Do you know how tempting it was to copy and paste the intro to this article? The weather has been absolutely insane. California is buried in snow, and the high today here in Banjoland was 75 degrees Fahrenheit. This is wild! But you're not here to talk about the weather. What was that Oscar Wilde quote? "Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative." 

I would also say you're not here to read quotes, but this is an Ask An Author interview, so I suppose you could quote the following author. This month, I had the opportunity to proverbially sit down with @AusGlitterati with some questions. Let's see what they said! 

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AusGlitterati

15 Stories / 723,080 Words 

What prompted you to start writing, and what has kept you going?

I've always had an interest in writing stories - creative writing lessons at school were my jam! I used to write fanfiction about shows I watched growing up - Cyberchase, Arthur, Scooby Doo! In fact, I was "outed" because my dad found and read something I'd written as a self-insert in a Scooby Doo story - I'd made myself Fred's boyfriend (Freddie Prinze Jr was my first remembered crush!) I also created and uploaded many stories in the Story Designer mode in the WWE games!

The direct answer to the question is that I don't know what really prompted me to start. I always just wanted to do it I enjoyed the stories told in books, cartoons and eventually games, and wanted to do that myself. I never did complete a story until adulthood - To The Stars - partly because I didn't think anyone was interested in gay fiction. It was literally GayAuthors and the incredible community that helped me reach critical mass and publish something and it's the community that keeps me coming back!

What genres do you enjoy writing, and what genre have you always wanted to explore?

I really enjoy writing drama/comedy - it's no coincidence that lot of my plot and characters are driven heavily by dialogue. I don't know if the chicken or the egg came first, but they seem to go hand in hand.  

I've had a go at writing mysteries in my two short stories - I definitely want to give that a proper crack! I'd also like to challenge myself with a supernatural story!

Do you have a favorite food or beverage? Something you could have every day without growing tired of it.

Coffee is the easy but copout answer - but we tend to downplay caffeine addiction, so I might instead go with salmon. The ONLY reason I don't live off salmon is that it would literally bankrupt me. 😜 

What is one story/book you could read until the end of time and why?

Oooft this is a challenging one to answer because I go through phases. Deltora Quest was a major part of my childhood and I do go back to it even now, partially for the nostalgia and partly because DUDE, Deltora Quest is lit!  

If you could chat/gush about one story you've written, which one?

I might pick To The Stars because I don't know how many stories have been published about professional wrestlers. Part of the reason I wrote it was because I'd never seen one before! It was a little bit of a mess - the story changed in scope and direction several times while I was in the middle of writing it - but it was my first one and it's my baby!

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Thanks for the interview, AusGlitterati! It was fun to read your responses. 

As for the rest of y'all, make sure to send me some questions for future Ask An Author articles via PM. If you can't come up with questions, you can list an author for me to send some of my own! 

Until next month!