Welcome to the Dangers Untold author/editor roundtable interview week! I asked Jennifer Brozek, the editor of Dangers Untold, along with several of the authors, some questions about their writing and editing, and we’ll be posting some of the answers from Monday until Saturday. If you’re just now joining, you can catch up on the rest at the Alliteration Ink blog.

On with today’s questions!

Can you tell me about a time you worried that someone would recognize themselves as one of your characters?

Jennifer Brozek: Since I frequently offer up tuckerizations, I know people will recognize themselves. I just hope they understand it is all part of the story and not based on my true feelings for them.

David Price: Not yet, although I’m sure it will happen sooner or later. Most of my characters have been based on acquaintances, historical figures or parts of me. I haven’t written a close friend or family member into a story yet.

Erik Scott de Bie: One of my friends can’t help but see ME as one (or more) of my characters. It gives him all kinds of ammunition to use to make fun of me.

How and when do you do research for stories? How do you know when it’s enough?

David Price: My fantasy novel Lightbringer relies heavily on mythology. I researched for years with only an outline in mind. I finally realized that I was never going to learn everything I wanted to know, so I dove in and started writing. There was always a Wikipedia page open on some bit of folklore, myth or legend, when I was writing my book.

Erik Scott de Bie: Research is always necessary. I’ve done a lot of shared world work, which requires a massive amount of research. It’s also key to establishing verisimilitude in anything that you write. It’s always better to err on the side of too much research, because you can always leave out stuff you don’t need.

Marty Young: Because I’m a scientist in my day job, I do a lot of research. It’s natural and I enjoy it. And I love this aspect of writing, too—only problem is, I tend to get so immersed in what I’m researching that I end up going off on tangents and getting no writing done. But it’s amazing what you discover along the way. I’ve found it’s always best to speak to experts rather than just read something—one example of this is when I needed to find out how someone would get a hand gun on the black market in New Zealand (for a story, honestly…). I ended up chatting with a NZ detective, who gave me about 5 different ways this could be done! Priceless.

How much impact does your childhood have on your writing?

Erik Scott de Bie: Aside from playing very vivid pretend (and always being the guy who told the stories and came up with all the backstories), I started playing D&D when I was 10, and now I write for them professionally.

David Price: I was a very sick child. I spent a lot of time in the hospital so as a result, I also spent a lot of time in my imagination, reading books, drawing, stuff like that. My childhood had a huge impact on turning me into who I am today.

Dangers Untold is available from Alliteration Ink and multiple online outlets (all linked to from this page.)

You can find Jennifer Brozek at her website, www.jenniferbrozek.com

You can find Erik Gustafson at his blog, Apparitions of Terror, or and find his novel Fall Leaves and the Black Dragon, at his Amazon Author page.

You can find David Price at http://www.authorwebpage.com/davidprice/index.html

You can find Erik Scott de Bie at his website, erikscottdebie.com

Marty Young is found at his website, martyyoung.com

Be sure to follow @alliterationink on Twitter to get the updates as they come through, or join our mailing list by sending an e-mail to news-join [at] alliterationink.com to make sure you don’t miss out on giveaways, contests, new releases, and open calls for submissions.

Several questions cribbed and modified from “Questions that authors are never asked” from the Guardian.