill, hoping to make SuperLuminal something so big that no one would ever forget Leona—or any of the others. That Suchan’s legacy would live on. But after a year of being strung along, I was crushed. There was no real feedback, no real support. AA and I pushed forward week after week to develop the first book, but in the end, it was all for nothing. It took a long time to recover—to even consider writing again, let alone continuing Leona’s story in Elodie Elegy and beyond.

  Now that I’ve mostly regained my drive, I’ve kept evolving Leona, refining her character, her dialogue, her story beats—hopefully improving all of it along the way.

  Q: So a little bird tells me you have ideas brewing several books in advance, do you have the whole story mapped out or do you have a rough outline of how you want things to go but aren’t fully sure what path we will necessarily take to get there?

  I can’t say much about what’s coming, but by the end of Elodie Elegy, Aurora will find herself in the biggest crisis yet—one that forces her to rely on unexpected allies. Remember the friends to enemies tag? That’s getting checked off. Or maybe it’s going to be the opposite! :D

  Mocha will face her trial for freedom—how that pys out, you’ll have to wait and see. And yes, a certain vilin is making a comeback. Elodie Elegy won’t just end; it will change everything.

  This expansion has the potential to be one of the best yet, even without Suchan around to help. But don’t worry—every note I’ve written for the future arcs is still intact.

  As for Book 7, let’s just say it’ll explore something that many comics tackle at some point—intentionally vague, I know. Half of it will be a grand adventure for Aurora, while the other half deals with the wreckage left behind after the events in Elodie Elegy. She’s about to face the worst situation of her life, and it will change her forever.

  Then there’s Book 8—where Aurora must confront who she truly is as she ventures far beyond home. This could be the end of her main storyline… but then comes Book 9, where she steps into something even greater. There may even be a more epic battle waiting at the end.