Once upon a time...

23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?

I used to have my own BtVS fanfiction website called Peroxide Lullaby on Geocities before it closed all its free sites. Originally, that's where I posted all my fics (at the time, it was mostly the River That Flows and a few Spike/Fred drabbles). When I didn't get a lot of traffic after a few years, I started using this Livejournal as a place to post my fics. When I was in college, I began a James Marsters fansite called Marstersesque, which I was going to use as an archive, but it got deleted when my sorority (who had given me space on their domain as payment for some work I did) dissolved its membership and cancelled its web subscription.

Some of fanart and fanfics are archived at Cold Dead Seed, the Caritas, and the Crypt. My art is also partially archived at SlayAlive, IDW Forum, and my Deviantart page. There might be other places, but I can't remember... ETA: OMG. I have a Fanfiction.net account. I don't even remember it. I must have signed up at some point years and years ago (2002 to be specific)... I never posted anything to it. Should I? Is it still a pit of voles?

I'd like to start a new website archive, just to design one for fun, but I don't have the money for another domain name. My current domain name is connected to my freelance business, so I don't think it's a good idea. One day, when I have some extra cash for another domain name, I would like to do it.

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22 – Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?

Well, I'm not sure it counts, but I am currently signed up for angst_bingo. I've gotta get a move on if I want to meet my deadline for a bingo. XD I've also participated in noel_of_spike for the past three years, and I used to participate in seasonal_sd before it became defunct.

I always have a really good experience participating in those kinds of writing activities. Sometimes a deadline and a theme/key word (even if it's just a season) can really produce some great fanfic results. I think some of my best work has been my Spike/Dru oneshots I wrote for seasonal_sd. It's not just great for writing, but I've always enjoyed coming up with artwork for my posting days as well. The first thing I contributed was a Spike/Drusilla artwork- Skating at Somerset House (worksafe) - and the first fanfiction was a Spike/Drusilla oneshot- Shrive for Frosting (not worksafe for mentions of gore).

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21 – Sequels – Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?

This is yet another question that makes me feel bad for not being on a better posting schedule (or, you know, actually have one at all). I have already written sequels to both Automated Utopia and Paper Pusher, but I haven't finished editing them to my satisfaction. Also, I'm in the middle of posting two other long!fics that I have to finish posting before I lose my mind. To get the "why" out of the way, overall I think I never feel like I'm actually finished with a fic. If I've cultivated characters, I want to follow through until the end, and then I start to feel like I'm in the middle of Les Miserables. Haha!

For something that I've actually managed to post, I wrote Knitting Needles and Mother's Milk as sequels to Apron Strings because they are very short ficlets, and they're just something I can post quickly and to take my mind off other things. Apron Strings seemed to strike a good chord with people, and it was an interesting What-If scenario for me to think about, so I just jotted down some other ficlet ideas, and the other two stories came from those. I'd actually like to write some more. I could probably make a long!fic out of it, but God help me, I would go crazy.

I wrote the sequel to Automated Utopia because I felt like I couldn't abandon that AU. I mean, you go through the trouble of creating a 'verse and try to make it rich with details, so I couldn't just leave it. I wanted to explore the whole world further, so I've written Automated Utopia II: the Case of the Nefarious Nuptials, in which Spike and Fred travel to Italy for the wedding of one of her college acquaintances only to get wrapped up in an epic murder mystery with dirigibles and fireworks and Venetian magic. ... What's really sad is that there are two more sequels to Automated Utopia that I'm writing in my notebooks (AU III: Hassle in the Castle, set during the 1893 World's Fair, and AU IV: Fear in the French Quarter, set in New Orleans with lots of ghosts and creepiness).

For Paper Pusher, I wanted to write something from Fred's point of view. Though Paper Pusher was listed as a Spike/Fred fic, it really was more about one side of a ship, specifically Spike's feelings and thoughts, and the other half was really absent for most of the fic. Fred deserved to have a fic from her point of view, so I wrote a sequel set a short time after Paper Pusher. One of these days, I will actually get it posted. Sadly, I've begun writing a sequel to Versailles Undone as well. Non-BtVS-related, I have a sequel to a Man Called Phoenix, my High Plains Invaders fic.

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20 – Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

Sometimes I do. It's not necessarily a whole story, but mostly it might be a phrase or a situation leads me to ponder a ponderment about those characters or different characters in the same situation. I love it when people post a whole bunch of plot bunnies out there for people to use too. Probably more than getting bunnied for fanfiction, I probably get bunnied to do fanart more. A lot of the time, I sketch while I read fanfic, so I've got lots of little scenes drawn out from the things I read.

I probably have more plot bunnies in my notebooks than I could ever use. It gets kind of frustrating to want to write and not physically having the time or energy to type that much.


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19 – When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

I do tend to start writing right away, especially if I have a specific scene or snippet of dialogue in mind. Most of the time, I sit down and try to script out the whole framework of the plot. If I can't come up with a plot for fic that's as long as I want it or that I can't get quite right, I tuck the idea away in a notebook and save it for a later time. Twelve Christmases in the Life and Unlife of William H. Pratt (Parts I-IV, Parts V-VIII, and Parts IX-XII) was an idea that had been kicking around in my head for literally years because I finally was able to write it just as I wanted it.

I'm a notebook-keeper. I have several notebooks for my various plot bunnies. Most of them will never see the light of day, but there are those that get transferred to their own notebooks for further plotting. I think one problem that I have is that I have several fics that I want to post at once. I still have to finish posting Acceptable Losses and Versailles Undone before I even begin to start posting Automated Utopia II. Sweet Lord... I'm never going to get there if I don't get my act in gear. XD


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I missed a day again! XD

Before I get to the meme, I would like to say that there are times when I wish someone could say something about Buffy's character that I could find positive anymore. Every time I try to think of something, I can counteract it with something else (and no, not all those things came from Season Eight, though that certainly didn't help my outlook of her). I started a list... and the only positive thing I've got is "She likes cheese." ... and that's not really a positive... I'm going to burn my DVDs in a pit of molten hellfire at this rate...

17 – Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

For me, it is usually the easiest part of writing. Sometimes, the title is the plot bunny, the leaping off point for a fanfic idea, which was true of the Branching of the Olive Tree. For longer fics, sometimes I do title the individual chapters, and sometimes I don't. For Automated Utopia and Paper Pusher I didn't, but for the River that Flows (unposted) and Acceptable Losses, I did.

Most of the fic titles just come to me, but for the chapter titles, a lot of the time, I have to think about them. The chapter titles usually come from song lyrics of something that I was listening to at the time or that felt right to accompany that particular chapter.



18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?

My own messed up brain for the most part. Sometimes people share their muse with me and give me prompts, and I like working that way. Sometimes just having a basic idea of even a snippet of dialogue or a situation can be a great launching point for me. Real life can also be inspirational. I got the idea for Some Deep, Existential Shite from actually opening a roll of paper towels... and the title was based off of something Dennis Hopper says in "the Crow IV: Wicked Prayer." XD



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16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

I like writing them. I usually try to think up the major point of the story and then try to write something that will entice a reader to step inside the parlor, so-to-speak. I think of what I would say out loud when describing the fic, like a fifteen second blurb, like a movie trailer or something of that nature. I've tried to get into a habit of updating the summaries for each chapter of a longer fic.

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I am working on making myself sick with my dinner choice this evening- chicken quesadilla, beef taco, large Mountain Dew, and a small turtle sippable sundae... *om nom nom*

ETA: Things that are "turtle" should have pecans... not peanuts. *disappointed face*

15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?

I think it is probably most important things to warn for are non-con/rape/assault and torture, even if you warn with a highlightable warning. Major/main character death is a toughie for me though. For a long!fic, I would say don't warn for main character death (I didn't warn for a death that occurs in Paper Pusher because it was a long!fic that I felt was building towards that sort of resolution, but I did warn for all the violence and some gore that occurred), but for a shorter fic or drabble, I'd say yes. I think if you're unsure about giving certain things away about the story as far as spoilers then use the "highlight to read" method of adding warnings (that's what I would do if I was unsure at any rate) or wait until the appropriate chapter to add a warning.

For the most part, probably just simply stating whether something is worksafe or not worksafe is sufficient sometimes. :D

The strangest thing I ever warned for was "abuse of stuffed animals" in a chapter of Versailles Undone (not worksafe ever)... I also had to warn for the exact same thing in a Spike artwork. XD

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14 – Ratings – how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?

I'm getting more comfortable with going up to NC-17. I don't normally write stuff that needs that high of a rating, and I'm still a bit nervous to write things of that rating though, but it doesn't bother me too much. I think I mostly write PG-13-rated stories, so it doesn't surprise me when I come up with something G-rated. In fact, sometimes I wish I could come up with more G-rated things, like Spike getting a basket of puppies or babysitting a whole bunch of teeny Splendeen demons. XD

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I posted the new chapter of my fic on nekid_spike and darker_spike. I feel better. :D

13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

Canon is a tricky thing. Canon is different to different people. From whether or not any of the comics are canon to the characters' motives at any given time to what happened in the "basement blackout" scene in Chosen, there are just gaps that are left open to be interpreted in many different ways with no definite answer. I always like to have a grounding in canon when I'm writing. My personal canon basically consists of both shows, the Tales of the Slayers andTales of the Vampires comics from DH, and any of the IDW comics written by Brian Lynch and John Byrne. I don't consider Season Eight, any of the BtVS/Ats books, any of the other DH comics, or any of the non-Brian Lynch or non-John Byrne comics from IDW to be canon.

When I wrote Automated Utopia, I used basic plot points as backstory and grafted them onto a steampunk universe (i.e. Sunnydale was near Lincolnshire in England rather than California, U.S. of A.). I used Brian Lynch's Asylum characters as well because they are awesome. Betta George, in particular, makes several appearances in my fics; I heart that big telepathic floaty fish. I also consider Spike's real name to be William H. Pratt (from Spike: Asylum, though it also appeared before that in one of Peter David's Old Times comic as a tribute to Boris Karloff). I used to say that Spike's surname was "Boarden" (a combination of Lizzie Borden and William Broad aka Billy Idol's real name), but I think that "Pratt" suits him much better.

However, I also have my own fanon that I don't waver from. Most of my fanon deals with Spike's backstory and his family. I've always had a view of his family tree that has not changed over the years. The only thing that has changed is Spike's surname (see above about his name). I also have a timeline of where the Fanged Four (and Fanged Three... and then down to Two) were over the years, which just helps me keep continuity in all my fics even the ones that don't go into one another. Also, my Spike is a "Brony" (a guy who watches "My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic). XD

I think that writing fanfic has really solidified what I really enjoyed from the show and what I really didn't like, but I don't believe that it changed how I viewed the source material at all. :D

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