@ussjellyfish and @purlturtle 🤗🤗 two tags, I feel so wanted. Thank you guys!! ❤️

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

82. More than half are Once Upon a Time as that was the fandom I started writing with my AO3.

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

942,705 which is annoying. I have quit fanfic for the time being and not having made the million is disappointing. I mean I have written more than a million I am sure as I never cross posted anything from my fanfic.net account and I have some on my HD I never posted.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

None at the moment. I still have much affection for Sanctuary, Warehouse 13, The Librarians and Star Trek. There were a number of ideas on my list that I never got round to writing. I feel nostalgia for it but with my spoons (or lack thereof lately) I have to choose. I can’t write original and fanfic, and for now I am wanting to write original.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Fall All Over Again (Once Upon a Time) – 181

Before the first Dark Curse the Evil Queen had a paranoid moment, which meant in cursed Storybrooke, Gold and Lacey were married. Therefore when Belle falls over the town line – Lacey returns. Everyone is shouting at her, and everything is wrong, so Lacey does something she never did once in 28 years of marriage, she turns to Gold for protection. In turn Rumplestiltskin does something that Gold never did in 28 years of marriage – he tells Lacey that he loves her. Belle loved him, so can Lacey fall for him all over again or will the curse mask true love forever?

and the Brighter side of Life (The Librarians) – 150

When Eve takes Flynn home, to meet her parents, she realises with dawning horror that he’s the first serious boyfriend they’ve ever met. The secrets of the library mean her parents know so little about her life, and her new status as an immortal threatens to create a gulf between them. But for now she still has her parents, and it seems if her mom has anything to say about it, the entire annex has gained her parents too.

Painting Layers of Love (Once Upon a Time) – 137 [Abandoned/Incomplete]

Belle French lives alone and she likes it that way. She’s lived alone ever since the terrible car accident which killed her mother and claimed her eyesight. Belle spends her days painting, in complete solitude, until one day she wakes up and hears movement outside. Somebody has moved into the cottage next door. She had grown comfortable in her solitary existence until Mr Gold crashes into her life. Now her future is uncertain, like a blank canvas, waiting for her to apply the paint and decide what kind of story she is creating.

All I Needed (Once Upon a Time) – 129

When Emma told her high school sweetheart Neal, that she was pregnant a month before graduation, she didn’t know what to expect. The last thing she expected to find was a family, and a place to call home.

Transposing Digits (Once Upon a Time) – 122

The phone in the library had always been silent, until one day it started ringing. Belle French answers it and discovers that life really can turn on a dime – or in this case a wrong number.

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

Yes mostly. AO3 has stopped emailing me even though my profile says I should get them (I have checked and they aren’t in spam) and if I delay too long I feel awkward about replying. Also sometimes I don’t if I am unsure what to say. But mostly yes I do reply because every comment I receive is treasured, and I want them to know I am grateful.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don’t really do angst – I am Team Happy Ending all the way. My first thought was “The Beauty and the Tragedy” (Once Upon a Time) because the original ending was totally angsty. But I felt bad as even though it was poetic it was sad, so I added an alternate ending happy ending the very day I posted. So I think probably “Ghost of a Memory” (Timeless) as that was just pure pain. Both of these were character death, so not like me.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh man I have quite a few pure fluff. The most sickly sweet zero angst, zero anything but sugar though is probably the amusing (for the question) titled “Happy Ending” (Sanctuary). My OT3 got married.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

Fortunately I don’t think I have. I don’t think I am popular enough to have attracted it. I did once get two commenters arguing with each other which didn’t feel good.

9. Do you write smut?

Not anymore really. I did for a time. It was a very big thing in the Rumbelle fandom and I wanted to fit in. I don’t regret it as it was a good writing exercise, and it allowed me to explore a wider range of ideas. However, once I started to drift from the fandom I lost the urge to write it. I wrote mild smut (more feelings) in my Time Will Tell (Sanctuary) fic as it was an important part of the character development/plot. I think if I ever write it again it will be along those lines.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Yes. I have written a couple. They are always the most fun. It’s great to put certain characters together like I loved having Nikola Tesla (Sanctuary) and Claudia (Warehouse 13) meet. I regret that in that crossover I didn’t manage to get HG and Helen ‘on screen’ together. The name clash aside, they are two fascinating women who have a lot in common. I did have on my ideas list more of a Warehouse 12/Sanctuary crossover (with time travelling Myka) but I never got round to writing it. My problem is my fics are so long and writing basically novels is time consuming. Anyway one of the easiest ways to crossover is I have something of a hobby of basically taking the Ancients (Stargate precursors) and seeing how many universes I can crossover with them as a backdrop. Such fun.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not of which I am aware.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Don’t believe so.

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

You may laugh as this but I am 99% sure the answer is no, and yet I have some weird paranoia that says maybe? It’s like I think I have forgotten something. Yet I am sure the answer is no. Stupid brain.

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

When I’m obsessed I am really obsessed. Like I go all in super hard. But like a flame the hotter I burn, the shorter it tends to live. Afterwards it’s not that I don’t like it anymore, it’s just that it’s not an all consuming thing, and then I find something else to go crazy about.

But that being said if I have to pick one then I will probably say Bering and Wells (Warehouse 13) as it seems to have the most sticking power thus far. I do wonder if that’s because I fell into it when I wasn’t writing, so my obsession (like a fire) was banked and therefore has lingered long term. I still like to take part in the gift exchange every year. And next year if I have the spoons I would like to put together a Bingo for the fandom. With having given up fanfic I’m not really active in any other fandom at the moment. I would like to do some more fanart but aforementioned spoon shortage – it’s a problem.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

Beyond the Lake. It was a Rashoman Job inspired Librarians fic, crazy complicated which is why it didn’t get done but the concept compels me. I can call this a WIP as I did write a couple of chapters. There was also my Noir Warehouse 13, I had I don’t know 10 pages or so starting on that? But alas never to see the light of day.

16. What are your writing strengths?

95% or so of the time I finish what I start. I have a couple of abandoned fics on AO3 (guilt, guilt) and yeah there’s a few on my HD. But I have written several long novel length fics, and they did get done. So I think I have reasonable discipline.

I’m also never short of ideas. I can come up with something for any prompt if required (probably), and I do like my ideas. I mean I suppose I would (they are mine) but yeah I think the ideas are good. I sometimes doubt my ability to realise them but the ideas themselves, solid.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Many.

I used to think my biggest issue was description but while that does need serious work, I have a far bigger problem – my characters think too much. They don’t talk to one another. When they have a problem they think about it, no conversation. It makes it very static and not much action or banter.

Truthfully I think it’s because I personally think about everything far too much. I don’t talk to people with speaking (I type on discord a lot) but actual conversations? Barely ever. Mum checks in on FaceTime with me almost every day but if it wasn’t for that I would go literal weeks without talking to a soul probably. So anything that happens I am hardwired to think about it – not talk about it – ergo I have absolutely no idea how to craft conversations. What do people talk about?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

You know it’s funny I have been contemplating this in my serial recently This particular case is set in France and so a lot of people should be speaking French. In the end I decided not to worry about it for the first draft. I think in revision I will sprinkle in some flavour words (like please, thank you etc.) and then keep the dialogue in English but try and make it sound like a plausible speech pattern for them. Maybe say it’s in French but if my character speaks French, then they understand so it’s written in English. I don’t know. It’s like when I try and write Sanctuary with The Five from the 19th century, they sound very different from someone like Claudia who is all pop culture references. I want it to feel accurate but also the reader needs to understand and in novels having a variant of subtitles might be annoying.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

This says wrote for, not published. I am relatively sure I wrote some self-insert Famous Five adventures when I was about six (long before I knew fanfic existed). I definitely messed around with some Diagnosis Murder when I was 9 (again before I knew fanfic existed). Obviously, when I was 11, The Royal/Heartbeat was the first actual fandom, with the posting and everything. I explained how that came to be before.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Ooof. I think… I really liked and the Sins of Atlantis the Librarians/Sanctuary crossover. It was entirely self-indulgent and a lot of fun. I also had fun with the Odyssey: Future’s Legacy (Warehouse 13/Sanctuary) crossover. The Star Wars fusion Across the Stars I did for Once Upon a Time was also cool. Sometimes I have these ideas and they just work for me, they like click something in my brain and unroll and mesh together, and just yes. The Beauty and the Tragedy doesn’t even read to me like I wrote it, there’s a clever poetic twist that is so unlike me. I have a soft spot for quite a few fics. It’s not that I think I wrote them well (I didn’t) but the ideas sing to me. I am my own audience in this respect.

But I think ultimately my answer has to be Between Two Fires, a Once Upon a Time fic. Set on a made-up sci-fi world. I could picture it clearly and it riffs off the Jack and Irina relationship in Alias. It was quite a short fic but there is so so much more of it in my mind. Truthfully one day that will probably get expanded and changed to be an original novel trilogy. I have notes. That fic just stuck with me, there is something there to be developed.