Alan Vega

Here's the 411 on Alan Vega: A charming, handsome author of weird-ass fiction who is beginning to suspect that the cosmos is far weirder than anything he can write.

Alan's 27, and was first published at 24. He caused a bit of a stir with that first novel, Isis of the Metro, which was engagingly written and charmingly bizarre; he caused a bigger stir, however, when he started doing the convention circuit, where he quickly gained a reputation for being a gregarious and fun type guy to have at your parties. Not to mention the string of broken hearts that he leaves behind at each con...

See, Alan likes women. He likes them a lot. He's far from being a 'player' or a sexual predator; he just really, really likes to be around women. He likes it when they pay attention to him. He likes to pay attention right back. It's a win/win situation, even if it's just for one night. If he comes to your party suite, you know two things are gonna happen: he's gonna be a good time, and someone's going home with him.

What you don't know is that he's just...he's just lonely. There's a hole inside of him, and it's shaped like someone, but no one ever seems to fill it. That's what this is all about: underneath that confident, friendly smile, there's a howling void, threatening to collapse him on himself.

After the publication of his second novel, Stars on 45th, he started acting a little...well, maybe not weird, but certainly a little odd. He's not going full Phillip K. Dick or anything, but he's been writing a lot about the 'flexible' nature of reality and the universe -- about how, every now and then, something in the universe bends just right, or folds over, or wrinkles, and you can see behind it. His publisher is starting to wonder if Alan's headed for VALISville, but Alan reassures him that he's really just writing what's on his mind -- "Call it notes for my next book", he says, and leaves it at that.

But the universe? All that weirdness, those hints of something 'behind'?

It's not leaving it there.

It's starting to knock at his door.

Alan sounds like Gary Gygax...

How old was Alan when he started writing? Does he have a favorite pen/pencil? What makes it his favorite anything? Has he ever had a stalker, and would he have minded? Does he have a favorite author to read? Has he ever 'fanboy' on someone at a convention?

Does he have family? Is he close to any of them? Did he go to college? What ones, and did he have any teachers he was close to?

When did he first get his heart broken?

Alan's first complete story was written when he was 7 years old. It was only 3 pages long and not very good, but it had a beginning, a middle, and an end, so it counts. He messed around with writing up until his sophomore year in high school, when he wrote a short story that won a prize and got published in an anthology of local young writers. He hasn't stopped.

When he graduated from high school, his aunt Adriana gave him a fountain pen that once belonged to her father (technically she's his father's cousin, and her father was his uncle -- but Mexicans don't play that "second cousin twice removed" jive). It's a fairly unassuming pen, though it was fancy stuff when Uncle Eugenio bought it back in '63. Aunt Adriana adored Alan, and she was his favorite right back. Cancer is a bitch, though, and now that pen is all he has left of her except for memories and encouragement.

A couple of years ago, he ran across a girl he went to high school with, Autumn Keyes. Autumn was...nice enough back then, if a little intense; she'd been a friend-of-a-friend, and they'd had lunch together a few times, and like that. Only now, Autumn happened to be at his first book signing...and then his next, two towns over. And then the next one, in another state. And then at a con... it started getting old by the third book signing, and by the time she was hovering around him at the convention like she was his entourage or his secretary or something, it was just creepy. It got even worse when she followed him to a party at the hotel, and he tried all night to shake her, and finally had to tell her off. Last he heard, she lives out of her car and converted to some kind of weird Judeochristian cult. Gives him shivers, just to think about it.

He's lucky enough to have developed a small fanbase, and he supposes that goes with the territory; it's not like he didn't turn into a giggling schoolgirl when he met William Gibson, after all, because he's only human. Thankfully, Autumn's the only creepy one.

Alan's close to both sides of his family, but not with his father. There's...a conflict, there, one of identity and trust. His Mom's side are all midwestern white folks, and he gets along with them just fine. His father's side is Mexican, and he misses them and loves them dearly.

He went to college at Indiana University, but only for a year of Continuing Studies.

As far as his first heartbreak, well...are we talking first, first? 'Cause that was when he was 6.

So will Alan work? And if so, what's my next step?

Next step would be a character sheet.

I've submitted one.