#so i was constructing this based on what i'd already written which is why it reads like an analysis of existing canon

[solarishashernoseinabook]

Hey, so random question about your Royal Ranger fic-

Autism is genetic right? So, which parent would you say Halt inherited it from? Was it from an uncle or someone else?

Y'know, I saw this ask before I went to bed and had to spend all night thinking about it

So first off: yes, autism has a genetic component! However it's not a one-to-one, you-have-this-gene-that-you-got-from-this-parent-so-you're-autistic sorta thing. Multiple genes are associated with autism, but no clear causal component has been identified. I can clearly see autistic traits in my dad, for example, and those have been passed on to me, but I think my brothers are more likely to have ADHD than autism, and while I can think of a couple of traits in both my dad's parents that are associated with autism, neither of them properly strike me as "autistic". Epigenetics is also likely to play a part. So while "autism is genetic" can certainly mean "an autistic parent will likely have an autistic child", it can also happen that autism sprouts up in a family tree and we dunno why ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (shrug emoji)

(Identical twins are also highly likely to both be autistic. So why is Ferris neurotypical? Well, one, because even identical twins can have DNA that varies greatly despite starting from the same source code. And secondly, because it works better for the story.)

So, are any of Halt's relatives autistic? I think it's pretty safe to say his dad isn't. The way I've written him so far, I don't think his dad has any autistic relatives - he's very confused by how Halt thinks and interprets the world, and is surprised by everything Halt does that's different from normal. Anna probably had some autistic relatives, or relatives that showed autistic traits, but I'd say they were more likely to be siblings with whom she had a significant age gap, so she didn't grow up with them and fully learn to accept their behaviour. After all, in chapter eight, she got angry at Brian for triggering Halt's meltdown, but still decided it was necessary to teach Halt to "overcome" his sensory issues.

So what I figure is most likely is: Anna has a sibling who's significantly older or younger than her, or maybe a half-sibling who didn't grow up with her for whatever reason. She saw this sibling having intermittent problems with noise, textures, and social situations, but this sibling had learned coping mechanisms and could mostly pass or mask. From this, Anna got the idea that their autistic traits were just peculiarities that they overcame, the same as you might learn to like a food you previously hated. She brought this attitude with her when she noticed Halt displaying the same behaviours, not realising that simply punishing him for reacting to things was only going to make him feel worse.

Thanks so much for the ask!! This was actually a fun little exercise

[werecreature-addicted]

Would the sparkling vampires have been reacted to differently if written by a better author? Possibly

I feel like the main reason (imo) for why the sparkling is hated on so much though is that the reveal of it just feels so ridiculous. Like edward claiming he’s a monster or whatever and then proceeds to reveal his shimmery 6 pack is….unconvincing at best

og tags on this post for anyone who hasn't seen it

Excellent question anon. If you think about it there are a lot of silly things we associate with vampires.

Exhibit A: the classic widow's peak black hair and dramatic cape

look at it with fresh eyes and imagine seeing this for the first time, goofy. silly even. but this style of vampire was iconized by Bella Ligosi's performance as Dracula in Dracula 1931 which is of course very good and a staple in vampire cannon as well as just culture in general. It's good and it's old which lends it an air of authority. whereas Twilight is new(ish) and bad so it's artistic changes and creative choices are fighting an uphill battle already, add in the fact that Vampires Sparkling is a little ridiculous and you can see why so many people dismiss Twilight's vampires outright.

This post is so long continued under the cut

Now I am a Twilight fan and I think Twilight is very bad in a lot of ways, the two ideas are not mutually exclusive. Twilight however is a fascinating case study in cultural knowledge and mythos. Stephanie Meyer informally did very little research about Vampire Cannon, if you can call it that, before writing Twilight (link to an interview where she mentions it) so instead of being carefully constructed world-building based on hard rules and strict internal logic, the vampires are kind of loosely defined shadows based on the broadest understanding of what a vampire is. They're dead, they drink blood, they don't go out in sunlight. Some other popular vampire staples go addressed but dismissed as myth (garlic and having no reflection) but then things like The vampires in Twilight don't have fangs and have weird additional supper powers sometimes go just completely taken for granted and not really expanded upon in a satisfying way.

This style of world-building and magic system has a tendency to chafe against readers who have a more in-depth context for vampires and Meyre's more simplistic writing style makes the text come off as juvenile and perhaps a little dumb.

All this to say the sparkling vampires are not handled super well. It is a very large jump from what most readers would expect to see from a vampire story and it is handled inconsistently at best in the text itself. Meyer describes the vampires in the sun both as A beautiful glittering like that of a diamond, and a reflection of light so intense that it looks like the vampire is being burned alive in the sun.

these two conflicting descriptions coupled with the again simplistic and juvenile writing style makes it seem more like a mistake you should roll your eyes at rather than an intentional complexity to read into. I'd argue that Bella sees this inhumanity as beautiful and alluring while Edward sees it as a curse and a reminder of his monstrous nature and therefore disgusting. That being said I don't fault anyone for not wanting to read that deeply into the vampire glittering and instead see it as the author trying to have her cake and eat it too, something Meyers does frequently throughout even just the first Twilight novel.

Not even to mention the movies.

Exhibit B: this is the skin of a killer Bella.

This is prima facie hilarious and stupid. the juxtaposition of the soft glittering effect and the chiming sound in this scene coupled with the seemingly unwarranted disgust is so fucking funny. which is not the tone this scene is going for. it's supposed to be tense, it comes off as corny instead.

Then there is the hate mob that dominated Twilight discourse when it first came out. I will not get into how much of that hate was warranted, what I'm interested in is how much of a cultural impact it had. There was, at least in the beginning, a large group of people who hated Twilight and would hate anything that came from it simply because it came from Twilight. These people grabbed onto the sparkly vampire thing and made it what it is today, these people were never going to be won over by any artistic liberty no matter what.

So to answer your question, I think that if a writer with a more in-depth understanding of vampires and a clearer vision of the magic system wrote Twilight with a more mature tone and more time given to expanding on just the vampire's powers and limitations, and the movies followed these hypothetical books more closely AND if there was never an anti-Twilight coultral movement. then yeah maybe Vampires sparkling wouldn't be seen as the dumbest shit ever.

thank you for coming to my Twilight Ted talk.

[rileys-battlecats]

If you haven’t already answered this yet, can I ask why MicaClan chose the territory they currently live in? It seems like an interesting decision to choose such a different area to try to survive in. Although the more lush area probably means less droughts and higher elevation could possibly mean less flood risks, avoiding the two major issues that caused them to move in the first place. They still have to relearn everything though in such a different area. Or was there less thought behind it and it was more just get to higher ground to avoid the water and then they got tired of traveling and decided to stop once they were sufficiently high up?

Also can I ask what kind of border threats they faced when establishing their new territory? Were there other groups of cats? Was it mostly predators and dangerous animals? Did dogs or twolegs pose a challenge to their borders?

Sorry I kinda have a lot of questions haha I just really like your story and characters and settings and everything and wanna know all I can about them and get a deeper knowledge of everything

I AM SO HAPPY TO RECEIVE THIS QUESTION

You're right that there were material aspects as to why they chose to settle where they did; the mountain seemed like a good place to avoid any more catastrophic floods with the high elevation, the spring-fed stream that runs through the territory also seemed like a guarantee against any future droughts, and the area had plenty of prey to feed the clan. But the real deciding factor was the soil!

The idea was basically that they found a place where the very ground seemed to be blessed by Starclan. I've written about this on the blog before, but it was wayyy way back and I haven't mentioned it again since then HAHA, but I based Micaclan's territory on a place I used to hike every now and again. The area used to be the location of a mica mine, and the ground there still sparkles with all the tiny shards of minerals in the ground (which is actually why they're called Micaclan; I gave them the name before I'd fully decided on the clan not being from the area originally lol). So they basically were like "if this isn't a sign from Starclan then I don't know what is" and set up camp! It ended up being the right choice in the end, because they found the Moonmirror in the abandoned mine on their territory, which gave them much needed access to Starclan (even if they can't use it outside of emergencies).

For border threats, I imagine them dealing with all sorts of things, especially in the beginning when they were just establishing their borders. I think of micaclan's territory being far enough from human civilization that they don't have to worry about construction or cars or anything, but close enough that they have a human hiking trail acting as one of their borders, or at least having a hiking trail close enough that they have to deal with the occasional stray dog or human. In addition to this, predators like black bears or coyotes would make trouble for the clan, and maybe a mountain lion drifted through the territory at one point (which would have been a harrowing time indeed).

As for rogues or other groups of cats, I think they might've brought that trouble with them! It's hard to conceal a big group of cats traveling in search of a new territory, and I think they drew some unwanted attention on their way up to the mountain. Maybe other groups noted them, and decided to let the strangers do the hard work of staking out a good territory before swooping in to take their place? I don't think there were any other cats living where Micaclan ends up, so they wouldn't be contesting land with any other resident cats. Those that threatened their new borders were usually looking to try to take their place. Basically they were like "so the weirdos you pegged as 'death within the month' 5 moons ago are actually now thriving and looking well-fed and healthy living on the mountain? I guess it can't be THAT dangerous, why don't we live up there instead? they can find somewhere else again, they're obviously good at finding nice territories."

the general gossip on micaclan as a group through the years basically goes like this: I heard there was a big group (a clan?) passing through looking to set up a new territory, hope they don't settle here -> apparently that big clan that passed through a few moons back is living further up the mountain? wonder how long it'll be before they're eaten by bears -> there's a big group of cats living further up the mountain, maybe the mountain makes for a good territory after all... -> there's a weird cat cult up the mountain and if you step on their turf they will Kick Your Ass

[mainstoryarchive]

Ensemble - 97: Announcement

Jin: And so, to everyone gathered here, I thank you for waiting this long.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Location: Auditorium

Jin: And so, to everyone gathered here, I thank you for waiting this long.

I, Sagami Jin, teacher in the idol course, will be announcing the start of the DDD.

Akiomi: (Ah, he went ahead and said it! Even though I wanted to be the one to announce the start of the DDD!)

(Jin always, always steals my limelight…!)

Jin: Wah, what's wrong? Don't glare at me, please.

Well, that's fine, ahem!

I think everyone already knows but, the DDD is a preliminary for the competition that will be held in the end of the year to decide Japan's best idols.

In other words it's the competition to decide our school's representatives for the SS.

I hope you will enjoy their performance with fresh feelings and cheer for those who you think are good.

All of your cheers will become their power.

In the SS at the end of the year, you will be able to see an even more amazing performance than you did today.

While looking forward to that, please witness the young sprouts of talent as they open their flowers.

I'm sure it won't be a waste of time. I hope that the day called today will be a day filled with happiness for everyone.

(Aaaas if. They went out of their way to come over here on a day off, I'd feel bad if I made the audience feel bored.)

(Go all out, brats. Make everyone enjoy themselves.)

(And someday I want you to see the greatest view from the highest top that we didn't get to see.)

(If possible I want you to climb the long and painful road to the SS while having fun.)

(Overcome hardships together while standing shoulder to shoulder with your friends, cheering each other up.)

(If you get lost, we'll show you where to go.)

Akiomi: Jin. This is no time to be overcome with emotions, properly explain till the end.

You always, always just say whatever you want and just abandon the rest.

Well, it's fine. I will explain from here on.

To everyone gathered here.

I believe the rules of the DDD are also written down in the pamphlets that were handed to you before, but I will explain it in more detail verbally as well.

The DDD is the competition to decide our school's representative for the SS. Which is why the fundamental rules are based on the rules for the SS.

The idea is that by letting them fight using the same format as the SS, we should be able to determine which unit can bring out most of their strength in the SS.

A great number of outdoor stages have been constructed on the premises of Yumenosaki Academy.

Our school's splendid idol units will perform on top of those outdoor stages.

Everyone, please enjoy their performance and light up your cyalumes for the unit you thought was best.

Cyalumes were distributed to everyone along with the pamphlets.

If you don't have one yet, please go to the reception as the person in charge of that is there… Please go receive one following the proper procedures.

Those cyalumes will be everyone's voting ticket for the DDD.

At each stage there are two units who will perform in a versus format.

One versus one, the units will compete for superiority.

We will have you vote for one of the competing units.

Using the light of the cyalumes you can decide how many points you want to give to which unit.

The color you light your cyalume dictates how you distribute your points.

What color is how many points and such, how the voting works, is written in detail in the pamphlet. Please look over this later, when you have time for it.

…We will be tallying the votes every hour.

The results of the voting decide which unit will advance and which will retire for each stage.

In other words, in the first hour half of the units participating in the DDD will have to retire. They won't be performing any more.

The amount of units advancing to the next round will gradually become smaller and smaller.

That will repeat itself until a single, the last unit is left.

The unit that advanced until then will be crowned the victor.

They will become our school's representative as well as receive the right to participate in the SS.

Isn't it simple and clear?

In short, it's a tournament. Units will compete one versus one, those who advance will compete against each other… The one that advances to the end is the winner.

I also have to mention that each hour, half of the stages will be removed.

There are exactly enough stages for all units to compete so it's impossible to cheat by not competing.

All units have to compete with another, each hour half of them will have to retire.

It's a harsh and merciless fierce battle of the survivors. If you lose, it ends there.

Only the finals will be held in this auditorium. The most excellent unit will be decided here, with all of the audience watching over them.

Jin: Uhhm, there are a lot of stages in the beginning so you might not know where to go…

But well, for that you should just use your instincts and go wherever you'd like.

You are free to move around until we start tallying the votes. It's fine to just wander around the school until you've found a unit you like.

We are also praying from the bottom of our hearts that you will encounter a unit that is able to pull your heartstrings.

I think this is enough explaining for now. The first round starts thirty minutes from now. The idols are already preparing themselves for their performances.

I want to ask everyone from the audience here to start moving as well. As it looks as if some hasty guys have already started their performances.

Please stroll around the school grounds however you like, while being led around by singing voices and melodies.

The idols are anticipating your cheers as well.

[ ☆ ]

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[loopy777]

In the fall of gondolin, the last Canon Tolkien work released before christopher died, it was canonized that Melkor/Mogroth did indeed invent and use primitive tanks and war carriers for his assault upon Gondolin(something Tolkien went back and forth on while he lived). While this does make the first age much more unique, it does raise the question of why Sauron never managed to replicate this tech level(with real plate armor not even being a thing when he fell). Do you think Morgoth refused to share the secret of these machines with Sauron(mayhaps fearing him turning on him), were they reliant on morgoths magic for their construction/upkeep, or something else?

Well, I'd hesitate to say it was 'canonized,' though, since Christopher Tolkien was always explicitly presenting/refining his dad's unfinished or early works, and as you note, J.R.R. went back and forth on a lot of things and the only 'settled' stuff is what was published in LotR. But it's pretty cool that he was considering such a thing enough to put it in some of his writing.

It just so happens that I was reading recently about World War 1, especially the use of tanks and planes. For those not up on their Tolkien history, J.R.R. fought in WW1, and those experiences fueled a lot of his writing for LotR. However, I learned that tanks barely achieved viability by the end of WW1, being too new, and didn't see extensive use. So I doubt Tolkien had any direct contact with them.

More likely, it was the overall mechanization of the world that was his primary inspiration for writing of orcs in The Hobbit that, "It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them." Perhaps he was also thinking of the artillery that saw use in WW1 which was essentially responsible for the No Man's Land stalemate that mostly characterizes the war in popular conscious.

But, on the other hand, The Hobbit was published in 1937, when tanks started getting lots of investment and development. So perhaps Tolkien was making commentary on the direction of war technology.

It's harder to pinpoint when his elvish histories were written and revised. I have not read The Fall of Gondolin, so I don't know if there are any notes there that show if it fully predates LotR or if the parts with tanks were written during or after. That would answer things from an out-of-universe perspective, but if we want to take FoG as the canon history, we are left with the question of where the tanks went from an in-universe perspective.

Based on the line in The Hobbit, I'm inclined not to say that Morgoth's tanks required any special type of magic. One of the major themes of Tolkien's works is the evils of industrialization and mechanization, down to criticizing flour mills that belched smoke and didn't grind any more flour than the older, more naturally-powered mills. So if Morgoth has tanks, I think they're supposed to run on gasoline and be loud and smelly, just like Tolkien hated, not 'clean' energy like magic. So why wasn't Sauron able to do the same thing?

I wonder if Sauron didn't much like tanks, either. Perhaps they were the old WW1 style that had trouble with tricky terrain and broke down when you looked at them funny. Maybe Morgoth got one good use out of them but otherwise struggled to find their niche? It's possible that they didn't end up providing much of an advantage, especially against elvish magics and what the wizards of the time were doing. They certainly wouldn't have done much against Numenor, it being an island.

And from the various accounts we got in LotR, Sauron was already well on his way to conquering the world. Tanks are good for keeping the soldiers within alive and blowing things up really good, but Sauron seemed to have mastered the art of breeding so many soldiers that losses didn't matter and dominating them so that only the most extraordinary losses would get them to break ranks and flee. Perhaps Morgoth was more of a futurist than Sauron, who saw tanks and more sophisticated armor as unnecessary compared to the elegance of just throwing goblins at a problem until it went away. Certainly, Minas Tirith nearly fell without mechanized warfare, and that is supposed to be the toughest nut to crack among Sauron's enemies.

Even the Ringwraiths were rarely used as actual combatants. They were mainly about inflicting fear and bad states of mind on their enemies. Perhaps Sauron saw the actual combat of war as something beneath him, being more concerned about the political and social aspect of winning. In which case, he might have seen tanks as a poor investment.

Plus, if there's anything we know from scifi and fantasy, it's that when you show humans a new gimmick, it's only a matter of time until they steal the technology and field their own version. Sauron didn't have a problem that tanks were needed to solve, so why escalate the art of war with them and give Gondor the idea of white tanks painted with the sigil of the tree?

[devoursjohnlock]

I've been a huge Dr. Who fan for years and I knew Steven Moffat was the show runner/writer but... I never made the connection that there might be Sherlock meta hidden in the episodes he did? I swear I saw something quickly on my dash that made that seem like that's a thing has anyone ever written meta about the parallels between these two fandoms, do you happen to know? You're so friendly and helpful and write amazing (truly) meta yourself, so I figured I'd start here. Thank you!

Dearest anon, I’m sorry to have sat on this ask for so long. Thank you so much for your kind words, this kind of thing really keeps me going, tbh.

It’s true that there are a lot of parallels between Doctor Who and Sherlock. If you're looking for specific episodes to yell about, I'd recommend The Lodger (5.11) and the 2012 Christmas special, The Snowmen (which is pure Sherlock Holmes content), and then much of series 9 and all of series 10. (I also still low-key believe that Deep Breath (8.01) was inspired by the 2010 Asylum Sherlock Holmes film, shhh.)

As to… why?… there’s a range of opinions about this; personally I think your idea of their being “hidden Sherlock meta” is probably close to the mark. Sherlock is a game; it’s a puzzle. We need clues/pieces to solve it. Some are here. Another thing to remember is that the design of Doctor Who is influenced by Doyle’s writing to some extent; I’m particularly thinking of the idea of a serialized “investigator” (Sherlock Holmes/the Doctor), their faithful companion(s), and their recurring dark-mirror nemesis (Moriarty/the Master). So, they fit together, and writing a story that can be read from both perspectives is the type of challenge I expect a writer like Steven Moffat to relish. Let’s face it, Doyle basically did the same thing in his own writing.

But, importantly, there are wildly different interpretations of this Sherlock-ish meta among the people who are paying attention, and people tend to read the plot/character parallels in ways that reinforce the theories they’ve already formed. So, every major Sherlock theory has its Doctor Who counterpart. Here, I can't help but be reminded by Moffat's concept of “the hybrid”, which recurs throughout series 9. The hybrid is prophesied to “unravel the web of time, breaking a billion billion hearts to heal its own”. But what or who is the hybrid? Several plausible theories are suggested throughout series 9, based on mirroring within one person (e.g., Ashildr/Me?), or between two people (e.g., Osgood?). We’re given an explanation for the hybrid at the end of series 9 (the Doctor/Clara?), but it doesn’t entirely fulfill the prophecy—is it correct, then? Well, yes, but also no, not at all; a concept like this is constructed to resonate throughout the series, forever. There will be many hybrids and much heartbreak (as we’ve seen since!), and every time this motif recurs, we will remember the others, multiplying its effect. Is there room for this also to be a metaphor for mirroring between Doctor Who and Sherlock, or within Sherlock itself? I think yes, absolutely. And similarly, it lends itself to multiple readings.

Because when we look at Doctor Who with a Sherlock lens, the temptation is to see the Doctor as Sherlock, the larger-than-life, flashy genius, and his companion as John, the “what does it all mean?” helpmate. But you know… the Doctor is also the doctor. He is the one who remains while his companions fall, shot through the heart. So, which of these readings is correct? Can they even be neatly separated? Difficult to say, after seeing Twelve and Clara (who essentially became a Doctor herself) together. There are plenty of ways to apply the concept of the hybrid within Sherlock also… unsurprisingly, my mind turns to the original Miss M.E. Morstan, as a double mirror reflecting both Sherlock and John. Ashildr/Me resonates with Mary; the “doctor” gives her immortality, but at great cost, and she returns the favour to his companion Clara. The doctor then spends series after series trapped within his own guilt, a decaying image of his lost love as his only companion, incapable of moving forward until he confesses. But of course… that’s how I read it, not, I suspect, how anyone else does. So, I suppose my advice, as ever, is to keep an open mind and an eye on one's own biases (well... and of course to have fun!).

As to your specific question about past meta writing on Sherlock/Doctor Who parallels, a few of us used to just list things we'd spotted, particularly in series 10; maybe check @jenna221b's wholock tag (including the notes) for series 10, and @waitedforgarridebs's doctor who tag for series 9? In terms of my own meta, the largest influence from Doctor Who was a meta I wrote on The Lying Detective (Thou Shouldst Now Depart), which isn't really a Doctor Who meta at all, but was inspired by an interview with Mark Gatiss about his episode The Empress of Mars (10.09). There are also some EMP metas based on parallels; maybe start here and here? If anyone has other Doctor Who/Sherlock metas they'd like to add, please feel free.

Anyway, the final thing I want to say about this is that Doctor Who is its own show, with its own fandom, which has woven a very rich fabric of meta that is not dependent on Sherlock in any way whatsoever to explain its own stories. Steven Moffat or other writers may have folded Sherlock meta into the Doctor Who canon, but it must first and foremost satisfy the Doctor Who canon, not the other way round. I don’t expect Moffat had any trouble remembering that while writing the show, because he loves both universes and is good at what he does. But I do expect him to have enjoyed letting these characters and their stories form a “hybrid” for a time.

[ltleflrt]

for the ask meme: 7, 16, 20!!

Thanks for asking! 💕

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

I don't know if it's a characteristic of style, but I'm known for including shower/bathtub smut in all my longfics, whenever possible lol

Uhh... I don't know if people notice it, but there's a rhythm to my sentences and paragraphs. I feel a beat in my head as I'm constructing them, and I can tell if I need to end a sentence or paragraph, or even a chapter, based on the beat.

Oh, and I really love flipping popular tropes. Even of things I write myself! Someone made a comment once that I used the tag "Dean Thinks He's Straight" on my 3 popular longfics, and I'm like okay well obviously I'm going to have to write something where Cas thinks he's straight. And Satin & Sawdust was born of that.

I think a major reason my work is popular is because of the trope flipping, and just a general sense of where the holes in fanfic are that need to be filled. When I wrote Cursed or Not, there were 2 Witch/Familiar fics, and only one of them was mildly popular. Now they're EVERYWHERE <3... Kiss the Baker was written during a time where Dean always panicked about his Bi Awakening moment, and I'm like no I need something softer please. And there's the Cas thinks he's Straight thing, which I still don't really see anyone else writing, so S&S remains unique. And now I'm flipping the a/b/o hierarchy in my current fic, and getting a really good response on that as well.

16. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)

While I was going through a major bout of writer's block for the last 2-ish years, I tried writing for a few other fandoms. I wrote a few scenes for Guardian, and The Lost Tomb 3. But I never got anywhere with them and didn't post or share them, except to talk about the ideas with my bestie. I thought my writer's block might have stemmed from being done writing Destiel, but nope it was just time to let my brain rest.

I hella shipped a couple of villains in iZombie and tortured @jupiterjames with the ideas I was having, but alas I did not write them. I don't know why she loves me, I'm so cruel lol

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

I really love doing callbacks to older fics. There's a few stories where I mention chocolate cake bacon donuts, referencing Kiss the Baker. At the end of Addicted to You when they're choosing names for their baby, I reference my Mass Effect fic by suggesting a derivative of Matthew, which is the ME character's name.

If you ever see me mentioning hatred of Elvis, it's a dig at Twist and Shout lol

Some of my fics are reverse 'verses of each other. Kiss the Baker and Satin and Sawdust, and Cursed or Not and Addicted to You.

Speaking of Addicted to You, what a fuckin' mess that was, I have no idea how it happened. It was going to be 10-15k of dirtybadwrong non-con with an unhappy ending. And then other things started happening, and I'm like wtf? Well now I have to see where this goes. Literally none of it was pre-planned, it was all done on the fly. I could not stop working on it. SOMEHOW I managed to find a way to resolve the issue based on stuff I'd already written. Like.... I didn't write that fic. I channeled it. It was the weirdest fuckin' experience ever. I mean, I write a lot of accidental longfic, and I never attempt to estimate how long things will be anymore. But AtY was in another league.

(from this list)

[greenlightbulb-s]

Fic writer interview!!!!!!

~editing some bits by adding info!~

Since @irishseeeker tagged me (cheers for that! 💖), and it's the first time I've been mentioned to participate in this kind of questionnaire, here are my answers! 🤗

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 12 (I thought there were less of them lol)!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

95,374

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

They're two: Bridgerton and Anne with an E/Anne of Green Gables.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Right Path (Bridgerton)

Still... (Anne with an E)

A spoon full of... what on earth is this?! (Anne with an E)

Blue-eyed Girl (Anne with an E)

And, what do I get in return? (Bridgerton)

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Sure thing I do! However, it's true that I rarely reply instantly, as I never access Ao3 on my phone with my account (from where I always read all the fics) because I always forget the password and I almost never access Ao3 from my computer unless it's to post a story.

But yes, I always reply to comments. Just like authors (lol me an author!) like to spend our time writing, readers who spend their time reading what we write are more than deserving of our response to what they tell us.

Needless to say how my heart grows a little bit bigger with every comment and kudo from readers. Seriously, without the readers we would be nothing! They are simply the best. 💖

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I hate (seriously, I HATE) angst and that's why I never write angsty endings. Real life is already angsty enough to end a fic like that (that's my opinion, you may disagree, of course!)... However, I do write angsty scenes because I want to reflect that life is not always rosy.

Anyways, I'm currently writing a fic in which angst is assured in most of the plot! 👀

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I haven’t, and I don't think I'll do it! But never say never!

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Luckily, I haven't received anything! And, taking advantage of this questionnaire, please, PLEASE! If you don't like a fic for whatever reason, don't send hate or unkind messages to the authors because the fic wasn't what you expected. Just stop reading, close the browser tab where you are reading the story and forget about it! And if you're feeling like dm-ing the author anyway, constructive and polite criticism is the only acceptable thing to do.

Simple, easy and for the whole family! ✌

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do!!!!! And it's hella funny! I'd say it's quite vanilla-like; I don't really feel comfortable writing about other sexual practices because my only "reference" is p*rn and THAT'S NOT REAL SEX!

Besides, it's heterosexual smut, as an a straight person it's the only sexual orientation which I can write in a way it's 100% genuine. Of course, I love seeing same-sex couples in fics/shows/films and them "talking" (in fics they can't literally talk 😂) about their activities, but I feel that, if I write about it, it wouldn't be right or I'd do justice to these people/characters.

And one last thing: when I write or plan writing smut, I write it in a way that's real; foreplay, laugh, talk about odd things whilst doing it, stopping when they're not into it... I hate when smut in fics is too cliché or is highly based on p*rn.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so, no! And I hope I don't! I need to disable downloads/sharing tabs...

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again, I don't think so! In fact, it's me sometimes who translates some big parts of my fics from my mother tongue into English!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I haven't! But that's about to change... 👀

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

That's the big, big, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig question! 🤣 I have shipped many couples over the years and, if you ask me, I still love them even though I don't follow them anymore! For instance, Finchel from Glee, Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games, Ron and Hermione from Harry Potter, Gilbert and Anne from Anne of the Green Gables...

Right now, I'm a Kate Sharma (or Kate Sheffield if we talk about the books) & Anthony Bridgerton b*tch. Just a quick peep at my profile can assure you of that! And lately I'm obsessed too with Jily (Harry Potter's parents, for those who don't know lol).

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Sharma's Indian Cuisine. From tradition to your mouth series. I'm stuck on a crucial part in Part 2 and I'm unable to dedicate time to writing lately with all that is coming up in my life. I'll finish it, surely, but not as soon as I wanted.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I seriously have noooooooooooooo idea! I'd say it's the plots. I know they're nothing new under the sun, but they are the kind of stories, but I know they're the kind of stories that don't resemble what we're "tired/bored" of reading (it's not exactly tired or bored the right words, but we all know that plots, as much as we like them, can sometimes make us feel that way!). I don't know how to express this right; please, don't misunderstand it!!!!!

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Same as above. I have no idea, because I'd say all involved in writing! Perhaps, to put into words everything I want to express with my story: the scenery, settings, moods, sometimes the dialogues, concentration/creativeness for developing the plot further... And English. Although I'm fluent in English, I don't always express myself well in the language, and that's reflected in the story.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Planning on doing it in Part 3 of my series! I'm not *fully* fluent in the language I'm planning to write, but I'll be open to corrections if I messed it up heavily once I publish it!

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Anne with an E. I love Anne and Gilbert dearly, and I want to write again about them... But concentration and creativeness are b*tches and I'm laking of ideas. 🤣

I know it's not related to the question, but I'd also like to write about James Potter and Lily Evans/Potter some time!

19. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

I'd say And... What do I get in return?, Of Rain and Storms series and Bitter Sweet Symphony. I know the question asked for only one, but these three have a special place in my heart.

Feel free to do it yourself! Not tagging anyone! 😅🤗