9.02.2013

ANNOUNCEMENT: MY GIRL SARAH HAS LANDED

mgs coverOkay, after leaving you guys on a cliff for a couple of weeks, I can finally announce the thing I’ve been so excited about sharing for nearly a month now. Ready? Really, ready?

MXPW AND I HAVE CREATED FICTION.

It’s called My Girl Sarah, it takes place in 1949, it’s very, very AU, and best part: it’s complete. It’s a Chuck/Sarah story, though I warn you, we’re not going to throw them right together or anything. So if you’re looking for already!married Chuck and Sarah, you should probably go elsewhere. But if you’re looking for any of the following:
  • Sassy Carina
  • Even sassier Sarah
  • Casey the 1940s hardened police detective
  • Chuck who fought in WWII and has conviction
  • Ellie destroying the glass ceiling
  • Gangsters (though I don’t think we ever use the word in the story), mobsters, and pretty much every Chuck villain under the sun sporting fedoras and machine guns
  • Bad puns, worse comebacks, and a masked vigilante…
THIS IS TOTALLY THE STORY FOR YOU.

Now, I know you have some questions, and I’ve anticipated a few of them, so I’m going to answer them here.

8.31.2013

Fixing An Error

Hey all,

Just a quick post to say that I goofed last week. I said something big was supposed to happen today, when I got my dates wrong and really, it's happening on Monday.

So...you know. Monday. Big stuff. Big...things. Awesome stuff.

This has been an announcement. You may continue about your day.

Stay sexy!
Frea

8.29.2013

In Which I Announce That There Will Be Announcements

Hey all,

I know last time I was like, “STAY TUNED FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS” and I promise you, both of those announcements are forthcoming (I don’t want to spoil the first and for the second, I don’t want to announce it until I am 100% sure it’s going to happen). In the meantime, I want you to know that I’ve done a little more administrative work and have updated my entire list of fic, which you can find here.

Previously, I think the list simply listed where you could find various fics, but now it includes word count, the year I started writing a fic (as you will see from Bank Job, it is not necessarily the same year I finished!), and a link to the ebook. I’ve also added to the “LJ” category by expanding that to “LJ/T” (Livejournal/Tumblr), which means that I’ve archived several of the tiny Tumblr prompts I’ve written over the years.

Now, I know I do a lot of three-sentence fics and I didn’t want to go through the process of providing all of those with names and links. Instead, I’ve archived them under their own tag on my blog. So if you go to the “3 Sentence Fics” tag on my Tumblr, you will see an archive of every single 3 sentence fic I have written.

Including the ones that are four sentences.

So there might be some new Frea writing you haven’t seen on my Fic page. Have you, for example, read this tiny continuation of Walker’s Eleven that involves panini? How about this one where Sarah leaves Carina in charge of two-year-old Hunter Bartowski…unsupervised?*

Also, I’m not saying anything definitively but MONDAY MONDAY GUYS MONDAY YOU’RE GOING TO WANT TO MAKE SURE TO CHECK MY FF-NET NAME OR SOMETHING there are announcements coming.

Until then, as ever, stay sexy!

- Frea

*This may or may not have happened to me with my nephew, who will be two in a little over two weeks and OH MY GOODNESS HE’S GETTING SO BIG.

8.21.2013

New Stories, New eBook, New Vague Announcements, I ROCK.

I don’t think we’ve ever had one in the Chuck fandom, but this week, I posted my first-ever Big Bang story. Big Bangs are story writing festivals where a writer signs up to write a story of at least 10-25k, depending on the event (they vary a lot). About three quarters of the way through the allotted time, the writer will turn in a rough draft and it will be claimed by an artist, who creates fanart for it. I signed up for the Heroine Big Bang challenge over on Livejournal, either as an Avengers fic or as a Chuck fic (ideally, I would have done the Last Story for Greater, if I’d gone in that direction) and ended up writing Counterfeit and Counterpart, which had to be 15k and turned out 30k.

Apparently I have a problem with being overly prolific.

Anyway, the remarkable Tielan signed up to do art for mine, and this is what she made me. Is it not gorgeous? I’ve posted the story on AO3, but I have also created an ebook for you to download, if you would like to read it on your tablet or ebook reader. It’s a story about Maria Hill and Natasha Romanoff becoming friends (which seems to involve injuring Maria a lot). The story spans six years and starts with Clint Barton bringing Natasha in to SHIELD, and it has a cast of wacky SHIELD characters you don’t see in the movies much. It’s one of the stories I’m proudest of, though I have no idea why.

In other Avengers news, if you’re looking to getting into comics and would like to read:
  • A heroine that looks like Sarah Walker
  • Who is also kickass like Sarah Walker (SHE PUNCHES DINOSAURS)
  • And was a NASA scientist, Air Force pilot, and can fly
  • Like her equally kickass and snarky best friend sorta can
  • And has a cat
  • And is written by a marvelous author...
You should look no farther than the current Captain Marvel series written by Kelly Sue DeConnick. Seriously, it is an amazing series, and I’ve never liked comics that much. DeConnick has an ear for dialogue that will blow your mind. The series involves time travel, punching dinosaurs, attacks of Kree Sentinels, and random Avengers cameos like Bruce and Steve. It’s exciting and well-written, and you can pick up the first trade paperback.

Have I shilled enough for this series yet? I hope so, because I wrote fanfic for it. My friend Kari joked around on Tumblr about Carol’s cat being mad at her for something spoilery that I can’t reveal to you if you’re going to read this series. Either way, it is called Cats Are Weird, I wrote it, you can read it here, and I personally think it’s pretty funny, but then I’m biased and will basically read pet ownership fic all day long. Happily.

You didn’t hear it here, but something big is going to happen on August 31st...

And watch this space for an announcement between now and September 5th. Gee, Frea, can you get any more vague? Sure I can! It’s a cool announcement. You’ll like it.

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. How’s everybody else doing? Any cool stories to tell? Are you reading The Steampunk Chronicles by steampunk.chuckster? You should be. (SPOILER) Sarah just showed up and I’m in love already.

Anyway, stay sexy, you devils.

Love,
Frea

8.12.2013

Not Dead, Just Busy

Hello, wonderful people!

I don't want to take up too much of your time, but I thought I would update you on some things. First off, I'm still going through and updating links on my ebooks page because I want to divorce myself from MediaFire in general. I've updated the coding for malamoo's Chuck vs. the Second Chance and the Authors Intersect's Chuck vs. the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Really Bad Day*. And best of all, I've added the wonderful Chuck Versus The Con Game by the even wonderfuller Steampunk.Chuckster to the downloads page. You can get that here and don't forget to leave a comment and tell her she's wonderful and she should get crackin' on taking over Curtain Call for Max and me.

Anyway, now that I've made Karen flee the country, other news. I haven't worked on the Greater!Carina story, so sorry about that. Other projects, including life, have taken priority. I will have a new fic out on August 20th called Counterfeit and Counterpart, which will include the ebook for your downloading pleasure. Hopefully I will have a fic out at the very beginning of September, and next week or so, I will try to remember to post a link that you're going to want to watch.

I have updated my FAQ page to answer a question about Guide Us Home and to update my answers about Greater and some other things, so if it's been awhile, head over that way and take a peek. If you have any other questions, you can leave them here as comments, or hit me up on my Tumblr Ask Box, as I'll usually get those right away. I will be out of touch for half of next month, just so you know, as I'll be traveling. More to come about that, actually, later on.

Anyway, that's the news. Hope you're having a wonderful day!
Frea

*SERIOUSLY, IF YOU'RE GOING TO BASE A FIC TITLE ON ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOKS, GET THE TITLE RIGHT.

8.01.2013

eBooks, Updates, and Greater Sneak Preview

Great news first!

I’ve updated the That Which is Greater ebook on the Downloads page so that it’s now complete, with all 13 chapters, and the updated cover (which I think was on the last version of the ebook, too. I’ve got this stripey motif through all of the Greater stories and I’m still deciding on a color for Carina).

In addition, I have started to port all of my hosted ebooks from mediafire to sugarsync, which I just like and trust more. In doing this, I’ve realized how wonky some of the formatting on my first files is. Basically, I learned as I went by making these ebook files, which was an evolving process. Anyway, the point is: I’ve updated some books. Not all of the books, but some. They are:
  • Chuck vs. the Simple Twist of Fate
  • Chuck vs. the Fight
  • Chuck vs. the Fight: New Year’s Eve Edition
  • Sarah vs. Covers, Lies, and Ticking Time Bombs
  • Sarah vs. the Ugly Truth
  • And more to come…!
It’s going to be a long process and I don’t want to devote too much time to it. Next up on my list are malamoo’s works and ne71’s. I’ll also leave the original copy of Chuck vs. Fulcrum on the blog even though he’s updating for the sequel (and I’ll convert that copy over as well). Also, if there’s an ebook you want, let me know and, provided the author is okay with it, I’ll host it here on the blog.

Awesome news!

I’m almost done with the second chapter of That Which is Greater: Carina’s Story (working title). The first chapter is complete and it has some of the cutest Violet/Sarah in the entire ’verse, mostly because Violet’s not going to be in 60% of the story (please don’t give me trouble for that—Chuck and Sarah need some adult time without the four-year-old underfoot. It’s a family story, but it’s also a romance). I was toying with the idea of beginning to post on Monday, but I’ve got two other projects calling my name, plus I have to impress some people at my day job if I want to keep it. (speaking of which: if anybody knows of someplace that’s hiring somebody with excellent writing, graphic design, and web development skills, let me know!). Anyway, I’m not going to post stories until they’re complete from now on. It cuts down on some of the fun interaction with the fans along the way because I have to keep what I’m writing under wraps, but it’s a sacrifice I have to make.

Luckily, you’ll see a big story from me in August and another one in September. I can’t blab about the latter one, but the former is a work of love.

BEST NEWS

Want a preview of the Carina story?

I hope you said yes because HERE IT IS:

7.26.2013

A Little Friday Fun - Greater!

A/N: This takes place between New Year's Eve and Happiest Place on Earth. Enjoy!

Chuck heard them when they came back, mostly because his weighs-less-than-one-hundred-pounds daughter somehow managed to sound like an elephant all of the time. Also, she didn’t believe in quiet chatter. She must have been in a good mood, for he could hear her all the way from his office/bedroom. Since he was at a good place to stop—his computer needed to render anyway—he picked up his empty soda glass and headed downstairs to greet the newly returned.

He found them in the kitchen, where Sarah was helping Violet out of her winter coat. “Hey, strangers,” he said.

“Daddy!” Violet rocketed at him as though it had been weeks instead of hours since she’d seen him last, leaving Sarah holding her coat. “You’re here!”

“Where else would I be? How was the movie?”

“Even better this time. Giselle was so pretty and I wasn’t even scared of the evil witch, not even when she turned into a dragon.” Violet let him go to bounce away, twirling around as she did so. Chuck raised an eyebrow at Sarah. “Though it’s silly.”

“What’s silly?”

“Dragons should have wings so they can fly.”

7.23.2013

Sneak Peek: Greater #12!

Chapter 12, Title TBA, will be dropping tomorrow whenever I get around to, you know, remembering I am supposed to be putting a chapter up (seriously, guys, I am flaky). The good news is that it IS completed, but not beta’d at the time of writing this post. And even better news, I wrote 1500 words of Violet chattering to Carina last night. And if you think that all of Sarah’s biggest secrets (that Violet knows) aren’t getting babbled at 500 words a minute, you clearly don’t know me well. Hit the link to read more!

7.21.2013

Greater Eve

News! So tomorrow I’m posting the next chapter of That Which is Greater, which I’m pleased to announce is called Riding in Cars with Villains (the last chapter was Riding in Cars with Boys). If you’ll remember, we’re in the middle of the Zarnow arc, which is a fitting place to end the story, given that the original Greater is thematically about Sarah and Chuck coming to terms that he’s the Intersect. Some things will be different, others the same. I’m sure those of you who read Fates are shocked that I borrow from canon and then sometimes twisted canon. SHOCKED.

I can’t give you a time that the chapter will drop other than “when I remember I’m posting a chapter today,” sorry. Sometimes I am flaky.

Other Greater news! I’ve figured out the next story somewhat, though I don’t want to give too much away. I will say a couple of things about it, though: one, I had to change a date in Greater: Pumpkin Carving to give myself a little room to play for the story. Two, we won’t see Peyman Alahi or the Nadan-I-Noor in Greater, so it’s not going to be the plot of Wookie. I’ll explain why not in-story, I promise. It’s one of my favorite episodes, so I don’t want to write it (you’ll notice in Fates, I skirted around the edges of it, too, only writing the aftermath in Not in the Stars).

Ebook News! I’ll be updating Nervert’s wonderful Revenge of the Bartowski ebook this week to reflect the latest chapters. When I’m done with That Which is Greater Original Story, I’ll of course offer that full ebook, as well as an ebook that has all of the little stories mixed with the bigger Greater stories. That ebook will get updated every time I finish one of the next three stories, too.

Story News! The Clintasha Promptathon is going on in the Avengers fandom (that’s Clint/Natasha fiction, by the way), and I wrote a couple of stories for it. They’re both short and fluffy, but fun. The Memory of Rain is on my LJ, but Domestic…Bliss? is on AO3 if you want to go there (and leave me shiny, delicious kudos!).

Miscellaneous But Awesome News! So you may not have been aware, but I had two bets going about finishing Greater. I bet mpxw I could finish the entire Greater story before he finished something that I’m not revealing here. He lost, so his avatar is my choice for two weeks….which is Joseph Gordon Levitt in garters. These are going to be an awesome two weeks, guys.

Also, Nervert and I had a bet going about who could finish his or her story first. Loser had to buy a goat. Baaaaaah.

Stay sexy!
Frea

7.19.2013

GREAT NEWS

Greetings!

I know, I know, I’ve used this blog more in the past week than I have in the past year. Sorry about that. I’ve been playing in the Avengers fandom. You understand, don’t you? Natasha Romanoff is just so shiny. She’s damaged and stoic and can kill you with her pinky. I appear to have a type.

I also have News. Not just news, but News.

That’s right, I have finished That Which is Greater. The original story that kicked off, to date, eleven other stories involving one Violet E. Bartowski and her crazy adventures with her father and her father’s fake-or-maybe-not-so-fake girlfriend. And there are still three stories to come, two unwritten and one partially written.

But the original is done. I finished the first draft of the last chapter a little over half an hour ago and I’m still sitting here in shock that soon I’m going to be able to take that “WIP” status off of my blog. One more story to mark “Complete” on ff-net, to reach its 13/13 chapter status on AO3. To finish up on the ebook.

Wow, I offer this story in a lot of places. Huh.

Okay, I imagine there are some questions, so I’ll answer what I can.

7.12.2013

That Which is Greater Sneak Peek and Updated eBook

Hank reminded me that I haven’t added the last scene of Romeo and Juliet But Without Teenagers or Death…Well Okay Some Death (what? I like short titles) to the ebook, which is sad since I abandoned the story for reasons. So last night, I went into the file and updated it so that it now includes Chuck creepily talking his way into Sarah’s hotel room by pretending to be her husband. You can get that now on the Downloads page.

Um, the Kindle and ePub files may be mixed up. Just to warn you. If you hit the Kindle link and get an ePub, just hit the ePub to get your Kindle link. And let me know. I’m not somewhere where I can troubleshoot it.

I am 90% of the way through chapter 12 of Greater (or 98% depending on if I decide to put a specific scene in this chapter or the next) so hopefully I should be able to post that soon. I’m sending 11 to mxpw to beta later today, provided he can actually read through his happy tears of getting to meet Yvonne a week from today. And I thought I’d include a tiny snippet of what’s coming, so you can stop worrying that I’m not writing shippery stuff. (I try not to, but somehow I never succeed)

7.10.2013

Because I Promised

When I last posted a Greater story on ff-net (which was over six months ago; it feels weird not to have touched that account in six months), I promised that I would keep everybody up to date when I started to work on any of my WIP projects again (they are, for the record, Spies and Nerds, Curtain Call, That Which is Greater, Guide Us Home, and Greater: Winter Break. I am no longer going to finish R&J, or, more accurately, I am not going to finish R&J in the way you think I am). I’ve finished one chapter of That Which is Greater, am about halfway through the next, and have one more to write. Yes, That Which is Greater Original Flavor will only have 13 chapters.

There are probably a few things that stand out about this:
That’s not much time for the story to end!

Well, no. But if you look at the Greaterverse on AO3, which has the complete archive of Greater stories in chronological order (except for one or two prompts I’ve written on Tumblr), right now we’re at the end of September and the next story takes place in mid-October. So we’re not really skipping much time. Which actually brings us to our second point.

Wait a second, Frea, you dropped hints about Carina in the New Year’s story and we haven’t seen her in any of the stories yet, and if you’ve only got three chapters, that’s not enough time, either!

Again, you’ve got a point. Which is why I’m actually going to write another, stand-alone Greater story. The holiday it’ll revolve around will be Violet’s birthday, and a certain redhead may or may not be at her birthday party.

I’m choosing to write the Carina arc separately from the main story because thematically and tonally, it’s different, and blending it cohesively with the story would have caused about ten or eleven chapters extra, which I’m frankly not willing to write for the story at this point. So it’s three more chapters for the original story, and one stand-alone that revolves around the women in Chuck’s life—Sarah, Carina, Violet, Sophie, Ellie—and then I’ll move on to finishing Winter Break and will likely, at that point, close the book on this universe. I can think of one plot point I can’t tie up, but I’m not too fussed, truthfully.

Does this mean you’re going to return to your other projects?

I am not sure. Currently, I have to focus on what’s in front of me and can’t think of those other stories without my work flagging on this story. Either way, keep checking the FAQs, and I appreciate the patience. When I have the final chapter of Greater finished, I’ll start posting again.

Frea

7.08.2013

New ebook, new colors, new stories, new chapter

You probably saw the new layout changes last week, but I wanted to let you know that there’s still some construction going on*. I went out and gathered a bunch of intel on different stories (guys, I’m not going to lie: this was not easy. It’s come to my attention that I write a lot) and put them on the fic page, which means that the most comprehensive list** of my stories you’re going to find on the internet is on this blog. I’ve sorted it by fandom, for the most part, first the series and then the alphabetical order.

I also went ahead and tossed Nobody Puts Dummy in the Corner onto the downloads page.*** I haven’t put anything new on that page for a while, so it felt strange.

In writing news, Camp Nano is going on and I’ve been sort of half-heartedly following along, which means writing a bit. I wrote a bunch of prompts on Tumblr this weekend from a myriad of different fandoms, including Arrow, The Avengers, Captain MarvelCommunity and FringeDresden Files, Middleman and New Girl, and Orphan Black. Actually, there were a lot of New Girl stories in there. Huh. My friend may have a fixation. I’ve got one more prompt sitting in my inbox that needs to be penned, and it’s fantastic (think classic comic book character + Sarah Walker).

Oh, also, I finished the eleventh chapter of That Which is Greater last night, so. Yeah. Not sure where I’m going to end that story, but it’s one step closer to removing one “WIP” status from my fic page.

Frea

* I still need to update the colors on the Fates Guide.
** but not exhaustive.
*** Links to the Fates Guide, the Downloads page, etc., are now in the sidebar on the right. Cheerio!

7.03.2013

Pardon the Dust Yet Again!

As you probably noticed right when you arrived, Fauxlivia is gone and now we have a bright new header with 100% more clones (and still the same amount of doubles). I was feeling a little blue/green last time I designed the blog and now it’s time for an infusion of pastels, apparently.

In other news, some stuff is underway and whatnot, and I’m working on things that might make people happy, which is possibly the vaguest way I could think of to say that. I have a fic definitely coming out in August that’s about 30,000 words long. Yesterday I posted a fanfiction about the books in Maria Hill’s apartment called For a Rainy Day. Also, if you’re a fan of Arrow and The Avengers, you might like Bad Altitude, which I posted last week for the Into A Bar challenge over on Livejournal.

Oh! And I quasi-wrote Chuck fic again! It’s Pitch Perfect, but as a Chuck AU. The link to that is here.

Under the read more, I’ve put two Bingo cards that I’m working on. The first is my Trope Bingo card and the second is my Ladies Bingo card, so if you have any ideas for things I could write for the different squares, please let me know! Any fandom except Downton Abbey and no finale fics because those are the worst.

5.22.2013

Kindle Worlds and My Take On It

You may not have heard, but Amazon released something that's shaking up the world of fanfiction a little this morning. It's called Kindle Worlds and it means you can download fanfiction in certain genres straight to your Kindle...by paying for them. The low-down is that WB has given up some of the creative licenses to things like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, which means that writers can professionally publish fic based on those shows. It will be content controlled, it looks like, but there haven't been any guidelines released yet (no pornography is one of the guidelines, but this is also the publisher of 50 Shades of Grey, so take that with whatever boulder of salt you find necessary).

And on the surface, it looks great, right? Getting to pay your favorite writers for fic that they write! The chance that other fandoms may follow in suit! WB has rights to Chuck and Fringe, after all, so some fandoms close to our hearts might be involved very soon!

Except...well, John Scalzi puts it way better than I can about why this might not be such a good idea for writers. Plus, when I wrote Fates, W11, W&T, SSD!, and my other fandomly works, I didn't write those for pay but for love of the characters/show/writing itself. Providing these for free wasn't taking any money from anybody else (except for lucky47, who used to buy internet on a cruise ship to read Fates), which is the way I ethically justify playing with characters that are not my own.

So, in the future I might change my mind, but currently, I won't be doing this with any new Chuckfic or other genre, should the opportunity arise. But I appreciate everybody that has pointed me to it! It warms me all the way down to my soul that you're looking out for me like that.

Sincerely,
Frea

PS - It's been a crazy couple of weeks, so there hasn't been much fic from me, but I did manage to write a really short piece about Steve Rogers acclimating to the future over on my Tumblr. You should check that out. And get ready for a long fic from me soon!

5.09.2013

Thursday Digest

I realize that I’m actively involved in a lot of social media platforms and I use them all for different things. My Livejournal, for example, is usually all Avengers things, my Tumblr is such a random mess of different fandoms that I’m surprised anybody follows me at all, and my Twitter seems to be random observations that form together with absolutely no coherency at all.

So, here’s a brief round-up of the highlights from the last couple of weeks.

What I’m Up To:

My sister is getting married in two weeks, so preparations are ramping up for that. That includes things like deep-cleaning my apartment in case relatives want to visit, helping sister with wedding-related things, and doing a lot of photography. Writing-wise, I’m in the middle of Counterfeit and Counterpart, a deep look at the relationship between Maria Hill and Natasha Romanoff. I’ve got three scenes left to write and 2k to hit the 15k minimum for the Big Bang in which I’m participating with the project.

I also have two separate bets going with mxpw and Nervert about That Which is Greater (the original story) vs. Revenge of the Bartowski and Chuck versus the Double Agent. I have not forgotten about those bets. A goat’s honor is at stake.

4.22.2013

Some Fun and Interesting Statistics Because I'm Too Lazy to Write a Real Blog Post

So I saw this on a friend’s livejournal and I was curious, so I decided to try it out, and a lot of people don’t read my LJ, so I'm bringing it over here. Oh, speaking of which, you do know I am on Livejournal, right? You can find me here and I have anonymous commenting turned on, so as long as you "sign" your post, you can leave me stuff there, too. Also, I post a lot of short fic there. Sometimes it’s even Chuck related.

Without further ado, the FFN/AO3 meme!

4.02.2013

Happy Birthday, Peter O!

Happy birthday, Peter!!! This is just a short snippet of something I’m working on (I don’t want to give away too much, so that’s all I’ll say). :) Hope your day is as marvelous as you are (which is pretty darn marvelous).

Most of the family was still sleeping when Sarah let herself into the Bartowski house to drop off Sir after her morning run, but she still wasn’t surprised to find Chuck in the kitchen. Sure, he almost had his nose buried in a cup of coffee and there were bags under his eyes, but he was there. It had become a habit of his.

“You don’t actually have to get up just to see me,” she said as she knelt to unclip Sir. The elephantine puppy flopped onto his back and offered his belly up for a rub.

“Nah, I needed to be up. S-stuff to do, codes to…code. Mmph.” He yawned, put his head on his crossed arms, and made snoring noises.

2.14.2013

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

quistie and I got you a box of chocolates.

chocolates surprise 1 surprise 2 surprise 3 surprise 4 surprise 5 surprise 6

(hint: click the chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get)

2.12.2013

Speaking Up About Written In the Stars

Congratulate me, I’m some kind of fandom boogey-monster. About eighteen months ago, a story was posted with a similar storyline to mine (different climate, though), which was fine until they outright took whole paragraphs from my story, To Resist Both Wind and Tide). I asked for either attribution or removal of those paragraphs. Instead, the author pulled the entire story down without an explanation to her fans. She told me that she didn't think it was such a big deal because it's just fanfiction.

Later, she returned: the story had been updated, the paragraphs removed, but…the plot was just too familiar for me. After messaging the author privately, I said something publicly along the lines of “I hope the plot is changing soon because I’m uncomfortable with this. You said that you were planning to change the direction of your plot, so I hope that’s soon.” Given that this person had already outright plagiarized my work, I feel like this was understandable. In reply, the person told me again, “It’s just fanfiction!” and yanked the story down, again without an explanation.

I didn’t ask the story to be removed. I didn’t report the story. I asked readers not to get involved because I didn’t want a war. People on the message boards blasted me, others boycotted my stories, so on and so forth. I got a couple of angry messages, one from somebody named missupertigz who went on to start writing in the fandom with messages along the lines of “if my writing sparked an idea, then go ahead and write it because to the people who think chuck belongs to only a small group of people – your wrong (sic).”

Well, turns out that story is still going on behind closed doors. You can PM MsRomanceWriter’s ff-net name and get access to it, if you like. Have at it. I chose not to speak up in my own defense when the story was pulled and I wonder if that was the wrong decision. Maybe it was, but I didn’t want to sling mud at MRW. Mostly, I want people to know that I didn’t have anything to do with the story being pulled. I know it’s my word against hers, but it was the author’s choice to pull it both times. I didn’t make any threats or demands.

And that’s all I really have to say about it.

Frea