Kilby Q&A: 10 Things You Always Wanted to Know About “A More Perfect Union” (But Were Afraid to Ask)

It's time for another installment of Kilby Q&A! This week, I answer ten questions about the new anthology I wrote a story for, A More Perfect Union! This is a collection of stories with a purpose. Read on…

Q1: First things first. This is not a standalone novel. Give us the basics on A More Perfect Union.

A: It’s an anthology of brand new, voting-themed short stories by a collection of nine award-winning and debut authors: Adrienne Bell, Aliza Mann, Claire Marti, R.L. Merrill, M.D. Neu, Dawn Montgomery, Sera Taino and Kearney Wentworth. Yes, voting-themed. All proceeds from A More Perfect Union will benefit Fair Fight, an organization dedicated to combatting voter suppression.

Q2: You don’t do many charity anthologies. Why is this issue important to you? Tell us more about Fair Fight.

A: Political participation was taught to me from a young age. I remember going to the polls with my parents when I was young and being eager for the day when I would be allowed to vote. My dad was an elected official (and his brother still is!). More relatives than I can count are active military or veterans or work for the federal government. Conversations around my childhood dinner table were always about politics. All of that adds up to me believing deeply in democracy and knowing that it only functions as intended when people actually get to vote.

Q3: Say a few things about the story you wrote for the anthology. It’s called Truth Serum, right?

A: Yes! In Truth Serum, my heroes, Sam and Raj, are top aides to the President. The two have never dated, but their unresolved sexual tension is thick enough to cut with a knife. When the President sequesters them in a hotel suite after an explosive argument in front of her staff, she offers them a pungent elixir that will find them spilling the one thing they have never given each other: the truth.

Q4:  Ooooh, it sounds juicy. What were Sam and Raj fighting about?

A: What do any two people who are secretly in love with each other fight about LOL? A whole lot of nothing. Suffice it to say that whatever it seemed like they were fighting about is not what they were fighting about at all. At the time the story begins, they have known each other for around six years and they’ve worked together for around four years (since the President began the campaign that got her to The White House). Not only do they have history, working in The White House has put them in a real pressure cooker.

Q5: So the story is called Truth Serum. Is there real, honest-to-goodness, literal truth serum in the story?

A: I did some research on “real” truth serum. According to the internet, it doesn’t exist. That is, there are substances that can make you talk more and be less inhibited, but nothing that can guarantee that what comes out of your mouth is the truth. In my story, I speculate that if there really were a truth serum, the world might not know about it. But since Sam and Raj’s boss is the President of the United States and has access to the spy tools of the FBI, CIA, etc…in my story, she has the real thing.

Q6: What inspired you to write a story like this?

A: This is actually a dusted-off story I wrote a long time ago when I wrote fan fiction for The West Wing.

Q7: Wait…for real? You wrote West Wing fan fiction?

A: LOL! I wrote a lot of fan fiction for several fandoms, but The West Wing was my favorite one. Sam and Josh were never a couple on the official show, but they were always a couple in my mind. Could it have been interpreted as a bromance? Sure. It was portrayed as one. But, remember The West Wing aired in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s and, at that time, major television dramas didn’t have gay leads. If you listen to the DVDs with the director’s commentary, Aaron Sorkin makes an offhanded comment at one point that Sam and Josh are the “real couple” on the show. Was it Shakespeare who said that many a truth is said in jest.

Q8: What is your favorite thing about this story?

A: Mutual pining is one of my favorite tropes. A lot of mutual pining stories (the kind I don’t always love) have characters who are getting in their own way and maybe just need to be honest and have a conversation. I love that, in this story, there are real stakes (and therefore pretty legitimate reasons why they’ve each kept a lid on their feelings). As top aides to the President of the United States, they are under a microscope on a global scale. There are real reasons why they haven’t leveled with one another. Missteps on their part could distract from the President’s agenda.

Q9: Have you ever been in a mutual pining situation with someone?

A: Definitely, though it’s been a very long time. I had a secret crush on a guy named Rob Nelson when I was in summer camp. This was, like, a multi-year crush because it was sleepaway camp and I went every year. Long story short, the year after we were CITs, a bunch of us got together during the winter (he lived far away from me) and we were hanging out in someone’s basement and we kissed and admitted we had crushed on each other. LOL!

Q10: Final question: will you ever expand this story?

A: The original version of this story was 20,000 words and I would like to fully rewrite it at some point. I think that’s a long way of saying yes.