Trying to Return

I'm not going to go into details about why haven't been writing, there's been a lot going on in my life... and unfortunately as a result writing for fun went by the wayside. As of late last night, I'm trying to get back into it. my primary goal is to finish my Life and Death continuation and then complete some of my other things. I should be posting a teaser for something in the next couple of days, and hopefully from there I'll start being able to post again.

For anyone who has been waiting for me to start posting again,  I am sorry I've been gone for so long.

FAGE... The 13th Gift for SapranoStewart (and extras)

 The first time I ever joined FAGE was last year for FAGE 12, but I rejoined this year, and this year I was challenged, because I was given a set of fandoms that I didn't feel comfortable with and/or didn't really know. I finally decided on doing a Luigi/Daisy story as my giftee requested. 

From there, I was given four very broad prompts, and I went with the one I knew I could use, and that was 'reveals themself to be a shapeshifter.' It was a prompt I was sure I could work with. And even before I started the story I had an idea of how I wanted it go, but as is fairly common for when I write a story, it took an abrupt left turn.

Part of that abrupt left turn ended with me having not one, not two, but three different endings. However, most fanfiction sites frown on the idea of 'choose your own adventure,' so I chose the happiest of the three endings... even if, had I wrote this story for myself, I would have chose one of the others.

It's mainly because of those that I am writing this post, but before I share those, I wanted to mention that some people may notice little easter eggs to other games, movies, shows, songs, and more  hidden in the entirety of Sarasa Nightmare... I assure you, that was deliberate.

For the main story, you can visit one of five sites that I have it posted in:

Click the image for fanfiction.net

Click HERE for Ao3

Click HERE for Stars

Click HERE for Adult FF

Click HERE for ADifferentForest

And now for the extras:

Post-Story

B

Luigi slid down the front of Daisy's door, sitting against it uneasily as the beast that Daisy had become roared loudly.

There was a loud bang as the beast obviously rammed into something.

For the next several minutes, the ruckus continued, but eventually it slowed.

As the noise died down, Luigi closed his eyes, promising himself that he'd sleep for just a minute.

…

“Come on, Luigi!”

The loud voice woke him, and he sat up in his bed at home with a sudden start, blinking up at Mario.

“It's Princess Peach's birthday party, bro. You're going to make us late!”

“What?”

Mario gave him an exasperated look. “Would you hurry up? You know Peach has her friend coming from that neighboring kingdom. Princess Daffodil... Dahlia... Dandelion... Something like that. Let's go.”

Luigi shook his head in confusion, not quite able to believe that the last few years of his life had all been some sort of dream, or maybe a nightmare.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words (Micro) Holiday Edition Submissions and Winner

 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words decided to put on a holiday based contest that was focused on the images, using fifty word (or less) stories to chronicalize the image. As with most contests, I did enter. I submitted two entries, one of which, won a prize.

My first submission was Failed It!

It's a short driblet entailing Renee's failure as a baker.

The second is A Viking Yule and winner of the White Elephant Award (an award for a story that doesn't fit any category)

This is based around the wild hunt, for now just a driblet, but eventually I do intend to extend it out to a full length one-shot.

As always, my entries are now posted on both FFN and ADifferentForest. 

A Bit About My Thirst Submissions

By the time this posts, the results for the Thirst Contest will have been posted, though as I write this, it is still several days away. I am writing this completely unaware as to if I will get lucky and win a prize or if that will be another day of bad luck - which, given the way the voting was set up, I suspect the latter.

For the record, had I known going into the contest that the only thing the readers would be able to vote for were the specialty awards and not the traditional top three, I wouldn't have even entered. 

Here's a bit about why.

Anyone who reads my stories can pretty much safely say that I tend to write outside the norm. I'm not afraid to make people hate me and I don't write a story for a contest just to go the standard route. For the record, if you don't know what the standard is, it's an E/B HEA romance... typically with minimal to no angst. That's not me. Over the years I've had people call me the queen of angst, and though I will write E/B, they have to earn that HEA if I decide to give it to them. More often than not, I don't even bother. 

Once in a rare while one of my contest entries will actually get a popularity award, even though my stories aren't the standard. And when that happens it makes me certain I did something right. I actually impressed people enough that they voted for my Lauren story (Lost But Not Forgotten) or my Julie story (For the Dogs) or my Victoria story (Tenetur Per Sanguine). For me, awards like this are extremely satisfying. And unfortunately, with the way this contest is set up, there's almost no award the readers can vote on that works with either of my two stories. 

The two stories I entered into the Thirst Contest were Take It Back and Imprint of Yore, two very opposite stories. 

So, let's talk about Take It Back:

A lot of the people that reviewed this story during the contest have asked for me to continue it. I want people to understand, that I wrote a complete story, and I have no intention of continuing it. I gave the E/B lovers a glimpse of potential hope, but in my mind I don't see a continued story ending in anything other than tragedy. 

Bella has lost everything. She's been through literal, spiritual, and mental hell. And there's one of two ways to look at it. Either everything she's been through is her fault or it's all Edward's fault. You can pick which way you see it. Either way, there's no potential for an HEA, not in this storyline.

With that being said, maybe if I'm ever feeling especially bitter, I might continue it, but understand the ending I see in my mind is not a pretty one. 

In the mean time, I've never been opposed to people taking my fanfics and using them as a starting point for their own - as long as they give me credit for my part in it. So, if somebody wanted to write a continuation ending in an HEA, they could, but it wouldn't be me. 

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Then, there's Imprint of Yore:

Of the two, this is the clear underdog, none of the reviews so far have asked for a continuation, and the review count on the contest is disproportionately low. It having the second lowest count of eighteen stories. 

And yet, I'm drawn to continue this, I want to see the next section. I want Edward and Jacob to find some sort of happy union. I see rocks and bumps and hills and mountains to climb in my mind. And I want it on paper. I want people to be able to read this story. 

So I do intend to continue this. In fact, I see this as at least a trilogy, with rough paralleling to the original Twilight saga. I don't know if it will be a success amongst my readers, but I intend to go with it, anyway. 

Thirst Contest Submissions and Winner

 As is fairly standard for me when a contest is made available (that I'm not judging or validating) I did submit the max amount allowed. In this case, that was two entries, one of which surprised me and actually won an award... mostly because I thought if either got an award it would not be the slash story.

It's making me consider updating my pre-set post that's scheduled to release in about ten hours, but I don't think I will as that was my unadulterated opinion at the time I wrote it about eight days ago. 

So, without further ado, my two entries were Take It Back and Imprint of Yore. 

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Unlike most of my contest entries, which I tend to write as complete one-shots with no intention of ever extending them, I do intend to continue this fic. For more details on that, stay tuned for the post later today. 

As always, my contest entries are posted on both FFN and ADifferentForest. 

TwiTricksandTreats6 Submission

 The TwiTricksandTreats6 Contest just concluded and I did manage to submit a story for it, though it was an extremely tough write for me.

The story I submitted was Frat Party for One

It is now available on my ffn account and on ADifferentForest. 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Halloween Edition Submissions and Winner

 As usual, I did submit the max of two allowed entries for the most recent A Picture contest. One of my two stories did win a special award while the other didn't win anything. 

My first submission was A Regular Salem Witch Trial and while it didn't win anything, I was quite happy with how it turned out.

My second submission was The Soldier and the Fairy, which won the Invisible Man award for a non ExB story. 

These stories are now available on my account on ffn and on ADifferentForest 

Rebirth and Affliction Sneak Peek

A brief teaser of Chapter 20 - Compromise:

We ran side by side for several minutes before Edythe spoke, “Can I ask you something and get a completely honest answer?”

Her words caught me off guard, but I answered immediately, “Of course.”

“Why did you back out after asking me to marry you?”

The question caught me off guard, and I pulled my hand from hers. “I didn't really back out.”

“Oh? You could have fooled me.”

“You do realize I was only seventeen when I d... was turned, right? Maybe in the teens of the nineteen hundreds getting married at seventeen was commonplace, but it's pretty much unheard of in today's age.” I took a deep breath. “When I sort of asked you –” I honestly still didn't think I'd truly asked her. “– it was with this assumption that we'd do it someday. We live forever, after all, but suddenly it was being pushed on me by Archie and you. Before I met you, I'd never thought of being with someone for a lifetime – never even really thought about sex, at least not any more than in an obscure health class sort of way. And I didn't have anyone to talk to about anything; no father to tell me I was making the right choice or give me a pep talk, no best friends to ask about past experiences, and no clue what I was doing. The truth is, if I hadn't met you, I doubt I ever would have married. So with the pushing, I simply... wasn't ready.”

She came to a stop, so I did as well.

“Are you saying that, what? You were worried you wouldn't know how to have sex with me?”

I was sort of surprised she'd actually understood what I was getting at with my rambling, but I scowled and looked away. “I know there's a hell of a lot more to it than the insert tab a into slot b that is taught in health class. Who was I supposed to talk to about my concerns? Certainly not Royal, and completely forget about Archie – even imagining the conversation if I went to Archie is terrifying. That leaves Earnest, and I simply... can't”

“There is Carine.” Edythe pointed out.

“You're right, she is a doctor so I suppose for a very clinical explanation I could have gone to her, but that wasn't really what I wanted.”

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Summer Blowout (Mini) Edition Submissions and Winner

Back in mid February the Summer Blowout (Mini) Edition of A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words was announced, and I wrote my two submissions way back then. 

The first story I submitted was Dance of the Flames, sort of an inspired elf based story that happened to be the judge's 2Brown-eyes pick for her favorite.

And my other submission was a Life and Death Alternate Universe inspired fic, Summer Blue Moon.

PerfectDateContest Submissions and Winner

I've been struggling to write lately, in fact I only just barely managed to get these two stories done. They, unfortunately, proved to be extremely difficult for me to write. 

Frankly, writing at all, has been difficult. I hope that will change soon, but I'm not certain, because I'm not even sure why I'm having such a hard time writing at the moment. 

But with all that being said, I did manage to submit two stories to the PerfectDateContest, one of which won an award.

My first story that I submitted was A Date of a Strange Variety. No one knew this, but it is a spin-off one-shot for my story Necromancy in the Fifth. 

The second one I submitted was Lost My Mind. It won the Bumble Award for best non-canon.

As always, you can click the banner images to be taken to the stories on ffn. The stories are also available on ADF.