Readers have asked, wondered, emailed, chatted, tweeted questions for Alex. For the next couple months, Alexandra Hargreaves will guest post on this blog to answer your questions. If you have a question you’d like Alex to answer, feel free to email her at: AlexandraHargreaves at gmail dot com.

LZ from Oregon wrote: “Why do you live with your family? It seems a little old fashioned and great at the same time.”

Hi LZ, thanks for the question.

I didn’t start out wanting to live with my family. In the beginning, Max and John were in college. John had no money at all and Mom cut Max off because we broke our ‘individuation’ agreement (read: her individuation agreement). I had been in the US Army for a few years. Since I couldn’t go home, either to my parents house or to see Max (individuation agreement in action), I didn’t really spend any money. I couldn’t spend any money while I was in SF training for a year and a half. When John and I got married I had enough money for a down payment. With a GI mortgage, we were able to buy our little two bedroom apartment in Santa Monica. I didn’t make huge money, but I made enough to feed us and to pay the mortgage. Max and John had jobs to help out and worked full time in the summers. Plus, John is really good with money. I don’t know how he made it all happen, but he did.

I  think it’s pretty common for twins to live together or very near each other. So living with Max is a no brainer. Since Max and John are such good friends, it was easy for us to live together in the apartment. It was hard time because we were pretty broke, very young, and we were striving to better ourselves. We were in college –  they went to UCLA and I went to AMU. Plus I was working with the Fey Special Forces Team. But I think we all have really fond memories of living together in the apartment.

I was stationed at Fort Carson so John and Max applied to graduate programs in and around Denver.  John got into the University of Colorado Medical School and Max went to Denver University Law. For most of that time, we lived together in a Denver Square in South City Park. When I was injured, the house next door, which was a little bigger, was for sale. Max and John bought the house and remodeled it. The idea was that Max would live with John and I while we remodeled our old house. We had agreed that we would decide what to do with the houses after the remodeling was done.

Of course, the houses were blown up by Eleazar before we made our decision.

When I was in the hospital after being in the room, Max and John bought the rooming house from the bank. With the money we had from the insurance company, we were able to rehabilitate the rooming house. We’d planned to live there alone like we had before. We created basement rooms so that team members and guests could live down there. The rest of the house was to be ours. But Cian and Eoin showed up while we were still remodeling. Erin needed a place to stay. Troy needed a place to rehab his leg, and his life, a few months after Erin moved back into her LoDo condo.  Colin arrived on New Year’s.

What were we going to do? They needed a place to live. We had the space.

I think if we had thought it through, we would have done something else. In the day to day living of life, it just happened one family member at a time.

One thing I should say is that Max and I grew up in a  military family. While we didn’t have to do the bi-annual post hop, like most families, but most of the families around us did. We didn’t have long term friends until we moved to Denver. Once in Denver, Max and Colin and I had a hard time making friends. We spent almost all of our time together. Sometimes other people, like Zack, would tag along, but overall, we stayed to ourselves. Sami and Erin were better adjusted than we were. At the same time, when push comes to shove, we Hargreaves siblings rely on each other.

I hope that answered your question.  If anyone has other questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments or email me at AlexandraHargreaves@gmail.com

>>>>>Alexandra Hargreaves is a fictional character created by Claudia Hall Christian for the Alex the Fey thriller series. Opinions expressed are that of Alexandra Hargreaves and may not reflect the opinions of the author or Cook Street Publishing.  Lean on Me, the fourth Alex The Fey thriller, will be available February 29, 2012.