Pick your poison and savor the taste -- it burns for more than just you.

Stuff about me, hmmm . . . I'm female, I live on the east coast of the USA, I'm not a huge anime fan, but certain shows pass muster for me: Cowboy Bebop and Death Note being the most, heh, notable, though I also like Full Metal Alchemist and was watching Monster until I missed a few weeks in a row, d'oh. Plus I love Invader Zim and the Venture Brothers ("SPHINX!"), I watch Dr. Who, Torchwood, Fringe, Alphas, Chuck, Bones, White Collar, Castle, and Psych, and I did watch Lost (and yes, I was irked about the ending), and I even miss Dollhouse (though not as much as Firefly), AND I've watched all of the Harry Potter movies (yes, I've read all the books as well). Authors I love whose work I recommend include David Brin, David Sedaris, Alan Moore, and Kage Baker, and way too many more to possibly list. I have a special fondness for H.P Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. I also read a number of webcomics, including XKCD, Questionable Content, Wondermark!, Penny Arcade, Hijinks Ensue, and Girls with Slingshots. Currently, the main fandom I read/write is Death Note, though I've read some crossovers, and I am now dabbling with a Bones fic. In fiction, I like the point at which absurdity and tragedy meet. A bit of levity mixed in with the drama, with perhaps some suspense or horror or mystery thrown in, and I do have a twisted sense of humor -- well, you get the general idea.

Quick descriptions for each of my fics (rated T except where noted):

Turn of the 8th Day -- Long Death Note fic that takes canon in a slightly altered direction -- L actually meets Ryuk in this one, and there's a lot of character development for even minor canon characters.

L Is, in Fact, a Pervert -- NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

The Pull -- A second-person PoV Death Note one-shot exploring part of L's childhood.

Litany -- An absurd amount of background info on L's origins. Death Note one-shot.

Tinsel by Morning -- A semi-fluffy (!!) Christmas-themed Death Note one-shot showing the boys interacting at Wammy House (including L, A, B, Mello, Matt, Near). Partially inspired by a snowstorm that had hit my area at the time.

Requiem Pro Lux -- A Light-focused Death Note one-shot ruminating on his final impressions at the end of the anime -- sort of supernatural, and unlike my other fics in no way connected to them.

The Worst Feeling Ever -- Long-ish Death Note fic about L as a teen working on a case in Toronto, M-rated (EDITED VERSION).

The Worst Christmas Ever -- Short Death Note fic in 3 parts focusing on A & B, with a bit of L, the 1st Christmas they were all together; framing story immediately follows The Worst Feeling Ever.

Aleister Wept -- Short, 7-chapter Death Note fic focusing on A and his interactions with B and L. Angsty, M-rated for safety.

Tangled Web -- Kinky Death Note one-shot, M-rated for good reason, involves Light, L, and Misa.

Stranger Things Have Happened -- Short Bones fic, now M-rated, centering on Dr. Brennan re-assessing her impression of intern Mr. Nigel-Murray.

I still consider myself sort of a fanfic novice, even though my first Death Note fanfic, Turn of the 8th Day, reached its conclusion quite awhile ago. It took me some time to get going, since I write things out by hand (I know, old skool) and then edit as I type. For my first time publishing anything on fanfiction.net, that particular fic turned (heh) out to be longer than I had expected. I added an addendum to the end of it (which I updated with some snarky new info and a big thank you to Shella for some sweet fan art!), with some end notes and thank yous and the theme song list I said I'd put up. My summaries over the course of posting TOT8D varied a bit -- hopefully the final one I put on it adequately conveys what kind of story to expect.

Another fic I finished posting, a Death Note prequel entitled The Worst Feeling Ever, turned out to be a medium-to-long one at 25 chapters. Some of you may recognize where I took that title from, and thus where this fic goes. It's L-centric (yeah yeah, so rare for me) and varies between silly and grim, but I see it as primarily a coming-of-age thing.

My fic Aleister Wept is a medium-to-small fic with a total of 7 chapters. This story is somewhat angsty and basically focuses on where the relationships among A, B, and L lead. I was stricter with myself writing this one, keeping the chapters mostly short and being really specific about PoVs and timeline (the dates follow the manga, but you can always adjust to fit it with the anime by adding 3 years). Fleshing out A's character into Aleister was enjoyable to me, and I may find ways to fit him into more fics, since he's quite a bit different from L, and from B.

I also posted a naughty one-shot, Tangled Web, as a gift-fic for a Sashocirrione. It doesn't connect with my other fics (necessarily), but it was fun to write. It's also a partial response to a prompt from the dn_kink2 lj site, but if I tell you what the prompt is, it'll spoil the story. The unedited version, which you can find on AO3, is a bit spicier.

The Bones fic I've just finished was started as a way of getting around my writer's block -- I had started writing another Death Note fic, but due to a number of real world issues, I got bogged down and have yet to get back to it. Hopefully I'll have the time and be re-energized enough to get back to the other one soon. I haven't put Stranger Things Have Happened up on AO3 yet, but will try to get to that at some point.

I've been toying with a number of other fic ideas in my head (some short, some long), and I hope one day to do another long one as a sequel to TOT8D. My next fic may be another prequel, but set between LABB and the Kira case -- we shall see. My update schedule for writing has been a bit wonky and how soon I can publish new items will depend on how much crap life throws at me in the meantime. I've had less time to write lately (life is weird and the economy sucks, 'nuff said), but I am trying to keep at it.

FYI: I have been posting my fics on AO3 as well, just so that they're accessible to readers in more than one way (AO3 = Archive of Our Own). Most of them are there now, and I am FINALLY finished getting my Death Note fics posted there! I was having trouble uploading chapters, but a recent fix helped that (though there are still some glitches). Any fics I put up on AO3 will be the uncut versions, which generally means that if there are any sex scenes, the more explicit versions will be there rather than here.

REGARDING MISSING FICS, ETC.: I deleted a one-shot fic and altered parts of another fic on the chance that they might violate content rules. Thank you to Cameron Kennedy for the heads-up regarding the crack-down earlier on non-compliant fics and their authors. Whether my content would have been in violation or not, I decided to err on the side of caution as I do not want my membership deleted, Mikami-style or otherwise. If anyone has any questions about this, please send me a message.

REGARDING CHAPTERS NOT APPEARING: If you get a message saying that my fic has updated but you can't access it when you follow the link, please let me know! I'm not sure what was preventing chapters from showing after they're uploaded/posted, but this has happened before, and I can't tell from my end if things are showing up for other people. Don't be shy -- please send me a message and tell me if a chapter that's supposed to be up isn't showing for you.

When I first found this place, after reading some things I liked, I told myself I wouldn't review anything until I'd put up a fic of my own, as a sort of parity -- it seemed only fair. I only broke that promise to myself once (tips hat to Dr.Kim-chan, author of Silent Consonant, which is still ongoing and awesome, check it out!). Amusingly, however, after I started writing and posting my own fic, I found that I didn't have enough time to read anymore, let alone review! D'oh. I read when I can, and review what I read. In fact, if you have any fic recommendations for me, just shoot me a message. To give a general idea of what I like, I assembled a favorites list (why it took me so long to figure out that story alerts don't show up on one's user profile, I've no idea).

My fanfic pet peeves include:

~Extreme OOC.

~Predictable pairings. Not just who, but how -- although . . . having said that, the sheer ubiquity of LxLight (and LightxL), plus some writers' apparent assumption that the two characters are in love IN CANON, makes me never want to read anything with that pairing ever again. I'm fine with other people liking it (if nothing else, fanfic is a fun way to explore the possibilities untouched by the original authors), but as for me, I don't care if it's well-written, I don't care if it's a totally different take on it, I don't care if it isn't full of gag-worthy OTP fluff. The idea was initially interesting but limited, with a sort of love/hate vibe, but the bloom is off the rose, there is no flavor in that gum anymore, just NO. (I'll stop ranting now.)

~Exclusively romance-based fics. What? I don't even like romcoms . . .

~Excessive fluff. Excessive, as in, that's ALL there is. Fluff. A smidgen of fluff in something serious is awesome -- think of it like cinnamon: a sprinkle is yummy, but a mouthful, not so much.

~Rape treated trivially -- especially the "so-and-so rapes so-and-so, but then they both fall in loooove."

~MPREG (just, ugh).

~Truly awful spelling and grammar -- spellcheck isn't a cure-all, but that doesn't mean don't use it!

Everybody likes something different, and that's cool, but those are the things that generally stop me cold.

My fanfic LIKES (since just listing pet peeves is a wee bit negative of me) include:

~IC! I LOVE it when someone seems to truly nail a character (not that way, er, necessarily). If I liked the original fic enough to write fanfic about it myself, then odds are I'll like it when any fanfic I read comes as close as possible to the way the characters were in the original.

~Well-developed and well-paced plots.

~Humor mixed with drama.

~Unusual ideas and plot-twists -- if you can surprise me, I'm likely to be impressed.

~Suspense and dramatic tension.

~Character-focused ruminations.

~AUs, mainly of the 'what if' variety, provided that character variations are plausibly connected to the changes in occurrences/scenery.

~Smooth, natural writing that is evocative without being overly florid.

~Use of characters I like (I know, duh) and characters who aren't often featured -- you can probably tell from what I've written and what I've favorited that I like fics that focus on L, Ryuk, Misora, Aiber, Wedy, Matsuda, Aizawa, Mogi, Ide, Chief Yagami, Namikawa, Mido, Sayu . . . It's not that I don't like other characters (I do!), but I find it enjoyable to either read or write a more fleshed-out version of a minor character, and it's definitely fun to see different interpretations of the characters, especially when they also manage not to contradict canon.

~Use of a character I don't really like, or am indifferent to, and making me like them -- awesomesauce. ^_^

I listen to a lot of music, and sometimes I hear a certain song in my head when I'm writing something. Other times, a song will seem to fit a particular character, to the point where I think of it almost like a theme. Of course, not all songs running through my brain have any connection to what I'm writing. The song that is currently in my head is "Stay Tuned" by Ambulance LTD.

As ever, thanks for reading!