Well, we didn't have any takers to take up Ask An Author, so with the start of the new year, I wanted to come up with a way to keep the Ask An Author feature alive. Since I'm the one who will be doing it, it needed to be something not too time consuming. Hopefully what I've come up with will work out well.  Instead of readers asking a single question and directing it to the author, I thought maybe we'd focus more on the story instead of the author. The way this will work is, the reader picks a story of their choice, they can then ask the author three questions about that story.  Since there's will only be twelve Ask An Author features per year, I'm going to set it at no author can appear more than once a year. That doesn't mean you can't ask your questions, but if you pick a story by an author who has already appeared for that year, your Ask An Author will simple be delayed.  So, pick your story and your questions, and send me a message!  I'll try and get those questions answered for you!

To start us off, I asked @Mann Ramblings a few questions about his story So Little Magic Left.

So Little Magic Left
Mann Ramblings

What do you do when you simply don't fit into your world? Shawn Martoni never did. A past of turmoil and misfortune kept a solid foothold from ever forming.

But what if there was another world under our own? Someplace where all that's left of the creatures long since forgotten might live. Would Shawn find his place there or simply find another form of the underworld?

Where did the idea for So Little Magic Left come from?

The initial inspiration came from a GA writing prompt actually. Specifically, from one of Comicfan’s prompts titled “The Beast” from several years ago. (2012-2013) The original 1k scene is still sitting in my collection of prompt responses “Prompt Ramblings” https://gayauthors.org/story/mann-ramblings/promptramblings/5

Some elements may have been altered from the final story, but writing it set off a huge brainstorming session and I sort of took off from there. I loved the opportunity to create a modern fantasy story.

How do you pronounce the Queen’s name and where did it come from?

I used an elvish word translator I found online to create her name. (Yes you can find just about anything on the internet if you look hard enough.) Dahmsaedroma is a loose translation/compilation of the words I found to mean “light-dancing” or “dancing-light” to describe her grace and magical aura.

Her name is pronounced: Dahm – Suh – Dro – Mah

Would you ever consider publishing So Little Magic Left?

I’ve considered it. SLML is a novel I’m particularly proud of. It started my current tendency to write longer book length stories with more complex plots. These days if I write a story under 100k, it feels undone. I’m not sure if I’m ready to take on the task of revising the technical issues the story has as one of my earlier works, but I’m not saying it would never happen. It might be worth it. However, I have other projects that need to be completed before I can consider stepping back and reworking an older piece.