#5 is probably temeraire

[aerialcorps]

blood of tyrants (2013) book covers

[wonderfuldragons]

I just finished book 4 of Temeraire, started the series a month and a half ago.

LAURENCE WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT AAAAAA

[zilabee]

@javelinbk tagged me, for a thing! Thank you x

How many works do you have on ao3?

FIVE

What’s your total word count?

EIGHTY FIVE THOUSAND AND A HUNDRED AND SIXTY AND FIVE

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

wild and windy night kissing the blarney believe me when I tell you ways to love you we are all together

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do, I just like fandom and talking to people. I didn't know so much that there was so care about whether people answered comments or not until recently - because I don't care remotely if people reply when I comment on their fics - and if anything I always felt like I was probably annoying people by writing back, because what can you say??? But at the same time, it feels like if someone in the street stopped you and went 'oh god your hair looks LOVELY today' and you just blanked them and kept walking, you know?

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really really have that, because we have the real world for that, so we don't need that. But wild and windy night is my angstiest world so it's the angstiest ending just by default.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

In kissing the blarney I wrote them being happy right through to death, so that's the only universe where I cut off any opportunity for everything to turn to sad reality at any point, whereas usually in fic I feel like the moment we stop looking at them they'll fuck it all up and reinstate tragedy for no reason.

Do you write crossovers?

I do not. But if I did it would be this Temeraire one all day long.

Have you ever received hate on a fic? no not really Do you write smut? If so, what kind? no not really Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don't think so Have you ever had a fic translated? maybe. Have you ever co-written a fic before? absolutely not

What's your all-time favourite ship?

all of the ships. and all of the other ships.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

at the moment I can't imagine ever writing anything ever again and so I fear for all the wips, sleeping quietly never to wake

What are your writing strengths?

I think just my phrasing style makes people feel slightly emotionally fragile, even when I don't necessarily mean it to. And I think it suits Beatles a lot.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I am not very competent, I make all the mistakes and then try to edit them out at the end until I get bored and leave them, nothing sits in the right place, I can't plan, i stop for months when I'm stuck, I rewrite the same section for ages when I know I should be doing anything but. I never know if I'm bothering to tell people enough, and by the time I finish I have no idea if it makes sense any more. It's just a mess. My writing.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Supernatural I think

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I don't have this, if I wanted to write for something I would probably write it.

What's your favourite fic you've written?

wild and windy night, it's lumpy and misshapen and I love it, and I love that I wrote it. I never thought I would finish it and I didn't even mean to write it, but I like that it's there, and that it says some of the things I wanted to say.

[elliepassmore]

His Majesty's Dragon review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: historical fiction, dragons, historical fantasy, alt history

I actually got two copies of this at a book event nearly 10 years ago, never read it, then gave both of them away in 2020, only to come back and read it and love it, lol. Admittedly I like this cover a lot better than the one I had, so it's probably a good thing.

This book is set during the Napoleonic Wars, and everything is roughly as it was in actual history, except there are and have been dragons, which obviously changes some things. I'm not an expert on the Napoleonic Wars, but the broad strokes of it seem to be the same, with Napoleon facing down Britain's navy on one side and a flagging Austria on the other. Tensions are high and everyone is worried about an invasion. The battle of Trafalgar happens with, I think, only a couple notable differences (spoilery, so I won't say).

I haven't read a ton of alt history books (I think the Lady Trent memoirs might be the only other?), so I really enjoyed seeing the differences between what I know of history and what played out here. It's also interesting because it's less of a "what if X won Y war instead" alternate history, and more of a "what if we've always had dragons" kind of alt history. There are a lot of changes to the basic setup of things because dragons are a known thing and have been for a while, so obviously certain accommodations have to be made and some things play out differently because how could they not?

Will Laurence is an upright navy man faced with the end of his Navy career and the beginning of his Aerial Corps one. I did feel bad for him in the beginning since he seems to really like his life and he has a nice setup for getting married soon, but over time as he and Temeraire bond more, I feel less bad since he also feels less bad. Laurence is one of those people who believes in Duty, Honor, Country, and generally thinks they're the same thing. It can be annoying, though it isn't here yet, so I'm interested to see in how things play out in later books. I liked seeing how Laurence bonded with Temeraire and I'm glad that the two of them not only get along but seem to genuinely love each other. He does things a little differently than most riders, but it's to the benefit of his dragon. I also liked that Laurence was open to the little ones and willing to help them learn.

Temeraire is a rare breed of dragon who ends up partnered with Laurence. He's exceptionally smart and is quick to learn new things. I enjoyed his thirst for knowledge and love of reading and having intellectual conversations/debates. He's got a lot of natural curiosity that I enjoyed. At the same time, Temeraire is also compassionate and extremely loyal. He feels for other dragons and riders when something goes wrong, and at times bad things happening to others puts him in somewhat of a depression. His loyalty is to Laurence, which causes some friction when he wants to protect Laurence potentially at the cost of others/England's defense, which I feel like makes sense considering what Temeraire knows at this point in his life. I do think he gets 'duty' a little more at the end of the book, when they're faced with a big battle.

Considering this is the intro to the world and to the Aerial Corps, I feel like we don't totally get to know the other characters all that well yet. There's Catherine Harcourt and Lily, the leaders of the formation Laurence and Temeraire are in. Lily is also a young dragon, but doesn't have too much page time, and Catherine is much younger than a lot of the other characters. She clearly loves Lily, but we don't get a great feel on her yet. Same with Matthew Berkley and Maximus, but they do get a little more page time. Berkley and Laurence hit it off right away, despite things seeming rocky at first.

We get a little bit more page time with Rankin, which ends up being interesting. I'll be honest, and this has nothing to do with the series or the author, but the author of the main source for the research project I'm working has a last name of Rankin and it did bring me out of the story a little every time I read his name. Besides that, Rankin and Laurence hit it off quickly, albeit not for long, due to their similar interests and the fact that he's one of the few Aerial Corps people who isn't annoyed Laurence got the fancy dragon instead of one of their own.

Granby also gets a decent amount of page time, surprisingly. He appears friendly at first, but becomes more antagonistic when he learns what dragon Laurence has. Most of his other appearances for a while are him being petty/antagonistic toward Laurance. However, after spending time on Laurence and Temeraire's crew, Granby softens up and seems to recognize that Laurence not only takes good care of his dragon but also that he's a good leader. I ended up liking Granby and Laurence's relationship and how they came to rely on one another.

Overall I enjoyed this book and liked seeing an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars if there were dragons. It's a somewhat slow book, but I enjoyed getting to know the characters and learning about the world and dragons.

[shakeskp]

13 Books

What’s up readers?! How about a little show and tell? Answer these 13 questions, tag 13 lucky readers and if you’re feeling extra bookish add a shelfie! Let’s Go!

Thanks @sky-kenobye for the tag! :D

1) The Last book I read:

The first part of Seizing Dreams by Fei Tian Ye Xiang, a sort of Inception-ish story. I liked it, though the translation is a bit clunky at times, and I'm curious to know where it's going.

2) A book I recommend:

Have I told everyone about The Scum Villain's Self-Serving System by MXTX yet? Yes? Oh. Anyway. You should read it.

And because I've seen it recently on my bookshelf and remembered how much I loved it, The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne-Jones.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

A lot of them, but let's go with a classic: His Majesty's Dragon, the first Temeraire series book, by Naomi Novik.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

Tanya Huff's Smoke and Shadows, among many others.

5) A book on my TBR:

Alexandra Rowlands' A Taste of Gold and Iron

6) A book I’ve put down:

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, who has the dubious honor of being the first book I allowed myself to put down - I tried several times, I failed every time roughly at the same part, so I stopped.

7) A book on my wish list:

Legend of Exorcism by Fei Tian Ye Xiang! I can't wait for its release.

8) A favorite book from childhood:

La Musicienne de l'Aube by Christian Grenier, the first of the Multimonde series

9) A book you would give to a friend:

Have I told you about The Scum Villain's Self-Serving System by MXTX yet

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own:

The last one I got was the French translation of some of Sara Teasdale's poems, La Flamme et l'Ombre.

11) A nonfiction book you own:

Let's go with the weirdest one, Traité de la ponctuation française by Jacques Drillon. It's fun, I swear!

12) What are you currently reading:

Nothing, I've just finished Seizing Dreams and I haven't started another yet.

13) What are you planning on reading next?

Probably the second book of Seizing Dreams!

Tagging @trinitrine, @tissusetbulles, @marika-art, @seanconneraille, @garnetrena, @jainasherself , @chonaku-things , @redfoxline , @quicksilver-ink , @kalincka , @histoire-de , @artemis69 , @msephy

[beatrice-otter]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Tag Game

@whetstonefires tagged me! 17 was missing, and I searched for the meme and found one that had a question 17, so it's back!

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

256! But that's going back 18 years, so it's an average of a little over 14 fics per year.

2. what’s your total AO3 word count?

1,245,329. Which works out to an average of 4900 words per fic, or 69k words/year. Respectable, solid, but I know a lot of people who've written more.

Oh! But there are a couple of podfics in there, which probably skews the words-per-work a bit.

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Uh. A quick count gives me 112 fandoms on my AO3 page, so ... a lot. I regularly write for Yuletide, and I'm polyfannish, so. A lot. I used to be big into Stargate SG-1, so I've written a lot of that but not recently. Other top fandoms include Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, various DC fandoms, various Star Trek and Star Wars fandoms, Babylon 5, Terminator (especially the Sarah Connor Chronicles), the Vorkosiverse, the Goblin Emperor, and Rivers of London.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Past Lives (a stalled WIP that is a Star Wars time travel fixit starring Finn)

Lieutenant Bennet's Visit (Temeraire/P&P with Bennet as an aviator)

Darcy's Surprise (sequel to the above fic)

Revenge of the Zillo Beast (Star Wars, Anakin-and-Mace-Windu Groundhog Day AU)

Far Above Rubies (P&P AU, Marry Bennet marries Mr. Collins and is quite happy)

5. do you respond to comments?

Yup! Or, at least, the ones that are more than an emoji or "second kudos!" I value those too, it's just ... what would I say?

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't tend to go in for angsty endings. But, as it happens, I did write an ending lately that was fairly dark.

Fertile Ground, Battlestar Galactica, Simon only bothered to continue the fertility experiments because the others demanded it. Things are different on New Caprica. Warnings for canon-typical ... everything

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

How would one even judge? I have 256 fics, most of which have positive endings of one sort or another.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Not really? Or, at least, it's probably happened sometime in the last 18 years, but I just deleted it and forgot about it. I am very lucky, I know other writers who've gone through hell.

9. do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope!

10. do you write crossovers?

I love crossovers! AO3 thinks I have 38, but a few of those aren't really crossovers, just different corners of the same universe, and one of them is the work that combines most of my Twisting the Hellmouth crossover drabbles into one drabble collection. (The ones where I had several drabbles in a sequence to tell a longer story, I separated out to each be their own fic.) Anyway, it averages out to about two a year, although I have not written as many in the last few years as I did earlier in my fic writing career. Most recently, I have:

A Spy on the Golden State Train (Miss Fisher/Agent Carter gen)

Undiscovered Stars (Star Trek/Star Wars, Lando Calrissian/James T. Kirk)

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Oh, sure, there have been a couple of times people have put some of my fics on those skeevy for-profit websites that pop up every now and again.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Twice! Both times into Russian. Though oddly enough, none of my Vorkosiverse fics have been translated into Russian. There is a very large and active Russian fandom for the Vorkosigan saga, so if I were going to predict which of my fics would be translated into Russian, it would be those. But no, the two that were translated are a DS9 fic, and a Doctor Who/Mary Poppins crossover.

Тридцать четвертое правило by Lazurit (The 34th Rule, DS9)

Завтра ветер переменится by Kollega (A Change in the Wind, DW/Mary Poppins)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

That's tough to answer. Does it include the ones that I abandoned, say, 15 years ago and haven't thought of since? I don't tend to post WIPs because I don't like them hanging over me.

Probably Hello, Piccadilly, Hello, Leicester Square, a Wonder Woman post-movie fic about Diana trying to figure out how to live in Man's World. I had a really great hook--they pass Diana off as a war bride--but no real idea where to go from there. Which is why it stalled out after only two chapters.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Worldbuilding, probably.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Endings and action. I am not good at writing either of them. The thing I am most likely to need a beta's help with is whether or not an ending feels like an ending or if I need to wrap things up better, and if so, what do I need to do to wrap things up. And action bores me, and it's really hard to write something that bores you, so I try to avoid needing to write it.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I don't speak any other languages, so I wouldn't do it! Unless maybe I had someone who had already volunteered to translate for me.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Stargate SG-1! It was a spitefic that I wrote because I was so annoyed by all the Broca AUs. "The Broca Divide" was an episode where they all turn into cavepeople, and as part of it Sam Carter kisses her commanding officer, Jack O'Neill, who then takes her to the infirmary before succumbing to the infection himself. There were a ton of fics about that where they have sex instead and she gets pregnant, and afterwards she keeps the baby and they get married and everything is fine and the team stays together and nobody cares about fraternization or anything.

(There were a LOT of Sam/Jack fics out there where like the President or whoever would call them up and say "oh, you're in love? awesome! we'll just waive all the regulations about having a romantic relationship with someone in your chain of command because you're so extra special and awesome. Which really annoyed me.)

Anyway, I got annoyed enough to write a fic where they sleep together as cavepeople and she gets pregnant and things are not fine, actually, there are consequences to it.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

lol

I can never figure out my favorite anything. If you give me five options, I could maybe narrow it down to the top two. Out of 256? You have got to be kidding me.

Tagging @tielan, @alexseanchai, @mihrsuri, @birdylion, @anghraine

[batcrooks]

THE BATCROOKS AWARDS 2023

This year, I kept track of every piece of media I consumed for the whole year. I didn't keep track of individual Youtube videos (which I watched hundreds of, they're my main background noise), but I did track every Book, Video Game, TV Show/Web Series, and Movie. Here are my BEST OF 2023 (year of release may vary).

Best Movie: Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse I only actually saw 3 new release movies this year: Spider-verse, Barbie, and The Boy and the Heron. So the competition wasn't very fierce, but I was glad to sneak Heron in there at the end just to make sure (I found it very pretty, but too nonsensical and weirdly paced.) Spider-verse was a little disappointing (toooo long) but it was definitely the funnest new movie I saw this year.

Best TV Show: Silo I saw a couple actual TV shows this year, but for pure fun had watching and theorizing, Silo wins. Is it the actual best TV of the year? Almost definitely not. But these are my awards so it wins. You can't leave the silo!!!!

Best Web Series: Game Changer Season 5 I'm not sure if I can properly justify the category difference between Silo (on Apple+) and Game Changer; both are technically web series. But I watched Silo on a TV, and it just seems more like a TV show. So I have awarded Best Web Series to Game Changer, because I like it just a little more than Make Some Noise. I also watched a lot of Dimension 20 this year for the first time, but they're not 2023. I'm being wishy washy on the category requirements lol.

Best Video Game: Baldur's Gate 3 This game was so good at one point I was playing two saves simultaneously, just for fun. I don't think I can say anything that hasn't been said about it before lol. And it was MULTIPLAYER. Sourdeer and I played this game all the way through TWICE. We finished it the first time and then spent like 4 days trying to find something else to play before deciding we just wanted to play it again, evil-style.

Best Video Game I Didn't Directly Play: The Curse of the Golden Idol A lot of (usually bad) video games I experience through "Cat Plays a Game" and its twin show "Sourdeer Plays a Game"; the hit show streaming exclusively on discord between my friends lol. Sour played this one, technically, although as an asymmetric multiplayer experience it's hard to beat. I want there to be five million games just like this one. I wish I could wipe my memory and do it again. We already devoured the DLC. There's a sequel coming out thank god.

Best Video Game I Played All By My Lonesome: Pentiment I don't tend to play a lot of single-player video games due to lack of time mostly, but this year I managed to play Pentiment, an incredible game that really played well with the weird amount of knowledge I have about the time period and setting of the game from reading The Pillars of the Earth and its sequels. It was completely engrossing and I will probably play it again some day despite its pretty slow pace. I know I can't save everyone. But maybe I can try.

Youtuber of the Year: Jenny Nicholson I rewatched a ton of her videos this year and joined her Patreon so that I could watch the huge backlog of "ramble" videos she has. There are TWO sequels to the Evermore video in there! Hours and hours of entertainment that makes me wish I could experience more weird theme parks.

Best Book(s): The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik The last one came out in September 2022 but this is a "non-reread, new to me" category, not a new release category. Novik's Temeraire series is one of my favorites of all time, and Spinning Silver is also really good, but even still I was wary to start what initially seemed like just a snarkier, edgy magical boarding school series. But the mechanics of the world-building and the characters really won me over quick, and this has ended up being another of my favorite series.

This spreadsheet has the full 2023 list if anyone wants to see/judge me/discuss video games or books: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X7u2F_9FSvvyys5v006eQg1hIvx0bT3QuLDgy_TJasw/edit?usp=sharing

[veliseraptor]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by @feralkwe - thank you! I feel like I've done this before but if I have it's been a minute so

1. How many works do you have on AO3? across pseuds I have 1,010 works. with my "current" one I'm at 607. that is more or less my entire oeuvre, though there's a fair number of short fics on tumblr I haven't gotten around to crossposting though I'd ostensibly like to at some point. eventually. maybe.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 4,873,723. aYIKES. but hey closing in on 5 million! wonder when I'll hit that. I bet I would if I posted my unfinished wips for the mcu tbh

3. What fandoms do you write for? ever or currently? the list of fandoms I have written at least one fic for (not counting ones where the one fic was a crossover) is [deep breath] the mcu, the untamed/mdzs, supernatural, the silmarillion, a song of ice and fire, black jewels trilogy, wheel of time, doctrine of labyrinths, death note, the caliban leandros series, avatar the last airbender, kinnporsche, doctor who, buffy the vampire slayer/angel, gentleman bastard sequence, marvel comics, harry potter, temeraire, good omens, code geass, realm of the elderlings, greek mythology, dragon age, sandman, dexter, lymond chronicles, the firekeeper saga, lucifer (the tv series), crimson peak, kushiel's legacy, the x men movies, chronicles of narnia, twilight, and a couple other small book fandoms.

i used to be a lot more multifandom than i am now in terms of what i wrote for, and have been writing fic for which is how this happened.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? Not my favorite fics, for the most part. They are:

Life in Reverse (MCU)

With Absolute Splendor (The Untamed)

some good mistakes (The Untamed)

half a league onward (MCU)

The Villain Wrangler (MCU)

5. Do you respond to comments? I do not. I feel bad about it, but (a) I don't know what to say, (b) I feel unbearably self-conscious/self-important trying and (c) I already have too much I'm trying to do in my limited time/too many obligations I have placed upon myself to add another one that will just stress me out. Again, I have all kinds of guilt about this, though, which probably kind of defeats the (c) purpose of not doing it.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Almost certainly Mercy, though it's possible I could dig up others; that's the literal murder-suicide one, though, and I'm pretty sure I've only written one of those. I've written a lot where one character dies but another survives and has to live with the grief, which is arguably worse? but I still think Mercy wins. once there was a way to get back home might give it a run for its money, though.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I've actually written a fair amount of fic with happy endings! just mostly they have to suffer to get there. but trying to think of fic with a straight happy ending...I feel like I wrote some fairly fluffy fic in Black Jewels Trilogy fandom that I don't want to link to because I don't think it's very good. Maybe Life in Reverse, honestly? That's a fic where I tied up most things and resolved them in a pretty happy way.

Oh, or actually With Absolute Splendor might qualify.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I have in the past! Not a lot, but it happens every so often. Usually I just delete it, tbh; it doesn't feel worth leaving it there and I'm certainly not going to respond to it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Sure do, primarily for pairings that are dysfunctional in one way or another, and for the most part I want the sex to say something about the inner life/psychology of the characters I'm writing. truly plotless smut does happen but I find it weirdly difficult. I have to do so much pre-justification work for my smut, at least in my head if not on page.

a lot of what I write at least has a little bit of kink or D/s flavor to it even if it's not explicitly written as such (and a lot of it is at least a little explicitly written as such). I also like to write about power dynamics (in sex) and sex that's sublimating some other emotion or desire, if that latter makes sense.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I used to, but not anymore, and I probably won't; I don't know why, but I'm just generally not a crossover fan these days. But I did write a Lord of the Rings/Cthulhu Mythos Morgoth/Cthulhu fic back in the day. No, I'm not going to link it, you can find it if you really want.

The Scarlet Pimpernel/Black Jewels Trilogy might be objectively weirder but it was because of an RP and therefore feels more reasonable to me.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I had forgotten about it until just now, but yes, actually. Including one that actually got reposted on AO3, which takes a particular kind of guts that's not the same as reposting on Wattpad or the like, imo. (I've also had fic scraped off AO3 and reposted on other sites.) The person took it down when I called them out on it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I have been fortunate enough to have a number of fics translated into a few languages! I was curious which ones so I went and looked, and it looks like I've had fic translated into Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I've started co-writing a fic but never finished one.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? Might have to give this one to xuexiao, though there's a lot of room in my heart for many ships! that's just one that hit an incredible number of my favorite things squarely on the head several times, leaving me concussed and helpless. It's so much, you guys.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? There's a number of my MCU wips that I look at and am like "yeah what I have of this is good actually, too bad I'll almost certainly never finish it", among which is Dead Superheroes Walking, the fic about everyone who died in Infinity War being trapped inside the Soul Stone and having to work together to fix the ensnappening from the inside. I have about 3/4 of it written if not more and the remaining quarter will probably remain unfinished. It was Wanda POV and a lot about Wanda and Loki bonding.

another one is the one where Hela decides instead of fighting Odin to strategically back down and plan to overthrow him later, and therefore is around while Loki and Thor are growing up. I really liked what I had of this one, and really enjoyed writing Hela's POV, but again. don't think I'm going to end up finishing it.

I have a whole folder called "MCU Salvage" that's basically my MCU wips that I parsed out because I was like "these are pretty good actually, maybe someday I'll have the motivation to return to them", which is probably delusional but, well. one never knows.

16. What are your writing strengths? I think I'm pretty good at dialogue - I love to write characters having conversations, probably to a fault - and, when it comes to fanfiction, characterization.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Worldbuilding for sure is one. I hate it, I don't think I'm very good at it. also description - I feel like I lean heavily on dialogue in fic and tend to go light on descriptive language. this is probably partly because I'm not a very imagery-focused reader, so I don't think a lot about creating a "visual" with my writing, but also because I just don't like doing it as much as I like writing about internal thought processes and interpersonal verbal exchanges.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I almost certainly would not do it, as someone who is monolingual and has zero confidence in my ability to do it right in a way that wouldn't read absolutely awfully. The one exception to this is in Lymond fic, and that's because the canon did it first, so it is fully justifiable for me to have this guy spout off in five languages in one fic. Otherwise...not since I tried writing a fake Phantom of the Opera fic mocking bad Phantom of the Opera fics.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I always say Wheel of Time because that's the first fandom of my heart but technically I wrote a crack Harry Potter fic before I wrote for Wheel of Time. But in my heart it was Wheel of Time. That was certainly my first fandom in any meaningful sense of the word.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written? This question is my nemesis. My favorite fic I've ever written changes at least once a month. I have a series for this on AO3 that I'm going to link to as a lazy answer to this question even though that's sort of 50 of my favorite fics, so sue me, I've written a lot of things over the years and I actually do like a fair number of them, even if you have to make me say so.

tagging uhhhh @highladyluck, @curiosity-killed, @ameliarating, @gloriousmonsters, i'm not sure how many people i'm supposed to tag for this but if you want to do it, go ahead?

[wildtornado-o]

Tagged by @a-pepper-honey for the "ten people I'd like to get to know better" thank youuu I love Games.

1. Last song: Blacksnake by Charming Disaster

2. Last book: uhhh. Probably Monte Cristo? Unless scouring through Blood of Tyrants for Forthing content counts

3. Last movie: Anastasia! Good movie I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it <3<3

4. Last TV show: Lord I have no idea. I don't watch a lot of shows. Wait it was Miraculous Ladybug lol. Literally yesterday. My brain.

5. Last thing I searched: "regency gentleman hair" and "iron stomach meaning" Was trying to find references to mess around with Ferris' hair anddd wanted to make sure I used a phrase correctly djsksk

Favourite Colour!: Aquamarine, Orange, and Purple!! :D they're tied and I love them all equally. Pretty colours <3

Sweet/Savoury/Spicey: hmmm. Savoury probably? I'm not sure I just like food

Relationship Status: Perfectly and eternally single <3<3

Looking forward to: Playing more Genshin Impact with my friend :D and also !!!! More new Miraculous episodes <3

Current Obsession: Temeraire <3

I have no idea who to tag uhhhh (sorry if youve already been tagged for this!) @presidentheartbeat6 @verdet-cadet

[solarishashernoseinabook]

What are some of your favourite books? (And if the answer is just all RA, beyond RA hfjhd)

FAVOURITE BOOKS LET'S GO

Discworld!! Just the series as a whole. Absolutely masterful and changed the way I think in my teens

The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green. I read it basically on a loop as a kid. I had it along with four other classic books that were published in a similar style and uh

yeah you can probably tell which one i read the most as a kid

3. To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose, absolute PEAK dragon fantasy about an indigenous girl who finds a dragon egg and goes to a coloniser-run dragon school so she can learn how to raise it

4. Temeraire by Naomi Novik, ALSO a very good dragon series that basically says "what if the people fighting the Napoleonic wars had dragons". It's as epic as it sounds

5. Babel by RF Kuang. SUPER cool magic system based on translation, really neat alternate history

6. The Bookeaters by Sunyi Dean. Fairly dark, but a cool concept about people who absorb knowledge by eating books

7. The Martian by Andy Weir. Really neat sci-fi about an astronaut stranded on Mars, trying to survive until he can be rescued when the next mission comes through

8. Once There Was by Kyash Monsef, about a girl who becomes a vet to mythical creatures. Had a fascinating through-line about grief and healing

hope that was a good enough list :D

[ryehouses]

i was tagged in this by @bobafett, who wants to bring back ask box games! this was really fun and really helped drive home the fact that i am maybe a little too wordy!

y'all know the drill. copy, paste, fill in your own answers! feel free to share!

How many works do you have on AO3? impossible for me to say because i have shed ao3 handles like a particularly robust hermit crab, but if i'm just counting everything under iridan, thirteen!

What’s your total AO3 word count? ......1.3 million, as iridan. if we throw in some of my other psueds and the truly awful eragon fanfiction i wrote when i was fourteen, we're probably loking at 2 - 2.5 mil.

What fandoms do you write for? presently, star wars, jujutsu kaisen, star wars again. i have some witcher fic in my gdocs and older projects in rdr2, dishonored, anything that can catch and hold my attention for long enough for my brain to produce a bit of dopamine,

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? all five of them are in the ast 'verse except for lost country

Do you respond to comments? i try to, but it's really hit or miss! i am painfully shy and usually can only go '!!!!!' in thanks

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? of my completed fics, none! i am not really in to the angst ending. if i ever do get around to finishing it, i started a dishonored/his dark materials au that would have ended with corvo going slowly, gently nuts and taking over the outsider's place in the void

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? i like happy endings, so all of them!

Do you get hate on fics? occasionally. i still think about that one commentor on ast who accused me of blaming the jedi for order 66 like, all the time. mostly no, though, everyone is really nice!

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? i've been told that 'wrestling as nasty foreplay' is something of a signature move of mine, so! 1) yes and 2) whatever kind of smut 'wrestling as nasty foreplay' applies as

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? yes, but almost exclusively his dark materials crossovers. i do have a witcher/temeraire fusion au sitting in my gdocs

Have you ever had a fic stolen? no, not that i'm aware of. i do semi-frequent google searches to see if my shit pops up anywhere.

Have you ever had a fic translated? i don't think so! ast was podfic'd, if that counts.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? i don't think so, because i am a whole idiot and am hard to collaborate with.

What’s your all time favorite ship? of ALL TIME? impossible to say. i am inconsistent and flighty. bobadin hit me pretty good, though

What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? haha too many. i started a jedi!din fic and didn't get far. i've had several WIPs on ao3 sit without an update for years. i have drafted, redrafted, and drafted again a novel that will most likely never see the light of day. finishing even one of those would likely water my crops for several years

What are your writing strengths? i take particular pride in my settings! somebody on ao3 told me last week that i have nice turns of phrase, too, and i am proud of those too

What are your writing weaknesses? i have never once said anything in six words when i could say them in six hundred million billion instead

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? obviously i've experimented in various projects, but i am fundamentally kind of lazy and prefer to sprinkle in a few words here and there instead of spending the time to learn about another language's grammar structure

First fandom you wrote for? the first fandom i published anything in was eragon, way back in the day! the first fandom i wrote for was his dark materials, in a composition notebook in like the fifth or sixth grade!

Favorite fic you’ve written? could not possibly pic! they are all like my children and also my therapist.

i'm tagging @meyerlansky and anybody else who wants to participate! consider yourself invited!

[aerialcorps]

temeraire (2006) book covers

also temeraire/throne of jade/black powder war collection covers

so. i hadn't realised just how many different covers there were for this series. i was trying to figure out who the dragon for victory of eagles is, and it appears that answer will be very different if you have a british or german copy!

anyway i decided to try and pull the major* variations together in one place so i could compare them easier, and why not do that here where they might be useful to anyone else! go go gadget unemployment i guess, time to make 9 near-identical posts lmao

this site was incredibly useful - they've already got most of the variations, so i only really had to look for higher resolution images (there aren't many), and a few of the non-english covers!!

*by 'major variations', i mean the covers that haven't just had the saturation whacked up, or the background colour changed, that sort of thing.

[thiefbird]

14, 37, and 38 for the fanfic asks :)

14) What two fandoms would you write a crossover for?

What two fandoms WOULDN'T I write a crossover for? Various crossovers I've planned in the last few years include but are not limited to:

X Files/Hannibal

X Files/Bones

Bones/Hannibal

X Files/Bones/Hannibal

Aubrey-Maturin/Hornblower(barely even a crossover tbh)

Aubrey-Maturin/Temeraire(same thing)

Aubrey-Maturin/Hornblower/Temeraire/Sharpe

Aubrey-Maturin with a cameo from Real Life Francis Crozier(during the repeating 1813. we only know his location for the singular 1813 he can be anywhere else for the other 5. and one of those locations is On Jack's Ship)

Doctor Who/Aubrey-Maturin(I have a plot and everything. its during the 9th Doctor so he and stephen can bond over short hair grouchiness and captain jack can meet captain jack)

37) Pick one of your fics and share three songs to go with it

i am NOT gonna cheat and pick fics with hozier songs in the title, instead I am cheating and using the entirety of So long lives this (also may pick more than 3 songs bc I Am Do What I Want)

God Only Knows by The Beach Boys: stars? intense codependancy? sounds like Jack and Stephen to me!

Beautiful Night by Josh Ritter: in general this song feels as if it could have been written about Stephen on purpose.

Allies or Enemies by The Crane Wives: So very Stephen and Diana, so very Jack and Stephen in Post Captain, such a good song.

(here we come into Future Spoilers and also show my dubious taste in musicals) First Burn cut from the Hamilton soundtrack. Sophie to Jack in between Letter of Marque and Thirteen Gun Salute.

And a nicer one for Jack and Sophie: Fields of Gold by Sting

38) Pick three of your fics and share a song to go with each

same as above; no easy answers

Love Letters [Hannigram]: The Letter by Natalie Merchant. May be obvious but I definitely listened to it on repeat while writing it lol

teacups and time [Hannigram]: in general the fic was written to a lot of Bruce Springsteen, but i'm gonna go with Thunder Road. the meaning isn't quite the same, but the Vibes (maybe one day I'll rewrite this one, I very much like the Idea but got stuck)

Damage Gets Done [platonic/preslash Renown Trio/Hotspur Husbands]: (i am NOT picking a Hozier song so i'm not cheating) River, also by Natalie Merchant(if you like sad 90s singer songwriters check her out if you somehow have missed her!); Archie may still be alive at the end of this fic, but his eminent death, to me, haunts the entire storyline, and "River" is probably the title of the sequel with a far more grim version of the Great Kingston Debauch.

[realitys-ex]

A Mediocre review of the Temeraire Series

I just finished the Temeraire series finally (I read the first book 15 years ago probably, and read the last 5 odd since Sunday).

Aside from the structure getting kinda formulaic at the end, which wasn't bad per se, and would not have struck me, but for the quick sequence I read them in.

They were rather good.

I took a few issues with parts of it, though nothing too noteworthy.

A few loose ends of various characters should have been addressed in my mind, not major, but it was much like... They were important in their book, or portion, the immediate conflict with them was resolved, and then... nothing? (e.g. Poole, Rankin/Australia in general, Junichiro (if I recall correctly), Riley's death never seemed to be resolved properly (like... he was important enough that there ought to have been a scene with his family), and a few others that I may have forgot). Really nothing major, and there are many reasons that it may have gone that way, but it just felt odd.

Also there were also some characters introduced that it seemed had were set for plot points, but never really adressed.

Ignoring those, HAMMOND GOT ADDICTED TO COCAINE AND THEY BARELY MENTION IT?!?!

Like. Ok. Maybe not actually addicted, but ...come on!

Then there were the bits about Laurence settling down/marrying/having kids.

Now. I aint an idiot. He says he is fine not doing so, Temeraire seems not to care (sometimes against, sometimes for), but it is clear that the reasons Laurence was agianst it for the Majority of the Series do not apply by the end. Now to quote any number of people in the book "This does not signify".

The only reason it bugged me that it was not resolved with some form of permanency (marriage/kid) is how much it came up in every single book. I can understand why the author did so, with leaving the matter the wait it was left, but still terribly odd.

(semi) Finally, and I know it is a lot to ask a alt history book, I am terribly curious how it would impact the next several hundred years. the world wars, holocaust, etc.

Truly Finally: Golden Age and Other Stories. The fuck?

I enjoyed it... but... some of it was fanifc/alt versions by Naomi Novik? A retelling of Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth entering the service?

each story based on fan art?

A good read, but very odd.

[baronetcoins]

Tagged in 20 questions for fic writers, by the dearly beloved @chiropteracupola

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

94! So far.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

169,588

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Uh that's a good question innit. At the Moment, I'd say I have destiny wips, DSMP wips, 3rd life wips, Henry V wips, and Temeraire wips.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright

I will never say the word "procrastinate" again

Who's on first?

I'm something else when I see you

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! A, I know that when my comments get responded to it encourages me to leave more in the future so I try to do so from the other end as well. B, my mom used to yell at me for not replying to her texts because she wouldn't know if I'd read it, and that attitude has carried off into the rest of my life.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Okay for this one I polled my friends because I’m not a good judge of how angsty something is. M, the beta for Oberth Maneuver and half my other works suggested that one, because “you’ve made me cry multiple times w it so”. Kangoo suggested Ophiocordyceps.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh pshh I dunno—I’m only counting stuff that’s longer than a single scene for this, because otherwise it’s not really an “ending”, is it? Gonna nominate either You'll always be my favorite ghost or I felt a funeral.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Oh thank god, no. A kind of pushy anon once who wanted to know about the next update, but not hate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

uh. no. i'm. i'm Very ace. i don't remember people have sex unless I'm reminded of it. I can barely bring myself to write kissing.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

SDKLFJJDSKLFJKSDLJ yeah i write crossovers. My first ever longfic was/is a crossover. I love crossovers. what if I put the guys from one situation in a different situation? Craziest… either Oberth Maneuver for length and investment, dawn breaks (like a fallen vase) for sheer obscurity factor, or then i don't want to be me anymore for mixing perhaps the most incongruous source material.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No! But I really Want to translate I've no language left to say it because that fic is all about language barriers, and I think that would be a fun layer of meta. Someday I'll feel confident to take a stab at doing it in spanish.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeah! Let my memory live (but darling, carry on) with Kangoo and Kingstealer.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Henry V/Montjoy, Probably. But IDK.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

oh eugh I dunno I don't like giving up on Anything but probably the desert duo star wars AU? I liked it and I have ideas for where I want it to go but just..... there are ideas I'm more excited about. You know how it is.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue! Dialogue dialogue dialogue. The playwrights I've worked with have mostly given kudos to my ability to write natural-sounding dialogue, and I'm very proud of it.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Eugh what isn't. Plots, description... but mostly, like... not rushing through things? I'm bad at letting stuff Linger.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Double check your work but otherwise, it's fine? Shoutout to my buddy Kangoo for being very willing to translate French for me.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Destiny! Please don't go back and read those first fics. Don't. they're awful.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Ahhh my answer to this changes depending on the day! Right now I'm going to say I'm still here (but all is lost) because I love the way it plays with the metatext of a play. It's Fun.

Tagging, if you wish, @ranababamboo, @bidoofenergy, @jaz-it-up, @kangoo, and @arcaneglitch

[lordgrimwing]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @zannolin. Not tagging anyone but never let that stop you from doing something.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

98 (100 by early next week. the wonders of posting two short stories a week)

2. What's your total A03 word count?

274,925 (over 100,000 from works posted this year. Again, the wonders of posting two little things every week)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The exhaustive list (but only what I've posted to public places), in no particular order

The Transformers

Brave Police (Mostly just a beta reader on that one, though)

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Star Trek/Enterprise

The Expanse

Inheritance Cycle

Torchwood

Rowland Sinclair Series (by Sulari Gentill - yes, I will encourage you to read/listen to the series! Also, the smallest fandom for which I write, ie. I created the tags and it's basically mine to control. Gosh, I should really finish my current WIP so the characters don't feel abandoned.)

Redwall (technically, the only things I've posted in a podfic of someone else's story)

Sherlock Holms

Temeraire

Detroit: Become Human

Beyonders (Another WIP I should finish so I can once again say I own more than 10% of the fandom)

Rings of Power (I'll separate it from the works that Tolkien was actually involved in)

Lord of the Rings/The Silmarillion (the source of the 2 stories per week)

-I sure hope that's everything-

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

In order of greatest to least

It Started With A Fever (Detroit: Become Human)

Interruptions (Transformers)

Checking Samples In Real Time (Detroit: Become Human)

Dawson's Christiana (Temeraire)

Scavenging More Than Parts (Transformers)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to every comment. Why? Because I like it when authors respond to my comments and I want readers to know that I see and appreciate that they not only took time to read my story but also to say something kind about it.

Admittedly, I am sometimes very late to responding when I'm busy or the comment left me very flustered (because how do I adequately convey how wonderful the reader made me feel?)

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably, It Started With A Fever. It's a sickfic and the sick character isn't better by the end but there is a plan for diagnostic testing and treatment. So, more open ending than angsty.

Actually, I looked back and realized that Spy in the DMD (Transformers) is angsty because readers don't know what will happen to the characters at the end (live? die? etc). Yeah, so that's probably my angstiest ending.

Though now that I'm thinking about it, Negligence (Silmarillion) is also a but angsty and certainly more likely to actually get people to have feeling over the characters and want a good ending than Spy in the DMD.

Okay, okay, I'll stop thinking about it and just move on (but Dawson's Christiana is--)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Home (Inheritance). Ok also a little angsty, but the entire purpose is saving a character who died in canon and at the end he finally gets to go home with his best friend, even if he isn't totally healed from everything.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope. Most I've had is someone taking the time to comment about how they disagree with the premise of a story/how I interpreted why the directors/designers of a TV show did what they did.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Awkward smut? Like, I've only written it a little so it's probably still pretty clunky for people to read.

But in all seriousness, I write enthusiastically consensual slash and het smut. Basically, I want everyone to be happy and have a good time while I use them as writing guinea pigs. I'm sure that the more I write, the more I'll branch out into trying various things.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I have not written a crossover (beyond crossovers between various series/universes in the Transformers franchise. Does that count? Like, it's canonically established that that's a thing that can happen).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope (when your writing is only so-so, you fly under a lot of radars)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope again (see above)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I am a co-author on two stories (Transformers and Brave Police). For both of those, I was mostly just a beta reader but I did end up writing 2 chapters for the Transformers story when the author wanted a different POV (most of the story was first person and then I did more of an omnipresent third person).

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Across all fandoms? That's actually very hard. I'm not a huge ship person, like, let everyone be with whoever they want to be with. BUT, if we're going based on ships I've written and that I enjoy writing, Celebrían x [loving and devoted person, usually Elrond] is pretty high up there (Silmarillion). It's good soup.

But also, Carn x consequences of his actions and pinning for Roran is near and dear to my heart (Inheritance).

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The sequel to It Started With A Fever. I would love to explore how my medical and scientific training could fit with android diagnostics/medicine, and you know I love me some good angst and hurt/comfort with a happy ending. However, I just don't really see it happening because of how much work it will require and the fact that I'm not even reading fics in that fandom now and have my writing time filled to bursting with LOTR/Silm stuff.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm reasonably good with grammar? Like, I passed all my English courses and writing classes? I write what I want to read so at least one (1) person enjoys it.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I spend too much time working out exactly how I want to say something and end up not actually writing very much. I'm not very confidence with figurative language, so my writing tends to be quite straightforward and literal (which isn't bad, but I WANT to use more figurative language). Editing, my nemesis.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I'm not opposed to it and I've seen it done very well with non-sense languages from Transformers. If someone does it, I prefer that the narration indicates at least the general idea/mood of what was said so that I don't have to translate it. Also, it feels clunky when the author just writes the direct translation after what is said (if it's important enough that you want the readers to know exactly what is said, why are you using a different language in the first place?).

So, that's my two cents.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Publicly? Transformers.

But way back in the distant years of my youth, before I knew what fanfiction was, I did a lot of fanfiction and story planning for Redwall.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I am very proud of It Started With A Fever. I put a lot of time into writing the story and even worked with a wonderful beta reader. In the end, I think it really improved my capacity as an author.

On the other hand, I love Home because I SAVED CARN!!! My sweet, pathetic little spellcaster who gave it his best and had a death that was at both times thematically appropriate and sadder the longer I thought about it. *gently hugs him so he doesn't break before passing him back to Katrina and Roran*