Cheat Sheets Remastered: The Academy - Bonus Materials

By C. L. Stone

After almost ten years and over twenty books, insatiable fans of The Academy series have sent in hundreds of questions. From asking about scents, to pleas for what happens next. Overwhelmed with questions, author C. L. Stone tried to keep up by offering up 'Cheat Sheets' for fans. Now, for the first time, they've been organized, bundled, and updated!

Everything you wanted to know about the Academy and more:

• Why write about so many guys?
• What were the guys thinking when…?
• Who is Volto?
• Where are all these locations in the series?
• What will happen in the future?
• And more about the author.

Nearly 400 pages of details and insider information that readers have begged for, now in one collection.

 

The Academy, Answered

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcato Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393314882

Book preview

Welcome to the Cheat Sheets!

Due to very popular demand, I’ve put all cheat sheet questions together into an indexed and searchable master book (I tried to call it a booklet at first, but quickly realized that was a mistake!).

Please note that this book contains a lot of information and answers from the beginning of the series and inevitably some things have changed. Some eagle-eyed readers will notice a few things that are different now, but this is how stories evolve and thought it would be fun to include those older answers.

Also, I’ve added sections of new answers! Some questions were so long ago, I thought it’d be fun to compare my answers today to what might have been answers from five or more years ago. If I added information or updated, I’ve got it marked as 2021 Answer. Maybe in five years we’ll load in more of your questions that come in and I’ll do another round of 2026 answers!

If you’re reading this in ebook format, you can use the Table of Contents to navigate or you can search for names and details if you’re looking for something specific.

I’m always happy to take new questions – you can message me via my website: https://clstonebooks.com/ and make sure you’re a newsletter subscriber to get the latest updates to the cheat sheets and all the freebies that I send to members.

If you’re not a subscriber already, sign up here : http://eepurl.com/03SZj

Note: I’ve put the spoilery questions/answers in the second half of this book, but if you’re new to the series, there will be spoilers throughout as I will have covered books you may not have read yet.

You’ve been warned, read at your own risk!

C. L. Questions

Who is your favorite of the boys?

It's whoever I'm writing about at the moment. Right now, I'd tell you Silas, but then next scene has Dr. Green so I'll switch.

2021 Answer: Raven is super fun. In the fantasy stuff, Shaytan (Girl in the Bearskin) and Sota (Favored). I also have a fondness for Soma from the Charleston’s Leading Ladies series. :)

What character is your most favorite to write?

Gabriel. He’s easy peasy to write. I put him into a scene and when I think they’ll go one way, he throws it in a completely opposite direction –with style. Mr. Blackbourne is another one where I don’t have to plan him too much and what he says. I just know he’s ‘up next’ and next thing I know the scene is done and usually doesn’t require much beyond a proofreading.

2021 Answer: Shaytan was a surprising addition to this list. I like the antiheroes the most, the unsuspecting, starts out bad and turns out they’re good, loyal, best ever person...or devil. Whatever it happens to be at the time. I’ve learned the characters with the clearest voices that I can hear tend to be my favorite to write, because they become super easy to write.

Who would you want to punch in real life?

I’d love tap Nathan. Like practice fight for kick boxing. For picking the bad people in the story, probably McCoy. In the gut.

2021 Answer: Bad people, and only when necessary. Why would anyone want to punch anyone else in real life? It feels like wasted effort unless your life is in danger.

If you had to choose one (and only one) of the boys to date, who? And why?

Gah! It's usually the one I'm writing about right now. Although dating wise, I think the most interesting one would be Dr. Green or Mr. Blackbourne. Their intelligence levels are through the roof, so like imagine those dates. Creative. Like Mr. Blackbourne would probably take you to a haunted house to test your stamina and reaction time.

2021 Answer: I get asked a lot to pick one for myself, and honestly one single guy alone would probably be too much all the time or I’d still want to interact with the others. Having the other guys around levels out some intense personalities. Gabriel, for example, is so open and emotional and wants to push your buttons and Luke will distract him to ease up the attention. Mr. Blackbourne’s perfectionism is so balanced with Dr. Green’s need to let loose and be random. North’s occasionally flared temper is soothed by Silas’s calm personality.

And from other series, like Corey from Scarab Beetle or Soma from Charleston’s Leading Ladies, or Shaytan and Wilhelm from some of the fantasy stuff, there’s just so many to choose from. That’s what makes my own imagination so fun. Lots of options.

But if you have options, you can choose to be with who you want and that can be more than one. :) If everyone’s okay with it, it’s all good.

Who would you...kiss....date.....marry? (Out of the characters)

Kissing: Silas. Hands down. Gabriel would be amazing. Mr. Blackbourne.... yeah. No, I can't choose.

Date: Gawh. It's whoever was available! North. He'd take girls to the beach. I love the beach. Kota's particular about taking you where you want to go. Nathan's into movies. Dr. Green because he's crazy.

To marry, probably Gabriel. Or Silas. Or Mr. Blackbourne. Or Luke. Or Victor.

2021 Answer: All of the above and also all the new additions. When I think about it, they’re all good.

So far which book have you enjoyed writing most?

It's always the one I'm working on right now, and I'm writing the rough draft for book seven now. Very entertaining to see how the boys pull themselves out of the trouble I set them up with. Out of the ones that are out, book three was fun, I think mostly because of that slumber party and the shopping scenes where I could play with the boys together.

2021 Answer: Still the same. Only now it’s Victor’s Unsung Requiem, and I’m also thinking about the next book after his (Gabriel!) for Ghost Bird, and the new Charleston’s Leading Ladies series and how fun Rainee is going to be to write. Also hoping to get to part two of Favored and more! I’m constantly thinking of the next book to work on.

One thing that I realized today why I love the Academy so much is the way you take people from abusive situations and make them go from victim to victors... What inspired you to write your stories this way?

I think anyone who has been in an abusive situation sometimes daydreams about things like this. Of overcoming your past and figuring out, even through struggle, where your future is. Sang and the boys have been through a lot, and they aren't done yet with what they have been going through, but it is a process. I think it's a good thing to talk about.

Happily ever after isn't about one day you wake up and Prince Charming has shown up and the bad things are gone forever. Happily ever after is a continuing movement to become better. I also like showing that while everything seems bleak, there's always others around you willing to step up and help. You have to give them a chance, though. And you also have to find the RIGHT kind of help. It isn't always easy to figure out the good from the bad.

The boys may help Sang, but a lot of it they push her to help herself, and they get her to work. They may tuck her away for her own protection, but like how Dr. Green gets her to assist Gabriel and clean up after. He didn't cuddle her, although he wouldn't have been opposed to it. He knew sometime doing good for other people can help heal.

2021 Answer: Also, if you’re struggling with abuse and need help, there are helplines for you to contact, even as a teenager, anywhere in the world. You can also go online and seek so many resources. I promise there is help and people who care that you can reach out to. If you aren’t sure who to call, here is a good place to start that lists help lines internationally: https://checkpointorg.com/global/ If you are in crisis, call your local emergency number.

When you came up with Sang’s character, did you envision her as yourself?

Pretty much. It’s much easier to write about yourself. You know everything she’s capable of. I grew up as a Sang, very shy and quiet and yet I was always out in the woods, playing with the boys, etc.

2021 Answer: Still true of most of the main characters. While Sang and Kayli or even Celeste or any number of other main characters I’ve created are different, I still feel like it’s pieces of my personality at times. It’s either who I was in the past, who I am now, or the type of person I hope to be or would be fun to dream of being. It’s why I thought in the beginning to give everyone green eyes. Lol It’s like a piece of me reflected in all of them.

Do you hear your characters in your head as you write? Do they have conversations? If they do, does it ever get confusing?

Yes, I hear their voices. Yes, they have conversations. Usually, I put them in a scene and I’m just ‘listening’ and I type what I’m hearing. No, they don’t get confusing because they have very distinct voices. When I don’t have a true voice for a character yet, you can tell because the character sounds very generic, doesn’t have much personality. But the main characters usually all have very distinct voices I can hear.

2021 Answer: By the way, if you hear voices when you read, it’s called subvocalization. This inner speech actually makes one read slower because you’re waiting for the voice to complete the word in the voice even if your brain already knows what the word is. Not everyone has it though, which I have come to realize for some that it’s hard to imagine what this is like.

For me, each main character needs to have his own voice or the character falls flat. If I can’t hear him clearly, I don’t know him well enough to write about him.

I remember reading somewhere that CL Stone had the voices of all the boys from The Ghost Bird series in her head. I think she said it took 4 days to write the story because they wanted to be heard. I was wondering if the same was true from the Scarab Beetle series?

Scarab Beetle was a bit more difficult to write. I didn’t have as much time with the guys before I started writing. As a result, it took a couple of months to complete; longer than I like. So instead of knowing instantly what they would say to one another, I learned about them as I wrote. I learn now, too, as I write them. The Ghost Bird boys are much easier. I get into a ‘mode’ with one of them, and then Mr. Blackbourne is doing his thing, or Gabriel is cursing. In Scarab Beetle, the easiest to write is Raven, because he’s simple, straightforward and he talks short. Corey’s next because he’s friendly. The others I have to build on with their own quirks.

2021 Answer: I’ve gotten better with the Scarab Beetle team, as well as others in additional books. For example, in Girl in the Bearskin, Thorne, Wilhelm, BENZO and others are all very loud. New characters now are louder than ever. Sometimes I can’t write as fast as they want to talk or how the scene plays out.

How did you decide which scent each guy has?

Kind of worked out with their personalities as we went along. Mr. Blackbourne’s is soap, because he doesn’t do anything fancy, it’s just his soap. The others are variations, either a gift from Gabriel as a scent, or something they particularly liked, or like Gabriel’s is varied because he experiments with scents.

But like with Nathan, his is leather because he’s such a guy and his house has a lot of leather furniture. Victor’s is actually a rich brand of cologne that’s $200+ a bottle. Silas’s was a gift from Gabriel, the ocean scent. They just seemed to fit their personalities.

I was wondering if you designed the Academy logo? How did you come up with the idea?

The badge? It was a team effort. J I can’t take full credit. The Cajun (the other half here) does a lot of the art work for the current version. I designed the first fancy A with the heart for the covers and then he refined it later.

2021 Answer: The fancy A for the Academy is from a font that already exists, it is just tweaked to create the heart design. I realize now the answer from before made it sound like I made it entirely. :)

I’ve also gotten better at making covers and have been making my own for a while now. I’m really proud of the new ones I’ve done, like with Evelyn and Celeste, and the bundles. I hope to continue to make those. They are fun to create.

How do you come up with Sang’s dream sequences, they made no since to me until after I read up to the latest book and reread the books over did they have some kind of understandable meaning to me.

The dreams she had were there to show while she seems calm sometimes, she does worry a lot and those feelings invade her dreams nearly all the time. Once the boys found out (book three) she still has the dreams but I don’t describe them like before, only have her tell them if they are particularly scary, like the night of the nightmare when she was at Victor’s house.

2021 Answer: Several books later, she’s stopped having so many bad dreams that she’s not even thinking of them unless it’s something to do with the boys in trouble, and less about her. It shows her progress. She’s feeling more comfortable with herself and with life that her nightmares have gone.

I was wondering if all of your books tie together somehow. Like from Melody/Spice God I think Melody's last name is Green and she moves to North Shore. I know it's unlikely with how we found out about Sean's past. And Celeste/Smoking Gun might tie with Victor with the upper classes.

The North Shore in Melody (formerly called Spice God) is based on the real-life North Shore on Folly Beach. I used to live on that island, so I’m familiar with it. :) But the island’s name is Juniper, and set in a ‘alternate world’ kind of where gods are walking around. So Juniper is the made up island, and Sang gets a real one, because her series is more real world. But those who read about North Shore in Melody will get an inkling of what will happen when Sang touches her toes to the waters there. :) A little homage to Tiamat. (Tia from Melody.)

2021 Answer: This has grown. :) The book Melody has Gretta, who has made appearances in Ghost Bird, Scarab Beetle, and the Charleston’s Leading Ladies series. Her store, Tissu Deux, is a second shop for Tissu, the shop on Juniper Island in Melody, only Gretta runs this one and it’s her own store. She even comments in one of the books when someone asks her where was the first one, she responds with far away.

While the spiritual world of North Shore in Melody isn’t the same, I like having Gretta around.

In addition, the series I have on WattPad, May Time Never Take You, Clara starts out in the Sergeant Jasper, where the Scarab Beetle boys live. She even sits at the chair and table Kayli and Marc sit at on the roof.

In addition, the Charleston’s Leading Ladies series has guest appearances by some of our Scarab Beetle and Ghost Bird favorites. Diego and David also make appearances in Academy series and I hope to have others of the characters intermingle with it making sense if you’ve never read Charleston’s Leading Ladies or if you read CLL and don’t happen to read Academy.

I do hope to continue to intertwine characters as we go on. Weaving worlds together is one of my favorite things to do.

Have you ever watched/ read the anime series the wall flower? It's a great reverse harem. Some of the parts in the academy remind me of it.

I haven’t watched Wall Flower. I have seen Fruits Basket and Ouran High School and I love anime, though. :)

2021 Answer: I am still super slow watching anime lately. I tend to watch way more YouTube or playing video games to unwind. But there’s loads of nice reverse harem in these. I also really liked The Queen’s Gambit, which has a nice little ‘set up’ for a reverse harem that was a total surprise.

Do you have a list of other books similar to your series? 

There's reverse harem manga like Fruits Basket and Ouran High School Host Club, and their respective anime series. As for books, there have been many that have come up in the past few years. I’ve posted some to my website: https://clstonebooks.com/book-recommendations/ but you can do searches for reverse harem on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/genres/reverse-harem and at retailers and you’ll find many. Many are urban fantasy and/or have more adult themes.

Answer 2021: As things have evolved, I always say my own books are becoming less and less American style reverse harem-like as most readers have become accustomed to heavy sexual relationships being the determining factor. While at the start of bringing about reverse harem for an American audience, I was very open minded about what to include, a select group of authors and readers have determined that it means sex with multiple partners.

I don’t own words and I don’t pretend to police terminology, so while I’d love to recommend more romantic and younger audience focused books (teen/YA style or adult but sweet reverse harem) I don’t happen to know too many. However, I hope to ask readers soon who their favorites are and maybe can mention those authors you also love and make them easier to find. If that’s what you’re looking for.

In addition, Japanese-style reverse harem is often more YA appropriate or sweet, so checking out Fruits Basket or Ouran can help there. :)

What’s your favorite candy, pop and, color?

I love chocolate, and I don’t drink soda (I prefer milk or juice) and I love pink, usually hot pink. :)

I was wondering how old you are...not an actual number (unless it is okay with you), but in general, as in if you could say the age range, like twenties or thirties or so. You sound fairly young, and knowledgeable about new technology, and how guys act at certain ages, so I am just curious.

Thank you for the compliments. I’m actually in my early thirties, but I feel I keep up to date pretty well on new things. I love video games and I read through Tumblr often. I also vividly remember high school, so hopefully I’ve conveyed that and it translates.

2021 Answer: Now 40! Time flies. :) My birthday is October 6, 1980. I’m very into video games, new tech, and I also watch YouTube and TikTok sometimes. I never got into the ‘people who are younger or older are too different to know’ mentality. I like what I like, and hope teens enjoy any of this ‘adult insight’ on high school years. Also, I never really grew up so I have that going.

What does C. L. stand for?

They’re initials for my real name, but my name is very unusual, and it wouldn’t take long for someone to find out where I lived, etc. So if everyone will forgive me, I’ll want to keep my real name under wraps for the moment. :) I know some people are curious and most people wouldn’t do anything, but I prefer to keep it a secret as much as possible. And if a reader does know, I’ll trust they’ll help me keep my secret for now. :)

2021 Answer: I asked someone once what they thought the L stood for and they said Lawrence, this has stuck as a nickname from some people. I accept this. Mostly because you can’t choose your own nickname.

I was wondering if you could do a version of Mr. Blackbourne's birthday from First Kiss in his point of view. 

After Meeting Sang is done, and the series is done, I might start taking requests from readers as to what scenes they might want to see from a guy point of view. This might include scenes that aren’t even in the books! Maybe after the series is over, it’ll be the future Christmas gift? We’ll see. :)

Will you be doing a ‘Meeting Kayli’ type thing - the boys’ POV chapters like you did for Meeting Sang?

I can! Do you all want this? If so, let me know. I’ll work on it after finishing up Meeting Sang set.

Out of curiosity, if The Academy could've been your life, would you have chosen to do it? 

Always. Without question.

2021 Answer: Still the same, but also there’s nothing to stop anyone from creating their own Academy network and working together. All it means is finding people you genuinely care about who are ready to help themselves and just need a helping hand. When everyone is stable, volunteer in your community. Your Academy group will grow, you will network with people who can also, in turn, help you and other people. It doesn’t have to be a fantasy. You can make this a real thing.

About the Academy

Where did the Academy get its original funding from? How far back does it go?

They didn’t need funding in the beginning. The funding evolved over time as they gained money for good causes but were having trouble keeping their people afloat. The Academy took a few generations to become what it is. And it evolves as well. Don’t quote me because this could change, but probably back between the world wars was when it started. (This could change within the books. I don’t have the full history, but it’s been around a while.)

The favors from Sean and Owen's mission at age 10 appear to still be available. Are they counted separately from the rest of the teams' favors?

The team doesn’t have favors. Each person has their own favors, and are accounted for separately. While Dr. Green and Mr. Blackbourne could loan out their favors to people in their team, it has to be a very good reason. This is for self-reliance and so no one can eat up favors from the rest of the team and not earn any on their own.

Since the age of 10, however, Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green have spent many favors gathering the team they have now. Just like how they spent favors on Sang and getting her out of her place, they spent a lot on Kota and the others. They have enough to still be considered graduates, but they, too, are starting to see the bottom of the barrel. They earn more doing things like helping children find new homes, but Sang is getting to be pretty costly to protect. And people like Nathan are still spending favors on people like his dad to keep him away.

How did the Academy start?

A long time ago and that’s a really long story. But I’ll be threading its start throughout the books. You all don’t want the boring details. :)

2021 Answer: I’m going to still try and get the story threaded into the books, I did want to let people know it basically started with a group of people who saw injustices in their neighborhood but their local authorities had no one who could assist. If it isn’t a law that an action is illegal, technically there’s very little the police or any other official force can do. An example being the ‘legal until it’s illegal’ drugs like synthetic weed. New formulas get produced constantly but the courts first have to find the stuff, dissect it because they can only make the specific formula illegal.

How did you come up with the Academy rules? Are there more than four?

There aren’t many rules, because each team makes their own rules. It’s just the core rules are there to really show what they are about. They prefer you learn through their example, though, rather than being told. Those four are the core rules.

2021 Answer: I realized I never answered the first question now. :) I came up with the four rules over simply writing the story. I knew I wanted a vigilante justice group that focused on handling their own problems (being self-sufficient to create a safe space for everyone) as well as one that was devoted to creating a better community around them. Creating a group like this needs some structure, but not enough to restrict people.

Family is one thing a lot of Academy members severely lack. If they’d had a good family structure, raised to be self-sufficient and care for other people, they technically didn’t need a group like the Academy to fall back on.

Trust your family being the first rule made sense, but only after applying the second rule, family is a choice. They work together to understand that family is a trust bond, not always a blood one. Like all relationships, they are built on trust. It made sense that the sub groups within the Academy were called families instead of a team or group or co-workers or something similar. They’ll call themselves a team but in general it’s more thought of like family. You aren’t competing against other teams, you’re working together.

The family first, Academy second rule more or less ended up having to balance between the smaller groups and the large whole of the Academy. Who do you go to first when in trouble? Who do you turn to first?

However, leaving that there seemed empty. The fourth rule isn’t to the teams. It’s to the Academy in general. When your family can’t be there for you, the Academy always will be. If your family, your team, can’t help you, for whatever reason, that no matter what, the Academy as a whole will work together to ensure you’re safe and cared for. That reassurance was needed to make sure when a family team went out and did things, for other people outside of the Academy and their families, that no matter what, they’re always looked after.

What are the debts they have with The Academy?

There's a lot to the debt, but I'll take one as an example.

So let's talk about Kota's debt. When you join the Academy, you get a negative favor debt of something like 10 favors and $10k financial debt. You start at a loss, but your start date joining (not as a full-fledged member, but in training) the Academy usually is after they’ve helped you settle your home life, get into a new home, are going to a good school, etc. New Academy recruits are typically 18 or under, often young like 10 to 12 or so, and they’ll have family issues. This ‘cost limit’ means as a new member, you’ll not rack up favors and costs just because your blood family are trouble or any other issues. They get you set up and ready, and