1. Your 3 fanworks with the most AO3 comment threads:

Molten Metal and Miniature Trees, Emelan series by Tamora Pierce, written for Yuletide 2007
Summary: Daja threw herself into her work, and into Briar's company.

Unbound, Jurassic Park series, written for Yuletide 2008 (this version locked to archive users only -- I should see about fixing that)
Summary: Human nature is fluid, and not bound by biology.

Not Like Christmas, Exactly, Bend It Like Beckham, written for Yuletide 2005 (this version locked to archive users only, and again, one to fix)
Summary: Jules remembers how Christmas used to be, and it's not quite like this.

2. Your 3 fanworks with the most kudos:

From Just One Spark, Fast and the Furious series, written for Yuletide 2014
Summary: Gisele falls and falls and falls, and Han closes his eyes.

Newly Calibrated, All Shiny and Clean, Carmilla (web series), written for Yuletide 2014
Summary: The Summer Society hunt runs long into the night. Danny holds her spear loosely in her left hand. Mostly, it’s ceremonial, but it is tipped in silver. Once upon a time, werewolves roamed the woods, long before Silas University was even a thought behind a dream. At least, that’s how the story goes.

Danny believes.

Upside Down and Inside Out, Emelan series by Tamora Pierce, written for Yuletide 2012

As Willow Moon waned, Lark taught them all to do handstands. (Sandry's Book)

Daja learns and lives and learns to live.

3. Your oldest fanwork: At least the oldest one available online, Forever Ain't All It's Cracked Up to Be, BtVS, first chapter originally posted back in 1999.

4. Your latest fanwork: Follow Me, Jurassic World, written for Yuletide 2015.

5. Fanwork you are proudest of: Burn This Town Down Tonight, the first of the Glee marching band stories. As hard as I broke up with Glee, I still love this story a lot, and reread it regularly. It captured the whole marching band feel in a way that I loved -- and other people seemed to really like that part, too.

6. Your longest fanwork: Darkness Falls, Lost Boys, the end of The Protector Series, at nearly 50k.

7. Your 3 fanworks with the most bookmarks:

From Just One Spark, Fast and the Furious series, written for Yuletide 2014
Summary: Gisele falls and falls and falls, and Han closes his eyes.

Upside Down and Inside Out, Emelan series by Tamora Pierce, written for Yuletide 2012

As Willow Moon waned, Lark taught them all to do handstands. (Sandry's Book)

Daja learns and lives and learns to live.

Newly Calibrated, All Shiny and Clean, Carmilla (web series), written for Yuletide 2014
Summary: The Summer Society hunt runs long into the night. Danny holds her spear loosely in her left hand. Mostly, it’s ceremonial, but it is tipped in silver. Once upon a time, werewolves roamed the woods, long before Silas University was even a thought behind a dream. At least, that’s how the story goes.

Danny believes.

8. Your top 3 crossover works: Based on what metrics? I'm going to use hits, because why not.

One Girl Revolution, which is not technically a crossover, but instead a collection of drabbles tied together, one per fandom I'd written in as of 2009, when I celebrated 10 years of fic.

Haunted Things (Real and Fake), which is technically a crossover between Scooby Doo Where Are You and Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, written for Yuletide 2009.

Ten Slayers Who Never Were (The Of All the Women in All the World Mix), BtVS crossed over with Lost, Full House, Blue Crush, Baby-Sitters Club, Fast and the Furious series, Bring It On, Resident Evil, Dawson's Creek, and Girlfight. Alternate title: Michelle Rodriguez is a Vampire Slayer, Let Me Show You How (oh, and some other people, too).

9. Your favorite characters to portray: Anyone portrayed by Michelle Rodriguez, but especially Letty Ortiz from Fast and the Furious series and Eden from Blue Crush. Werewolves.

( All 30 Days )

7 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?

I grew to love Star through writing Lost Boys fic and meta. Mostly, though, reading and writing fic doesn't change my mind so much as broaden my views on characters; I may not agree with any specific characterization, but I love seeing new sides to characters through other people's interpretations. This is part of the appeal of online fandom, for me.

When it comes to writing, the more I write a character, the more I grow to love that character, generally.

( All 30 Days )

6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

Pretty binary language there, meme. I prefer writing female or gender queer characters. I prefer reading about them, too. I have little interest in cis male characters, particularly straight white dudes.

I'm particularly a fan of writing girls and women in their late teens and early twenties, when they're having such interesting transitions in who they are and how much they can control their lives. Add monsters and magic, and I'm sold.

Things I'll Talk About Masterlist

Still some open topics, if you want to claim them.

2: Talk about your first kiss. pene chose this.

Technically, my first kiss was at four, on the bus to kindergarten, but the first kiss that actually counts, as in, the two involved parties were both old enough to know about kissing and consent to it, was junior high. He was a neighborhood boy, if you stretch the definition of neighborhood a bit (but, small town, lots of things could be considered in the neighborhood). It was New Year's Eve, a bunch of us had gone to a party and then left because it was boring, wandered the town in the dark. We kissed under the moon and the stars, and it was fun. We dated a bit, hooked up again awhile after that. One of my friends had a kid with him our senior year, and they got married a few years later. I see them around town sometimes; I still touch base with that old group of friends, even if we're not all that close.

Mostly, I remember the tension right before the kiss, the way my body tenses, my lungs burned, my throat grew tight. The good kind of tension, where your breath catches and you just know something is about to happen, something great.

I've had plenty of first kisses, but what I generally remember is the tension, the wanting, the build-up. The moments when we could have kissed, but didn't, right up until we finally did.

I love kissing.

First round of answers from the fic meme, with three things I like about each fic.

(ETA: So, for the first couple, I forgot that, you know, 0-9 existed, and miscounted. I'm including both my original first response and the correct response, since I'd already written out the wrong ones.)

carlyinrome chose #71.

No Monster at My Door, Jurassic Park/Fast and the Furious, Lex Murphy/Mia Toretto
Summary: Lex is safe now, but she will never forget.

Written for nikitangel for the prompt: Lex still dreams about it sometimes.

1. I really like how Lex has a moment to react to the fact her cousin did something incredibly stupid in Lost World, even though he should have known better, after the original park fiasco. She survived dinosaurs, she likely has PTSD from it, and then another member of her family goes on to fuck with them -- and not just on an island, brings the t-rex to mainland USA. How stupid and selfish, and I always wanted to see more of Lex responding to the other movies. (In the other movies; Drs Sattler, Grant, and Malcolm are wonderful, but Lex.)

2. Bisexual characters. Both of these women have been interested in men, and both are also interested in women, and that is important to me to include in stories. (When I'm writing non-fanfic for teens, I make sure to explicitly use the label bisexual, because so much media skirts around it without ever really saying it.)

3. I really like this opening paragraph: The ground shudders and shakes and Lex sits straight up in bed, shedding blankets, her heart beating so hard the throb of blood in her veins deafens her. The ground moves again and for a second Lex is twelve and terrified, Alan’s hand clamped over mouth and the sick smell of fear mixed with the stench of a predator: raw meat and blood and shit.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Blue Crush,
Anne Marie Chadwick/Eden/Kala, Penny Chadwick
Summary: Just as she thinks, hey, I should see who called, the phone buzzes against her palm.

Written for catalinay.

1. Capturing the weird things brains can do on too little sleep, like not putting together the concept that when a phone rings, answering it might help make it stop.

2. I think I managed, in only a few words, to really drive home how family love, even long distance, can make a bad situation about a billion times better.

3. Seattle. I should really set more stories in Seattle. I love Seattle.

zulu chose #126.

don't look back (ride the wind), Ultimate X-Men, Rogue/Storm
Summary: Maybe this whole pacifist thing isn't such a bad idea after all.

Written for Zeelee for comica_obscura 2006.

1. Flying. sex.

2. I really like all the little details about Storm and the lightning in her choppy hair and flashing eyes, and how she uses the lightning on Rogue, but this bit of description still fills me with glee: Before they land, she can feel the wings fail, little bones in them snapping and she starts to plummet toward the ground, but not too far, because Storm grabs her, lowers her while feathers float upward on the breeze, circling them in a cloud of white.

3. I'm fond of Rogue's internal thoughts about humans killing mutants and whether pacifism will actually work as a response. That scene is taken directly from the comic, but I wanted inside Rogue's head, I wanted more, and I like how I explored that.

(Memories of) Home, Fast and the Furious, Letty/Dom
Summary: Dominic thinks he can take care of everything always.

Written for catalinay for Yuletide 2009.

1. Once again, chosen family is everything, and I love how it feels here, broken but still good (heh), all wrapped up and warm (though it can be suffocating, too, not here, in this moment).

2. The details of how Christmases used to go, and the imagery, particularly Mia wrapped in a blanket, staring at the lights on the tree, her personal stars.

3. This bit of memento: Mia sat in her armchair, legs curled up under her, purple and gray crocheted blanket spread across her lap. It was fuzzy, unraveled in places. Getting old. It was one of the last pieces their mom had done before her death and Mia kept it close.

dhampyresa chose #210.

In the Memory (Life and Death), Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Carmen/Tibby
Summary: The third death is when there is no one left to remember.

Written for marginalia for Femslash06.

1. This: "Tibs." Carmen's voice is gentle, and she cups her hand around Tibby's elbow, squeezing it and rubbing her thumb back and forth. "It's okay to hurt when you think about her. It's okay to remember her." Which is true, but not at all what Tibby really means. She can't correct Carmen, though, doesn't even know what she'd say to try.

Both because it is true, but also because I like how, no matter how well you know someone, love them, you can't always correctly read what they're actually feeling.

2. "She should need this more, she lost her mother, and Bailey was just a friend." Her voice cracks at the end, and she turns her head away so Carmen won't see, even though that is also unnecessary.

Oh, the ways grief messes with our heads.

3. The image of Tibby shaking so hard she can't hold the matches, but managing to light that candle for Bailey anyway, because it's for Bailey, and Tibby has to do this. She has to.

misbegotten chose #72.

Chasing Ghosts Down Sparrow Hill Road, Seanan McGuire's Sparrow Hill Road (song and book), original characters and Rose Marshall
Summary: She’s not looking for a savior, she’s not looking for a ride,
And you shouldn’t go look for her if you’re not a suicide,
‘Cause it's been fifty years and nobody’s seen her lose.
"Pretty Little Dead Girl" Seanan McGuire

Written for allfireburns for Yuletide 2010.

1. Um. Everything. But to start with, this bit of song lyric that sat in an empty file for ages, really shaping the story once I wrote it: I’m left alone, chasing ghosts down Sparrow Hill Road.

2. Family. Sibling love and teamwork and hunting things, saving people (heh), and how much it would suck growing up expecting to be a part of a hunting family only to have to do it on your own.

3. This little "hit the highway like a battering ram" moment: Something rumbled in the distance, the sound of a big car turning back. My bike roared in response and I spun to face her; she was solid and sturdy, fire from her pipes and hot metal steaming in the air. Whatever this was, it was time to go, and my girl and I both knew it.

( All 30 Days )

4 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

I guess? I have favorite characters in media, and I have characters I write about frequently because I have stories to tell about them. Sometimes, those characters are the same, but not always. I tend to write about characters that hook my attention somehow, and often those characters have similar qualities, so I guess that part is like the "speaking" to me part of the question. (Examples: Tough, angry girls and women. characters who listen more than they speak. Characters with monsters inside. Anyone played by Michelle Rodriguez.)


I write about these characters, because these are the characters that interest me, whose stories I want to expand, examine, change, because these qualities intrigue me and inspire me and ring truth inside me. They make me want to tell stories, and so I do.

carlyinrome has been doing this with really interesting results. Thought I'd give it a go. Comment with which number(s) you want to hear about.

1: Talk about the first time you watched your favorite movie. (das_hydra, catalinay)
2: Talk about your first kiss. (pene)
3: Talk about the person you've had the most intense romantic feelings for. (catalinay)
4: Talk about the thing you regret most so far.
5: Talk about the best birthday you've had.
6: Talk about the worst birthday you've had.
7: Talk about your biggest insecurity. (wizened_cynic)
8: Talk about the thing you are most proud of. (das_hydra)
9: Talk about little things on your body that you like the most. (catalinay)
10: Talk about the biggest fight you've ever had.
11: Talk about the best dream you've ever had. (marginaliana)
12: Talk about the worst dream you've ever had.
13: Talk about the first time you had sex/how you imagine your first time.
14: Talk about a vacation.
15: Talk about the time you were most content in life.
16: Talk about the best party you've ever been to.
17: Talk about someone you want to be friends with.
18: Talk about something that happened in elementary school.
19: Talk about something that happened in middle school.
20: Talk about something that happened in high school.
21: Talk about a time you had to turn someone down.
22: Talk about your worst fear.
23: Talk about a time someone turned you down.
24: Talk about something someone told you that meant a lot.
25: Talk about an ex-best friend. (das_hydra, wizened_cynic)
26: Talk about things you do when you're sick.
27: Talk about your favorite part of someone else's body. (carlyinrome)
28: Talk about your fetishes.
29: Talk about what turns you on.
30: Talk about what turns you off.
31: Talk about what you think death is like. (wizened_cynic)
32: Talk about a place you remember from your childhood.
33: Talk about what you do when you are sad. (pene)
34: Talk about the worst physical pain you've endured. (pene)
35: Talk about things you wish you could stop doing.
36: Talk about your guilty pleasures. (das_hydra)
37: Talk about someone you thought you were in love with. (catalinay)
38: Talk about songs that remind you of certain people.
39: Talk about things you wish you'd known earlier. (carlyinrome)
40: Talk about the end of something in your life.

( All 30 Days )

2 – Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.

Ha. Well, if you're sure... This is more or less in the order I first wrote in each. Numbers are taken from AO3.

There are 62 fandoms listed. I'm cutting it.

( There are 62 fandoms. )

My take-away: IS IT YULETIDE TIME YET?