EXCHANGE INTERFACE

Think I picked this up from badfalcon who picked it up from Tumblr.

1. How many works do you have on ao3?
As at today: 947. By the end of the year it will be at least 950, since I have two sedoretu exchange fics and a yuletide to write.

2. What's your total ao3 word count?
3,067,170 - Three million, sixty-seven thousand, one hundred and seventy words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?
I have 91 fandoms on my dashboard at AO3. Some of those are fandoms with slightly fuzzy edges - eg. the MCU & Avengers, Justice League & Batfam, Cadfael TV & Cadfael Books, etc.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
And Baby Makes Eight - MCU, Maria Hill & Avengers
a most pitiful business - Bridgerton, Anthony/Kate
wade into the water, learn to live again - Rogue One, Cassian/Jyn
Battle, A Different Kind - Mulan (1998)
A Woman Of Edges - MCU, Maria Hill/Steve Rogers

It's a bit odd, actually - as little as three years ago, that would have been entirely an MCU top five. For the others to catch up so significantly is pretty big. (Probably helps that Bridgerton is a big fandom with lots of A/K shippers, and Rogue One got a second wind after Andor. No idea why Mulan suddenly hit the bigtime, though. Even with the movie, I wouldn't have expected people to come looking, because I don't think Shang (as Shang) is in the live-action movie.

5. Do you respond to comments?
Yes. Mostly. I've been through periods where I replied to every single comment, and others where I just couldn't face replying. And sometimes if people went through my fics one by one and commented on a slew of them at once, I didn't reply to all their comments because that felt kinda stupid. I did comment to them at least once, though. And I do read all the comments.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Oof. So it might be 'Every Breaking Wave' which runs under the premise 'Steve is the Time Traveller's Husband', or it might be 'The Worth Of A Woman' which is the Avengers finally comprehending the cost of the power they so casually wield.

In the case of 'the worth of a woman' I didn't even know how it was going to end until I wrote Clint and Wanda's conversation and suddenly I realised this was not going to have a happy ending.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
'Happiest' is a misnomer. The most satisfying ending I wrote was in 'And Baby Makes Eight' - there's a reason it's a favourite.

The fic I'm most satisfied with is the MCU Endgame "divergent fixit" 'the other side of infinity' fic, which is all the things I hoped for from the MCU, and none of which I got. Which is probably why I'm most satisfied with it.

The other one with an 'all ends tied up' and an added 'facing forth into the future' angle is 'To The End Of Love' but by that time fewer randos in the fandom were willing to read Maria/Steve fic, particularly my stuff.

8. Do you get hate on fics?
Not in my comments. I know there's at least one or two people out in fandom who have hateboners for me, and a lot of people who wouldn't piss on my fic if it was burning, etc.

The most memorable - but not necessarily particularly delightful - comment I ever saw about my fic (not on one of my fics, but about one) was "It made me like [pairing]! Now I feel dirty!" Well, it's a tossup for that or, "You ship [pairing]? You must be really shallow!" (That was in a chatroom.)

9. Do you write smut?
Yup. All sorts, although only for specific pairings.

10. Do you write crossovers?
Yep! I have 50 of them, from assorted fandoms. I regularly write for intoabar and the Crossover Exchange, so I have a bunch of stories from those.

I think my favourite crossover is A Sanctuary For All which is a crossover of Caroline Bingley from 'Pride and Prejudice' with Helen Magnus of the television show 'Sanctuary'.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Yes. Back in my SG1 days when I was writing Sam/Jack, some tweenie took one of my fics and tried to pass it off as her own.

Since 2006, nobody's bothered. I write rare pairings so that's no inducement, and I guess I write them characterised uniquely enough that copypasta-ing isn't worth the bother.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yes. There was someone who was translating several of my fics into Russian a couple of years back.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?
I think a very long time ago. Back in SG1 land, with Denise, whom nobody but me will remember. (No, not that denise. Another Denise, who was known in SG1 Sam/Jack land, although she was more Sam-focused and gen.)

Not since.

14. What's your all time favourite ship?
That's tricky. My most consuming one was Maria Hill/Steve Rogers. But that came to a bad canon ending for all involved, and while that doesn't have to stop my love of it, it does make it difficult to play with other fans (most of whom were never invested in the first place).

I've created ship fandoms out of pairings (SGA: Elizabeth/Ronon, anyone?) and built followings from writing characters whom nobody else would touch (because all the character's goods weren't displayed out in the shop window, which seems to be the requirement for the fannish favourite.

Okay, I had a sudden thought

, is the significant incidence of spectrum in fandom the reason that "characters with all their goods in the shop window" are so popular? Because that might explain a metric fuckton of fannish favourites whose obsessive appeal is utterly lost to me. I like them as characters, but in small and measured doses, because they're just waaaaaay too much as characters. Like chillies, a little bit goes a long way.

)

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
So many of them. But I guess A Practical Acquaintance With Bees is probably the one that I'd like to finish most, and...I just don't have it in me anymore.

16. What are your writing strengths?
Characterisation extrapolation. a.k.a. "uncanonicity of characterisation". Basically, give me a character (female) who doesn't get much time in canon, or whose subtleties are lost on most, and I can expand on their backstory and characterisation in a way that helps others expand their view of the character.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?
A desire to write all the details, particularly in profic.

IDK, maybe my weakness is for minor characters who have great possibility for them which is never elaborated on in canon. To some people, this is apparently a Bad Thing.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
It's usually only a line or two, for emphasis here or there. If I want a conversation in another language to be readable to the main audience, I usually go with italics.

I find a translation/transliteration in the language I want(depending on what's available) and then put a hover-over anchor link with the English translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?
She-Ra: Princess of Power (the 1980s cartoon version) and M.A.S.K (a kind of supertech/moral theme cartoon show of the 80s) with a literal insertion of myself and my friends walking into these universes. I was 10, it was the 80s, I didn't even know fanfic was a thing, and my teacher made a class assignment for us to write a story.

If I don't count that, then...X-Men: Generation X.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written??
I have too many fics to have a favourite. Also, there are things you sometimes want and othertimes you don't, and I write all over the shop. So it depends on my mood and what I want to go back and feel in the moment.

A distraction. Sometimes we just need a distraction.

--

AO3 Title Meme by china_shop

Of the 20 most recent titles of your AO3 works:

( fic title meme )

Seen with flamebyrd and theladyscribe:

I have 854 works posted on AO3, and that's not actually the complete set. I have a lot of pre-2008 fic that has never made it onto AO3 (SG1, Justice League, Angel, Buffy, SGA) and which I simply don't have the time or inclination to transfer over. (Not to mention no wish to spam my poor subscribers.)

( Some summary numbers )

I can't find my entry from last year (I think I had one, I don't remember. I was kinda busy.)

My hit count is kind of weird - I have one fic with 17K of hits, but only 81 kudos, which is waaaaay below the usual 5-10% kudos ratio.

Kudos, on the other hand, is more or less as expected.

I'm taking out Counterfeit and Counterpart which isn't by me anyway (it's actually by frea_o, I just did the art) - and that's #1, at 10264 hits/639 kudos. MCU, Natasha and Maria friendship, but more Maria from Natasha's POV.

1. And Baby Makes Eight (12783 hits/603 kudos): Maria & Avengers team, Maria/Steve, kid!fic.

I admit to loving this story - it took me ages to write and the story kept extending on me. However the function and dysfunction of the Avengers (and Maria) and their interactions with each other and Pippa is what kept me writing - and, judging by the comments, it's what dragged people in, kicking and screaming, and kept them reading all the way to the fluffy, happy end.

AoU spoilers: In yet another "I wrote it before the MCU did it" moment (I seem to have had a couple of those), Natasha and Bruce have a conversation. Yes, that conversation. Except, obviously, angled differently since the story has a background Clint/Natasha dynamic.


2. A Woman Of Edges (6211 hits /359 kudos): Maria/Steve, relationship, romance.

The story that really kick-started me in MCU fandom - and made me a name for writing Maria. I don't even quite remember how it started, only that I wanted Maria/Steve fic, I wanted more of it, and I wanted a story that showed both why they could get together and the issues that might crop up along the way.

It was surprisingly popular, given that there were 8 Maria/Steve fics on AO3 before that. (There are 389 now. 64 of them were written or influenced by me. Holy SHIT.)

I'd tell you my favourite scene, but I think most of the story is 'my favourite scene'. But I do like the helicarrier takeover attempt, Maria's family in the diner, and getting pulled over by the cop. And making Tony's jaw drop at the end. Good times.


3. Nothing To Lose (6219 hits/317 kudos): Maria/Steve, Steve is a virgin.

I have a fondness for this one - your classic 'Steve loses his virginity' story (just add female character of choice!) with Maria. I particularly liked writing Natasha and Pepper's sections - the essential practicality of them both, in different directions.

And, you know, the sex was kind of hot. ;)


4. The Guy, The Spy, His Not-Wife, And Their Handler (3742 hits/310 kudos): Clint/Natasha, Maria, action, drama, humour.

It should be a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a date rape drug must be in want of a brain.

So, when you're writing something in a big-ass pairing, you go for a catchy one-liner summary, right? Right!

I had so much trouble writing this initially - it was a Reverse Bang (fic written based off a piece of art) done by pentapus and the fic simply would not play ball. Until I had the summary (and first line) and suddenly it was there and it was moving and it was kinda hilarious and, no, Maria DOES NOT WANT TO KNOW about the state of Clint & Natasha's relationship DO NOT TELL HER NO SERIOUSLY DO NOT.

I think this got recced by one of the BNFs in Clintasha fandom, because the hit-and-kudos count went seriously up about a month after I posted it.


5. Give A Girl A Moment And She'll Take You For All You've Got (5967 hits/305 kudos): Maria, Pepper, Natasha, Jane, Darcy, girls' night out, action/adventure, mystery.

This one should be blamed on madjm, although I think she was hoping for the story to be about Natasha - Maria was totally tagged on the end of the prompt like an afterthought.

This was one of my most popular stories for ages (well, I guess it still is, it's in the top 10): five women, a night out in New York after The Avengers movie, what could go wrong? I don't even remember the process of how I worked it all out anymore, just that I had big plans for where this was going to go, and they fizzled.

I'm trying to finish the sequel for wipbigbang...three years late. Oh well, you know, better late...


6. Mako Mori And The Eleventy-One Thousand Bridezillas (3096 hits/296 kudos): Mako/Raleigh, fluff, post-movie.

Confession: this was reaction fic. Someone in PR wrote a post-movie fic where everyone lives and nobody dies (including Yancy) and Raleigh and Mako were getting married and Mako became a Bridezilla. And when Raleigh mentions this to his brother and Chuck, Yancy says something to the effect of, "Women. They do this." Which: WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK.

Because Mako Mori and bridezilla do not go in the same sentence, unless it's "Mako got so angry with the reporter who asked (for the fourth time) if she was going to go bridezilla on Raleigh, that she stood up, unclipped her mic, set it down on the coffee table, and walked out of the interview without a further word but with Raleigh one step behind."

So this fic is Mako and Raleigh and how they work their way towards marriage. Or, more specifically, how Raleigh works the conversation towards them getting married. (Because Mako isn't thinking of naming and claiming: he is hers and she is his and the formalities aren't necessary.) But there was a lot of cute in there. And awful carpet. And squeaky-spring sex.

(I think people really liked the sex.)

There are no actual bridezillas in the fic yet. Assuming I ever get Part 3 done, everyone else will become a bridezilla, while Mako is all "I just want to marry Raleigh; can't we do this without the fuss?"


7. Hidden In Plain Sight (hits 2083/kudos 281): Maria Hill, Nick Fury, post-CA2, character study.

I think this is the story with the best hit/kudos ratio in the top ten - over 10%, which is my benchmark, although it skews the longer a story is up, and the more chapters it has.

Out of the post Cap2 fics I've written, I think this is still my favourite. It's clever. It's sharp. It looks at both Fury and Maria, the things that made them, the things that hold them together. And it does an excellent job of showing just how deep the trust between Fury and Maria runs - and a little bit of why.


8. Necessity (The Lion-Taming Remix) (hits 2770/kudos 273): Maria Hill & the Avengers, drama, humour.

A remix fic which the remixee never commented on or kudosed. *shrug* Considering the original one was about Thor and nudity and didn't mention Maria at all, I think she wrote this one off as a bad debt. Such is the danger of Remixes - you might get something to your tastes, you might not.

(Incidentally, femmeremix 2015! BE THERE OR I KILL YOU DED!)

Maria Hill and the Avengers and nudity. For great hilarity - and not. Maria and Natasha and Steve getting out of the facility is obviously my favourite, but the opening scene with Natasha is good too: do or die - and Maria would rather do.


9. Like Fish Need Bicycles (hits 4342/kudos 272): Maria Hill / the Avengers, humour.

Some post at Avengers Headcanons on Tumblr prompted this. "All the Avengers have asked Maria Hill out at some point." It was fun to write, and kind of funny - one could just imagine Maria not noticing - or noticing and ascribing entirely the wrong angle to it. My favourites out of these are Bruce and Steve, although Fandral trying to outmatch Thor was entertaining, and Maria is right: a fertility god with performance anxiety? HILARIOUS.


10. The Naming Of Foxes (hits 5918/kudos 268): Mako/Raleigh, post-movie, relationship

This is the story that made my name in Pacific Rim fandom. Amidst a thousand thousand other Mako/Raleigh stories, this one managed to catch fandom's attention - possibly because it didn't go straight for Drift=soulmates, but worked its way through the relationship dynamic until they reached love. It's probably much the same thing as why No Fate was so popular: compatibility is not destiny, and destiny is not love. I gather there aren't many stories in fandom which explore this.

So, 8 MCU (Maria-centric), 2 Pacific Rim (Mako/Raleigh); relationships and humour and a little quirky. That seem to be my bag - or, at least, the bag that people want to read from me. Which is fine - I rather like writing relationships with humour and a little quirky!