FanFiction.net Interviewer (FFI): Today we have author Saralisa Loftis in the studio with us. Although she is known as Shealtiel on sites like FanFiction.net and FictionPress.com, her preferred penname seems to be S. R. Loftis, modelled after the British trend and a few of her favourite authors, J. R. R. Tolkein and C. S. Lewis. Welcome Saralisa as she joins us.

Audience applause.

FFI: Saralisa, we’re so glad you could be here with us today and talk to us about your writing.

Saralisa (SRL): I’m really glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

FFI: So tell us a little bit about yourself.

SRL: Well, I’m 17 and I love to write. I live in Victoria, Australia and I love it here.

FFI: So, how did you first get into writing? When did you first know, really know that it was the thing for you?

SRL: Well, when I was in Year Four in Primary School, we were giving a creative writing assignment. That was the first time I was ever introduced to writing fiction. After that, through Year Five and Six, I started writing a lot of short stories as well as very badly written plays and stupid… well, you couldn’t even call them stories.

FFI: And what about your first encounter with FanFiction? Tell us about that.

SRL: Well, my first story that I was just referring to was actually a FanFiction story, but I didn’t realise it at the time. I was first introduced to FanFiction officially when a friend of mine, who has an account on this site (an.obsessed.fan go check her out) told me about it when I was around 12 years old. I fell in love with it immediately, because, sadly, I’m the kind of person who never wants stories to end, especially good ones. And of course, if things that I want to happen don’t happen in the stories, I can just look for it on FanFiction.

Audience laughs.

FFI: What was the first FanFiction story you ever wrote?

SRL: Like I said, my first story was in Year Four. That was actually about Lord of the Rings, and it was kind of a self-insert adventure story, very badly written and before I was obsessed with romance. I started writing Deltora FanFiction when I was about 12, and I think that was the first story I ever posted on the site. It was embarrassing. I hope it’s no longer there.

FFI: What other fandoms have you written stories for in the past?

SRL: Well, I actually have this really bad habit of starting stories and not ever finishing them, so there’s a long list. I’ve written for Deltora Quest, like I mentioned before, and Lord of the Rings, but only that once. I also wrote a High School Musical story, but it was about the actors’ lives rather than the characters. Very embarrassing, although it did have an appearance in a magazine called Life Story that published an issue about Zac Efron, so that was pretty cool. I also started this Hannah Montana story, but it was a Moliver ship, and I’m a diehard Jiley shipper now! So that’s funny to think back on. I’ve also written, or started at least, a lot of stories about Just My Luck, but they were really just all about McFly. I wrote a few oneshots about them actually, but they weren’t very good and they’ll never see the light of day – not on this website anyway!

Audience laughs.

Anyway, I’ve also written a oneshot about Narnia, titled Magnificent. Just. Gentle. Valiant. It’s actually on my account here, although I don’t think the comments made in the Author’s Notes are accurate any longer, as I had intended to make it a full story. But once again, that idea sort of petered out and I figured it could be a stand-alone oneshot, so I left it up. I don’t really know if it makes a lot of sense.

I also started writing, very briefly, a Wizards of Waverly Place story, but I eventually lost inspiration for that as well. It happens to the best of us… or maybe just me. I briefly planned out and barely started a Alternate Universe Howl’s Moving Castle story, which I still love the idea of and I might finish one day, but it’s kind of complicated. It being my favourite book, I feel as though there’s more pressure for me to get it right, writing about it. Eragon was also briefly touched on, because I felt like the one character that was actually written well in those books deserved more than Christopher Paolini gave him, but that never really turned out either.

Now, about my Harry Potter FanFiction: I have written more about it than anything else (on my page), which is funny to think about to me, because I don’t particularly love it. It’s enjoyable, but not even on my list of Top 5 Books. Snisha is a story I wrote for a friend of mine who loves Snape; her name is Trisha. It was kind of a joke, because she wrote me a story too, about Sirius (more about that later). Obliviate was something that me and that same friend (TJPJ4610 is brilliant, check her out) conjured up on msn one time and I’m not really sure what it is, because we’re kind of crazy when we get together sometimes. Green and Red Striped Hair? Was part of a Harry Potter Christmas Oneshot challenge I set myself, which I never finished, but I’m planning on continuing this Christmas.

FFI: Tell us about the stories you’re currently working on.

SRL: To start with the least productive and least important, I’m working on a story called TMF about Tom, from McFly, for Just My Luck. There’s not a lot I can say about it, but that it’s coming along very slowly.

Top Secret: Sirius Black, Don’t You Dare Touch!, or just Top Secret as we call it for short, is, unfortunately, not coming along very quickly. I’m still determined to finish it one day and hopefully write the sequel I had planned, so keep looking out for that.

I’ve also just started a new story, Soundtrack to My Life, which is a Sonny With a Chance FanFiction. I’m pretty excited about it, but it is, unfortunately, also progressing pretty slowly. It’s actually based on some real life experiences I had, which may be part of the reason I’m reluctant to write it out, ‘cause the writing process is really intense. It’s very good for me though, and I’m really enjoying delving into it.

As I said earlier, I’m also going to be working on some more Harry Potter Christmas Oneshots this Christmas, and I’m hoping to get two or three written, but we’ll see. I’m a pretty busy person right at the moment, so it’s hard to say when I’ll be able to get things finished.

I’ve been working on a Twilight series of oneshots also, about different moments in the books when Bella could have been transformed into a Vampire but wasn’t, but that’s coming along slowly and I’m not planning on keeping that updated regularly.

I’m also working on a few oneshots right now, a Gossip Girl one, about Dan/Blair, which I’m really ecited about. I’ve never really written anything like it before and I’m hoping it’s going to be unique and that people will enjoy it when I finally get it finished up. I’m also working on my first Glee FanFiction, but I have a feeling there will be many to come. This one is a Puckleberry oneshot for Kiss.Me.Pink’s Baby Mama Drama Challenge, so it will probably be finished fairly soon. I’m not quite sure where it’s going yet, but I’m also really excited about it. Puckleberry have been my biggest inspiration in a while, so I can’t wait till it’s done.

FFI: And what do you see in the future for FanFiction?

SRL: Sequels are definitely a possibility. I’ve already started planning a sequel for Soundtrack to My Life, which should be a lot more light hearted than its counterpart, which will be easier to write. Finishing up my McFly story is something I hope to get done, as well as working on the Twilight story. As I said before, I would love to a sequel for Top Secret, but we’ll see where that goes. Getting into Glee has made me seriously consider writing a Puckleberry story too, but I haven’t got any ideas right at this minute, so we’ll see where that goes. Who knows what else I might do in the future? You never know.

FFI: You’ve told us all about FanFiction, but what about your original fiction?

SRL: Oh, that’s not overlooked, believe me.

FFI: So tell us about that. What original work have you produced in the past?

SRL: Just like FanFiction, I’ve started a lot of original stories and brainstormed a lot of ideas but I’ve never really finished off any of those ideas, unfortunately. The first original piece I wrote was supposed to be a Fantasy story, but it was so terribly written, you’d never know. My characters were perfect and I kept changing my mind about what would happen. Admittedly, I wasn’t very mushy when I was younger; a lot of people died in my stories. I also started a Science Fiction story, in the form of a screenplay, based on a very strange dream I had once. It was supposed to be a kind of futuristic spy story but it didn’t really work out as I had planned. I’m hoping one day I might be able to revive that.

I tend to write a lot of romance too, including one story I had planned around an experience my friend had, which I still think is an intriguing idea, although I could never decide whether to write it as a screenplay or a book. There were probably a lot of other romances too, that were too bad to worth mentioning. There was one screenplay that was ridiculously cliché and just had a terrible storyline. I kind of stole from a whole bunch of movies too. It was terrible.

I also started this Murder Mystery novel that was titled Motion Picture Soundtrack, just as a working title, and I had it planned out chapter by chapter, and it just never really worked out. I kind of got bored of it, though I think with a little tweaking and better writing it could still come into its own some time.

Of course, what kind of writer would I be (especially in this day and age) if I hadn’t dabbled in writing about Vampires? I’ve always loved them (before they were sparkly), and a little more than a year ago I tried to plan a trilogy and failed miserably. Then back in January I sort of tried again and kept changing my mind as to what would happen with it all, so I sort of gave up in the end (for now). I’ve been looking over my material recently though and I’ve found some decent stuff, so I’m thinking about maybe merging my two ideas and seeing how that goes.

Also, I have an account on FictionPress.net where I’ve been meaning to post some of my original stuff, but none of it has ever been finished. I have posted one story on there titled What? Which was written in the space of about half an hour and I kind of liked it. I also wrote a story for a school writing competition that I won some money for, but I’m actually going to turn that into a novel so I still haven’t decided if I want to post the original short story up or not.

FFI: And can you tell us what you’re working on at the moment?

SRL: Mainly I’ve been working on this idea based around the short story I wrote. I’ve come up with the idea loosely based around the song Read My Mind by The Killers, because it’s one of my all time favourite songs and the lyrics are just brilliant. I’ve named the story after the song, and have based it on the lyrics, although hearing the lyrics and reading the story you might not be able to tell. It’d be hard to know. If I ever wanted to get it published as a novel (if it ever gets finished), I’d definitely try and get in touch with the band to ensure that it would be ok with them.

I’ve also been throwing some Steam Punk Science Fiction ideas around in my head, based on a psychic girl who comes from across the universe and works on a tourist ship. I’m kind of excited about this idea, but I’m not quite sure how to structure it, so that’s on the backburner at the moment. I’m still working through my Vampire stories at the moment, trying to find the good parts that I want to keep, and finding a way to mould the two stories together. I also started a story last January about a young prisoner, telling the story about how he ended up there. That one is a little depressing, so I’ve been putting that off lately, but I’m hoping it will get finished eventually.

I’ve also considered turning some of my FanFiction plots into original stories, using my own characters and further developing circumstances and changing things, because some of my plots are fairly solid and might work well in a different setting.

FFI: Wow, sounds intriguing. We’ll look out for all that, definitely. So we’ve heard about your writing, we’d like to know a little bit more about you. What else do you like to do?

SRL: I love to sing. It’s one of my favourite things, because I just love music. It’s a really huge passion of mine. I also love to act as well, so I’m hoping to do the whole Broadway scene one day, which would be a dream come true. I love to read and watch movies, which are two things I can be found doing a lot. There are a few tv shows I love, but there aren’t a lot of shows I really get into enough to watch them consistently.

FFI: Tell us some of your favourites.

SRL: When it comes to books, there’s a huge list. My favourite would have to be Howl’s Moving Castle, but Lord of the Rings would come a close second, followed by Pride and Prejudice. I also really love The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter along with the Twilight Series. There is a series of books that I absolutely adore but there’s no name for the series, so it gets tedious naming them all, but they’re by Megan Whalen Turner, and they’re called The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and The Kind of Attolia. They actually made me enjoy politics.

Audience laughs.

Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is also one of my favourite series’. Tolkein, Lewis and Dr. Seuss would have to be the three authors I would name as my favourites, as well as my brother, who is brilliant and should be famous.

Some of my favourite movies include Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Stardust, She’s the Man, Clueless, Casablanca, Pride and Prejudice, anything by Miyazaki and a lot of other stuff. I like art house and independent films as well. New Moon has just recently shot to the top of my list of favourite movies now though. Oh, and any Musical, I love. Anything by Shia LaBeouf is amazing, because he’s amazing.

Tv wise, I like a lot, but hardly any of it still shows on tv. I love Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, as well as Roswell, Stargate SG-1 and Alias. Obviously, I love Sci Fi. I also really love Gilmore Girls and enjoy Gossip Girl also. There are a lot of anime shows I love also, but there’s too many to name; I’ll mention Naruto and Bleach as my favourites, however. I also love the Disney Channel, especially Wizards of Waverly Place and Sonny With a Chance, as you can see by some of the stories I’ve worked on. The American Office is also hilarious and brilliant, but my favourite show at the moment, by far, would have to be Glee! I absolutely adore it.

FFI: You mentioned you like to sing earlier, and you seem to like musicals, so tell us about your favourite musicians.

SRL: Wow, ok, there are a lot of them, so I’ll restrict it to just my very favourites. Bands wise, I love Radiohead and Muse, as well as Kings of Leon. The Killers and McFly would have to be my other two favourites. Single artists I love include Jamie Cullum, who sings a type of hybrid Jazz that I just adore, and John Mayer. He’s an absolute genius and I adore his lyrics. I also have family members who are in bands that I love. And last, but not least, my band: two of my best friends and I are in a vocal group we’ve dubbed The Dual Citizens. You should go check out our MySpace page.

FFI: Tell us about your friends.

SRL: Most of my closest friends are actually from my Church, where my dad is the pastor. I have a few good friends at school, and my best friend lives about an hour away. She used to be at our Church with her family but they moved away to start a new Church. I miss her a lot, because I don’t get to see her particularly often, but we survive.

FFI: And what part do your Church and your faith play in your life?

SRL: My faith is the most important thing in my life. God has been incredible to me in everything He’s given me, and I guess you could say that I’m only on here, writing because God gave me the talent and passion for it. I thank Him every day for everything He’s given me, and I know I wouldn’t be able to live without Him.

As for my Church, they’re like my extended family. My parents were both born in America, so all their brothers and sisters and their parents and my cousins and their kids all live in America. I miss them a lot, because I don’t get to see them often, but it means that my Church has become something really special to me, because they’re like a second family. I’m so thankful and blessed by God to have them. I’m also on the Worship Team at my Church, because, as I said, I love to sing, and there’s nothing better I can do with my voice than to praise God.

My Youth Group is also a huge part of my life. I have become so close to my leaders and fellow Youth over the last couple years, and I don’t know what I would do without them. They are so special to me and I love them so much.

Lastly, last year I joined a FanFiction Prayer Group that has been the biggest support to me. They have been praying for me faithfully and for things going on in my life and I am so thankful that God placed them all in my life. Thank you so much (if you’re reading this) guys, I appreciate it so much.

FFI: A few more questions Saralisa: are there any authors or stories you would recommend to any FanFiction readers who might be interested in some fandoms you enjoy?

SRL: Well, before I talk about some of the stories I would recommend, I would just like to say that my close friend TJPJ4610 is an absolutely brilliant author, and you should check her out here on FanFiction, and on FictionPress.com. She writes some brilliant Harry Potter stories if you’re interested in that (although the pairings she ships aren’t my favourite), and she also wrote a story for me about Sirius Black, with me as the main character, titled Sirilisa, a mesh of my name and his. She was also the one you wrote Obliviate with and who Snisha is dedicated to and was written about.

As for recommended stories, all of the oneshots on my Favourites list come highly recommended. I don’t favourite stories often, and if I do, they have normally affected me emotionally in some way and are very well written. The one exception to this is Anniversary, by BewareMySpork, which is kind of a comedy oneshot. It was a particularly brilliant idea on her part.

As for the chapter fics that are on my Favourites list, I’ll tell you about them. Facets is actually more like three oneshots puts together (although it will be four when it’s done) and is a brilliant look at how the Pevansie children (from Narnia) react to each other and how their personalities changed during The Golden Age of Narnia. It’s very well written and is actually the only story on my Favourites list that isn’t complete.

In Fire, In Ice is also a very well written story, and I appreciated it because I’m a Jalex shipper (for Wizards of Waverly Place), but I don’t particularly like the idea of incest between them, and it became fairly unincestuous. For all you Jalex shippers out there, check it out: I loved it. The only other chapter story I favourited was Twelve Months, by EmbracingRain, who is a really fantastic author. It’s a Channy story, and is unlike anything else on my Favourites. It made me laugh and cry and squeal and I’ve now read it twice because I liked it so much, and it is absolutely brilliantly written.

FFI: Before we finish off, Saralisa, is there anything in particular that you look for in a story you would want to read? What kind of aspects would compel you to review a story?

SRL: Well, first of all, it had to be a story about a fandom that I read FanFiction about. These include, at the moment, as my preferences are subject to change, Gossip Girl, Harry Potter, Howl’s Moving Castle, Sonny With a Chance, Wizards of Waverly Place, Wicked, Narnia, Just My Luck and Glee. The stories I read are also mostly romance stories, as I love a good romance, although occasionally I’ll get stuck into a story that’s not, especially if it’s a oneshot. If it a story is a romance, it usually needs to be about a pairing that I read or ship. Here are some of the pairings I ship for the fandoms I previously mentioned.

For Gossip Girl, I tend to ship Dan/Blair, as I think they would be divine together, and almost anything Cannon but Dan/Serena, because I despise Serena. Mostly I just read Dan/Blair though.

For Harry Potter, which I don’t read often, but that I love, I mostly read Cannon, especially James/Lily. I also love Sirius/OC fics and other Marauder stories, as well as Harry/Ginny very occasionally. Recently I’ve also discovered the joys of Draco/Luna, which is fun because they would have the blondest blonde children ever and they’d be totally cute together.

For Howl’s Moving Castle, I pretty much ship everything Cannon, but especially Howl/Sophie. As for its sequels, I’m a semi-Peter/Charmaine shipper, although it depends on the circumstances.

For Sonny With a Chance I’m obviously a massive Channy shipper, because they are squee worthy and I just absolutely love them. Tawny and Grady also seem to be cute together, and somehow Nico and Portlyn. But I’ve never really read any stories about them. Who knows though?

Wizards of Waverly Place has me wanting to kill Disney for making Alex and Justin brother and sister, because they have so much chemistry and so much unresolved sexual tension, and it kills me. Incest is kind of disgusting, so reading Alex/Justin, I would prefer if it was non-incest.

Wicked wise, I love Elphaba/Fiyero because they are adorable, and will sometimes see myself happy for Glinda/Boq or Glinda/OC, because she doesn’t deserve to be lonely.

As for Narnia, I love to read Peter/OC and Edmund/OC fics. I love those boys, and if it’s set during The Golden Age, even better.

Just My Luck has me wishing I could marry Tom from McFly, I particularly love Tom/OC fics, but I will read the other guys/OC as well, because they’re all adorable.

As for Glee, I’ve found my OTP in Puckleberry. They are the cutest thing since… something cute, and make me turn all mushy inside. I also, however, found myself reading a Puck/Emma story and it was kind of good, so I’m not completely opposed to other pairings; it’s just that with good Puckleberry stories hanging around, I don’t have time to read other ships.

Other than that, I am always looking for good spelling, grammar and punctuation in stories, as unedited and grammatically incorrect stories bother me a lot, to where I can’t really stand to read them, depending on how atrocious the mistakes are. I also look for well-written stories that make sense and have an interesting plot line, because what’s a story without a good plot? Good characterisation is really important to me too, because I don’t often like to see the characters OOC, unless it’s justified to some extent or turns out… interesting.

If you story only possessed one or two of these things, you might get a review from me, depending on how much I enjoyed the story, but if your story contains most or all of these things, you’ll definitely get a review. Sometimes whether I review or not is based on how much time I have, especially thinking about reviewing every single chapter. If your story doesn’t possess any of these qualities, I won’t certainly won’t review it and I probably won’t read it.

If you ask me to read a story of yours or a friend’s, I will eventually get around to it. I will try my best to review it also, as I’m not completely heartless and you personally asked me to.

(29.11.09)

FFI: Are there any final comments you would like to make, Saralisa?

SRL: Yes, there are a few things I wanted to make my audience aware of. First of all, in writing Soundtrack to My Life, I’ve been listening to a playlist I made to inspire me for the story, and when I know that I’ve finally finished the playlist, I’ll be posting my selections here. So be on the lookout for that. Also, I would like to eventually get around to creating a wardrobe for any described outfits in the story, so be watching out for that too.

Finally, I wanted to say that I’ll be posting a new ‘Story of the Month’ here every month. This month’s story is below.

Story of the Month

Cacophony, by wrinklednewspaper.

So. This story is beautiful. It made me cry for like, five minutes after I read it. It's written beautifully and is very emotional. It's a Sam/Mikaela Transformers story, and I think everyone should check it out.

FFI: Thank you so much for being with us today; we really enjoyed your company.

SRL: It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Audience applause.