In case you are wondering how my pen name originates, "Energy Burst" is one of Maria's moves in the Playstation 2 game Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time.
I'm Canadian and I live in a suburb of Tokyo. My husband is Japanese, so I'll probably be here for awhile.
:) Full Circle has been officially nominated for Best Het Romance at the Genesis Awards!! :)
The Genesis Awards forum is my favourite place to hang out >> http://genesisawards.proboards100.com/index.cgi so I'm doubly excited. Please check it out if you want to talk about either kind of ff- fanfiction or Final Fantasy. We're pretty friendly! And stop by to nominate any outstanding fics you've stumbled across- we are always looking for those diamonds in the rough. Oh, and as of August 25th, I'm a judge there as well! :)
I have a livejournal now- link is in the homepage space. The fics posted there are almost the same as here, but include details like word-counts and characters present in each chapter. (And everything is punctuated correctly, because it doesn't have ff.net's restrictions.) There will probably be more stuff there than here in the future, because Big Brother doesn't lurk so closely there. :P (Translation: Anything M rated will probably NOT be posted on this account, but it will be on the LJ.)
I talk a lot about living in Japan in my blog bits, so if you aren't bothered about hearing about my real life, drop by and feel free to friend me. (Please let me know if you do though, so I can friend back.)
8/5 Oh boy, I got reported and deleted. For those of you that had "Get a Beta, already" on your faves lists, apologies. You can still find it on my LJ, on my master list. Amazing how fast the admin jumped on this, while they ignored all the official plagiarism complaints made in the past, both on my story and those of others. Equally amazing that somebody actually felt the need to report something they said was funny and enjoyable to read. (rolls eyes)
A note about plagiarism- I always try to be careful to refer to authors I've drawn inspiration from. Even if it's just the style of writing, they deserve the credit in an acknowledgement because THAT IDEA WAS NOT YOURS. Borrowing is fine- it's always nice to know you inspired somebody- but outright theft is most definitely NOT. I mean, we are all doing this for free anyway, who wants to be stolen from on top of that?
References do not make your work seem unoriginal. I think they make it look more professional- you obviously respect the work of others. People are bound to have similar ideas at times; heck, I write the most unoriginal pairing in the FF7 fandom. But it is really uncool to pretend you thought of something first.
If you are looking at this page because of "Revolutionary," let me just say that I've taken the advice of reviewers and left it as a one-shot. I did have other ideas for continuing the story, but my attention is no longer in that fandom, although I may eventually post something I started writing from between "The Golem's Eye" and "Ptolemy's Gate."
Full Circle:
September: (Aftermath) Come together- obvious I know, and the Highwind scene is similar to the ending... This was one of the easiest chapters to write.
October: (Interlude) The sex haze month- that time when all of your friends get sick of hearing about your how wonderful your man is, and you spend all your free time with him instead of them. Because we all do it. Endorphins, you know. Short chapter for a couple of reasons- I got married and went on my honeymoon (read: was very busy) and the fluff would have been absolutely nauseating anyway.
November: (Symbiosis) Idea for the chapter was the title. This was the basic idea for their relationship as well. That ying/yang way they were depicted in AC totally got to me.
December: (Winter Blaze) The proposal/snowboard chapter. I'm actually pretty proud of this chapter.
January: (Penance) DoC left two things to settle here- Geostigma remains and the ribbons are gone. I tried to convey the idea of earning redemption as well, because it seems so important in the compilation.
February: (Triangles and Resolutions) A bit melodramatic, and rather lacking in dialogue. The idea was again, title based.
March: (Special Delivery) Mostly dialogue to contrast with the previous chapters. A return to light, fluffy and hopefully, funny. The italicized bits are all "invitation" timeline, and the normal bits normal time.
April: (Promises) My little dawn to dusk wedding chapter. And my first song-fic to boot. A right pain to write- at some points I was going at a sentence a day- but thanks to some great reader support, I've decided to post the results. Happy Birthday, Tifa: here's your dream come true, hehe.
May: (Memories) Again, title focused. A little shorter than normal despite padding it up with two extra scenes. I suppose it's what happens when you try to make one chapter into two. Also a struggle to keep from being too icky-sweet- if you still find it too saccharine, let me know.
June: (A Taste of Home) This was actually one of the first chapters I finished for the project, and the original version was written before Symbiosis was even finished. I wrote it in an inspired two days- the fastest I've written anything but Aftermath! Going back over it months later was rather horrifying and illuminating at the same time. But I suppose it means I've grown as a writer.
July: (Level Up) On forgiveness and how it helps them grow. And a mini-environmental rant, to boot. My first beta-ed chapter, thanks to the lovely and talented Jenny Rocker >> http://www.fictionpress.com/u/343730/Jenny_Rocker
August: (Preludes to War) See NRG frown. See NRG plot. See NRG retcon like Nomura ought. Because I'd always wondered where everybody else was for most of DoC.
Epilogue: (Should be obvious) I've waited a whole year to get to this! :)
A few resources for the lost. I highly recommend actually playing the games, especially the original FFVII, to get a better grasp of the canon.:
Before Crisis: (not complete, but the most complete one on the net)
http://www.freewebs.com/gunshotromance/missions.htm
Crisis Core:
http://www.silenttweak.com/index.php?file=cc/ccvideos
Dirge of Cerberus script:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/924449/44510
DoC online:
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFDLQ4MJsg
More resources can be found on the Writer Resources thread of the Genesis Awards Forum:
http://genesisawards.proboards100.com/index.cgi?board=fanfiction&action=display&thread=493
"The darkest hour..." was written at Christmas time, but I only felt ready to post it now. It was therapy for me just to write it- it was my first Christmas after somebody I knew had passed and in retrospect, I just needed something to cry over while everybody was preoccupied with visiting and eating and partying.
"We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to." W. Somerset Maugham
FanFiction.Net - unleash your imagination
Poll: I'm assuming you're here because you've been reading "Full Circle/ Aftermath." And I'm interested in writing more young adult fantasy in the future, so I'm anxious to see if my writing is actually enjoyed by my target audience... So how old are you? Vote Now!
Japan