This month we featured a compelling story about an orphan and his journey to find a home in Where Life Takes Us. Did you get a chance to read it? What did you think? Today we're going to discuss and share thoughts with the author, Kuragari129, one of our newer authors on the site--though not new to writing--so don't be shy with the feedback!! Of course, first you get to enjoy my interview with him!

Single people often have more time to write. Are you single?
I am Single

Chocolate or Vanilla?
We talking Ice Cream? Vanilla either way

What are you wearing (and no fibbing!)?
Sweats, a hoodie and a Jack Skellinton Toque

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Mostly Video Games and reading Manga. I've never been one for sports. I have all the leading game consoles and play on them regularily. As for manga, I look forward to the weekly releases of Fairy Tail and the monthly releases of Fairy Tail Zero and Pandora Hearts.

What inspired you to begin writing your first story?
Well I first found Gay Authors in 2012 while on vacation. Paradox of friendship is the story that stands out for me at that time. From there I discovered Nifty and looked into what it took to submit stories to these sites. Then I began production on Life's Expectations(LE), my first story. I had read a story on Nifty called “The Big Time” or started to, before the story telling me it was a squeal to “The Perfect Game”. So naturally I went back and read it first. The story focused on a group of kids each with their own plot lines, intertwined with one another. I liked that Idea of swapping Point of Views between characters. So I decided I would focus LE on 4 central characters. I wrote the first three chapters while still on vacation, but when got home and re-read them, I decided to rewrite them. What you see on nifty now was that product. In short, reading other people's work on Gay Authors and Nifty inspired me to write.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging when you write?
Explaining the little details in things, specifically sex scenes. I've never been a fan of reading books, weird I know. I find the detailing in them to be extensive, while it does bring you into the tale more. I'm impatient and I just wanted to read the story. So when I go into details on things, I know I could describe them better, during sex scenes especially. Every time I finish one I feel like it could have been done better but can't figure out how to get it better.

That said though, Greyson in My Life Started at the End of the World(MLSEW) has some of my best little details. Little known fact about Greyson: he's blind. So when I go into detail with him, I REALLY go into detail. In fact I had a blind reader email me(He has a program that lets him do it) and tell me how good of a job I did with Greyson. He even gave me pointers on it.

What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
Funny you ask this next. I consider the email I got from that man to be one of my best compliments, if not the best. I actively ask my readers on Nifty to email me what they think of the story and what they think will happen next. That way I can see where they see it heading and I can get to see the story at a different angle. Sadly, since all my stories on GA have been just transferred over, you guys haven't had your chance yet. It is coming though.

A while back, I got an email about my story Little Life of Nolan Parks(Because of it's content it cannot be posted on GA, Sorry.) and he gave me details about every character. It was so insensitive that I saved it and took many of the things he saw could happen and made them so.

As for toughest criticism... I had a guy tell me he didn't like how I started at ended chapters on Nifty. To quote him: “At the beginning of each chapter, you prattle on needlessly at a length which rivals the length of the chapter itself.” He further went on saying “you recapitulate each of the previous chapters, and explaining how you considered different scenarios in the plot. Likewise, at the end you recapitulate what has happened in the chapter and preview what is coming next..”

I was kind of taken back. MLSEW was in it's early chapters, just over a year ago now. And I had done this for all of my chapters in LE, Where Life Takes Us(WLTU) and Colby's Life Expectations(CLE). So I wasn't sure how to take it. Pretty sure I told him if he didn't like what I did to move on. He wasn't wrong, I just didn't know anything different. I still do it, just to a lesser value.

What brought you to the GA?
Like I said before, I had originally found the site in 2012. I think I thought the idea of the account to be stupid, or something. And I decided to post on Nifty. As my stories got popular I opened my facebook page and then thought about posting them on other sites. At first I did so on another site but that didn't work out. I re-found GA and posted MLSEW and WLTU. Which have turned into this apparently!

Did something inspire you to write Where Life Takes Us?
To be completely honest I don't remember if something did. What I believe it was, I was bummed out laying on my best and I just started thinking. I thought of Wyatt laying alone in the orphanage. From there it took off. I started with the names of the Luis family. They are all named after League of Legends champions, other than Grandpa Nickolas. Talon is Talon. Caitlyn is Caitlyn. Kayla is Kayle. Diana is Diana. Kenneth is Kennen. WLTU is just a a story that I made up. Some things inspired by my life experience, but mostly what I thought up.

The story involves a character who’s been in the system. How did you nail down Wyatt’s emotional upheaval through the story based on his life experiences with that aspect? Growing up I wasn't the happiest kid. I never really felt accepted into a group of friends until I was in grade 10. So I more than likely tapped into that to get into Wyatt's emotional states. When he starts to feel accepted, he's also scared of his budding sexuality. I mean, kids who are born into a family go through that fear. When your adopted it's gotta be more difficult. You want to feel wanted and you feel like this will not only disappoint your parents but they might disown you, in Wyatt's case they could have even sent him back to the orphanage.

I'm a theatre kid, a techie more specifically. I have acted though. When you're on stage you become a different person. You are not you anymore, and that's how I like to write. I like to try and think as the characters would. Wyatt is afraid, so I am. He's sad, so I put myself into that state. Alone I even act out some scenes, weird I know, but it helps with my writing.

What was your favorite part of the story?
Dam... that's a loaded question. My favorite part to write was Wyatt's reaction to Grandpa Nickolas' death.(Spoilers?)
My favorite part of the story has to be in the epilogue though. Wyatt has become a teacher, and teaches at the orphanage he grew up in. Above that, Wyatt and Talon have chosen to adopt a pair of twins, who have the odds against them to be adopted together. It's that giving back moment that I like so much about it.

Can you share a little about your current work with us?
Well I have 4 stories currently active and a few in the wings waiting.

The active ones being Life's Little Lies(LLL), My Life Started at the End of the World, Little Life of Nolan Parks, and Those Nights of My Life(TNML). MLSEW and TNML are in their ending stretches. They will be finding their ends rather soon. LLNP is nearing it's end with less than 10 chapters left. LLL has just gotten off hiatus and is ready for almost 20 more chapters.

That's not the juicy stuff though, the waiting ones are. In total I have 4 ready to get started. One will be a GA exclusive, you'll get 5 chapters before Nifty gets one. Another will be released in three burst of five chapters at a time. There is a sequel planned for one of the active stories. And finally I'm going to bring one of my favorite reality TV shows to a story.

Now, cause this is GA I will focus on that one. Like I said, you get 5 chapters before Nifty will get chapter 1. The reason for this, I think this site will be able to do what I want with it better than Nifty. This story is going to be a co-operative effort between author and reader, more details will arise when the story comes out on GA.

Thank you Cia for featuring Where Life Takes Us on CSR Book Club feature. I know I didn't talk much about Where Life Takes Us, it's been almost a year since I finished writing it. If this happens again in the future I'll be sure to talk more about the story that is featured.

Thanks again! Kuragari129

So much great information to get to know him, so I have to thank Kuragari129 for taking part in the interview too. Now, let's get to the discussion! Kuragari will try to be online around 7 PM, Pacific Time, but leave your thoughts and questions here in the meantime!