When Augusten Burroughs’ first novel, Sellevision, was published in 2000, it was immediately clear there was a fresh, exciting and funny new voice in fiction.

What has made Burroughs a household name, however, is his ability to mine his colorful past and produce gems. His first memoir, Running With Scissors in 2002, made him a No. 1 best-selling author on The New York Times list. He followed that blockbuster book with 2003’s Dry, his tell-all of getting and staying sober.

In 2003’s Magical Thinking and 2006’s Possible Side Effects, Burroughs published collections of essays turning the ordinary events of his life into humorous romps, with his hallmark wry wit.

In his latest tome, A Wolf at the Table, Burroughs returns to writing memoirs, expanding on his strained relationship with his late father, who is described as “a shadowy presence in [his] life.”

During his book tour, Burroughs kindly corresponded through e-mail with the Gay & Lesbian Times to talk about his past, present and future writing projects, being a gay author with crossover appeal, and about relinquishing control of his tales to have them told on film.

Writing has become a bit of a coping mechanism for the author.

“Well, writing has always been cathartic for me,” wrote Burroughs, who was born Christopher Robison. “I’ve been writing about my life for most of my life. As a young teenager, suddenly hurled into extraordinary circumstances, I found myself under profound stress. And I kind of had a choice to make: kill myself or focus on the absurd. This wasn’t a conscious choice, but it was a choice nonetheless. And the lens was ground.”

“It was at this age when I began to focus on the silly, the absurd, the ridiculous even in the midst of something horrifying or profoundly disturbing. Humor became a sort of life raft, allowing me to float from one catastrophe to the next.”

The subject matter of his newest release was prior to Burroughs’ honing his ability to use humor to cope.

“ … Wolf takes place before this highly refined defense mechanism was in place,” he wrote. “As a result Wolf is a much more brutal, harrowing book than any I have written before.”

A Wolf at the Table focuses on a dream Burroughs had as a child. In the dream, his father takes him into the woods to show him where he has buried a body and swears the boy to secrecy. Burroughs, however, is inclined to believe that the dream is, in fact, a memory.

The father-son dynamic underwrites the story, and Burroughs says readers may be able to identify with the struggle between father and son that is familiar in many families.

“I hope readers who had a difficult relationship with their own father will feel less alone,” he wrote. “There aren’t a lot of memoirs about bad relationships between fathers and sons. And yet, many men – and women – experienced terrible fathering. My father was dangerous; he was sociopathic, so he is an extreme example. But again, I think people are able to relate to the emotion behind the specifics. I have had so many come up to me and say, ‘Me too,’ after reading Wolf. And this makes me feel wonderful – and not so alone.”

Another way Burroughs is able to touch readers’ lives is by writing about “human issues, not sexual orientation-specific issues,” which has made him a gay author with tremendous crossover appeal.

“I have always been comfortable with my sexuality; indeed, have taken my comfort for granted; just as a heterosexual person might,” he wrote. “And I love my readers: old people, young people, male, female, straight, gay, undecided, somewhere in between. Love, longing for love, losing love, life, death, pain, addiction, overcoming adversity – these are all issues every person deals with.”

The wide appeal of his books has also made Burroughs a Hollywood target.

Scissors, Burroughs’ account of being sent off during his formative years to live with his mother’s psychiatrist and the doctor’s highly unorthodox family, hit the big screen in 2006, and not with little fanfare.

In 2007, Vanity Fair ran an article titled “Ruthless With Scissors,” in which the Turcotte family (featured in both the book and movie version as the Finch family) said they were falsely portrayed in the book and film, and discussed their lawsuit against Burroughs. The author and his publisher, St. Martin’s Press, settled with the family. Burroughs felt he emerged triumphant because “we had a very strong case because I had the truth on my side.”

Burroughs was happy with the final film product and isn’t hesitant to have his other works translated to screen.

“I loved the performances in the film and I thought it was a fascinating experience. I accepted – right away – that this was going to be another person’s vision of my memoir: the director’s,” Burroughs wrote. “So I wasn’t trying to assert control or imprint the movie with my own sensibilities. I just allowed it to happen and felt grateful that it was happening and featured such a hugely talented cast.”

Burroughs also reported that Sellevision is currently being cast, Wolf will be a film, and Dry will, as well.

With his transparent writing nature, one wonders what can and can’t be said in Burroughs’ company.

“I have had my friends for many years and they aren’t concerned about what I will or will not say about them,” he wrote. “It’s just never been an issue.”

Burroughs also gave us the scoop on his upcoming projects.

“I’m working on a collection of horrible/funny holiday stories called, You Better Not Cry,” he replied. “And I’m working on a memoir. And I’m working on two novels. I’m also trying to think of a Unified Theory of Everything, but this is tricky, because I still don’t know my multiplication tables.”