Thanks for all the questions! Honestly, I only expected a few of you (aka just my friends) to send in questions...but I got a lot more than I was hoping for, which was really cool.

If you guys still have questions...you can always comment here before or shoot me a message--I nearly always reply when it's stuff about my work. If I get a ton of questions about the book, I'll probably make a new Q&A chapter...but I expect that to come a lot later.

1) What inspired you to write this story?

Why does everyone always ask this? I get that you're curious and stuff, and people do wonder why I wrote this piece (since it's kinda unconventional for Wattpad). So good question!

Lots of factors contributed to me writing this story. I could tell you my influences that helped with my writer's block and helped me brainstorm--The Police's "Don't Stand So Close To Me", the movie American Beauty, the movie Lolita...

But really the definitive moment came in my Literary Heritage class in the Spring 2016 semester. I didn't say much in class, but I always enjoyed listening to my classmates analyze and dissect a story. They were able to take the vaguest things, and clarify it with some whacky explanation. "Oh, the cup of cold coffee briefly mentioned on page 23? Yeah, that represents the author's lack of a nurturing childhood." Lots of the analyses were very far reaches...but somehow, they all made sense. I became jealous, of the authors. I wanted people to dissect my works, and analyze the story and me as a writer. It would be so cool to see my stuff in a literature textbook one day, have students write essays about my story, and listen to a bunch of kids pull out meanings and metaphors that I didn't even know about.

I know that's a lofty goal, and will probably never happen. However, I hate to be told 'no.' (I'm a spoiled little brat, I know)

So, I decided to write a short story. Not just any short story--but one so full of things to talk about that you'd have to be incredibly dense to not understand. I don't say that to brag--there's just a ton of obvious not-so-hidden meanings in this piece. Again, that's not really bragging because it doesn't take much skill to vomit out a bunch of metaphors onto a page.

Of course, I decided to publish on Wattpad. After all, I never have found any story like mine on here. (if you know of any, please let me know) I don't say this to brag, either. I just know I have weird tastes.

I didn't really know what to write. I had a few ideas, and by ideas I mean I knew what I wanted the reaction to be to my story. I also knew I wanted something realistic. I didn't want to sugarcoat things and give everyone some lame happy ending. I didn't want to paint ugly things pretty. Still, with all my metaphors and fancy adjective-filled sentences... I think I presented the cold, harsh reality of things. Catherina isn't some manic pixie girl--she's immature and quite a whore. Jack's wife isn't very likeable and doesn't deserve much pity or sympathy--she's weak and she lets people walk over her. As for Jack himself...well, most people hate him. Regardless of his depression or early onset midlife crisis...he's an inconsiderate jerk and rather creepy with his Catherina obsession. To be fair, I think that my characters are very human. Perhaps exaggerations--but all humans have loads of flaws.

Anyway, I'm rambling...oops. Long story short, I had an idea of a man who hung himself with the leash of the dog his wife didn't want him to get. (I love to kill my characters. It's a guarantee when you read my stories--I will always killed at least one person off)

From there, I had to give him a reason for suicide. I wasn't going to make his scandalous affair with Cat a main theme...but I felt it was needed to really set the stage. The whole story was just a means to an end. All I wanted to write was his suicide, but I felt I should have explained things. Originally, "HOUND" wasn't even supposed to be as long as it ended up. It was only going to be a thousand words or so. But as you can see here...I'm long-winded.

2) Why isn't Saffron (Jack's wife) named until the end? And why Saffron?

Every reader I've talked to always asked this. Or some version of this question...usually they'll be halfway through the story and bug me with "but what's Jack's wife name??"...to which I always tell them to practice patience and read to the end.

I didn't name her on purpose. It enforced her weak character, and the idea that she had self-identity other than her relationship with Jack. After her flight to freedom and Jack's consecutive death...she finally had found herself. My epilogue only shared the recent events after Jack's demise. Who knows, Saffron might have just evolved from "Jack's wife" to "Jack's widow."

...I'm actually hoping some crazed feminist comments how much they hate this story because of Jack's wife being a terribly weak and dependent individual. It would be funny, considering how this story is in no way meaning to promote any of the themes (student-teacher relationships, lolita complexes, alcoholism, divorce, no self-identity, misogyny, etc) and instead acts as anti all these things by representing them as the hideous blight they are.

Also, I picked the name by chance. I'm sure there's some special meaning someone could find...but I picked the name because I liked its obscurity.

3) What was in the draft Jack wrote?

I really feel I'm compromise the point of the story if I told you. I purposely excluded many physical details about most of my characters, because I'm a firm believer in only telling you what's necessary (and letting your imagination do the rest).

So what do you think was in Jack's draft? Was it a story about his wife? About Catherina? Was it a fictionalized version of true events? Was it a weird story, like "HOUND"? Was it a completely unrelated thriller, or sci-fi apocalypse bit? Entirely up to you to decide that, dear reader.

4) Who is "S" that Jack dedicated his story to? And did Catherina turn Jack in to the headmistress because she saw this dedication or was it just because she found that new boy toy?

Catherina's motive are always...complicated. Think about it, does Catherina have any valid reason for any of her actions? Honestly, I suppose Catherina just has a kink for power. That's why she seduced Jack, tormented him with her emotional indifference, and finally ratted him out and caused him to lose his job. It's probably also why she spoke to his wife the way she did, because she knew things Jack's wife didn't...and it gave her power. Did Catherina really dislike Jack's book or was that a power thing, too? Again, who knows? Catherina loved power, and by breaking Jack's heart through the harsh critique of his prized novel...it gave her hella power. Whether she truly enjoyed it--is irrelevant to her. To be fair, he did write the novel without much sleep, and got the idea while high.

Did the dedication trigger her hate of the book and her sudden turn from Jack? Again, a complicated answer. Sure, she probably hated that he didn't dedicate it to her (because by him choosing someone else, she lost a little power). But did it hurt her emotionally? Was she even attached to Jack? You decide. In my opinion, I think Catherina was already drifting from Jack. I doubt she had any intentions of any permanent or long-term relationship with him. We don't know much about her personality or thoughts--other than what we speculate based on her actions. What about her history? Abusive homelife? Broken hearted from her one true love? Did she move from wherever because she had a previous affair with an older man? Who knows...but here's a little hint...you might find out if I do a sequel.

5) Did Catherina really love Jack? It doesn't seem like she did.

Back to my answer for #4...Catherina's motives are a mystery. But, I'll unofficially state that Catherina probably did have some sort of feeling for Jack. No matter how little you think of her, or how twisted her heart seemed, or how awful Jack appeared...I think there was attachment. In the epilogue, where it says that she cried for him and proclaimed that she had loved him....was that genuine? Or a grab for attention?

That's up for debate! :)

6) Is Jack some emotionless zombie? Like after the whole Catherina scene he does nothing but drink and be an arse to his wife. Maybe we can keep the latter part aside, but then why does he need to drink and do nothing more than that?

Sure, at times Jack can be very apathetic. He obviously had severe depression (which of course doesn't excuse his sins) and probably a slew of personality and mental disorders. Totally emotionless? No, no. The total lack of the four emotions (glad, sad, mad, scared) would be a schizophrenic.

He drinks to numb the pain. Numb the numbness, I suppose. Why is any alcoholic and alcoholic? It was all part of Jack's spiral to suicide. His existential crisis, obsession with death, jerkiness, etc.

7) Will there be a sequel or followup?

Maybe, I don't know. Probably just as a side project, I'm not going to focus on any sort of sequel/spinoff at the moment because I have so many other things to write. Perhaps if "HOUND" takes off and people request to know about Catherina's backstory or what happens to Saffron later on....

8) How long did it take you to write the story?

A grand total of two months. As for specific writing time...no clue. But it took about two months to get enough motivation and organization to complete this story.

9) Do you have any other stories like this?

I do have a collection of short stories, in a work of mine called "ART." I mostly kicked off my Watty career with poetry (it's what I'm most known for), so I have a lot of that. I have several first chapters/prologues published of novels I'll never finish..but "HOUND" (so far, 6/29/2016) is my only completed 'real' story. I've never completed a story before like this. Only anthologies of poetry and one chapter stories...but nothing as big as "HOUND."

10) Are you going to keep writing stories or stick with poetry?

At the moment, I'm not really feeling poetry. I've faithfully stuck to my sentence poetry endeavor, but I rarely update with longer and more traditional poems. Right now, I'm interested in pursuing 'real' stories and novels. I loved the feeling of completing "HOUND." I have many ideas, I just lack commitment. "HOUND", no matter how good of a story it is or isn't, was such a big achievement. I have no motivation and I suffer from severe commitment issues. I'm terribly proud of myself that I could actually finish something. (Doesn't pride cometh before the fall?)

I'm taking a poetry class in the fall 2016 semester, and my lust for poetry will probably be revived then. Until then, I might stick to stories for now.

Most likely, I'll write an equal amount of stuff.

Thanks for asking all these great questions! Sorry if I didn't answer all of yours, I tried to group them because many of the questions were similar. Besides, I tend to over-answer a question so I felt 10 was the max (for now) due to me not wanting this little update to be super long. Plus, it's 1 AM....

Thank you for read