If You Don’t Have Wings To Fly, Squeeze The Potential Of Your Imagination. DevinElleKurtz

It's Just Fan Fic...

I got an email from a reader earlier.  The sender was a lovely young woman who had just re-read my first published fic and wanted to tell me how much she enjoyed it—how it made her feel, how it made her smile, how it made her cry, how it made her excited to get home each night and curl up in bed with it, how it helped ease the pain of a difficult patch in her life, and how much she misses it now that it’s over.  It was a beautiful letter, and my reaction to it must have been visible enough to make my saner half take notice from across the room.  He shot me a questioning look, and I turned the laptop around and gestured to the screen.

I followed his eyes as they scanned each line, saw his lips tip up in a smile that grew broader as he read, then braced myself for the good natured snark I’ve come to expect when my little literary hobby comes up in conversation.

“Wow.” He said. “That was kind of amazing.  How does it feel to be someone’s favorite author?”

“Don’t be a dick,” I said, slapping him on the shoulder.

“I’m serious,” he replied, gesturing to the screen.  "That’s what she said—right there: You’re my favorite author.”

“I think she means favorite fic author.  Not real author.”

“Is there a difference?” He asked.

“Yes,” I said, rolling my eyes.  ”Of course there is.”

“Why?”

“Because, as someone in this room who isn’t ME is fond of pointing out, self published gay mystery romance novels aren’t exactly eligible for the pulitzer.” I said, turning the computer back around.

“So what?” he shrugged, “Something you wrote inspired a stranger to sit down write what it meant to them and send it to you.  A lot of total strangers, as a matter of fact.  You write, people read it and react.  That makes you an author.”

“Huh.” I said, very eloquently, then got up and went into the kitchen to start dinner.

Hours later, sitting down to reply to the letter in question I find myself writing this post instead.  Because here’s the thing: That wonderfully crazy man who lives in my house is right.  (But please don’t tell him I said that)

From the moment I realized that letters made up words and words made up sentences and sentences made up worlds that were mine to explore any time I wanted to I’ve been a reader.  I have fallen in love with perfect phrases and epic stories and countless characters pressed between the pages of the thousands of books I’ve read in my life so far—and sitting down to string together those same 26 letters into tens of thousands of words of stories I felt needed telling?  That makes me an author.

I have adored the work of countless authors in numerous genres, and the world of fan fic is no exception.  I have admired and cherished and savored the words of talented writers whose work is no less legitimate for the fact that their names include random keyboard characters and their words don’t live on bound paper on a shelf.  

It’s not JUST fan fic.  It’s literature.  It’s published.  It’s read.  It’s loved.

It matters.

Thanks to all of my favorite authors for every word on every page on every screen that I’ve ever loved. 

I heard that Crowley helped to make Alpha Centauri and I like Crowley use spray..

moodboard by @gender-snatched

A Sign of Good Things

Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count:  32,475

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter

Characters: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Andromeda Black Tonks, James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter, Lily Luna Potter, Teddy Lupin, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, The Weasleys

Additional Tags: Post-Hogwarts, HP: EWE, Romance, Family, Kids, Fluff

Summary:

A decade ago Draco left England needing a change. Now he's back and a chance meeting with a trio of children leads to his life taking an unexpected turn. Friendships are formed, reconciliations made and all in all, he discovers what it is to be part of a family. 

AO3

FFN

Do you ever wonder how any of this is real?

You’ve come to a point where you just accept the unnaturalness of your life. Your feelings seem muted and you’re just numb to everything thrown at you. You know it isn’t normal to feel this way but at the same time there’s a sense of relief because you don’t need to try anymore. You’ve come to a point where you take everything in stride. You’re calm, you’re cool, you’re collected. You’re making sarcastic comments.

But at the same time, you still ask yourself, “How is this my life?”

One thing I love about being a writer is being able to go back through a piece of text and remember everything associated with it. 

Here, the scene you wrote at 3am, barely holding your head up, but fingers frantic to slam words on the keyboard.

There, a cheesy paragraph inspired by your own feelings of joy and wonder at the world. Something so sweet that you had to wiggle in your seat at the very thought.

Over here, the bit you were working on forever, because you couldn’t get the words right. You wanted to escape, but still forged on through the mess until you reached the end.

A story might be a story in itself, but it also contains ghostly records of all the actions and emotions around it, things the reader will never see, but the writer will never forget.

Being gay is natural? Okay.

You have three islands. Divide them into groups of one. The straight island, the gay island, and the lesbian island. The straight island is going to reproduce and keep going strong for millions of generations to come. The gay and lesbian islands will both wipe out in not even one century. This isn’t just about religion or morals, it’s just simple common sense. Being gay is unnatural, and not just because God said so, but because you yourself wouldn’t even be born without a REAL natural man and woman. And no, there is no such thing as a lesbian bone marrow “thing” to have children. That’s a biased fact that came from a lesbian scientist who has false opinions. If it’s not a real penis or vagina, then it’s fucking false and you’re just opinionated by dumb facts. I’m done here. Read over what I said and if you still think that being gay is normal and natural, then I hope you achieve some common sense one day. Bye

Our universe grants every soul a twin—a reflection of themselves—the kindred spirit – And no matter where they are or how far away they are from each other—even if they are in different dimensions, they will always find one another. This is destiny; this is love.

Julie Dillon

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A wholesome one and a spicy one 

The others x, x, x, x, x