Just so you know who's laboring on these stories, I'm a 30 year old mother of a marvelous 3-year-old son, and a Public Health grad student.

I'm a hopeless romantic. My stories will always be E/C, simply because - well - that's how I want it, and this is my fantasy world. Every story will be different, as I experiment with characters and situations, but there will certainly be some similarities - which are listed at the end of my oh-so-interesting profile.

I wrote my first story (Phantom: A Romantic's Retelling) because all the other "official" works bothered me. The ends alone were enough to set my fingers typing. I loved the basic storyline, but 2-D characterizations, weak bases for the relationships, and other "issues" that irked me screamed for repair. Now, understand that I'm not calling myself a better writer than Leroux, ALW, or Kay. No way. But I have written something more satisfying to me than any of these others.

"Retelling" is more adherent to the original plot, set in the Victorian time period, and follows the two main characters from birth to Grandchildren. I needed completion. It's a first draft, so please keep that in mind if you decide to check it out. It is full novel-length, and it is finished.

"Binary" is modern day, American, and deviates from the plotline (there's not even an Opera house or Raoul-involvement). The title is based on a nerd-joke that goes like this: "There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't." If that joke makes no sense to you, guess which group you're in... The point is that Erik and Christine in this story are two of a kind with very different circumstances. I wanted to explore the relationship from a real-esque (note I do not say "realistic") modern day PoV. What would happen if a modern young woman REALLY met a guy who looked like Erik? What kind of issues would a modern-day Erik be carrying around with him? In the time of the original, men were men and women fainted a lot and wore corsets. Now, a guy can be hurt emotionally if life takes a cosmic crap on him. A guy is allowed to feel. And nowadays, a woman can be strong. She can lead a relationship and be a strong shoulder. This story is a much lighter read than the first, linguistically.

My third story, "The Greenwood Tree" is inspired by the words of a pretty contemporary adaptation of a passage from Shakespeare's Sonnets. This is the most experimental of my stories, and I am not entirely sure exactly where I intend to go with it. We will find out together, I suppose.

There are some things that are common to all my stories:

1)A strong Christine. I despise weak, simpering women. If you faint, you bloody-well better have a high fever or a headwound. Christine has to be strong enough to deal with Erik and all the things that come with him. In the real world, even now, if you pair up with a person who is 'different', whether they be scarred, deformed, paraplegic, extremely overweight, or whathaveyou, you have to live with the same stares and whispers they live with. It's not easy. It hurts to be the recipient of those negative attentions, and it hurts to see the person you care about go through that. A weak, foolish, little-girl Christine just wouldn't hack it. Sorry.

2)A less insane Erik. Pair up with a psycho? Uh-uh. No way. It's better to live the fop-life than to be chained to a man who could go stark-raving any minute. Intense? Yes. Absolutely. Intensity out the wazoo. Psychotic breaks from reality? No way.

3)An ugly Erik. There are tons of Gerik stories on this website. Beautiful statuesque men with some bad acne on the right side of their faces. Whatever. No wonder so many of our Protagonist ladies take off the mask and say, "Aww, honey, it ain't that bad." No way. In order for the story to be truly powerful, he has to actually be ugly. Truly messed up, physically. Christine (or the OW) should be challenged to love that face. There should be a reason he reacts so strongly to losing the mask. A bad sunburn don't cut it.

4)Music. I love music. It is a huge and influential piece of my life. I sing and play piano - both amateur. I listen to classical, opera, Indie, rock, bluegrass, jazz, flow, techno, and folk. There's a constant sound-track in my head. These two people are supposed to eat and breathe music. It sustains them - especially Erik, who has nothing else. My stories are full of music. My characters are true musicians. If you want a "soundtrack" to one of my stories, email me.

5) Love NOT lust. Lust is very nice, don't get me wrong. I'm a married woman with a baby. I've done lust. I liked it. I've also done infatuation, which happens in seconds and fades just as quickly. People don't break down ivory towers or storm the dark castle for lust or infatuation. They do it for love. My characters fall in love. It takes time, it takes patience, it takes friendship and understanding. Love is HARDER than lust or infatuation. It's better, too.

6)Happy endings. In my few years on Earth, I've lived a lot. I've seen a lot. There's so much real pain and horror out there that I don't see the sense of adding to it. There is pain and suffering in my stories, but things turn out 'right'. And really, if you examine life very carefully, things turn out 'right' a ridiculous amount of the time - you just have to know how to look.

I'm a gregarious person, and I love communication. If my stories move you, or if my blurb here moves you, please use the linkie and contact me. I'll get back to you in short order.

Live well, and a happy ending to you.

Rissa.

As a post-edit...

RIP Kurt Vonnegut. We love(d) you.