As a side note, if given the opportunity, each and every bird, no matter how small, will eventually reveal that the KT extinction event was nothing more than a mere inconvenience, and that dinosaurs still roam the Earth.
This observation brought to you by finch!Napoleon, who unleashed every ounce of Cretaceous rage he possessed upon me when I attempted to check on him while he was in the nest basket. In my defense, I wanted to make sure he wasn’t pulling feathers to line the nest again, as he has done before. In his defense, attacking a giant primate who was poking her finger into the nest basket was 1000% the logical course of action and I really should have expected that outcome.
Good news is that he has not been pulling feathers again, and he and I have come to an agreement about keeping my clumsy primate fingers out of his basket, for which finch!Illya is the only other being allowed entry.
Bad news is that he’s been eyeing that Zelda poster behind him to shred with his beak for further nesting material. Note to self: move poster.
1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean? The rose part is based off of one of the first long stories I wrote when I was a kid (and also because my real name literally means “flower”), and the Pollux part was based off of a relatively recent novel I started in my undergrad and finished in 2012.
2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos). I think going by hits is inaccurate, as multichapter fics will, inevitably, have more. On FFN, my most popular fic based on feedback is and probably forever will be an old YuGiOh fic I wrote called “Folgen Sie Ihrem Traum.” On AO3, it was the slash version of “Heroic Resolve,” which was a short vignette where Illya looks after a hypothermic Napoleon.
3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it? It is a stock/public domain pic of a rose to fit in with the penname; it’s my default icon on almost all of my accounts across the internet. It was my icon here, too, until last year, when @ksturf figured out how to photoshop the rose into Napoleon’s hand and I just adored it to bits.
4. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most? …Vampire AUs, lately. I don’t post these, but there was a slight taste of one in the last chapter of last year’s Halloween fic, “The Jack o’ the Lantern Affair.”
5. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)
….That’s… a lot more than I thought there would be 😮
6. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!) If you’d asked me this a year ago, I would have said writing romance/slash. Now, I love it.
7. Is there anything you would like to be
better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments,
updating better, etc. I wish I could update better…
8. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often? Prior to MFU, it was rarepairs; Napollya is the main ship here, so that’s a fun switch from writing rairpares. 🙂
9. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)? 239 on AO3 (185 are MFU, soon to be 186/240).
10. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program? Everything that I wrote from 2010 and onward; I should probably make backups of the YuGiOh DM fics prior to 2010 in case FFN ever goes down… 11. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head? I keep most them in my head until I’m ready to outline; I log the really good ones.
12. Have you ever co-authored a story? Yep, I once co-wrote a fic for the Hogan’s Heroes fandom 13. How did you discover AO3? One of my followers convinced me to get an account, and I finally caved.
14. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3? I was part of the Monkees Ring of Misery, and before that, was cited as “one of the good authors” by someone in the Hogan’s Heroes fandom, which was a definite “Wait, what?” moment, but a thrilling one (especially since the person in question was someone I’d considered a well-established writer in the fandom)! Both of those were before my venture into AO3; for MFU it’s mainly me in my own little corner with a few regular readers, but every so often, one of my fics takes off.
15. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers? Not really…
16. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write? First it was Georges “Hergé” Remi, who basically was the single-biggest influence on my writing style. And though he’s not an author per se, it was Satoshi Tajiri’s open Pokémon world that gave me the chance to test that writing style. I’m fond of using the metaphor that Hergé gave me the tools, but Mr. Tajiri gave me the workshop.
17. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author? Basically, practice and keep writing. Writing is an art, and with all arts, you get better with practice.
18. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go? For short ones, I wing it, but for anything multichapter, I have to plot it out.
19. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do? The only bad comment I ever got on a fic was on a mystery fic for Hogan’s Heroes, where someone complained that they “didn’t read the whole thing, but jumped in the middle of the fic and it made no sense.” Like… I don’t know what they expected jumping into the middle of a mystery fic. I just ignored it.
20. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? I don’t like writing characters–especially characters that are usually close–at odds with each other.
21. What story(s) are you working on now? I’m hoping to write more of the Lionheart & Kid project I started for NaNo, do my weekly MFU short affair, and soon start an MFU mystery fic.
22. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)? HAHAHAHAHA *pushes several WIPs behind a door* 23. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself? I did during Fictober and NaNo; for other months, I usually don’t.
24. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started? Oh, absolutely. I used to be terrible at the whole “show, don’t tell” thing and relied mostly on dialogue to drive my stories because descriptions were too difficult for me. This was evident when I started posting fics in 2008, and someone even critiqued my first YuGiOh mystery fic regarding it. But I practiced and got better and better until, 4 years later, I got this as part of a review for one of my Hogan’s Heroes fics–
“The scene in the woods is marvelously tense, as Newkirk summons all his
skills to elude the hunters as he searches for their shared quarry. You
do a great job with evoking all his senses (which he’d have on high
alert): the sounds of boots vs. shoes, the smell of grass and soil as he
lies hiding on the ground, the feel of his “pencil-sharpener” at his
back.“
Everyone improves with practice. Everyone.
25. What is your favorite story that you’ve written? At the moment, it’s probably my last Halloween fic, “The Jack o’ the Lantern Affair.” I had way too much fun writing it. Close second would be “If Wishes Were Cats,” which was my first full-fledged slash fic.
26. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written? I really regret a super-angsty Carmen Sandiego fic that is now locked away on LiveJournal and no longer visible to the public. I don’t have the heart to delete it, after putting so much work into it, but mannn, what was going through my head when I wrote that, I wish I knew…
27. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years? Hopefully having published some original stuff, including the first Lionheart and Kid book!
28. What is the easiest thing about writing? Getting ideas/inspiration. At least for me, the story ideas just keep on coming.
29. What is the hardest thing about writing? Actually sitting down and putting what’s in your head into words.
30. Why do you write? I grow attached to certain characters, and in several cases, these characters’ official stories have so much more that could be added to them. And I want to tell those stories.
A song you like with a color in the title: “Red’s Journey” – Pokémon Reorchestrated (I can’t find the exact track, but it’s an orchestrated cover of the Route 4 music from the first Pokémon games)
A song that makes you sad: There is a certain song that I still can’t listen to without crying since last November, but I’d rather not discuss that.
A song that you really like that is so far from mainstream that it would get you funny looks: I suppose the Smash remix of the Kid Icarus Underworld theme?
Sorta-daily NaNo check-in: Getting ever closer, but, unfortunately, real life is poised to get in the way; a family emergency has come up, and will need to be dealt with very soon, so I’m going to hopefully hit the 50k NaNo goal before that and then take a break before continuing with completing the story.
Lionheart and Kid are enjoying a bit of peace right now, but trouble is looming, unbeknownst to them…
Lionheart shrugged and accepted the
piece of fudge that Kid gave him, and his eyebrows arched in surprise.
“Hey, it is good!”
“It’s milk and sugar—what do you
expect?” Kid mused. He let out a squawk
as Lionheart now reached into the box for more fudge. “Hey, this is supposed to be for the both of us!”
Sorta-daily NaNo update:
I’ve made peace with the fact that this isn’t going to be done on the 22nd. Just when I think I’ve narrowed down the plotlines, more stuff keeps happening. I knew the 22nd was a very ambitious goal, and it was more for myself than anything else–would have been nice to have finished it on my hero’s bday, but I know now the important thing is to focus on getting it done right, with the final product being something worthy of being dedicated to him.
That being said, the story itself is progressing beautifully! Lionheart and Kid are progressing with trying to solve the mystery at hand. They’re also trying to remain incognito since Lionheart’s father is after them, so they’re trying to pass themselves off as an entertainment duo rather than vigilantes and are trying to draw more customers to the Moonlit Gulch Saloon & Inn–
Kid couldn’t help but snark as
Lionheart made his way over, balancing a precarious stack of Shakespeare plays.
“Lionheart, we’re only going to be
entertaining during dinner hours,” Kid said, staring at the stack. “We’re not going to be doing an all-night
festival!”
“You know, I wonder how many we
could get to come to that if we did,” Lionheart wondered aloud.
Daily NaNo check-in: nearing the halfway point of the challenge! 😀
Plot-wise, the boys have a moment’s peace now that they’ve arrived in Moonlit Gulch, and find themselves with a mystery to solve.
Also, banter–
“I am not overly dramatic!” Lionheart scoffed.
“Really?” Kid asked. “Do I need to remind you how you reacted when
you got that cactus needle in your hand when you were chasing that rabbit last
week? ‘Right through my glove—it went right through my glove!’ It didn’t even break the skin, and you
practically held a wake for your glove!”
“First of all, they don’t make
gloves like these anymore,” Lionheart insisted, holding the wounded glove up. “And secondly, I did not hold a wake!”
“Then what do you call immediately playing
something on your harmonica in a minor key?”
“On My Own” from Les Mis was a song that, in the last two years, I was able to relate to a lot–when your heart is so full of love, yet all you have are dreams. The last time I sang this song was exactly a year ago, just before I’d learned that I’d lost my hero.
Only Seven Acres of Rose of Pollux's Musings & Daydreams 