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30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 1: In order to gain some more insight into myself, I’m going to complete the 30 Day Fanfic Meme. I did something similar once several years ago, back on the old Voyager’s Delights site, and I was startled with what I learned about myself. It made me a better writer, and given that over a decade [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 10: Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn’t write, or a pairing you didn’t like, and found you could? Yes, and I’ve been better for it. I mentioned yesterday that I started out exclusively writing Janeway/Chakotay and that they’re very much a “One True Pairing” [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 11: Do you prefer certain genres of fic when you’re writing? What kind do you tend to write most? I’m well-known for constantly harping about good plot and realistic characterization, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise when I answer that I tend to write as much gen fic as I do ship fic. Even the [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 12: Have you ever attempted an “adaptation” fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom? As a general rule, no, but two of my existing fics as well as an upcoming third one are adaptations: Vulnerability (adult audience) is technically an adaptation of the M*A*S*H episode, “Comrades in Arms,” although I [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 13: Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material? I tend to call myself canon-friendly as I always write with at least reference-able original source material close by, and stick to a personal rule of [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 14: Ratings: how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you’re comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you’re writing is G-rated instead? I don’t usually assign MPAA-type ratings to my fic because there are too many categories. But when asked to rate, I will, [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 15: Warnings: what do you feel it most important to warn for, and what’s the strangest thing you’ve warned for in a fic? I don’t use pop-up certifications or otherwise restrict access to my fic. That’s because I assume that my readers are mature enough to know what they do and don’t want to read, and [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 16: Summaries: Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them? They’re essential if you’re going to archive your work anywhere. I almost never read a fic without reading the summary first, and I consider “I suck at summaries; just read the fic” to be a lazy [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 17: Titles: Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not? I don’t find titles easy, though they’re not as tough as summaries. Sometimes, the title of a piece will become obvious as I write it. [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 18: Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka “bunnies”) from? My ideas come from all over, and I usually have several points of inspiration for a given fic. If I had to pick just one place for inspiration, though, I’d say that I turn to prompts and challenges a lot. I find [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 19: When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use? For those bits of inspiration I get while actively writing — and that does happen — I’ll usually try and start writing right away. Unfortunately, the random bits and pieces that qualify [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 2: Name the fandoms you’ve written in, and how much you’ve written in that fandom, and if you still write in it. Since this site is the repository for all my fan fiction, you can see a list of all my fandoms by simply going to the front page. The story index used to also count [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 20: Do you ever get bunnied from other people’s stories or art in the same fandom? Of course I do. The hard part, sometimes, is making sure I’m aware of it. That way, I can take steps to ensure that whatever I produce as a result isn’t simply a copy of the original. Case in point: [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 21: Sequels: Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels? I’ve written sequels twice. The first one eventually became the second chapter of my story Roses. The second one was a sequel to Vulnerability called “Pilot Memories.” I eventually took [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 22: Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you’ve thought about doing? And if not, why not? I participated in Yuletide in 2008, and I participated in a couple of contests during my 1999-2001 stage of [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 23: When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site? My official archive is here at The Laundry Room — a site that I operate and administer myself — but I also post most of my fic over at FanFiction.net. I’ve also posted several of my items [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 24: Beta Reading: How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren’t any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story? In a lot of cases, though not all, I work without a beta. This isn’t (entirely) an ego issue; it’s an availability issue. There [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 25: Music: Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain “mood” to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet? I absolutely despise noise when I’m trying to concentrate on something. There’s a very long and depressing explanation about [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 26: What is the oddest (or funniest) thing you’ve had to research for a fic? I do so much research for fics that I really had to think about this one for a while. In fact, I have more than once had to force myself to stop researching because I was spending so much time reading [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 27: 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. [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 28: 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. [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 29: 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 [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 3: For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write? I’m going to stick with the fandoms where I’ve written more than one story. In all of these cases, I’ve found that the easiest character for me to write has not been my favorite character to write. I should also [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 30: 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 [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 4: Do you have a “muse” character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn’t about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse? I sometimes joke that my muse is Tom Paris. That’s because I will get into knock-down, [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 5: If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your “muse” or not, what did you do about it? Ruthlessly crossed them out. No, seriously. Sometimes, if a character’s take on a scene or situation just won’t leave me alone, I’ll go ahead and write it to get [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 6: When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters? I actually had to go back through my work (and take a look at my response to question #3) to figure out the answer to this question. When I counted stories by main point-of-view character, excluding stories with neutral or multiple-POV setups, I had [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 7: Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character? I’ve never had my opinion changed by one of my own fics. But I have had my opinion changed as a result of reading others’ work. An excellent example of this is my viewpoint toward the character of Jayne Cobb in Firefly. To [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 8: Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they’re not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs. Given the kinds of fan fiction I tend to write, I can’t completely avoid the use of original characters. My solution is not to even try, particularly in a [...]

30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day 9: For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write? As I did in an earlier question, I’ll stick with my main four to answer this. I’m a relatively canon-friendly writer, and I’ve also mentioned that I have very little exposure to slash (though not for want of looking). [...]

December 2011 Monthly Recap: As my tweets have been implying, this has not been the best month for me in real life. I lost my job, had to cope with plumbing problems in my condominium, had car trouble, and because of all this had to cancel a trip I’d been looking forward to for quite a while. It has [...]

Functionality Changes: I’ve spent some time under the hood of lfvoy.net today, and while I had a number of frustrating moments, I believe the final result is much better functionality. Most importantly, I wanted to bring the stories back to the front and center of the site since they are the primary reason it exists. To that [...]

January 2012 Monthly Recap: January was another month of ups and downs for me, although it was much better than December. But it still had an impact on my fan fiction writing, particularly during the first part of the month. About three hours after I finished writing the December recap, I got a phone call with a job offer. [...]

Meme – Reasons I Write Fanfic: I’ll do memes every now and then, and I found this one over at Scribbler’s Scribbles which does a pretty decent job of covering the reasons I write fanfic. Bold any reasons that especially apply to you, strike out any that definitely don’t, and add three (or more, or less) reasons of your own to [...]

New Chapter: Limits (Star Trek: Voyager, 5/6?): Title: Limits (Chapter Five) Audience: General Words: 4,297 Archiving: It’s already on FanFiction.net, but nowhere else until it’s done, please. While searching for critical supplies, Captain Janeway suffers a disabling accident. Now, as the crew works toward solving a supply mystery, she must learn to live within her new limits. General with a J/C slant; [...]

New Chapter: Limits (Star Trek: Voyager, 6/7): Title: Limits (Chapter Six) Audience: General Words: 4,622 Archiving: It’s already on FanFiction.net, but nowhere else until it’s done, please. While searching for critical supplies, Captain Janeway suffers a disabling accident. Now, as the crew works toward solving a supply mystery, she must learn to live within her new limits. General with a J/C slant; [...]

New Chapter: The Level of Her Dreams, Part One (Earth 2, 4/6): Title: The Level of Her Dreams, Part One (Chapter Four) Audience: General Words: 1,975 Archiving: It’s already on FanFiction.net, but nowhere else until it’s done, please. First in the Seventeen Months series, which is a virtual Season 2. The grief and stress following Devon’s illness touch off a power struggle within Eden Advance. Read…

New Chapter: The Level of Her Dreams, Part One (Earth 2, 5/6): Title: The Level of Her Dreams, Part One (Chapter Five) Audience: General Words: 1,511 Archiving: It’s already on FanFiction.net, but nowhere else until it’s done, please. First in the Seventeen Months series, which is a virtual Season 2. The grief and stress following Devon’s illness touch off a power struggle within Eden Advance. Read… Several [...]

New Fic: Bad Deal (Firefly): Title: Bad Deal Audience: General Words: 766 Archiving: Please contact me first, but I’ll probably say yes. Jayne isn’t loyal to anything except himself, his family, and money. No matter what others might think. Read… This was written for the One Hundred Situations prompt, “loyal.”

New Fic: Déjà Vu (Terra Nova): Title: Déjà Vu Audience: General Words: 612 Archiving: Please contact me first, but I’ll probably say yes. Wash and Taylor have a long history together, but some parts are better remembered and relived than others. Unfortunately, when the memory virus hit Terra Nova, she didn’t get to choose the historical moment being relived. Read… Those [...]

New Fic: Greatness Shared, Grief Halved (Star Trek: Enterprise): Title: Greatness Shared, Grief Halved Audience: General Pairing: Trip/T’Pol (friendship) Words: 1,033 Archiving: Please contact me first, but I’ll probably say yes. T’Pol has an unexpected, but not unwelcome, visitor in her quarters shortly after her mother’s funeral. Read… This one’s for you, Mike. Your mother was a great lady, and we’re all diminished by [...]

New Fic: Limits (Star Trek: Voyager, 1/5 & 2/5): Title: Limits (Prologue | Part One) Audience: General Words: 711, 4029 Archiving: Already on FF.net, but nowhere else until it’s done, please. While searching for critical supplies, Captain Janeway suffers a disabling accident. Now, as the crew works toward solving a supply mystery, she must learn to live within her new limits. General with a [...]

New Fic: Limits (Star Trek: Voyager, 3/5?): Title: Limits (Part Two) Audience: General Words: 4,308 Archiving: Already on FF.net, but nowhere else until it’s done, please. While searching for critical supplies, Captain Janeway suffers a disabling accident. Now, as the crew works toward solving a supply mystery, she must learn to live within her new limits. General with a J/C slant; revised [...]

New Fic: Limits (Star Trek: Voyager, 4/?): Title: Limits (Chapter Four) Audience: General Words: 4,472 Archiving: Already on FanFiction.net, but nowhere else until it’s done, please. While searching for critical supplies, Captain Janeway suffers a disabling accident. Now, as the crew works toward solving a supply mystery, she must learn to live within her new limits. General with a J/C slant; revised [...]

New Fic: Living for Herself (Firefly, 1/1): Title: Living for Herself Audience: General Words: 572 Sometimes you can’t keep thinking. Sometimes you just have to act. Written for the One Hundred Situations prompt, “suicide.” Read…

New Fic: Near Miss (Star Trek: Enterprise, 1/1): Title: Near Miss Audience: General Words: 300 Archiving: Please contact me first, but I’ll probably say yes. Jonathan Archer learned an old cliché was true: his life flashed before his eyes. Read… This fic is an expansion of a drabble (story of exactly 100 words) that I wrote as a part of the Musical Drabble [...]

New Fic: Necessary Nightmares (Firefly, 1/1): Title: Necessary Nightmares Audience: General Words: 841 Archiving: Please contact me first, but I’ll probably say yes. It’s funny, how they always end up in an Alliance-friendly bar come U-Day. But it’s not funny to see who almost starts the fight this time. Read… This was written for the One Hundred Situations prompt, “traitor.”

New Fic: Not Everything is Different (Star Trek: Enterprise, 1/1): Title: Not Everything is Different Audience: General Pairing: Archer/Sato Words: 1,512 Archiving: Please contact me first, but I’ll probably say yes. A lot changed between 1944 and 2154. Alicia Travers discovers that some things are still the same, though. Read…

New Fic: Nothing Overlooked (Star Trek: Enterprise): Title: Nothing Overloooked Audience: General Pairing: Mayweather/Sato (friendship) Words: 1,298 Archiving: Please contact me first, but I’ll probably say yes. Travis is grumpy. Hoshi has a secret. Plans are afoot. What do all these interpersonal dynamics have to do with a mission to explore abandoned Xindi ruins? Read… This story began as a couple of [...]

New Fic: The Level of Her Dreams, Part One (Earth 2, 1/6 & 2/6): Title: The Level of Her Dreams (Chapter One | Chapter Two) Audience: General Words: 1,289; 2,613 Archiving: Not until it’s done, please. First in the Seventeen Months series, which is a virtual Season 2. The grief and stress following Devon’s illness touch off a power struggle within Eden Advance. Read… At long last, I’ve finally [...]

New Fic: The Level of Her Dreams, Part One (Earth 2, 3/6): Title: The Level of Her Dreams, Part One (Chapter Three) Audience: General Words: 1,901 Archiving: Not until it’s done, please. First in the Seventeen Months series, which is a virtual Season 2. The grief and stress following Devon’s illness touch off a power struggle within Eden Advance. Read…

New Fic: Truly the Best (Star Trek: Enterprise, 1/1): Title: Truly the Best Audience: General Words: 1,260 Archiving: Please contact me first, but I’ll probably say yes. Humans have five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. When something can be perceived with all five of those senses, it’s definitely the best in its class. Read… Meet my newest fandom for writing: Star Trek: [...]

New Fic: Vulnerability (Star Trek: Voyager): Title: Vulnerability Audience: Adult Pairing: Janeway/Paris Words: 3,484 Archiving: Please do not archive. Thank you. Unusual memories can surface and strange things can happen when you’re in a tense, vulnerable situation. That’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not always something you can talk about afterward either. Revised. Note: contains explicit sexual content. Read… This piece [...]

New Story: Blame the Twilight (Original, 1/1): Title: Blame the Twilight Audience: General Words: 391 Archiving: Link back to here only, please. Appearances can be deceiving! Unfortunately, when you investigate without being certain, it could also start trouble. Read… Written — by hand! — during a twenty-minute free write exercise in a continuing education class on June 25, 2011.

November 2011 Monthly Recap: This post is the first in what are intended to be monthly recaps to talk about where I’ve been and where I’m going.

Now on AO3: For those who prefer An Archive of Our Own to FanFiction.net, I now have an archive there. I’m not going to stop posting to FF.net, though, since it’s more widely known right now. The definitive archive of my work, however, is here at The Laundry Room.

One Hundred Situations: A collection of short Firefly vignettes written as responses to the 100 Situations challenge, Table #4.

One Hundred Situations: A collection of short Earth 2 vignettes written as responses to the 100 Situations challenge, Table #2.

Returning to Fandom: Courtesy of the lovely Jackwabbit, over this past weekend-and-a-bit more I’ve spent a little time actively being a fan instead of sticking with my more passive inclinations. It’s been a long time since I’ve allowed this side of myself to come out…a very long time. In fact, it’s been so long that it seems I’ve [...]

Simon & Schuster: We Want More!: Open Letter Carolyn Reidy, President & CEO, Simon & Schuster Louise Burke, Executive VP for Gallery Books Ms. Reidy and Ms. Burke: First of all, I’d like to thank you for the latest novel in the Star Trek: Enterprise relaunch series, The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm by Michael A. Martin. I’m one of [...]