Author Archives: Sam

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Question – does anyone else bribe themselves to write fic, with the bribe being writing a different fic? Just wondering if that’s as weird as it sounds.

I have my list you see, because I have to do things in the order they are due whether I like it or not. Right now I’m working on my fourth (and last) Monthly Rumbelling fic for this month, and after that I have outstanding prompts for The Price We Pay, and then I should write updates for Fall All Over Again and Under My Skin. Painting Layers of Love Chapter Nine is with my beta 🙂

The reward I’m offering myself for doing these things is writing the Rushbelle fic I am desperate to write for Rumbelle Order in the Court. It is a literal bribe. I’m coaxing myself to keep on writing rather than go and relax and watch TV, by saying the sooner I finish my list, the sooner I can get to the Rushbelle fic. Please tell me I’m not the only one that does this /cringes.

whitesheepcbd replied to your post “Question – does anyone else bribe themselves to write fic, with the…”

I don’t bribe myself that way, but with other things, yes. But I say, do whatever works for you!

You see this is what I mean. Bribing yourself with something else is very normal. I used to bribe myself with TV, or video games, or sometimes the nicest icecream in the world. I didn’t do the last one that often because icecreams not a healthy thing to eat, but yeah I bribed myself with other stuff.

It just struck me earlier when I was coaxing myself to keep writing, that I’ve gone pretty far down the rabbit hole if I’m using writing to bribe myself to write.

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#i was hoping that it wasn’t just me but i think it might be ooops#i would have used a gif of eliot from leverage going there’s something very wrong with you but i couldn’t find one

*TACKLES WITH ZOOKEEPING HUGS* That’s brilliant, thanks! I was having a terrible time making a nice balance between both series’, but that’s perfect! Oh, and yes, Belle is totally shape-shifting. I had this book when I was younger that was all about dragons, (dragons were to me what other little girls saw in unicorns,) and most of the stories involved shape-shifting, so that was in the plan from the start. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to refine some plans! *swishes away*

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*tackles with Rumbelle hugs back*

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Dragons are very cool and I’m really pleased to hear that it’s a good creature for you. I’m glad I helped a bit 🙂 Hope you have a good day!

Your Zookeeper is in need of guidance. *restrains muse* So far all roads are leading to an Enchanted Forest AU, and so far I’m liking the idea that dragon!Belle is protecting some great treasure thingie from certain men in the King’s Navy that are “just following orders” to bring it back. This could mean Rush is their prickly astronomer-turned-navigator, who has no stake in treasure hunting so he just hangs around eyeing the sky and star-gazing. Thoughts?

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Heya *waves*

Nice to hear from you! I hope you are well and are having a good week.

I have to be honest I’m not that keen on an Enchanted Forest AU because where is the line drawn then between Rush and an AU Rumple? Does that make sense? I think the line could get real blurry there. However, if that is what your muse wishes to run with then I’m sure that would be fantastic. Like I said before I’d much rather you write something you want, than try and force something you aren’t interested in.

Also just checking dragon!Belle is a shapeshifter right? She’s going to be human at least some of the time yeah? Anyway, I think the basic plot is cool. How about set it in space? So the planet that Belle’s on, where she’s guarding the treasure, is just like the Enchanted Forest. The thing that makes it more Rush, is that the ship is a spaceship. If they are usually equipped with energy weapons, you could have an EM field rendering them useless so they had to break out swords.

If all the action takes place planet-side, it wouldn’t really change anything, it would just be an adjustment to the background details, maybe alter language used or attitudes a little, nothing major. It’s just a thought. It’s completely up to you of course. I want you to have fun with whatever you write!

What MCU pairing do you want to rumbelle? :D

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Well the pairing I had in my head was Tony Stark and Pepper Potts.

Tony is brilliant, the best at what he does, just like Rumple. Tony is dependant upon his tech, his suits, like Rumple depends on his magic. They are both the richest men in town. Tony struggles with the shrapnel injury and needs the arc reactor. Rumple struggles with his limp which his magic heals.

There are other similarities too like they both have trouble letting go of guilt, their responsibilities weigh heavily on them – “I have to protect the one thing I can’t live without.” and they both have self-destructive tendencies. Obviously there are many differences as well but I can see Rumple in Tony. The bitter sarcasm, the mask to keep people at a distance etc.

Pepper runs the company, she is brilliant and formidable in her own right and she’s not afraid to call Tony out on his shit. Sound familiar? When I think of Pepper trying to get Tony to eat and sleep when he’s been pulling all-nighters I think to myself “I bet Belle had to do that at the Dark Castle.” Pepper was never just an assistant, she was always Tony’s partner because she balances him – they are equals. It’s the same with Rumbelle.

So yeah if I was going to do an MCU AU I would make Rumple Iron Man heh 🙂

Another Second Chance!Belle — How did you know how to make a sleeping potion? Did Rumple teach you, or did you learn from a book? Were you afraid to do it? Afraid you might never wake up?

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Rumple never taught me the sleeping curse specifically but I had helped him with various potions before, so I knew my way around his workroom and what books to look in for the instructions.

Truthfully I was more afraid not to do it. Something had obviously gone dreadfully wrong and I had no idea how long I would be trapped in the Dark Castle alone. Rumple blames himself for that but it wasn’t his fault, we both agreed to the stronger wards. I was afraid of the isolation, I was afraid if I didn’t find a way to “stop time” then I wouldn’t be around when Rumple returned.

The one thing I wasn’t afraid of was never waking up. I knew that one day Rumple would return, and I knew that he would wake me. It could have been a thousand years but I knew it would happen because Rumple can only be killed by the dagger. He was always going to return one day.

*laughs* or were you really asking whether I doubted our true love? No I never doubted that, I could never doubt that.

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leni-ba replied to your post “Another Second Chance”

Aw, this is perfect! I love the bit of identity crisis wish!Rumple has, but he’s right. Just because other people say he isn’t real, doesn’t mean anything at all.

Now this is a scenario where I can believe Belle would choose a sleeping potion. Whee! Thanks for that. 🙂

Wonderful, wonderful, can’t wait to see what these two make of themselves in this world. 🙂

I read a fic once, it was actually a Harry Potter fic in which Harry had crossed realities and one line stuck with me. it’s from a Stranger in the Promised Land, which was never finished, a real shame because it was really good.

“The world is what you make of it. I could argue that you aren’t real and aren’t worth my time and help, or I could decide that you are a good person in very harsh circumstances who might need help.”

In this particular wish!world AU I kinda looked at it like that. From Regina and Emma’s perspective, nobody is real, so whether they are or not is immaterial to us because we see things through the lens of the main characters. They aren’t real to Emma and Regina so they aren’t real. However, to the actual wish!world inhabitants they have all the memories and thoughts and feelings of a real person. They are real, even if as I said in the fic “If
it was the blink of an eye of a wish, didn’t make their lives any less.”

I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s all about point of view I guess. Yup I liked the symmetry of Belle choosing a sleeping curse but for very different reasons. I’m so glad you enjoyed the fic! Thank you so much for such a wonderful comment 🙂

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I meant to comment on this when it was posted and I forgot. This makes me think of surveillance, I think it’s the angle of Belle’s photo.

Anyway, Gold could be a cop or a private investigator who is watching Belle. Maybe if he’s a cop they think she’s their way to crack whatever case they are working on, or perhaps it’s a dark!Belle story and Belle is a criminal herself. Alternately private investigator, perhaps somebody wants to know everything about Belle for some reason.

So Gold is watching her but surveillance is boring and requires lots of coffee and takeout. One day he accidentally runs into her at the coffee shop while fueling up, and suddenly he’s getting a far closer look at her life than he’d planned.

Little Insurance!Rumple, why doesn’t Belle’s kiss break your curse? You can feel the magic of her true love, so it’s not a lack of that, is it because you’re choosing to stay cursed? If you are, why? Will you ever let Belle break your curse?

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Well dearie it’s our kiss, our true love and it’s not a decision either of us would make alone. It’s not about letting Belle break my curse, why that makes me sound like the beast that needs to be vanquished! True love means true acceptance dearie, and there would be no possibility of true loves kiss if Belle didn’t love all of me, just as I love every part of her.

Our true loves kiss doesn’t break the curse because neither of us wish it. At first I needed my powers to find Bae, and then after he was found Belle and I discussed it. We’d been together for over ten years at that point, we were happy – we still are, and so there seemed little point. I have many enemies, and they wouldn’t stop just because I was rendered powerless.

I have had a number of desperate souls beg me for immortality, I wonder whether they have any idea of what a curse it would become.

My curse will break one day because I have no wish to live without Belle, and neither of us have any wish to outlive our children. Belle will age naturally and when the time comes, our true love will break the curse of the Dark One.

Another Second Chance!Belle, how long was Rumple gone before you knew something was wrong and you decided to put yourself under a sleeping curse?

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Two months.

Rumple had gone away for deals before but the longest had been three weeks, and it was only that long because something had gone wrong. He came home then half-naked, soaking wet and very grumpy. This time, after a week I had a bad feeling, after two weeks it turned into a sinking feeling. By the time it had been three weeks I knew, I knew but there was nothing I could do.

I waited two months, spending far too much time staring out of the castle windows, hoping against hope to see him appear in a cloud of magic. It was obvious that whatever was keeping him was blocking his powers, he would never have left me otherwise, not for that long. It was also obvious that there was no easy way out for him, it had been two months which meant it could wind up being forever. The sleeping curse was the only choice I had.

Writing/Reading Ask Meme: 2: Which author has influenced you the most?

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Tough question. I feel like a fraud as a writer for a lot of reasons. One of them is that I never had a ‘lightbulb’ moment, where I was inspired by another writer and I just knew I wanted to write. I’ve enjoyed reading hundreds of books, and there are some authors I like more than others, but I can’t point to any author specifically as an influence. I’ve never wanted to emulate any authors style, or had a “books I wish I wrote” moment. Like I said I feel a bit like a fraud because of it.

However, and there is a however to this answer. There is one author who I would say has influenced me but not really because they were an author. Holly Lisle is an author, and has lived my dream and made a living from her writing, but it wasn’t her books that influenced me, it was her courses. She’s offered a number of online writing courses and ‘How to Revise your Novel’ is the single most useful writing ‘lesson’ I’ve ever taken.

It gave me the tools to be able to analyze my own work, so that I could (hopefully) work out what was wrong with it. I can’t tell you how much confidence that gave me. I guess I felt more in control of the process which was something I sorely needed. I still wouldn’t call myself a good writer but I can see how much I improved from this. I wrote this book, it’ll probably never see the light of day, but I must have redrafted it, and then ripped it to pieces, half a dozen times or more. That taught me so much and I would never have been able to do it without Holly Lisle giving me the starting point.