Interview with Thomas Raahauge
In the corners of DevianArt, I found an incredible person who shared answers to my questions about his writing, his name is Thomas Raahauge.
He lives in the small Danish market town of Nakskov, you can find him in DevianArt as TigerEgern. This, he told me, means TigerSquirrel in Danish. TigerEgern was his chat name alias and chatsona, that he used in purely text-based chat forums, so in a way, it was also his fursona, though Furry-ism wasn't a thing in Denmark back then.
"I still don't have an actual fursona, but a fellow deviant designed my logo, which is a tiger-striped squirrel, muck akin to my chatsona, that was a squirrel with notoriously short attention span and a bubbly child-like behavior. At least according to a pair of university researchers, who worked on a paper on online chat forums and chatsonas. When sending private messages, however, I did not use my chatsona."
"I still maintain this distinction to some extent, though in a somewhat more mature way. I was in my early 20's when I was active on the chat forum, and am now in my 50's."
I asked him: When did you start writing and why?
"I always enjoyed writing, but I had great problems staying focused. Four years ago, a cousin of mine performed a session of thought field therapy on me, and she helped me dislodge a mental blockade, that stemmed from my PTSD-like symptoms. After the session, I went home, slept for well over 12 hours, and the next morning, I promptly began writing (in Danish, of course). Within three months, I had completed a +400 pages fantasy novel, as well as a large body of poetry, short stories, and essays. I have been writing almost daily ever since."
