Booking Through Thursday

Apparently it's been more than three years since I participated in Booking Through Thursday. A bit boggling to think about. I love this blog (and the associated community of book lovers) so one of my goals for the upcoming month is to start answering BTT questions again.

What do you think of fanfiction? In general—do you think it’s a fun thing or a trespass on an author/producer’s world? And of course, obviously specific authors have very firm and very differing opinions about this, yet it’s getting more popular and more mainstream all the time. Do you ever read or write it yourself?

I unabashedly love fanfiction - and I owe a lot to it.

I discovered fanfiction when I was a teenager in love with J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. I had written some bits and pieces of self-insertion fanfic of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, but I had no idea there were entire communities of people on the internet posting and discussing works of fiction based on other authors' works. I think Fiction Alley was the first place I read Harry Potter fanfic. And it didn't take long before I was writing and posting my own. I had a few friends doing it too and we all shared and reviewed our work together (also my first real intro to beta-reading).

Although I mostly stopped writing fanfic when I got to college (read: I was bored bored bored in high school), I remain a strong supporter of those who are still doing it. I cannot say enough about how writing fanfiction and participating in the fanfiction community helped me as a writer. I learned how to write short stories, how to plot novels, how to edit my own work, how to review other people's work... and most importantly I learned that I love writing and can't imagine NOT writing.

As for fanfiction being a trespass on someone else's world, I don't see how it's any more hurtful than people who do cosplay of their favorite characters from movies and tv (and books for that matter!). Speaking from a writer's perspective, I would be thrilled if someone wanted to write fanfiction of my worlds - how flattering is it that someone got so invested in your fictional world that they wanted to live there too? As long as fanfic writers aren't trying to pass off their work as the original author's or attempting to make money off it, I'm cool with fanfiction.

(And, of course, we've seen fanfiction result in some runaway bestsellers. So... there you have it.)

Anxiety

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.  
- Albert Camus

I don't know what it is lately, but I've been having way worse anxiety than usual. (So all of the flower photos in this post are my attempt to cheer myself up and achieve a sense of peacefulness.)

 On Monday I had a "I'm spiraling into depression and don't know how to clamber out again" morning. For those of you who have never experienced this.... It involves a lot of thoughts in the vein of horrible self-loathing and doubt which then crash into a wave of apathy so huge you can pretty much do nothing but sit somewhere (pretty much wherever you happen to be when it hits) and stare at the wall. 

I managed to get myself to the point of "okay, I'm going to distract myself from all of this non-feeling and awfulness" by watching a lot of pointless tv and playing video games... And then yesterday, the boy and I had a very strange fight - and my anxiety levels shot through the roof so suddenly that I almost blacked out. 

That's never happened to me before. It was like having a five minute panic attack without the heart palpitations. Instead, I felt dizzy and sick and my vision went totally dark before I made myself lie down.

So this morning when I woke up, I resolved to be better to myself. I got out of bed and made myself a nice breakfast. I did the dishes and the laundry. I walked around downstairs picking up things that belong elsewhere. And then I sat down at my computer to write.

BOOM. Crushing waves of panic in my chest. Now I'm having the heart flutters and lightheadedness I associate with a panic attack.

I just want to say: WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON.

Okay. I'm done. More flowers:

Final note: Yes, I took all of those pictures.

New story blog!

Hi, all. I know I'm awful at the frequent update thing. But part of what has been keeping me away is a new project. I just started a story blog for a "magical girl" project I'm working on... Holyoak Five.

Link to Holyoak Five

A brief summary: 

Ever since the Witches Recognition Act of 1999, modern society has come to accept witches as a part of life. But as most witches continue to lead solitary lives out of the public view, there aren’t many who see them day to day. This isn’t true for the residents of Holyoak, Vermont. Every year over a hundred young witches come to study their craft on the hill overlooking town at the Witches College of Holyoak.

And this year, the college is getting five new students destined to change the craft forever.

If it sounds interesting to you, please check it out! Read it especially if the idea of Sailor Moon meets Kiki’s Delivery Service with a dash of Harry Potter tickles your fancy. I am also running a Tumblr for it (Holyoak Five on Tumblr) so you can try a different format if that's more your style.

I'm pretty excited about this project. It's something fun and easy to write, and hopefully enjoyable to read. It'll get heavier as the series progresses, but the beginning should be fairly light and fluffy. Although even as I say that, the first post is a bit on the downer side.... Ah well! All stories must begin somewhere!