Do you have a favorite fic you’ve written? What makes it your favorite?

This is an easy question for me to answer; my favorite fic is also the first one I ever posted online — Limits. It has a lot more of me in it than my own work, and I was extremely proud when I finished it because I’d never accomplished something that ambitious before. As of right now it’s still the longest piece I’ve ever written.

My second-favorite fic is probably In Plain Sight. I worked for a long time on that one, polishing it up and trying to tell the story with a specific tone and purpose. It came out better than I’d hoped, and it’s also interesting to note that this story is actually fanon-based instead of canon-based. I don’t write very many of those.

Finally, I’m also particularly happy with Fate is a Choice. This was one that I actually wrote very quickly, but the real reason I’m proud is because I’ve never seen the episode that it’s based on. I read a transcript online and did some research by reading other stories set in the same time frame. But I was still taking a chance, and when I got feedback indicating that the story was in character and “worked,” I was thrilled.

I don’t put all of my fic online, so if it’s on this site, it means I think it’s at least halfway decent. As such, anything you can read here is something I like. It may not be my favorite, but it’s something I hope others will enjoy. After all, that’s the reason people write fan fiction in the first place.

What is your current project or projects?

I like to have several projects going at once as a defense against writer’s block. This means that, when I get stuck on one thing, I can move to another while I let it rest. The technique has worked for me for several years.

Just as a way of keeping track of everything, though, when I decide that I am definitely going to do a project I put it on the current & upcoming list, which I maintain online both for reference and for the curious. As of this writing, a rough sequence of the next few items finished is likely to be:

1. Nothing Overlooked
2. The Level of Her Dreams, Part One (from Seventeen Months)
3. Limits
4. Extrasensory Perception
5. Disintegration
6. The Level of Her Dreams, Part Two (from Seventeen Months)
7. Yesterday’s Eyes

There are, of course, no guarantees, and things change all the time. For example, my recent story Greatness Shared, Grief Halved hadn’t even been thought about on December 1; and I’m still responding to word prompts and challenges on a semi-regular basis. But if you’re looking for a general idea, the list is a good place to start.

Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?

No. The closest I ever came was many years ago, when I floated the idea of publishing “Limits” as a fanzine to a few friends. One of them offered to do a few illustrations. I never went through with the zine, so she never had any particular reason to do the art.

I’m a rather solitary soul by nature, so it doesn’t particularly surprise me that I’ve never even been particularly interested in collaboration. I’m more comfortable working by myself when working on an outline or a draft.

This doesn’t mean I work in a vacuum, though. I don’t mind bouncing ideas around and, as I’ve mentioned, I don’t have trouble with having someone do a beta read.

I’ll also admit that it might be interesting to see an artist’s conception of one of my stories. I just doubt I’ll be collaborating anytime soon.

Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

This web site is named after a place I used to write: the laundry room in an apartment complex. I moved out of that complex in 2005, but I’ve never forgotten how much I enjoyed that laundry room.

These days, I love to write in restaurants — for some reason I seem to be especially partial to Moe’s — but I often don’t because my Dana gets so much attention. It’s not always easy to write when people come and ask questions, and it’s doubly difficult when I’m writing fan fiction because I might not always want a random stranger to realize what I’m doing.

I type considerably faster than I write (my last typing test result was 113 cwpm) so it’s rare for me to work in longhand except when I’m making notes or planning. The majority of my fan fiction was written on the Dana or using another word processor that I no longer own; but recently I’ve been directly using my laptop, at home on my desk, more often.

My suspicion is that this is because I’ve been trying harder to build writing time into every single day, and it’s easier — and cheaper! — for me to work at home versus a restaurant on a daily basis.

The oddest place I’ve ever written was probably at a gate at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The situation itself was weird — among other things, that trip involved a connection through Philadelphia to get to Atlanta — but I certainly managed to come up with a good story while I was there.