I started out on and owe a big "Thank You" to Twilightzoner for being my first beta for Lightning Crashes ("LC"). And I would also like to give a special shout out to Hannah81 and AngelGoddess1981 for being the final two betas for the story over on Twilighted. Not sure if they have the same pen names on this site, but since LC is published on here after Twilighted, and is being beta'd over there and not over here, I wanted to mention all three of them.

I enjoy a lot of stories, and love all kinds of characters. LC will probably be my first and only story that focuses on the Bella/Edward relationship. There are literally thousands of stories on here that have really put those two through just about every experience you could possibly imagine for them, both human and vampire, so at this point I just don't feel there is much originality to add to the mix.

As for teams, I started out Team Edward because - well, mostly because I saw the movie first before ever reading the books, and Edward was hard to resist, what with his well-defined jaw and oddly attractive teeth (I know, I know -- but seriously - something about his mouth in the movie was so tantalizing..) Once I'm on board with a character it takes a lot to move me, and even after the other movies and reading the books, Jacob just didn't make me budge.

That being said, now that I'm in my thirties, I tend to be more Team Carlisle these days. It still makes me giggle that Peter Facinelli is the "Dad" of the story, I remember movies where he was the High School dream teen. I've found a few gem Carlisle stories on FF and other sites, and I tend to like his characterization a little more, though I really am not that big of a fan of Esme, not entirely sure why.

As for my favorite vampire, that prestigious award is a tie, and goes to both Eric Northman and Damon Salvatore, I just can't pick between the two, so can I be greedy and please have both?! :) I'm Team Viking 100% in Sookie's world - no Bill love here at all. It helps that Alexander Skarsgard is so delicious in his portrayal of .. oh who am I kidding? ... he's just plain delicious, no further explanation needed. And as far as Damon goes...well, being Team Damon only came from watching the show...more specifically, watching Ian Somerhalder, as I've never read any of the TVD books. Mr. Smolder-holder plays his character incredibly well, and is so very delectable himself. It's funny, but even from episode #1, I loved Damon over Stefan. Now that we are in the third season, I'm having a hard time even figuring out how anyone on the planet could even consider being Team Stefan (sorry Paul Wesley!).

Other than the vamps, I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan, but I never really got into the fanfic side of Potter-verse. Maybe because J.K. Rowling in my eyes could do no wrong, and any stories that stray from her perfect prose could never live up to the standards I've set for her world. I mean no disrespect to any of the Potter fics out there, in truth, I haven't read a single one to be so judgmental.

IMO, the reason the Twifics are so numerous is because so many people (whether they realize it or not) were left unsatisfied with the original saga, so they seek fulfillment in either reading about the characters or in writing about them. That was certainly the case with me.

About my stories:

Lightning Crashes -- Twilight based Bella/Edward pairing. Bella moves back to Forks after a tragic accident. She soon becomes friends with Edward - the one person that can bring her out of her pain. Somewhat of an angst-filled romance. I had originally rated it as "R" on Twilighted because I thought having limbs ripped off of someone would be violent enough to justify the rating, but now that I've read real rated R stories on here and other sites, my rating seems laughable and I've downgraded it over here. There are 25 Chapters total planned for this story (24 + an Epilogue). So we are almost there! Chapter 23 is now up! Chapter 24 has been outlined -- so the skeleton is there, just need to work on the meaty parts. ;)

Dead Men Tell No Tales -- Crossover Fic with elements of all three of the great Vampire stories. Mostly a cross between Twilight and Southern Vampire Mysteries, with a splash of TVD thrown in as well. I really wanted to bring an "OC" to Sookie-verse and thought Bella made the perfect character. I'm toying with her a little bit, after all, she's in a much different place mentally than in the Twilight saga since the return of the Cullens essentially never happens. And, she's older and I LOVE older (and a little more grown up) Bella. So far I've been incredibly surprised and motivated by the response just from the Prologue and Chapter 1. A few people have asked about pairings. I will not give away any pairings for this story. Since Bella is playing in Sookie's world, I'd like to think she's also playing by Sookie's rules, at least when it comes to potential guys. And any fan of the SVM books know that Charlaine Harris keeps the readers guessing when it comes to Sookie's love interests (though almost all of us it seems secretly hope for it to be Eric in the end.) There are PLENTY of eligible men in Bon Temps and Shreveport for Bella to get into trouble with, and I can't wait for her to get into the thick of it. I'm hoping this story is more adventurous than LC, and much less angst-y. Once again, I have a general idea of where the direction will be, but at the outset, I unfortunately do not have a clear picture as to how long I'm going to go with this story. This time, I think once the momentum slows and the story has lost it's luster, I'll wrap it up before I ruin it.

REQUESTS/SUGGESTIONS: Although still quite preoccupied with my other two stories, I'll need a break or two while writing the multi-chapter fics. If there are any fic requests anyone wants to send my way, I'm open to suggestions. I'd love to try my hand at writing a creative one-shot or two. I'm open to considering many prompts/ plot suggestions, and many pairings. Also open to many base stories. I would of course need to be familiar with it for me to be able to write about any of the characters. LC is my first attempt at writing in the fanfic world, and even though I started writing it in '09, I still don't really know many people or stories in this world. I have no idea how people seem to meet each other through here, but I'd like to put this out there: I'm willing to try my hand at fic requests or contests, but I usually don't know about such things until it's too late or a deadline has passed.

RECOMMENDATIONS: I love reading fics. I mostly enjoy completed fics because I'm incredibly impatient (I read HP7 in one night, like many other people). I didn't start reading the Twilight books until all four were published (ordered them all at the same time, read them in a span of 3 days.) Yea, so uh...patience, NOT a virtue of mine, for sure. I have been roped into the occasional in-progress fic and it's painful for me -- although, it does make me feel quite guilty when thinking of my own fic and the delayed updates with it, so I've been known on rare occasions to subject myself to the same kind of sweet torture. Though the story has to be REALLY good for me to willingly do that to myself. With that said, I'd REALLY love to get some recommended tried and true reading suggestions. I haven't read a Twilight fic in awhile, though I'm certainly not opposed to it. I just prefer it to not be Edward/Bella. I don't want to get exhausted with them as a couple until I'm finished with LC. :) I LOVE reading any fics about Damon, and am open to Eric fics as well -- I actually read a cross-over slash with these two characters, simply not being able to resist seeing how someone characterized a relationship with those two. It was interesting, and surprisingly fun, though that's not exactly what I'm looking for here. I love Damon with Elena (Go Delena!) Not much of a Damon/Bonnie fan but that is simply because I've never read the TVD books (only watch the series). I like Carlisle with anyone but Esme (I just haven't been thrilled with any of her characterizations I've read so far, including the original.) And Eric can be paired with a sock puppet (as could Damon) and I'd probably find a way to read about it. I don't read as many SVM stories because I feel the relationship between Eric and Sookie has been extensively explored to my satisfaction thus far in the original series. I'd LOVE to find stories about Damon and Eric as humans in an AH/AU version (of course, doesn't have to be them in the same AH fic), but so far haven't found many. Navigating through all the stories on FF is not the easiest, so if anyone has suggestions, please send them my way!! :)