Update (4/11/07)

Yeouch, I guess it's about time for one of these, huh? Well, there's a bunch of extremely personal stuff that I won't go into here (come on, it's not like I'm writing under my real name), which may or may not include being abducted by space-faring penguins, but the long story short is that taking a gigantic break wasn't entirely my idea. There was a lot of crud to deal with. Put it this way: as anyone who's read my rambling comments or my silly little fics can attest, my vocabulary has a distinct tendency to range into the hinterlands. It went there. It came back. And still, the most appropriate word I could come up with was "crud". Anyway. :)

If it matters to ya, I'm back now. As those of you who kept bugging me for updates (feeding my ego—thanks!) may have surmised with the update of "100 Ways", I'm resuming work on the projects that had previously dropped off the face of the planet. I hope this comes as welcome news to the ravenous horde of literally twos and threes of people who perpetrated said ego-feeding.

Currently, I'm about halfway done with the next batch of one-liners for "100 Ways", and a multiple-chapter update is in the works for "Mélodie". "His" is a little trickier, because I'm going to have to re-read the manga. As a result of lending them to my sister-in-law, who lives...uh, about a thousand miles away, the timeframe for that is a little loose at the moment.

In the meantime, if you'd be at all interested in reading some truly amazing Gravi-fic from a writer who actually, y'know, finishes her stories, I really suggest stopping by Vindalootoo's page. It's frighteningly good!

Q&A

Who are you?
Just another fanfic author and occasional fanart doodler, really. I'm 21, female, and am going to college in the Midwest. I have too many hobbies, major insomnia, and a psychotic little black dog named Pixel.

Why are you interviewing yourself?
Er...seemed like a good idea at the time? Besides, like many writers, I'm about a hair away from MPD. My characters definitely have their own ideas about what's going to be done and said. They don't always agree with my plans. Yep, this applies to fanfiction, too—I have versions of every character I write living in my head. (Some are more vocal than others. Yuki Eiri, from Gravitation, never shuts up. His brand of snark is darned close to mine.) So it didn't seem like too much of a stretch to fill out my profile this way. :D

Do you write anything besides fanfiction?
Indeed I do. I've been doing freelance writing for about 8 years, which has been...weird. My first job involved turning 1000 pieces of trivia into multiple-choice questions for a board game. More recently, I've written menu descriptions for a restaurant. In between, there's been a lot of random copy and articles, including such gems of topics as "10 things to check when choosing a stepladder" and "history of the Andalusian" (horse breed). Trés glamorous, I know. ;) Hey, it's money.

I've also been published academically, worked as an ACP journalist, and written columns for a few different websites of varying size. In the general writing vein, I've student-taught English composition and done some work as a copy editor and proofreader. Earlier this year, I finished a cookbook that'll be sold locally. I've currently got a few other projects going, both non-fiction and original fiction.

When are you gonna update (insert name of fic here)?
I never know the answer to that question myself. It depends upon what else is going on in my life (again, many hobbies, and also many jobs), as well as whether or not a character feels chatty. Lately, I've been writing a lot of Gravitation, and the crew tends to jockey for position. What story I work on is almost entirely dependent upon who wins that squabble. For more specific progress reports on what's going on in my brain, you can consult my fanfiction LiveJournal: http://ff-castalia.livejournal.com.

Do you beta read?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: yes, but it depends. I love reading stories and talking to people about writing, but the biggest thrill comes from discussing things like character development, pacing, viewpoint, plot, and so forth. Basic proofreading and grammar checks aren't really all that much fun for me. I'm also not comfortable beta reading smutfics. Adult situations that are part of a fic are absolutely fine, but fics that are pure smut (hmm, oxymoron) or erotica aren't so much my thing.

The other issue, of course, is that there should ideally be some kind of chemistry between a writer and his or her beta reader. If you think we might be mutually suited, please do drop me a line!

What's the "BlurbiVerse"?
I write some fiction every day, so I keep some ongoing "blurb" files—bits of stories, bits of dialogue, writing exercises, deleted scenes, and random jaunts into chaos. The BlurbiVerse is where my sad excuses for poetry go. So far, a couple of them have wormed their way onto FF.net proper.

The BlurbiVerse has neighbors. They are: BlurbCity (the original), where I keep things I might actually use (all fics live here until I'm committed, and they're at least a couple pages long or are done); BlurbDump, where all the deleted scenes live; and the shady SubBlurbs, which is filled with all the things you ain't never gonna see me post...really bad writing and/or guilty pleasures and/or writing as therapy. A lot of it is supremely silly (there are a lot of pun-filled dialogue bits, terrible jokes, and soupy/sappy lines), but characters have also been known to die there, in seas of angst, when I'm irritated at life.

Hey, you mentioned fanart...
Quite right. I've done some Gravitation fanart, which can be found at http://pics.livejournal.com/ff_castalia/.

Do you ever stop talking?
Not really. :D

Mélodie

I've decided to give this its own section, because it's my current big fan-fiction project. When I watched the anime for the second time through, I wasn't focused on the Yuki-Shuichi pairing quite as much anymore, because I knew what was going to happen. I became fascinated, instead, by the dynamic between Mika, Tohma, and Eiri. I started wondering about it, and especially more about who Mika and Tohma really are as people. They've obviously got a lot of history with each other and with Eiri. What is it?

"Mélodie" is one of the answers I came up with. When you read it, please keep in mind that this is basically a daydream that wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it down. It is also extremely speculative—mostly the product of my own imagination, although I'm trying to stay as true as possible to the little snippets provided in the manga/anime. And it's written narratively, Mika and Tohma taking over alternate chapters. Don't worry, I've indicated which person is speaking at the top of each chapter.

Finally, a mélodie, in the most specific sense of the term, is a vocal song with piano accompaniment. If you're inclined to listen to music while you read, I therefore suggest something piano-centric. I specifically recommend the albums Water Circles by Mia Jang, and Beloved by David Lanz. For Tohma's POV, Bach's Goldberg Variations also work well, provided they are the piano and not the clavichord/harpsichord arrangements.

Hope you enjoy the story. (Oh, and sorry the alert mailings from FF.net look all wonky. It drives me nuts, but I can't do much about it.) You can find chapter notes right here.

Chapter Notes
1. Prelude (Mika) - Once I thought about it, I had to start here to set things up properly. As a result, the first chapter is a little slow. But now we know why Mika's so willing to get deeply into Eiri's business throughout the series, and that's something.
2. Pensieroso (Tohma) - Tohma kind of surprised me this chapter. (...what, you don't hear the character speaking in your head when you're writing narratively?) I expected him to be calm, but he's quite cynical and choppy, and kind of scary. He pretends otherwise, but he's pretty bitter about the childhood I gave him. Tough shakes, Mr. Seguchi.
3. Dolcissimo (Mika) - Dear God, I wrote dialogue! That's a first in this story. ;) Turned out longer than I thought. Wow, that Mika can talk and talk and talk... Just like a woman. This chapter is a rather abrupt departure from the previous style, but I'm treating "Prelude" and "Pensieroso" as prologues.
4. Subito (Tohma) - It took me a few days to talk some sense into the Tohma voice and prevent him from rambling endlessly about Bach, but eventually we got there. I play the piano, and all the years of training are both a blessing and an absolute curse when I try to write Tohma. Example? At one point I discovered I'd let him go on about the dratted Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 for about five hundred words. In the first draft, he also wandered off philosophizing about musical theory for another several hundred words. Aren't you glad I cut that stuff out? Oh, and yes, I do realize I'm switching between styles for Mika and Tohma now, but that's just their personalities...as I imagine them, anyway.

Special thanks to Kyoko the Frighteningly Wonderful, and her equally wonderful mother, for their invaluable assistance with Japanese words and culture. Gigantic thank-yous also go out to the three faithful readers of this story!