Hello Friends, Fans, Mortal Enemies,

FanFiction has been a part of my life now for over a dozen years now. Writing FanFiction has been an enormous outlet for my over the years, from my preteen stage (yes, I admit to writing on FanFiction before I reached the ripe ole' age of thirteen when I was legally allowed to have my own account) to my angsty teen years and even through the trials and tribulations of college. When I started writing FanFiction, even fourteen seemed impossibly old. If a character were twenty, he might as well have been thirty or forty or fifty in my eyes.

My life has changed so much since I started reading and writing the works I still dream about. But the stories and the characters in those stories haven't changed. Ponyboy Curtis is still fourteen. He still dreams and watches sunsets and he is as he was when I first met him when I was eleven. Somehow giving the characters from the wonderful books I read growing up helps me reconcile that they aren't real. If Pony can finally make it to college on a scholarship and if Soda can finally marry the love of his life and if Darry can finally stop working like an man and start a family of his own, if I can create the happy ending I so want for my beloved friends, then maybe my own life will turn out the way I want.

Thank you for taking the time to read my profile. I am 23 years old and grew up somewhere South of where Ponyboy lives. Writing is my solace, an often private activity that I don't share with many. When I first started writing fanfiction all those years ago, I was convinced that I would turn out to be a famous author. I published my first original story in a real magazine at the age of twelve. I was editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper. I was a creative writing major for about five and a half seconds before something very sad and tragic happened: I changed my major for no reason than because I thought it was a silly thing to major in something that I had, for the most part, never struggled with. I convinced myself I could be a writer with any degree, but that I couldn't be an accountant or zoologist or engineer or whathaveyou with a writing degree.

I've been working on some original pieces that are of questionable merit. They say you are always your worst critic. But I also believe in calling a spade a spade. Something happened when I was busy taking computer science and business classes. My friends that continued to take writing classes, the ones that didn't panic, the ones that believed in themselves and their dreams, became very, very good at writing. At eighteen, maybe I was the stronger writer. But at twenty-two, when we were all standing in our robes, the ones graduating from the Department of English has blossomed into young Twains and Kafkas. And me? I had a job, a degree, and a pile of lost and broken dreams. My new goal in life is to eventually take college level creative writing courses. In my own defense, I have career that will give me the income to do that. My dreams can be achieved, but it will take a long time for me to get on the level of my friends. In the meantime, I will write and write and write. Both FanFiction and original pieces. Both poetry and prose. I will write the technical documents I am asked to write at work. I will write the emails to my coworkers. I will use every moment to grow and to learn. I will read and try to get what I can from the great authors who have come before me.

If you want to talk, give me pointers, etc, I would really like to talk to you. I really enjoy talking to new people. Please don't be shy.