NOT QUITE AN UPDATE: 11/23/2018: No, nothing new to post as yet, just breaking radio silence to let you all know (if you care)that I'm still alive and toiling away on pretty much...everything. My daughter has a baby son, who is now just about 8 months old. cute little guy, and I love him to bits. between working on the house, working at WORK, and helping my daughter with her baby, including being the Designated Taxi for pretty much everyone in the house that needs to get somewhere, my spare time has eroded considerably. I've also caved in to my Muses' nagging and started writing an original work. where THAT'LL go is anyone's guess, so the less said about it at the moment the better. I WILL continue to work on my stories as time becomes available, but please, be patient. Hope you all had a happy thanksgiving and are ready for Christmas.

UPDATE: 06/27/2018: HALLELUJAH AND HUZZAH!! Finally an update! For REAL! I finally have Chapter 22 of Queen of ice and fire up, "When Life Gives You Lemons.." which has nothing at all to do with what the chapter's actually about. It's been quite the adventure, settling into my house, painting and repairing things, sorting, organizing, and prioritizing my to-do list. Which is fecking HUGE!! Finally settled on a color for the living room and bought the paint last weekend (thanks to my brother's contribution toward that..), now I just have to get it together to actually do the prepping and painting. Once I get that done I can set up the bookcases and unpack my books. slowly but surely, my house is becoming my HOME, and even though the list of things that need to be done is massive, I LOVE the challenge of taking this place and making it MINE. Anyway, I'm working on my other WIPS too, its just that Queen has languished the longest and needed the most TLC. I'll get to the rest of them as well, now that I've got a little bit more time and a little less stress to suck away my creativity. Until next update... enjoy!

NON-UPDATE: 03/30/2018. Well then. It's been a heck of a year so far and we're only 3 months into it. After a concerted effort, I have managed to find and purchase a house, and the last couple of months has been full of me working on getting the money together to cover the closing costs, moving costs, and other various and sundry expenses that go along with the purchase of a home. ONE of those things is paint, because the house in question, while solid and in decent shape, is UGLY and pretty much ALL the rooms need to be painted. The OTHER, sadly, is the stove that it came with, which apparently is original to the house (and thus at LEAST 42 years old), isn't working well and needs to be replaced. Well, I bought a new(ish) one, only to discover that I ALSO need an electrician to remove the old one and install an appliance outlet for the new one because the stove was hardwired in. This on top of a short paycheck because a full week's worth of hours somehow didn't get submitted to payroll.

For the last few months...the last YEAR, really... I've been focused on my goal of buying a home almost to the exclusion of all else. Well, that goal is realized now, and the writing Muse has awakened once again and is twigging at me. So... I WILL have new stuff posted on at least ONE of my fics pretty soon. Just don't ask HOW soon!

UPDATE: 11/19/2017: FINALLY!! I have Part IV: Past Imperfect for A Brief History Of Time Compression, the title of which I find endlessly ironic, as it is ANYTHING but brief. At least the WRITING of it is, if not the story itself. If you haven't given up entirely on me, kudos and thank you. If you have, I'm sorry, I don't blame you. As I've mentioned before, this is Ellone's version of the game's events, so I've tried to work in actual game dialogue from the script into those situations where she appears and interacts with the main characters. Those situations where she does NOT appear... THAT is where my imagination takes over and I construct the story around what ELLONE'S doing and what's happening to HER while Squall and co. are out saving the world. If nothing else, its an interesting exercise. Hopefully any of you still reading will enjoy it. If you do, let me know.

UPDATE: 08/21/2017: Well then, here's Part II: Fugitive, for A Brief History of Time Compression... Now I've really got to step it up! Only 10 days left in the challenge and I've got parts 3 and 4 yet to write!

UPDATE: 08/06/2017: hear ye! hear ye! 'Tis time once again for The Successor Challenge. Since I failed miserably at completing that challenge last year (the story I started then is still in progress and I WILL finish it! I'm stubborn that way. I HATE leaving things undone, particularly stories.), I am doubly committed to finish THIS one. So, I've now, after several days of ffnet being stupid, FINALLY managed to post my NEW story: A Brief History Of Time Compression. Part I is now up, enjoy, comment, etc... My NEXT update (when I manage to get it done) will be for Queen. I'm about halfway through that chapter.

In OTHER news...I've applied for and prequalified for a mortgage...so I'm now looking to buy a house, at long last. This renting shit is getting really old and I've gotten tired of it. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: 03/29/2017: Chapter 20, Stray Bullets. Yep, finally another chapter for Queen of Ice and fire, and in just a shade under six months! Whoo hooo! I'm improving! I'm still dealing with a ton of crap: my parent's property, the pest control issue (seriously, finding an exterminator that doesn't want a ridiculous amount of money to deal with bedbugs and cockroaches is really, really tough!) Medical bills left over from the car accident, which my auto insurance SHOULD have covered but for some reason is not being terribly responsive about.. the usual crap. I AM however writing whenever I can, and have resurrected another WIP that I'd set aside a year ago and was suddenly seized with the desire to work on concurrently with Queen. so I've got a chapter in progress for Happily Ever After as well, and hopefully will be able to finish that in a decent amount of time. Likewise with Queen. I'll work on it as much as i can.. be patient with me. anyway.. hope you enjoy this and are at least happy that I haven't given up on it yet, despite everything. The illustration by the way, is in progress as well. I'll see about getting THAT done too.

UPDATE: Kind of. 01/18/2017: No, I don't have a new chapter of anything on deck right now. I have HALF of a chapter done for Queen of Ice and Fire, but have hit a snag. For the time being, and I don't know for how long, my writing efforts have been and will continue to be, on hiatus. Several things have contributed to this: On October 19th. I was in an auto accident.. the second in 2 and a half years. fortunately there were only minor injuries, but my car was once again, totaled. Dealing with that knocked me sideways pretty hard. And by "minor" injuries, I only mean that nobody was in immediate danger of dying. there WERE still injuries, one of which has exacerbated an issue I'd been having problems with for awhile. I managed to buy a newer car, this time around, which I actually really love, but that was a financial hit that I really didn't need. Add to this the fact that my daughter, working at her first job at Goodwill, inadvertently brought home bedbugs. So I've been dealing with that...and that in itself is a MAJOR pain! I've actually had to go as far as throwing out my entire bed, frame AND bedding, and buy a pair of air mattresses, pending the arrival of my tax return, which will pay for the RIDICULOUSLY expensive pest control treatment that bedbugs require. Add to that the odd death in the family (my ex-husband's father, and the kids' granddad), an ongoing and worsening issue with my laptop's keyboard, and you've got a perfect storm that'll make it hard for ANYONE to be creative. I'm working on sorting all this shit out, bit by bit, and one of those things is going to be seeing it if's more cost effective to repair or replace my laptop.

UPDATE:09/29/2016: NEW CHAPTER FOR QUEEN OF ICE AND FIRE!!!! I know, about damn time! Anyway, for your reading enjoyment (hopefully) I have Chapter 19: Danse Roulette, which harkens back to events from Chapter 6 of Bragging Rights. The next chapter...and an illustration to go along with it... is currently in progress.

UPDATE: 06/19/2016: Wow. Almost exactly two months since my last update. Sheesh. I really need to do better with this. Hopefully I can. Life's really been kicking my ass lately, to the point that I'm having to work overtime in an attempt to make ends meet (they aren't right at the moment). Anyhow, new chapter on deck for Queen of Ice and Fire (and I really, really wish I had thought of a better title. seriously. It seemed cool at the time but I SO hate it now!), Chapter 18: Unasked Questions. I'm gonna try and get myself back into the groove on this story and finish it up.. I have an IDEA of what needs to happen and how I want it to end, its just a matter of getting it there. So, hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter, or if not, just please be aware that it's been a good three years since I've revisited this story and done anything with it. Enjoy, everyone!

UPDATE: 04/28/2016: Chapter 30B for What Happens in Esthar is posted, which now means that this story is DONE. WHEW! I had a hard time with this story. A lot of real-life things kept happening which made it difficult for me to write, sometimes derailing my writing for months at a time. things like death, and dealing with the fallout from that and the attendant responsibilities that it entails, my own insecurities, the lack of time my "new normal" has left me with, making writing difficult. Hopefully, in spite of all the challenges I've had in recent years, the story itself is entertaining and worth reading. And I hope you all like the ending.

with the completion of this fic, I am now down to just TWO pending WIPs... Happily Ever After and Queen of Ice and Fire. Since Queen has languished the longest, I'm going to concentrate on completing it before returning to my Seifer-centric fic, Happily Ever After. So, eventually, you'll all begin to see new chapters for Queen. Meanwhile, hope you all enjoy this one, and thank you all for reading and commenting!

UPDATE!!! 04/22/2016: So,I FINALLY I have an update for What Happens in Esthar. Chapter 30, PART 1 of the last chapter. I decided to split it in half because it ended up being HUGE...like 10k words huge. so anyway, here's the first part of it, and the rest of it...next weekend? I still have to edit it so I'll be working on that this week. Hope you like it and that it doesn't bore you TOO much. Honestly, it was tough writing at times, due to my life intruding rather spectacularly as I searched for a new home, packed, then finally moved to my new apartment. The move itself was a friggn' nightmare and I STILL haven't completely unpacked yet. I hope you all like the chapter in spite of the fact that I really had a hard time focusing on it due the move and everything that fell out from it. Part 2 of the chapter will probably be posted next weekend. Hope you all enjoy it!

/PDATE (kind of): 02/07/2016: I have a chapter on deck for What Happens in Esthar...it is IN PROGRESS, at any rate. When I will be able to post it is anyone's guess. I'm in the middle of moving, so most of my time is being spent packing, purging extraneous stuff and attempting to find another home, as the tri-plex I'm currently living in is being sold by the owner. I am, in effect, being evicted through no fault of my own. My target move date is on or before March 1, so I've got the next three weeks to find another home. NOT as easy as it sounds, even with unlimited income, which I do NOT have. So, of necessity, What Happens in Esthar, Queen of Ice and Fire (I SWEAR that's the next one I'm going to work on finishing!) and Happily Ever After are going to be on hiatus for the time being. Once I HAVE finished them...who knows? I might continue writing stories if something inspires me...still plenty of things to explore in my headcanon after all...or I might actually go on a short "fic sabbatical" if you will, and give the writing a rest for a bit in favor of art. As many stories as there are to write, there are an equal number of drawings for me to do. Many more artistic challenges than literary ones, and despite it being my first love, a talent I haven't exercised much of late. We will see where things go once the dust settles and things are a little more stable around here.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: While I do not have anything against Yaoi, please, gentle readers, be aware that I do NOT write Yaoi. That is not my preference. I apologize for any confusion on that matter in anything that I've written or stated in my summaries. This is not to say that I never will, I just don't see that in any of the characters I deal with.

On another subject... If any of you have read ALL of my stories, you may get a sense that they link together in a sort of loose timeline. When I started out writing them, I wasn't deliberately plotting out a big, epic story. I just took little bits and pieces, wrote them and suddenly found that they were interconnected. I was prompted to add this note after a reader expressed interest in a reference to an earlier fic I had included in one of my recent stories.

IF you, the reader, are interested in reading them in chronological order, they are as follows:

1: Unbreakable (at AO3 only..Archive Of Our Own dot com..)

2. Hero of the day

3. Delirium

4. Moonbeams and Dragon Wings

5. Happily Ever After (in progress)

6. The Bells of Freedom

7: Midnight in Balamb

8. The Monster Hunt

9. Gunblade practice /Gunblade Practice Redeaux (yes, i know its spelled REDUX. Sorry, I'm not french)

10. the wolf and the lion

11. spirit of the wind

12. On angel's wings

13. Mission Zero

14. Queen of Ice and Fire (in progress- new chapter pending)

15. Bragging rights

16. Red Skies

17. Indelible Ink

18. A Bad Day Golfing

19. Storms

20: Dragonfire

21. Words ( Sei-Fuu smut fic at AO3 only)

Alternate Universe (AU) stories:

1. What Happens in Esthar

just a suggestion. I try to make each story stand on its own, but i am finding that they are becoming increasingly more intertwined with each other (with the exception of the AU story, that is..). And as another side note, these stories are listed in event order from In-game to post-game, NOT in the order that they were written.

Basic info: I am female, american, single (and THINKING about looking...). I'm 40-ish, have two children, one dog, two cats (used to have a gerbil but my daughter gave it to her friend). Thus far, I've only written FF8 fanfics but IF inspiration hits (like for example, when I replace FFX, FFVII and FFXII and actually manage to PLAY them..)I might do others. I repurchased FFVIII a while back, and I've introduced it to both of my children. We are happily playing it again right now. another game that I've purchased but haven't had much time to get into is Dissidia Final Fantasy. I'm REALLY liking this game, but I agree with the critics who say that the story is a little weak. yeah, for a Final Fantasy game, it is. The gameplay is impressive however.

I actually have a job, which in this economy is something to be happy about. But that translates to very little personal time to pursue my interests such as writing, or anything else for that matter.

more info: I rent, not own. I have too many bills and not enough money, I enjoy fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, romance and true crime novels. I love loud, raunchy rock and roll, the more attitude the better! I've been divorced since feb 15, 2001 (yes, I know, ironic), and after my last relationship ended, BADLY, decided to just stop with the whole dating thing until I can get my head on straight. Tired of the BS.

so far.. not working. yeah, I have issues, and I'll see someone about them.. eventually.

I signed up to ffnet on the suggestion of a fan (ashbear, she's responsible for my being here... so you can either thank her or not...HOPEFULLY, you'll thank her. she's a very nice person..:). So far, I'm enjoying it, I really like some of the fics I've read, and was surprised at how many authors here I recognized from other sites such as RPGamer and the rpgffml mailing list. Upon signing up here, the first thing I did was re-read all of my old fanfics and cringe. then I revised and re-edited them, hopefully improving their readability. No, I didn't break the longer ones up into chapters though in hindsight, I should have. I didn't start out writing that way however. I just wrote until I was done. As you can see, I'm doing things a little bit differently with Bragging Rights.

in addition to my homepage, I maintain two blogs, The Ronin blog, which is where I write stuff about my fanfics, writing, the creative process, and random weirdness, and Mindcrimes, my Wordpress blog which contains thoughts, opinions, day to day stuff.. boring, mundane details of my life. I'm also on Facebook (Afton Love, yes, that's my real name), Skype,and Twitter @RoninAi if anyone's interested. Anyone interested in taking a look at my artwork can see it on DeviantART, under *ronin-ai. If you really need to get ahold of me, email always works.

Hope you like my writing.. if you do, tell me, if you don't, tell me anyway. How else can I improve my writing unless the weaknesses that I've overlooked are pointed out to me?