* I swear to review all the fics I read, regardless of its age, number of reviews, or anything else. Join in on the review revolution (it's so much better!)! * If I followed your story but did not comment, it means I came across it because you're a reader or because a reader favorited you, and I want to remember to go back and read it when I'm ready (I do not read within a fandom while I write for it.) *

Hello! THANK YOU for reading! :D

Me:

99% of my experiences on this site have been super positive and I am grateful to be a reader, reviewer, writer, & Beta-er in such a fun, creative, and welcoming space. I so appreciate 'follows' because no one wants to feel they're writing for an audience of zero (plus knowing people are waiting for a follow-up chapter can be a great motivator), and 'favorites' are great (a nice pat on the back), but feedback is exponentially better than either. Feedback helps to encourage and drive writing forward (especially when inspiration gets stuck), it can shape stories & curb missteps, and most favorably it makes this whole experience communal, connected, and reciprocal. Oftentimes people need a couple of chapters to know for sure how they feel about a story, but if you stick with it for the long haul, it's so nice to know why! :)

FF Basics:

Predominantly I've always written fanfiction for My So-Called Life (though my very early stuff was also influenced by The Outsiders, and some lyrics), but I do also have one non canon Game of Thrones one-shot I wrote in 15 min. on a whim (not to be taken at all too seriously), and two little The Walking Dead Beth stories I've so loved writing they've gotten much bigger and longer than I'd first expected. (Thanks to all the TWD readers, I was nervous to start posting in that community, as though I LOVE TWD!!! (and GoT), I am not an especially active member of those fandoms' universes as I am foremost here because of MSCL — a wonderful, but much smaller universe whose fandom is significantly less regulated than those of larger amassed source material and the codes of sci-fi/fantasy, but joining in on the TWD here (however limitedly I have) has been lovely!)

My main story is the 'MSCL Vignettes';it spans decades in the characters' lives and represents years of my tinkering with the writing (so much more is written (some pieces sitting around 20 years plus) than has been posted (true for most of my works actually), as it's the editing and revising, and reshaping that takes me so long). But if the 'Vignettes' is my main story, I think my favorite of everything is definitely 'What Now?' (and maybe now 'Faith' is climbing the list). The others are side ventures I've played around with. (The 'Jordan: Redux' while odd, and kind of dark, and little read is a LOT of fun).

I posted MSCL ff for years at /forum before I stopped just being an occasional reader here and started posting. I was a sophomore in high school when My So-Called Life first aired, and I fell in love with it instantly. Way back then when the show was canceled and it left a hole in my heart, I started working on my first 'fanfiction'. Though it took me years to know there was a name for it, and a massive universe of it.

I am a fan of a lot of shows, and have had fun playing around writing for non MSCL stories, but some of my favorite shows (Veep, Louie, etc.) and especially my all-time FAVORITE show in the universe - DEADWOOD — I'll never attempt to write for, I just never could.

More on MSCL:

I eventually started working on a few actual one-hour episodes that would have followed the end of the series, but as I felt the storylines were sometimes strained, and I had a particularly difficult time writing Rickie-centered stories well, specifically happy Rickie, which I think the character deserves, I moved on to just writing snippets here and there of moments in the characters' lives. Rather than telling any one particular story, I'm now mostly writing to explore who these characters will grow up to be, and how, and in what capacity, they will realistically remain in each others' lives.

I've had fun creating characters' backstories and working to flesh out their world, trying to live up to the show's beautiful legacy of no one-dimensional characters, and even greater, their willingness to show every character as fallible and capable of projecting their own expectations onto others. My writing tends to be very conversational, and I love the pauses we take in our communications with others to check, assess, or reshape what we're actually willing to say. (A lot of the time I try to convey meaning rather than spell it out, but if that's only working in my head, please let me know.) Most of what I started out posting takes place within a year of the show's final scene, but I have written some scenes set during the series, as well as some before the series, and have followed the characters to adulthood and children, still just snapshots of life. My stories have a cohesive character arch, and I know what fills in the spaces between my scenes, but I'm never going to write it all out (though if something's unclear and as a reader you want some insight/clarification, please pm). Having said all that, I am so impressed by the writers here who have kept their storylines going for so many, many chapters!!

It should be said: that as much as I love, love, love Rickie and Rayanne, for some reason I cannot write for them; particularly writing actual storylines for them, Rickie specifically. If my stories seem unbalanced, because the show itself was never just about Angela, and it certainly was never about Jordan Catalano, that's the reason. Plus, I think Jordan's funny, and intriguing, and as he's the most unknowable of the characters, I think he's the most fun to write for. "You know those guys ... like in the mountains, who make snow, like, as their job? ... I would really like to do that," I mean come on, how is that not a great character? [I guess now that I've quoted the show directly I should be acknowledging (though it holds no legal weight) I do not own this show or the characters -- obviously. Thank you Winnie Holzman, Ed Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and the cast and crew for creating something of such beauty and heart that has certainly done more than 'hold up' over time. On that note, I ran into Winnie Holzman and Paul Dooley on the street once and just gushed -- truly an out-of-body experience. Update: met them again 5/11/13 at a play they wrote and performed together -- so nice, so sweet, so talented! I mentioned to her that I write MSCL fanfic (the play involved fanfiction), she laughed, it was cute.] [Just met Jared Leto at the 2014 Spirit Awards, he said: "It's not raining" and laughed and smiled :)]

Fanfiction Reading Preferences:

Honestly, I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to reading here. I actually actively try not to read a lot of fic that is similar in storyline etc. to any stories I'm writing so that influences do not get mixed. If I've been reading your MSCL or TWD story and then stop, it might be because a story that started out very different from my own may have taken a plot turn too close to my own and I felt the need to back away while I was still writing. I don't do RPF (which gets tricky to avoid sometimes when ready MSCL). I am not hugely into crossovers, big AU changes (including non-ZA TWD or modern-day GOT), or OC-centered stories or typically even OC pairings with central characters. It's not my cup of tea but no disrespect to those who love or write it.

Again, THANK YOU to anyone who's taken the time to read my stories, I hope you enjoy them! A very heartfelt THANK YOU also to everyone who has taken the time to review and give feedback, we all know how meaningful that is. [If you're reading this I'm guessing I either read your story & commented, or you've read one or more of my stories. If it's the latter, I'd love to hear from you! Concrit & feedback keeps me writing.]

Very happy to be here :)

P.S. If anyone's looking for someone to Beta MSCL or TWD stories/chapters, I'd be happy to help (work and real-life schedule permitting).