My account name is Tiamat42 because the Babylonian myth is neat piece of legend that caught my imagination a long time ago, and 42 is, of course, Life, the Universe and Everything...and there you pretty much have me, and my style. A little bit poetic, like mythology tends to be, and a little bit cracked out, like the Hitchhiker's Guide. I think that's better than putting my age here or something boring like that.

If you actually want to know... I'm in my twenties, female, married, no kids (yet). Grew up in NYC, live in northern California, still think of myself as a New Yorker. There. Fascinating? Not really. Anyway, I don't want to put a list of favourites or anything here because it would be really long...let's just assume anything I spend enough time on to write fanfic about is a favourite, and go from there.

I put some sketches of my characters up on my DeviantArt account...the link is my homepage up there, in case anyone's interested in the visual side of my imagination. I'll be putting more up eventually...it's what I do when I'm stalling writing actual chapters.

So...here are some general notes about my stories, which seems to be the popular thing to put in places like this.

Lying to Dragons

It's on kind of a hiatus (I'm sorry!) because...well, I've been writing it off and on for AGES now, and it's kind of fallen apart in my brain. I got very attached to my characters, but the plot itself is fragmentary and not at all what it was supposed to be. Then I got distracted by my other story down there, and rather than risk having that one fall apart as well by dividing my attention, I've decided to finish that one first. Then, I promise, I'll give this one the mental shake down it needs and finish it. I am by no means giving up.

Descent of Mana

I didn't realize how much in love I still was with Legend of Mana, back in the uncharted depths of my mind, until it just kind of popped back up one day and said 'Hey! Write fanfic about me! You know you've always wanted to!' So I did. I didn't read any of the other fanfic out there first or anything, I just grabbed a wordfile and started messing around. So of course I hit on the most cliche romantic pairing, and the most overused theme, a game retelling. I almost regret not doing something more original, but...this is what I was forming in my head during the five years or so since I last played the game. I can't change it now.

It's working out pretty well. I was feeling kind of timid about messing with the 'canon' in the beginning, but since reviews were good, I gave myself leave to play havoc with the game plot. Face it, no matter how much we love it, LoM is a vague, vague game. Which is part of its charm, of course. ;) I dropped all (or at least, most) of the mechanics, dialogue and restrictions the game places on you, in favour of trying to imbue the characters and plotlines with a sense of continuity and purpose. My goal with this is to retell the story so that people can say 'oh hey, that's my favourite part!' but at the same time still be able to wonder 'what happens next?'. Also, I would like it to be enjoyable even to someone who hasn't actually played the game. (Like my beta-reader, love you!)

How well I'm succeeding...well, I can't say. That's up to you guys. :)

The Trouble with Houses

My first fanfic...I posted this on a small Harry Potter message board a long time ago (sometime before book four came out, I think), for no other reason than I was mildly sick of Gryffindor main characters. It's mostly original characters created simply because of my love of J.K. Rowling's world, and ideas, set sometime between Voldemort's death and Harry's arrival at Hogwarts. I found that to be kind of a dead period in the books' history, so I had some freedom to stick some OCs in, without having to have them interact with any of the main characters. I like that sort of thing.

It's not my best work, and there are a lot of things I'd like to change but... I'm totally attached to it, in the end. It proves to me that I actually can finish something if I put my mind to it. Doesn't mean it's good, mind you, but at least it's finished. I'm thinking of re-writing it someday...expanding the plot and characters as per some reviews I got...but that would take a serious effort on my part, so it's a ways away if it happens at all.

Boredom

This one ...I wrote it at four AM one night when I got no sleep whatsoever from watching too much anime. Obviously. Then I posted it here on a whim and went back to bed. A surprising (to me) number of people have read it since then, and the reviews make me laugh. A lot. So even though the anime/manga has progressed way beyond the point where it's relevant...I keep it up.

Slayers Seconds

Well, I have officially forgotten where I was going with this one, and should probably take it down, but...I keep hoping if I leave it sitting there, glaring at me, I will eventually be motivated to get back to it. It's not doing any harm where it is. Though I suppose evil mazoku might be spawning within the pages ready to break out and take over the world. You never know.

Slayers was one of my first anime obsessions, and remains my favourite to this day, so I'm a little sad that my attempt at fanfictionalizing it went nowhere. Oh well, it was no one's fault but my own. I might still work on it sometime, if I manage to de-Mary-Sue the plot in my head. ;)