This post is not about books in any direct way. Instead, we are going to talk about Me, Me, and also, Me. So if I bore you, you can just go read a book! PROBLEM SOLVED.

Today we are taking a trip down the lane of my life I was trying to separate from this site because the last thing I wanted was someone who thinks I am an okay if sometimes sarcastic douchebag book critic to stumble across erotic fanfiction that I have written (oftentimes badly) and block me on Twitter, or strike me from their hearts, or perhaps judge me based on my creative writing and allow it to discredit my critiques (this is, of course, in order of importance). I have arrived at this point because I had a dinner, in public, with Debi and her family in August, where we discussed how Chris read my porn and it was great!

I ALMOST DIED ON THE SPOT, GUYS. I am not kidding. I was as red as the shirt I was wearing because what, I thought I had successfully hidden my fanfic!, if by hidden we mean “just don’t talk about it!” I cackled to myself all the way home when her husband hit me up before we left and said, “hey, we want those links!” (Okay, it also endeared him to my heart forever!)

I was like, guys, what is this, a stickup? GIVE ME ALL YOUR EMBARRASSMENT RIGHT NOW? Okay, here, take it! *dies one thousand horrified deaths from acute embarrassment*

That’s right! I write fanfiction. I am airing all my secrets (but really not since this was a pretty open secret)! I will no longer dance around the topic! I will come out and say it: I write fanfiction and sometimes dudes have sex. Right up top, so you will know if you want to continue reading this entry.

Here are some resources:

• Fanlore’s fanfiction entry
• Wikipedia’s fanfiction entry

I am a member of The Organization of Transformative Works. I have been a member of fan culture a long time. I moderate a newsletter and co-moderate a gift exchange. One time I wrote makeout fic between a boy and a cactus-like creature; there is follow up fanart (also in color!).

I write stories about other people’s characters for fun (not profit). In fact, when I imagine trying to profit from fanfiction I die of laughter at the thought. If Debi didn’t read this journal, this would be the point at which I would claim to be a talentless hack and take myself down a peg, but since she does and might see this post, I can’t because I fear her wrath, but just realize the chance is there. We’re all readers here; we have imaginations. I don’t think what I’m doing is much different than what book bloggers do, in a way—I am interacting with the text, with bonus makeouts. This post does a great job of summing up all the points I would like to share, but this:

Fanfic is a dialogue going on within a community, and people read each story in the context of other stories.

That’s very true. WOULD YOU LIKE A RECENT EXAMPLE? I am going to guess yes! Ira wrote a 38,000 word monster (which I love), These Unending Alchemies of Honour (FFXII, Gabranth/Vaan, PG-13), and then I wrote this and Sev wrote this and then I possibly caved to pressure and wrote some gratuitous sexy times which I refuse to link, because I’m serious, it was gratuitous.

I’m not saying it’s wonderful, “I should be a published author!” writing (in fact, most all of my fic definitely ISN’T, hahaha what a joke), but it’s fun and I love doing it for a lot of reasons. I feel strange talking about fandom here, because I don’t cross the streams very often this direction. I am pretty open about the book community over there, but not open about my hobbies over here. Possibly it is the amount of dudes making out and how I perceive the heterosexism over here. WHO KNOWS.

I mean, it’s not always the classiest place to hang out¹, especially if you’re not a fan of sexy times. It’s getting harder and harder for me to act like I’m not a fanfic writer over here, especially because of all the YA books I’m reading (and pining for fanfiction for, Graceling, The Knife of Never Letting Go, I’m looking at you!). I probably wouldn’t be book blogging without fandom, because reading Harry/Draco fanfic back in 2001 made me read the Harry Potter series which got me back into reading after I had fallen away.

Anyway, so in case in the future I meet people (Chris! Nymeth! Debi Round Two! Everyone Else When I Make It To BEA One Day!) I thought: I will just be upfront so these people know this about me and they can judge me and avoid me if they see the porn girl coming toward them on the convention floor. No awkward conversations necessary! No, really. I swear. I will not go cry in the bathroom after you’ve turned away from me and thankfully I will not know when you unsubscribe to my feed so I definitely won’t cry over that.

Definitely no crying here. >.>

To end this, I will share some things that other people wrote. Some are readable without the original source material, while some aren’t. I am probably revealing more in my recommendations that I have anywhere else. But…I am okay with that. I stuck to gen fic, because well…because. I have already put my kinks on display once in a previous paragraph. I believe I will skip it here.

• American Idol RPF – Fortunate Son (David Cook, David Archuleta)
• Star Trek XI – the fistbump is non-optional (even though I know how it ends, I CACKLE EVERY TIME)
• Larklight – The Alchemists Revenge (Larklight and Starcross are required reading for this, I believe!)
• Final Fantasy VII – A Study in BS (er…violence?)

And so ends the opening of Personal Anecdote Theater, starring me! Other than fandom, I am pretty boring, so there probably won’t be a second act! However, this was possibly epic enough for the next five forevers. Awesome \o/