 Meet an Author: OtterySt.Catchpole
It's time for another edition of Meet An Author! This month we meet and learn about OtterySt.Catchpole.
His current fan fictions are: Epic & Adventure Stories SS100/50 Hall of Fame Finished Fan Fics
So let's dive right in and get to know him! Interviewer: Droo
Interviewee: OtterySt.Catchpole YAY! Hey, you're on. LOL So are you! I'm always on, its part of being a comedian. Alright, first and foremost, is your name really Ottery? I wonder if I can change my name to Ottery ... but then all my family are like WTFrenchToast? Who is that? You know ... it's like a secret identity. Like Batman! Right? LOL. No, Ottery is my secret identity. So you're like a rich bachelor millionaire (cause that's different from a poor bachelor millionaire…) with a butler and a ward! I wish! LOL! Well, at least its cool we're on now. I have to get ready ... we're going to the comic shop. The kids love the comics, and I promised I'd take them to the shop I'm a comic book fan. Really? What do you read? I used to be there every Wednesday back in the day... Me too! I live for Green Arrow and Green Lantern. Kinda weird actually… Now that I realize it, green = Slytherin. No, they're cool. But the whole blackest night thing just left me a little ... Zombies ... no. I'm a sidekick fan, I used to love Young Justice and Robin and Superboy and Kid Flash then DC started killing them all ... I was all Teen Titans ... now I'm all 'where are they?' I hated Civil War. I stopped that one all together. Yeah, Civil War was dumb. I love Marvel but I love DC more. DITTO! I read trades now, mostly from the library. But yeah, except for Spidey, DC has all the cool characters. *glomps Supes* And Flash. Do you watch any superhero cartoons? And Wonder Woman. Not anymore, we can't afford cable. Young Justice was cute last night but ... Teen Titans (the cartoon was the best superhero cartoon evah) Cable sux, stream it on YouTube! LOL! So Ottery. So Droo ... come here often? I’m the interviewer, silly. LOL What? I'm playing nice... Its understood I'm the mack daddy of the wizarding world. Indeed you are! Lupin and me. And now Lupin is dead, so long live Ottery! Well Ottery dies in every other fic so ... he doesn't get to live too long, most times. LOL. Aww, That's ok! Now, let me start this interview. What got you into Harry Potter? My friend Melissa. Back before the first movie came out, and the 4th book had just come out she'd told me about this great book series, and I was like, "Yeah, right, nothing is greater than Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz right, but she invited me to the movie and as with any movie based on a book I had to read the book first so ... after reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I was in love deep. The books whimsy caught me and held me, and its one of my favorite books of all time.
How's that for an answer?  Awesome! My favorite color is purple and I'm an Aries.  Oooo, my favorite color is purple too! Color of dreamers. Color of royalty. That too. *puts on tiara* I'm ready for you to regally ask me another question. LOL. What got you into writing? That predates Harry Potter by a lot of years, LOL. Yea? Awesome! I got into writing when I was in 5th grade and I had just seen The Neverending story and I didn't want it to end, so... I went home and wrote the continuing adventures of Bastian, and the princess and added a bunch of characters. I realized I liked telling stories and I put my hand at some of my own. My early stuff was very much like The Chronicles of Narnia: four kids get sucked into another world. I wrote a short little novel and well, I was always writing a story or another, until I got to college. Then I said to myself, "Why don't I try this for a living?" So I became an English major and I'm still writing... but not yet making a living from it. Hopefully I will soon ... but I'm always writing a novel or something. Fanfiction always distracts me from my own stuff! LOL! I'm bad like that. Really? That's awesome! So you write FanFiction to distract you? Or do you have other reasons? I write fan fiction, or I started writing it, for fun. Then it became this perfect tool for coming up with a work ethic, because you know, you have to have a post ready almost every other day if you want your readership to come back. Then I realized, just writing a post isn't enough to get people to come back, so it became a way to learn to be interesting and exciting, and you start learning about cliffies and writing poignant moments that keep the readers caring and coming back for more. So, fanfiction has always been something I use to learn to be a better writer ... and its fun. LOL. The reason I can't stop writing it, is because I love the Harry Potter universe and my readers ... and its fun to write. Your ship always comes in, you know? You get to beat the snot out of the characters you really dislike and, if you're really good, you can come up with your own characters. It IS fun! I totally agree with you. So, tell me, is the Harry Potter Universe the only FanFiction you write? Or did that pre-date Harry Potter too? No, Harry Potter is pretty much my only universe. I tried starting on Chronicles of Narnia, but I guess I wrote so many Narnia-like adventures as a kid, I can't anymore. LOL! I keep saying I'm going to start doing superhero stuff, but I always find myself busy with Harry Potter and my own stuff so... for now, yeah, it's only Harry Potter. Well, we are certainly happy to have you! Tell me, you have so many stories going, how do you keep them all straight in your head? To put it quite simply ... I don't. LOL! I diligently reread my stuff over and over. I've grown to become one of my favorite writers or I'd never be able to reread my stuff. I wish I could say I had massive amounts of copious notes, but I don't. I barely even do that with my own writing, but I'm learning it really helps. Well, that's a wonderful way to do it. You're sweet, LOL. It has helped me see my own weaknesses in my writing. Every time I reread my stuff, I end up editing it. Do you edit your stuff a lot? Yes. I read somewhere that the only true 'writing' is in the 'rewriting' or the editing process that follows. I usually write a conversation between characters and then I go back and embellish, give the scene an introduction, some setting and make it more than people talking. But if you mean edit for grammar ... well, anyone's who has ever read one of my stories knows ... I don't believe in grammar, just spelling. LOL. HAHAHAH!!! Well… tell me a bit about your process... Do you just start writing a story? Or is it more like you plan a beginning, a middle and an end? Plans schmans ... I go with an idea. I had this fic once, that I put aside and dropped, revolving around "What if Harry and Pansy were a couple?" It didn't go far, so I never finished it, and I have another, I swear I will go back to again, which is "Harry Potter set in the 1940's during WWII" where the Nazis and the Death Eaters get together and... well, something bad and evil happens obviously. LOL! I usually get a good idea and then add a lot of drama and love and hate and people dying left and right and occasionally I throw in Otty and Teddy. Otty is awesome... Do you base a lot of your ideas on yourself? LOL.
LMAO.
ROTFL.
*cryinglaughing* Oh dear... I broke him… You're so funny, Droo! No. No one can break the Otter. LOL. Anyways, no, Ottery is... well he's what I'd be, if I were cool. LOL! Funny, debonair, had a lot of uhm, romantic interests and endless copious amounts of money and really powerful friends. So, no. I wish I could say Ottery was a Mary Sue, but its more like Ottery is what I'd love to be, not who I am. LOL and he doesn't mind being the butt of jokes, which I do. Otty is cool. Now Teddy... Lets just say Teddy is me, if I were really angry all the time. Ottery was Capt Jack before there was a Captain Jack on Torchwood. But you are cool. Thank you, Droo. *hands you a sack of galleons under the table* Otty keeps dying and he keeps coming back. Oh! He's like Kenny from South Park! Uhm, no, you can actually tell what he's saying and he has enough fashion sense to know an orange parka would never be cool, anywhere. LOL Just bait for polar bears. Ottery has poignant deaths, they mean something ... Kenny just dies violently, LOL. OK... so not exactly like Kenny. LOL! Tell me, if you became a famous famous FAMOUS writer and got... I don't know... a prize for it? Would you thank SS and your Fan Fiction Fans, and how? Well ... *blushing* I didn't always dream that I'd get to go on Oprah, because she picked my book. I'd send a shout out to SS and the SSers because they've kept me writing at times, when I've wanted to just give up the whole endeavor as nothing more than a waste of time. My readers rock. They've changed over time, some have come back, and I got to meet a lot of neat, cool people on SS who have become my friends, when they first started reading my stories. So yeah, I've always thought I'd definitely have to do a shout out to SS and my SS friends. I wouldn't have become the good writer I am, if I hadn't had a forum for practicing my art and people going "Go Otty! You can do it!" or "No Otty! We'll kill you, if you do it!" LOL! The latter, mainly, when I tried getting Harry and Pansy together. LOL!
I will always be greatful to SS for being such a cool place to be, to meet other HP fans, but mainly for giving me a home for my stories and people who like my stuff and people who have been honestly critical of my writing (here I'm looking at Ems LOL, who used to read my shorts way back in the day).
Wow. I talk too much. Proof again that I love writing. LOL, You don't talk too much. I love listening, but it's 2 p.m. now... does this mean you are going to go? *Sniffles* I'm having such a good time. Oh wait! It's not two for you! WOOOT! I'm an hour earlier than you. LOL. Yay timezones for ONCE. I can give you another 30 minutes if that's cool ... I have to pick up the kids at School. That's cool. *Newsflash* Ottery's secret identity is as a Dad. Eeek! Everyone on SS thinks I'm an adolescent LOL. Probably because I'm so emo and I can't ever stay serious about any topic LOL. Ask me about music, I love music. LOL It helps me write. Or my favorite tv show. I love tv. LOL. I should interview you, Droo. Dude... you must drink a lot of coffee! LOL! Do you pull from your kids when you write? Yes, I pull from my kids. Mostly off the keyboard or off my lap so I can write more easily... And, ironically enough, no I don't do coffee or soda or anything else other than sugar. Better me than the kids you know... otherwise they're jumping off the walls all the time. LOL. So, what are your favorite tv shows?  I love Grey's Anatomy, and Torchwood, and Dollhouse and yeah, I watch TV shows on DVD from the library because with kids ... seriously, do you think I can sit and watch an episode? LOL And glee, but type that really tiny because I'm not supposed to like it, I hate it. I just started watching it for Kurt ... I keep hoping they'll make him more human. The characters are all caricatures and the music is the only really fun stuff about the show. LOL! I know what you mean! Right? They're not people ...but whatever ... LOL they're pretty to look at. So, music! It helps you write? What kind of music inspires you? Everything, I love TV show soundtracks, movie soundtracks and classical music because they don't have lyrics so you can go simply by the theme or the mood of the song. The cool thing is sometimes I have no idea what to write (okay most times I have no idea what to write, LOL) and that's where music comes in handy. If it’s an upbeat piece you can expect action, or if its romantic well love or if its sad then someone is going to die or something tragic is going to happen. Then sometimes songs I like or love or have absolutely nothing to do with the post lyric wise I'll quote in my post to add a different perspective. Sometimes it works awesome and sometimes its just something funny to intro the post. You know, you get me singing every time I read your posts. How is music important in your writing? It’s very important. It sets the whole mood, and direction of the post when I'm listening to it and writing and also Lissydove likes me to title my posts after 80's songs because I love those songs. LOL But yes, oftentimes music gives my posts direction, and it helps me feel my story more. Its hard to describe but music moves me to write. Unless it's Hannah Montana, then I stop. Hard. Like slamming the breaks. Face on the windshield. Ouch. No Miley. Haha! What about the Biebster? I. ♥. Justin. *Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee* LOL LOL I mean, of course I hear he's good ... I listen ... sometimes ... everyday, a little bit. Mainly for Usher though yeah.. :"> So, you have any favorite Magical Creature? Griffins or gryphons however you spell them they look the same and that same is awesome! Dragons are cool too, and three headed dogs in third place LOL. Chimaeras if I could remember what they are would make the list too. LOL! Just like Gryffindor Hadn't thought of that but yeah, I'm Gryffindor all the way! Teddy is Slytherin. So, if you were an Every Flavor Bean, what flavor would you be? Chorizo, which is a kind of Mexican pork sausage ... very spicy and totally awesome with eggs. My mom makes the best... I miss her. I need to visit my Mom so I can have Chorizo con huevos. Awww, that’s sweet. Yup, for breakfast or brunch. When I go to my mom's I sleep in LOL. Well, I think that's a sweet way to end this interview. It was so fun, Droo. Anytime you want to ask me random questions, about anything, we can chat. This was sooooooooooooooooo fun and an honor. Aww, it was, and the pleasure was all mine. Thank you for your time, and you know, I will keep reading everything you write. You are too sweet. *glomps* *snugs* @};-  |