Lilo, a confused queer,

I’m working on getting together my preorder campaign for my book that comes out this December and enamel pins are all the rage in the YA world. I might be interested in collaborating with a Sherlock fandom artist to create them, or at least to find out who they use to make them.

I already know @enerjax does pins. Any others you know of?

Thank you for the tag, @hubblegleeflower my dear! <3

Total number of completed stories: 35 total, 16 in 2017 (3 in 2018 )

Total word count: 157,532 total, 100,217 in 2017, plus 14,805 in fics that were posted in 2018 but were almost entirely written in 2017. O_O;;;

Fandoms written in: BBC Sherlock, with a brief dip into ACD Holmes, and the barest skim of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot for a very limited crossover (The Stand-In, still 95% a BBC Sherlock fic)

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

So. Much. More. Series 4 hijacked my fucking brain. I was reeling so hard after S4 that I thought I’d never write in this fandom again. Then my brain was all HOLD MY BEER.

What’s your own favorite story of the year?

How do you pick a favorite child? Arg... I mean, obviously I deeply love The Pieces That Fall to Earth for so many reasons. It was my first time writing epistolary and I learned SO MUCH. I also learned a lot about myself (more later). The reaction to the fic blew me away and it was so painful and wonderful and immensely moving to hear from all of you who have struggled with issues like John and Sherlock’s. I think it’s that more than anything that will always stick with me about this fic. Getting to chat with @ladymacphisto almost daily as she beta read for me and we chatted about ACD Holmes was wonderful. That fic brought me so much. Also, Full Disclosure. More on that later.

Did you take any writing risks this year?

On the fanfic side, I really pushed myself outside my comfort zone by trying some new styles, tones, formats, etc. Game was my first time writing ACD Holmes and I was so nervous, but I loved it! TPTF was my first epistolary, like I said. Stay For Me was really, really hard because I was deliberately forcing myself into a sort of minimalist, bleak kind of style, especially in the beginning. I do really like the result though. I was also going for a really specific feel for In the Dreaming Hours, and writing outside my natural voice always makes me paranoid.

On the professional side, I’m locked into a contract where I can’t sell any other YA books until my YA obligations to HarperCollins are fulfilled, so I pushed myself into writing adult and middle grade for the first time. I wrote a full synopsis and at least one sample chapter for four new books and shared them all with my agent: 3 adult and 1 middle grade. I did a sloppy draft of the full middle grade book, but it needs a loooooooooot of work. I did about 25k words on my own Holmes pastiche when my agent liked my sample chapter, but the thought of possibly contributing to the Holmes narrative was like PRESSURE and ANXIETY and so I stopped. I hope to return to it this year. It was a year of risks and my mental health didn’t hold up too well.

Do you have any fanfic or profit goals for the new year?

It’s gonna be a WILD year professionally, so I’m gonna be cutting back on fic output and trying to keep my goals really reasonable.

--- Finish the third fic in A Holiday Triptych, which will be longer than the other two, I believe. --- My first novel comes out late this year and I’m gonna die basically. My goal is to stay relatively sane through my book launch and promote my face off. --- My second novel is due to my editor in a few months. Goal: Get that done. --- I’ve got another project or two on the hob that I’m hoping to sell this year. --- Outline another YA novel to be my option book. --- Write whatever fic ideas smack me in the face and won’t let me sleep

Best story of the year?

Ummmmm... I’m terribly at judging the quality of my own writing? And they’re all my babies and I love them?

Most popular story of the year?

By just about every possible metric it’s The Pieces That Fall to Earth, but some of my short one-shot fics actually have a really satisfying kudos-to-hits ratio, like Ex, There’s Always Three of Us, and In the Dreaming Hours.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

Femslash is always underappreciated: Just What She Wanted (Molly/DI Hopkins) and Better Taste (Molly/Sally). I’m all about them professional ladies in male-dominated fields saying fuck alla this and making each other happy. For Johnlock stuff, I’d say Ask the Soldiers and Perfect Solo.

Most fun story to write:

Definitely Full Disclosure! I wrote it specifically because I LOVE fake relationship fics and I’d somehow never written one. I really wanted to do something outside the usual conventions of that trope (meaning no “for a case” or family holiday parties, etc.), so I started there and ran with it. My natural inclination for army slag John, dirty talk, and all the rest just came out, hahaha. That fic was purely me having a good time. I wrote almost the whole thing in one setting in November during NaNoWriMo.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters & most unintentionally telling story:

I think Stay For Me and TPTF both let me really dig into the characters in a  much deeper way this year. Ditto my S4 ficlet collection. TPTF was by far the most embarrassingly transparent thing I’ve ever written, though. This was the year I worked through a lot of major mental health stuff and figured out I’m actually gay, not bi, and BOYYY can you tell in that fic. Yikes.

Biggest disappointment:

(…series 4?) (lmao same, Glee.) I assume this is supposed to be fic-related disappointment, so... the fact that I wasn’t able to get around to writing some of the missing scenes and add-on fics for TPTF that I promised. By the time I came back to it, I just didn’t have the ideas in my head anymore. Really bummed me out. Sorry, all.

Biggest surprise:

Getting to meet and know so many wonderful people through the comments of TPTF, including people who became beta readers and friends and people I went on trips with and shit. Blew me away! Also, I’m really surprised y’all liked Speak My Language so much? I was afraid y’all would think it was too silly! Also surprised and grateful to have gained @wiscolina as a beta reader and friend, so please send her some thanks for putting up with my flood of fics at the end of 2017/beginning of 2018.