How did you find Gay Authors and What made you stay?

[sandrewn]

12 minutes ago, TetRefine said:

Good to see you're still around. Almost all of the people who we used to interact with so often in those early few years have long-since disappeared off this corner of the internet. 

Thanks for the memories.

[Layla Dorine]

This is my return to gayauthors.org. I found it back in 2013/14 after I'd spend over fifteen years writing characters as part of online efeds (wrestling roleplay game in which you create the character and win or lose your matches by how well you write your promos - for non-wrestling fans, that's the part where the wresters are all puffed up and strutting around talking about what they're going to do to their opponents) the problem was that after 15 years and tons of backstory and storylines taking my characters in different directions, the one thing I could not freely write within that world was my characters' love lives. My primary MC was pan, like me, and when I tried to introduce a male love interest there was so much pushback I stopped playing the game and looked to just write the stories I wanted to tell.

I'd gotten so used to feedback and interaction with others that I needed someplace where my characters would be accepted and had no clue where that would be on the web. My web use at that point had revolved around the game and the poetry, short stories, flash fiction and digital artwork that I was seeking appropriate publication for. Googling to try to find someplace where my stories might be accepted took me to fan fiction sights and Nifty, but I didn't feel the site was for me. I wanted someplace that was also a sort of workshop, where stories could be polished and authors could receive feedback and constructive criticism to help them grow. 

After landing on a few more webpages, several of which made even my freaky self blush, I found my way here. 

My first shapeshifter novel came from a writing prompt that was posted here, about coming home and someone or something unusual was on the couch. My arranged marriage book was from a prompt here too, about being told only an hour before the wedding that the character had been promised in marriage and the person was on the way there to wed them. 

Time went on, things happened, I drifted away, but in the last few years I've been asked several times about my writing journey and each time I tell those stories of how those books came to be, I missed what I'd found here. Twice now I've been at events where I ran into a reader who'd read one of those stories for the first time here and at first, I was a little embarrassed, since those early writings needed a ton of work, I'd be ashamed for anyone to ever read them in their original formats again. #cringe  I had a great deal of growing as a writer/storyteller to do. 

I used to write and post poetry here too. I think there was a message board for it. Sometimes prompts too. I haven't really written much poetry since leaving the site. I missed it and wanted to come back to it, which brought me back here. 

Sorry for the long-winded responses, still working on brevity.