HELLO THERE!

About me: I came to Anne early and she went in deep. I have been dreaming up stories about her for years, but only discovered Fanfiction existed in 2013, and I remember thinking:

"You mean there's a place where you can write about your favourite characters and people will read it?"

As Anne says, it was like discovering a goldmine.

The CANON STORIES

When I first started all I wanted to write were "Between the Lines" stories, otherwise known as "Behind the Scenes". They were the stories that excited me most, because it meant I could fill in all those tantalising gaps in canon. I wanted these stories to feature the sorts of things a writer in Maud's era would never be allowed to publish.

The Redmond Diaries series offers a behind the scenes look at many of the characters in Anne of the Island, and delves much deeper into the love stories of Anne and Gilbert, Diana and Fred, Philippa Gordon and Jo Blake, and Priscilla Grant and Stella Maynard. I also had a lot of fun with melancholy Royal Gardner and two-faced Christine Stuart. It's dramatic, honest, a bit rude, and hopefully very funny.

The Windy Willows Love Letters series is a behind the scenes look at Anne and Gilbert in Anne of Windy Willows (Poplars). These two only had a couple of weeks together before they parted ways, and Anne went to teach and Gilbert went to medical school. So I thought these letters could be a way to show how they slowly (and sometimes not so slowly) got to know each other. The one shots, An Uninvited Guest and Little Fires fit in here, too.

Untie the Knot is a behind the scenes look at the opening chapters of Anne's House of Dreams, focusing on the first days of Anne and Gilbert's marriage – if you know what I mean. This has and always will be (I think) my most popular story and currently has over 300 000 views. Anne-girls know what they like!

Call To Arms delves into the other characters in Rilla of Ingleside, and explores the stories of the Blythes, the Merediths and the Fords in the early days of WW1. This story holds a special place in my heart, it's not the most popular but I love the way it turned out and I will always be proud of it.

Make Do and Mend was an attempt at a sequel to Call to Arms, but I found it hard writing in first person and decided to take a break. I'm sorry Una!

The Story of Leslie Moore began when I re-read Anne's House of Dreams and noticed many discrepancies between Cornelia Bryant's version of events, and Leslie's own admissions. Which version was right, Cornelia's or Leslie's? Or is the truth somewhere in between?

All these stories fit Anne canon and can be read as companion stories to Maud's, or on their own.

The AU STORIES

Once I had mined all the gaps in Maud's stories, I ventured into the Alternative Universe or AU.

Anotherlea is a new sequel to Anne of Green Gables, in which Anne maintains a lot more of the passion and strangeness that marked her in Maud's first story.

Gilead is the sequel to that, which I wrote from Gilbert Blythe's point of view. It's about how Gilbert changed as he fell in love with Anotherlea Anne.

Charlottetown began as a sequel to Anotherlea, but I found that I was much more interested in writing about Anne as a teen, and decided to take a break from this story. I am undecided about whether I will finish it, but I worked really hard on the opening chapters so I thought I would keep it up.

Begin Again is set in a world where Anne didn't reconcile with Gilbert. If you want a read you can finish in one sitting, then try this. It has some mystery, drama, a love triangle of sorts, and two old friends slowly falling in love with each other again.

Graduation Day is a fun one shot, which begins with a scene from Anne of the Island and takes it somewhere else entirely (somewhere I am fairly sure Maud would not look kindly on!)

The Parting Glass is a one shot too, where I imagined a world where Anne had died and Joy had lived in Anne's House of Dreams.

Fever Dreams is a dramatic romp written for readers during quarantine times. It takes its beginning from chapter 40 in Anne of the Island, but instead of keeping vigil by her window, Anne braves the storm outside – and the one in her heart – to tell Gilbert how she feels.

Change of Heart is a return to K rated sweetness and light. This is set in Anne's final year at Redmond when Anne is on the verge of becoming engaged to Roy. It was really fun writing about their relationship and I grew quite fond of ol' Roy. As to who wins Anne's heart at the end, you'll just have to read it and see...

Meant to be plays with the idea that Anne was never mistakenly adopted when she was eleven and remained in Nova Scotia. Going by the wild and imaginative child we are introduced to in Anne of Green Gables, I have invented an Anne who doesn't even go by the name Anne anymore. A girl who makes her own rules, who is wily, courageous and a little less trusting. But just like Maud's creation, she is still the kind of girl that Gilbert Blythe (and all Avonlea) has never encountered before. So far this is unfinished, but I hope to return to it one day.

Four of Cups starts where Rilla of Ingleside ended. It could be read as a continuation of Call to Arms, but it's very much its own world. It centres around Rilla, Ken, Una and a new man on the scene, Teddy Willoughby. It's about the things we cling onto and learning to let them go. But for all that, there's a lot of humour in it, too. I am hoping to write a sequel soon.

So there you are. Ten years worth of stories for you to try! I truly hope you find something to carry you away for a while...

About you: To any aspiring writer here, who would like to write but lack the confidence, PLEASE give it a try. Not only because creating something is so much more satisfying that consuming something, but because your stories keep the spirit of Anne alive. Your ideas, your perspective will bring joy to someone else and there's nothing more Anne that that.

Love you lots, kwak