Hello, everyone. Let’s keep this short and sweet, shall we? Oh, what am I saying? Anyone who’s ever read my stuff knows that I can’t keep anything short…and that most of it’s not all that sweet, either.

Anyway, I’m a college student and an actress, which means that I have practically no concept of the real world, but I’m also a writer, so it all works out. In collge-land, I’m currently majoring in Bull-shitting and Man-bashing (aka, English and Women’s Studies) and I hope to some day earn a doctorate in at least one of these fields (if only so I can look at some jerk and say “Hey. Don’t question me. I’m a doctor.”). I’m also incredibly, and I mean incredibly liberal-minded, so do not worry about offending me (not that many people do, but, you get the idea). On that note, I never mean to seriously offend anyone with my writing or my critiques, though you should know that the last creative writing class that I took christened me “the Grammar Nazi” as well as “the Word Whore”—lovingly, of course. Errm, I think. I’m meticulous about punctuation, as well, but have, over the years, come to learn that, at least when writing fiction, there’s a lot that you can get away with stylistically. Just look at Emily Dickenson (or don’t, if you’re feelings about her are anything like mine). As a result, I find myself messing with punctuation, POVs, tenses, all that good stuff quite a lot, especially as of late. Personally, I blame Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, which pretty much completely assured me that you can be all over the place with your style and still be a best-selling, Nobel Prize-winning author. If you do it well, anyway.

The Fandoms

My fandoms tend to come and go, and although my love for them never dwindles, my interest usually does after a year or so. A psychiatrist could probably look at my interests and immediately see some kind of on-going motif, but personally, I can’t, though I do think that they each say quite a bit about me.

I first became a fanfiction writer when I fell in love with the awesome-and-a-half cartoon show Invader Zim. This was back when I was in seventh/eighth grade and thought that I was The Shit when it came to writing, probably because my teachers always praised me for mastering the oh-so-challenging five-paragraph format that’s required by state testing. But as it turned out, I was just plain shit. It took until about tenth grade for me to realize this, though, during which time I posted over twenty horrendously trite Invader Zim stories, all written in script-format and heavily based on inside jokes that only my closest friends understood. For a while, I was determined to keep them on here to serve as a reminder of how crappy I once was and to stop me from ever thinking too much of myself again. But now I feel that they are just embarrassing, and so I’ve deleted all of them except for The Irked Opera, which I’m actually okay with. Funny thing is, most of those stories were still getting the occasional review, and all of those comments were much nicer than anything I ever received back when I first wrote them. Regardless, the fandom deserves better, you guys deserve better…so the stories are no more. Trust me, it’s for the best.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico was the next fandom that I wrote for. Agent Sands is just...wow...what all can I say about that gorgeous, witty, sociopathic asshole? He was just too much fun to write, which is probably why every story I wrote for OUaTiM wound up being incredibly long. Looking back, I'm not terribly disgusted by what I wrote for that fandom, hence why those stories are still available, but I will say that my characterization and over-all writing has definitely improved since then. Thank God.

After that, I tried writing something for the Phantom of the Opera, which is a story that I have had an infatuation with since I was, like, eleven years old. Honestly, despite my utter revulsion toward it, I think it was the 2004 movie-musical that inspired me to write something for this fandom. I've always loved the musical, but the book by Gaston Leroux will always been my favorite (I'm an elitist prick like that, what can I say?). I think I originally began A Footstool because I was so tired of the onslaught of bad, movie-based fanfiction that had suddenly overtaken the fandom and wanted something different. However, reading so much bad stuff really made me take a look at my own writing and go “Hey, all this stuff like plot and characterization and..stufll…it’s like, really important!” So, even though, in all likelihood, A Footstool will never be finished, I still feel that I have grown and improved through developing it.

Then, there was Pirates of the Caribbean. Like Phantom, I'd been a fan since the first movie came out in 2003. However, as much as I loved Captain Jack and wanted to write something for the fandom, I just couldn't come up with anything good. Then Dead Man's Chest came out and I fell head-over-heels in love with Commodore Norrington, and, from there, Jack Davenport in general. That man (Jack or James, take your pick) is just too adorable for words and he makes you just want to hug him for all of his charming self-deprecation. Needless to say, I immediately started writing a fanfic about James that took place during his time on Tortuga, not only because I adored him and felt that his character was extremely overlooked, but also because, despite the fact that it seems like every fangirl wants to pair their favorite character with the perfect woman who is probably just a beautiful reincarnation of themselves, James really does need to find himself a girl, mates. And so, I set about doing this. Honestly, at the risk of sounding arrogant, I'm quite proud of the Ring O'Bells and especially Jou-Jou the strumpet. To tell the truth, I was perfectly happy to write the Ring O'Bells and leave it at that. But then people asked for a sequel, and since I did have other ideas, I started to write the Little Flow'rs. However, a sudden dry spell in the Norrington fandom and one single viewing of At World’s End sort of crushed my motivation. In all honesty, I feel incredibly guilty about my lack of enthusiasm (and especially my lack of updates) and wish that I could get back into it, I really do, but just don't know if I ever can. However, to all of you James/Jou-Jou shippers: If worst comes to worst and the Little Flow'rs is never finished, please be comforted in the knowledge that I had always intended to give those two their happily ever after, together. If you want more details, I'd be more than happy to give them, I'm totally cool with an e-mail (DunnWitch32@MSN.com) or a review requesting them. Please, feel free to ask—don't hesitate!

Max and Jude are totally doing it. Now, go watch Across the Universe and tell me that this isn’t true. I dare you. Now that that’s been said, I was on an AtU kick for a while, there. What can I say? I've been a fan of the Beatles since I was a little kid, and that movie is simply beyond precious. It was just so relaxing to write for this fandom, especially after coming off of the uber-depressing angst-ship that was The Little Flow’rs. Oh, and the slash was fun, too. Gotta love the slash, even though the canon pairing of Jude/Lucy makes me feel slightly guilty for all the boy-on-boy action, which is probably why I threw some Max/OFC in there, too. The boy-love is undeniable, but then, so is the het. But, hey, it's a good compromise.

And now it would seem that I’m all about Batman Begins/The Dark Knight. Frankly, this is awesome for me because it means that finally, finally I get to write something dark and seriously twisted. Most might not be thrilled about this, but it’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, ever since I realized that most of what I write is either satirical, cutesy, or (occasionally) angsty. Not that I mind writing stuff like that, it’s just that I want to see if I can tackle something else—quite frankly, it’s always felt like disturbing is what I should be writing, I’ve just never had a plot concept before now. This all started off as my wanting to write a Nolanized Harley Quinn fic, but then my interests turned to slash (don’t they always?) and I began to feel conflicted once I realized that, dude…Bats and Joker complete each other. What now, especially when I had no ideas for a B/J story, not even a one-shot? Then, out of nowhere, there came this fascination for Jonathan Crane. Don’t get me wrong—whether we’re talking comic books, cartoons, or movies, the guy is a fascinating and appealing character, and Cillian Murphy has always ranked high on my list of talented actors (plus man-pretty, man pretty, looove the man-pretty). But, seriously, where did this come from? And then, one day, I realized that the good doctor and Harley-kins would be adorable together. Not just adorable, but like, actually really good as a couple, depending on their characterizations. So Harley/Crane became my secret OTP. And now it’s my not-so-secret OTP and I demand more fics about this pairing, damn it! Seriously, why have so few people thought to put these two crazy kids together? Maybe a lot of us are stuck on Harley only ever loving the Joker? I know I was for a long time. But the idea that she’ll always be crazy (no pun intended) for the Joker just seems so depressing, especially when there’s more to the character than that, no matter what universe she’s in.

That said, please feel free to read, review, critique, enjoy... And don’t be scared. Just keep telling yourself “It’s only fanfiction, it’s only fanfiction…”

Also, two things: 1) Credit for my avatar goes to chupa-chups-life over at deviantArt, and 2) if you enjoy the Notes at the end of each of my stories, visit my LiveJournal for even more info, musings, and general geeky-ness.

Peace and love,

~E. S.