If you have any questions or comments, feel free to PM me here, or drop me a note on Tumblr, username drealyn22. I accept anonymous asks on Tumblr, for those of you without an FFN account.

If you have any feedback on my fanfiction, I would very much appreciate it if you could write a review or contact me privately to let me know how I'm doing.

4/24/2018:

Hi All,

My path during this past year has been bumpy and twisted, and I'm still struggling to reach equilibrium. I've been trying to get my brain back into writing, but I haven't made any headway as of yet. I continue to be encouraged by the growing number of favorites and follows on my stories, and the very few reviews that I still get these days.

Thank you to everyone who has given me feedback in one way or another. That's the only way us fanfic authors know whether we're doing good work or not.

The story updates below are from 8/18/2017... and sadly, very little has changed.

No Roads Where We're Going: Chapter 10 in progress.

Barefoot Cowgirl: The Cycle of Death and Rebirth: Chapter 3 in progress.

Unnamed Attack on Titan Fanfic: I wrote it and edited it. Then I read chapters 90-96 in the manga, and it completely blew my idea out of the water. Consequently, this fic is now shelved until something new and brilliant hits me on the head.

Perspective Evolution: Indefinite hiatus. If you're a reader who really wants a one-shot for Jin or Fuu, PM me, and I might grant your wish. But if nobody is interested, then this fic falls to the bottom of the priority list.

Jigoku: Complete.

Thank you to those who have contacted me on Tumblr. I really enjoy hearing from readers, fellow authors, people interested in Japanese culture, or anybody else who just wants to say hello.

My Background

I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music, with a minor is Studio Art.

I've spent most of my professional career working in Information Technology, in a wide variety of roles including technical support, software engineering, systems analysis, database development, and project management. I'm a CompTIA A-Plus Certified Computer Technician.

I am now studying to earn a second Bachelor's Degree in Japanese Studies, with the goal of becoming a teacher and translator.

Research

In the past few years, I have spent a great deal of time researching topics in Japanese history. I've tried to apply this information to my fanfiction. I really wanted to write a story with true historic and cultural references. I thought it would be awesome if I could take the whole story, drop it into the Edo period, and have it fit right in. With artistic liberties, of course. This is fanfiction after all.

One of my passions is dispelling myths and assumptions by researching to discover the truth, and sharing my knowledge with others in the hopes of improving our understanding of the real people, history, and cultural themes behind shows like Samurai Champloo, and other fictional works that draw inspiration from true events.

Thanks to Samurai Champloo, I've become very fascinated with the history of the Ryukyu Islands. All this talk about Ryukyu being a prison colony started to bug me. I see references to it in fanfiction all the time. Authors and fans will take statements from Samurai Champloo out of context and fill in the blanks with a lot of untrue assumptions. The result is that the people of Ryukyu are painted as being pirates and criminals who all lived in exile. But that simply is not the case. Moreover, it's a very racist point of view. I started doing my own research to get down to the heart of the matter, and I've written several Tumblr posts on the subject. If you want to know the facts about where Mugen comes from, go check it out.

My interests in Ryukyu go even deeper than that. For much of its history, the Kingdom of Ryukyu was tied more closely to China than Japan. It was an independent nation until Japan's Satsuma Domain invaded Amami and Okinawa, and forcibly - yet unofficially - annexed the entire archipelago. Things were very complicated during that time. Even though Ryukyu had come under the control of Satsuma, for political reasons with China, Japan didn't want it to appear that way. Thus, the Kingdom of Ryukyu remained a tributary nation to China at the same time its trade was controlled by Satsuma, all the while still being governed as an independent nation by the royal family living on Okinawa Island. This ambiguous status lasted for centuries, up until the late 1800's. The politics behind that situation are incredibly complex and interesting.

I am also fascinated by Japan's Edo period (1603-1868), and the events leading up to it during the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573-1600), the last phase of the Sengoku or "warring states" period. It was a time of extensive civil war, with the major samurai clans fighting to expand and consolidate territory. Several clans were destroyed during this time, including the Takeda and Hojo clans. Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu eventually emerged victorious, and Ieyasu went on to establish the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled for more than 250 years, until the Meiji Revolution of the 19th century. Many of the cultural developments and societal norms that emerged during the Edo period can still be felt in modern Japanese culture today.

I hope to study all of these topics in-depth when I start school, but until then, I'll continue researching on my own as I have time.

Themes in My Fanfiction

I've always gravitated towards strong, independent female characters. In Samurai Champloo, I loved Fuu, but I started to get frustrated that she constantly needed to be rescued. She has such a strong personality - she's bold, she does things her own way, she helps others, she stands up to evil and unfairness, and she pretty much owns Jin and Mugen. I always wanted the series to take it a step farther and have her become more self-sufficient. When I first conceived of No Roads Where We're Going, that was the first thing on my mind. I wanted Fuu to grow up, get tough, and learn to fight for herself and her friends. That doesn't mean she won't still need help from Jin and Mugen; it just means that they can all fight for each other now, together as a family. The theme of Fuu's growing strength and independence are very much at the heart of No Roads Where We're Going.

In my new Cowboy Bebop fic, Barefoot Cowgirl, Edward will be at the center of the story, and I plan to have her take charge more than she has in the past. Her growth won't be as dramatic as Fuu's in No Roads, but it's in the same vein. I always felt that Ed had so much unexplored potential as a character. I want her to grow up and find her own way, and even become a source of leadership and inspiration for Jet, Faye, and Spike. She's going to be the one to pick up the shattered pieces of their team and bring them back together. The plot has yet to unfold, but that's where I'm hoping to take it.

I also gravitate towards themes of family - not the family you're born with, although that's important too, but the family you make along the way as your life progresses. We tend to adopt other people into our lives, and sometimes those bonds become so strong that you no longer differentiate between a friend and a family member. Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo are both stories about makeshift families that come together partially by random chance, and partially out of a need to fill a void of loneliness and find a greater purpose. We all yearn for deeper connections, even if we don't realize it. Both No Roads Where We're Going and Barefoot Cowgirl will feature the female leads pulling their respective families together, making them closer, and inspiring the individuals within them to strive for more. Fuu is the nucleus of the story in Samurai Champloo. It's because of her that Mugen and Jin finally discover a sense purpose and realize that there's more to life than living alone from day to day, only just surviving. Edward will become that in Barefoot Cowgirl, bringing Jet and Faye together.

Hobbies & Interests

Movies, music (I enjoy making mixes), star gazing, spending time near the ocean, beach combing, collecting and tumbling rocks (I love agates and jasper), camping, hiking, music concerts, junk food, building computers, World of Warcraft (lock and bear), mythology, astrology, writing fanfiction, limited anime and manga, genealogy, researching and studying Japanese language and culture, being solitary, and going for long drives when I need to think or de-stress.

Stuff I Like

Anime & Western Animation: Samurai Champloo, Death Note, Cowboy Bebop, Attack on Titan, Psycho-Pass, Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood more so than the original), RWBY, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, AJIN, Ghost in the Shell, old Looney Toons cartoons (I love Bugs Bunny).

TV: Vikings, The Walking Dead, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Halt and Catch Fire, Star Trek TNG, Seinfeld, Firefly, Later... with Jools Holland, music performances on Palladia (now MTVL?), South Park, Big Bang Theory. I recently canceled my cable, so I'm a little behind on most of my shows.

Movies: (Not a complete list) Donnie Darko, Cowboy Bebop, Pitch Perfect, Singin In The Rain, Bourne trilogy, Hunger Games series, Harry Potter series, Underworld series, Boondock Saints, Out of Africa, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Office Space, Tonari No Totoro, Spirited Away, Fantasia, Chocolat, Practical Magic, Old School, Heathers, The Big Lebowsky, Minority Report, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Shaun of the Dead, Memento, The Dark Knight, Inception, the Japanese Death Note movies, Star Trek (all of them - even the old ones), Captain America: Civil War.

Netflix: Daredevil, Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories, Good Morning Call, AJIN, Luke Cage. There are probably more I'm forgetting.

YouTube: Abroad in Japan, Rachel and Jun, That Japanese Man Yuta, Every Frame a Painting, Now You See It, Cinema Sins, WatchMojo, Gesu no Kiwami Otome (ゲスの極み乙女。) official channel, any videos or music of Ling Tosite Sigure (凛として時雨) or TK's solo work, whatever Japanese lessons I can find, documentaries of Japanese history and Japanese martial arts, live music concerts (lately it's been Radiohead and Gesu no Kiwami Otome).

Music: (Not a complete list) Ling Tosite Sigure, TK's solo work, Gesu no Kiwami Otome, Muse, Radiohead, Stereolab, Silversun Pickups, Weezer, Lorde, EGOIST, MuteMath, Pixies, The Polyphonic Spree, Chopin, Debussy, Bach, Soundtracks from Samurai Champloo, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Psycho-Pass, Donnie Darko. I'm currently making a soundtrack for No Roads Where We're Going, just because I'm a nerd for making mixes.

Thanks for reading my profile!

Feel free to contact me by PM or on Tumblr. I like to hear from my readers and fellow authors!