Dialogue Writer for Ultima 5: Lazarus: http:// , which I never would have been without fanfiction.

I write. A lot. And before I knew how to write stories, I drew them. Of course, a four-year-old doesn't usually come up with the most vivid of plots. I have a scrapbook full of scribble and some very strange pictures of flowers with force-fields and lasers. I'm sure it all made perfect sense at the time.

Fanfiction was something I wrote before I even knew what fanfiction meant. I'm still tempted to transcribe one of my early works to the online world just so people can see that, yes, at one point I sucked. I sucked for quite a while, actually (compared to certain standards ;)), but we write for fun, and the more we write, the more we read, the more critiques we're willing to suffer, the better we get. Hopefully I've gotten good enough that you've enjoyed reading something I've put up. If so, I'm always chuffed to get a review or private message. ;)

May you always be inspired.

Dragon Age Novels

Dragon Age is my current obsession. :) As it's still a game you can buy and play at the moment, I will refrain from explaining the game here and spoiling it. The stories, naturally for fanfics, do spoil the games a bit ;)

Dragon Age: The Kill (ongoing) - is the sequel to The Hunt (below). In Progress, Zev-centric, and it's intended to be fully his adventure for this story. :)

The Kill begins a year after the end of the Blight. While Asleena Cousland heads to Amaranthine to attend her duties as Commander of the Grey, Zevran finds himself sailing from Ferelden's shores in the company of Shianni on an unexpected mission to bring back the Denerim elves who were sold to the Tevinter Imperium by Teyrn Logain. Here there be Blood Mages. Features Zevran, Shianni, Shale, Fem!Tabris, Xai (of The Hunt), with other familiar faces and OCs as the story progresses.

Dragon Age: The Hunt (complete, 125k) - The Hunt begins immediately after the events of Dragon Age: Origins, which ended with Anora crowned Queen of Ferelden, Loghain dead after slaying the archdemon, and Alistair far from home after leaving the Landsmeet. With the rest of the companions going their separate ways after the Blight, the story follows Asleena Cousland, Zevran Arainai and Ferrix (Dog) across the Waking Sea in an attempt to find and follow Alistair's trail. For forgiveness, for redemption...or for nothing.

Dragon Age Shorts

And Then There Were Two - Zevran prompt, featuring Zevran and Taliesen pre-Blight. This scene happens after their final mission together, in which Rinna was killed. Also contains a small piece of The Kill for context.

Arainai. Zevran Arainai. - Half of a Secret Santa gift for Corker of BSN!

Becoming Stone - (3k) done for the Fine Dwarven Crafts competition. An account of Shayle Cadash becoming a golem at the hands of Paragon Caridin, a thousand years before the Dragon Age. Features Shayle/Shale and Caridin.

Break Camp! - Inspired by the Zev Thread at BSN, and imagining the hot-blooded Antivan weathering his first few nights of Ferelden snow in the Frostbacks. :)

Cage of Ink - For the Zev Thread at BSN. In his youth, Zevran flees the Crows to join the Dalish and discovers it isn't what he'd hoped.

Diamond Dust - (-10k) done for the Fine Dwarven Crafts competition. Alternate universe where Aeducan and Brosca are both recruited by Duncan. Features Alistair and Zevran, laughter and tears. Set during the Blight.

Instrument of Fate - done in one hour for the weekly Zevran prompts at BSN. The prompt was Zevran's dialogue: "I often find myself the instrument of fate..." Zevran on his own, as a Crow in Antiva pre-Blight.

Just Add Water - a very short piece of humour with Zevran and Cousland, involving dirty laundry. Literally. ;) Timeline unknown! Possibly non-canon.

Na Mortius Lerno Libertas - (3k) A Dalish Keeper turns to face the old rival who's been chasing him down. For the Asunder short story competition.

Place Your Bets - done in one hour for the weekly Zevran prompts at BSN. The prompt was 'First Kiss'. A piece of humour with Zevran, Dog, Alistair, Oghren and Sten! Set at a random time during the Blight.

Drakan: Order of the Flame

Drakan was an action/adventure game rather than an RPG, but it captured my imagination for a time. It followed Rynn, a young woman who had her brother kidnapped in a Wartok raid. The Wartoks were capturing humans to work in the Grimstone mines, and young males for the leader of the Dark Union, Navaros, who had been thought killed ages ago during the Dark Wars when the hero Heron and his dragon Arokh drove Runeblade through his heart. Rynn set off to rescue her brother, and along the way learned about the Order of the Flame and the resting place of Arokh, who had been sleeping in stone after the death of his Bonded. Rynn and Arokh undergo the Bonding, and eventually find Delon has been possessed by Navaros. Runeblade exorcises the dark spirit from Rynn's brother but as this happens he falls and tumbles into the void. The game ends with Rynn and Arokh flying after him.

Drakan 2: The Rekindling (complete, 40k) - written as a sequel to the game, which ended with the warrior Rynn and the dragon Arokh defeating Navaros in the Rift, but losing Rynn's brother Delon in the process. Rynn and Arokh continue the journey started only two days ago to rescue Delon, but the members of the Dark Union are not yet finished with them...nor is the Betrayer.

Ultima (the Single Player Ultima, not Ultima Online) Novels

Ultima is my first love! My first RPG! It went great up until the 8th and 9th game, when Electronic Arts decided to kerbstomp Origin and say 'No more character creation. You are now playing a blond, blue-eyed male. And we're forcing you to have a romantic interest with this pirate NPC chick.' Yay. Anyway, the core games are considered to be 4 - 7. This is when technology was advanced enough that there could be actual storylines, and before EA decided they didn't want female customers (I'm waiting for the Dragon Age franchise to fall into this pit...please, Virtues and Maker, no!). You played The Avatar. Yes, this was before those little forum pictures were called Avatars, before we even had the internet. Ultima IV revolved around your character, a stranger from Earth magically arrived in Britannia, trying to achieve the mantle of the Avatar, which meant personifying a number of righteous virtues and being an example others could aspire to. Saving the world from various threats is part of the hero gig. ;) While I don't exclusively write 'heroic' heroes, these games influenced me somewhat in that respect. I like writing heroes. Non-perfect heroes who tend to fall over every so often and have their own human weaknesses, but good guys who try to be good all the same.

The Dark Realm (complete, 40k) - My first major fanfic from back in 1998 (I think). Set directly after the events of Ultima VII: The Black Gate, the Avatar Elora, along with the Companions, pursue Batlin and his new plot to fuse the shards of Mondain's Gem of Immortality with the Sword of Chaos, an event that could summon the Shadowlords of Hatred, Falsehood and Cowardice into a single dark being.

The Black Ankh (complete, 140k) - Sequel to The Dark Realm. Set directly after the events of Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, and before Ultima VII Part II: Serpent Isle. While the Guardian has been thwarted in his attempts to leech power from the planes, his Atarkan armies have still managed to invade Britannia. The Avatar and Companions must find a way to turn the tide of war, even if it means bridging the planes themselves for aid.

Ultima Shorts

Blackthorn's Inquisition - This was a flashback done for a longer story that I didn't publish here. The flashback is during the time of Ultima 5: Warriors of Destiny, and features the Avatar and Companions at the mercy of Lord Blackthorn and his guards, from the perspective of some of those guards.

Serpent Isle: Snippets of Elora's Journey - Set during Ultima VII Part II: Serpent Isle. This relatively short piece revisits some of the darker events in the game, from the perspective of my canon Avatar.

Other

Before I started throwing up my ideas of prose online, I did it on sheets of A4 paper. I wrote stuff for the original The Bard's Tale, The Faerytale Adventure and a slew of short games that should never have had fanfiction written about them. Like (the first) Test Drive, which was literally you driving a cool car up a mountain, stopping at petrol stations and trying not to crash into anyone else, run off the cliff or get pulled over by the cops. Most of these I threw friends from school into the games and wrote about their amusing antics. :p Fun times.