#cbk1000

Rules: Share the first line of ten of your most recent fanfics. Tagged by @cbk1000 bless you friend, you know i certain have enough WIP to at least come close to ten. This ended up being like opening paragraph but whatever, sue me, i do not write opening sentences that you could frame in a museum, unlike some authors i could name. *coughJennifercough*

Working Title: Body Drop

He was taking too long. Caroline did her best not to fidget, a bad tell at the best of times, but he brought it out in her. His careful hands—hands that could have belonged to a musician or maybe a sculptor—kept touching things and despite the gloves he wore, she would have to take a Lysol wipe to the knives after he left.

Freaky Friday Time Travel fic

The package was sitting innocently enough on the porch swing when Caroline got home from school. After a weird day of fielding concerned questions from her peers about Elena’s whereabouts—Stefan and Damon locking her in the Boarding House all weekend after prom was a last-ditch effort that looked like it wasn’t working—Caroline wasn’t really in the mood for a surprise.

waffle house fic

Many people will tell you that a Waffle House diner at 1 a.m. is a liminal space. An in-between realm where anything can happen. The concept of liminal spaces mostly got lost on Caroline once she became a member of the walking, talking undead, although Bonnie still swore they were a thing, like the creepy old house where she had communed with the witch spirits.

Mechanic

“Hello, is anyone here?” Caroline calls from the open door of the garage. She can't see over the old Chevy pulled into the loading bay.

Antique Shop

The laptop was a cover. Well, the office work still needed to get done, and it’s true that she normally sat out on the patio with it for an hour after lunchtime ended at 3:00 PM, but Caroline was rarely there past 4:00 PM. She prided herself on having competent managers at the coffee shop and when her ‘shift’ was over, she went home.

the wind pours by like destiny part 2

It was with no little amount of force that Caroline flung the door to the inn chamber closed behind her. The wooden door slammed home into the frame and the latch clicked into place.

“Married?” She hissed at Klaus. “You had to compel the innkeeper into thinking we were married?"

Stellar Flare ch 2

Klaus’ communicator gave another faint buzz along the back of his arm, and he adjusted his grip on Caroline’s legs. It had run through a slew of notifications from the past several hours, gone quiet for a little, and then about five minutes ago, started back up again. Now that his communicator was no longer being blocked by Tyler's base, his message must have been sent through the relays.

Mafia AU part 3

The thing about Klaus was, he was currently late. Seven o'clock had come and gone, and Caroline was still sitting on her couch, in her dress, and the worst part was—the worst part was—that she was worried. He knew, he absolutely knew her opinions on tardiness, made it a point to show up on time or early for all their dates get-togethers

fake sexy lamp au

It was astonishing what a thousand years could do to a place. The last time he’d seen the village that would become Mystic Falls, it had been a half burned wreck, a testament to the sins of fathers coming to roost on the sons. Now?

Well, it was no longer on fire, Klaus thought blandly, looking around the town square from where he sat on an out-of-the-way park bench. One could term that an improvement. It was disgustingly picturesque in that true Southern Americana way.

Wales

Okay, so, maybe she jumped the gun. Maybe this wasn’t one of her more well-reasoned plans. It had seemed like a perfectly reasonable reaction to seeing Tyler and Hayley at the Mystic Falls Cook Off together three days ago, feeding each other bits of cake and being nauseatingly happy together.

♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆

No wait i actually have ten, more than ten, fucking hell, who authorized this????

I was wondering if you had recommendations for historical fiction set during the Plantagenet reign? I've tried Sharon Kay Penman and unfortunately didn't get on with her writing, which is a shame as I've heard good things about her series. I know Philippa Gregory has several novels set during that time period, but her books seem to be verging on bodice rippers, which isn't what I'm looking for. Was just curious if you had any suggestions for well-researched fiction set during the Plantagenet reign.

This ask has been sitting in my inbox for several days (my apologies) largely because I was trying to think of a more helpful answer for you. Medieval historical fiction is VERY hit and miss for me, not least because it is often written by people who, uh, are not historians and thus have Certain Ideas (TM) about what the medieval period is like. Or they want to use various aesthetics, or they want to make some (usually questionable) point about how women were treated in the past, or they just go whole-hog on total nonsense. As an example of all of these things at once, let us all stare in horror at this recently-released book description together:

(The book is called the Stone Witch of Florence, by the way. I took one look at this and ran screaming. WHY.)

A stone witch?? So she channels the power of gemstones like a modern-day Instagram healing crystals influencer??? BUT ZOMGZ WITCHCRAFT. In the middle of the Black Death. "Unorthodox cures" you say. But they also need holy relics for protection, and I totally trust the author to understand about medieval hagiography/cult of the saints. Totally. We definitely won't get some half-baked comparison between Sekrit Women Magical Gems Which Really Work and Dark Ages Church Superstition Holy Relics Which Are A Fraud, or.... something??? And our nobly mistreated protagonist will super definitely be a real physician if she gets these and never ever accused of witchcraft (which LET US ALL SAY IT TOGETHER IS AN EARLY MODERN THING!!!!) Because medieval medicine was just a bunch of gemstone vibes anyway! Makes total sense!

...my head hurts.

Anyway, while not all examples are this egregious, the point is: I love historical fiction, but I almost always can't read it when it's set in the medieval era. I read Sharon Kay Penman a while ago and enjoyed her stuff at the time, though I have assorted gripes with it on a stylistic/historical level. While Philippa Gregory does have real academic credentials, she likewise has gone totally down the bodice-ripper alternate-history crackpot theory Secret Women Magic version of things, which is... fine if that's your jam, but just like you, it is not mine. I thus have to read fiction which is set in other periods or which I know less about or where at least I am more capable of turning off my brain and accepting things for the sake of the story. So as you see, I unfortunately don't have many useful suggestions for you in this field, since the kind of medieval historical fiction that I like to recommend is, say, The Name of the Rose. Which is terrific and written for someone of a professional medievalist's level of knowledge, but is not exactly everyone's cup of tea when they just want something fun and easy to understand.

I am, of course, happy to give other book recommendations if you'd like to broaden your request, and I'll do my best to think -- but yes! As I said, I wish I could be more helpful here. I shall persist.

Aha, thank you. I do my best. And while yes, I do periodically get deeply stupid asks/notes on some of my more controversial posts, I will say that I am at least old enough to not give a shit about what idiots on social media say, and I am nothing if not stubborn. So yes, I persist, and I am glad that plenty of people also seem to appreciate what I do and like to listen and/or be comforted by what I have to say. Win some lose some, etc.

As I have said, I am a historian, and while that doesn't mean I have the Greatest Takes Ever of All Time and nobody can question me, it does mean that I view things in a particular long, careful, and systematic way, taking into account multiple perspectives and facts and points of view, because that is what I have been trained to do. As far as the election goes: trust me, I am as terrified about it as everyone else, and I'm already having to carefully manage, restrict, and otherwise be mindful about how much content I am taking in and from what sources. It is only February and November is probably going to kill me. But we have to do our best to be both realistic and hopeful, so I do.

Hiiiii! Thanks for the ask <3

🥳 Why did you start writing fanfic?

I don’t think writing fanfic is ever a choice 😅. At least in my case it certainly wasn’t. I just got so overcome with an idea I had to write it down or I felt like I would explode (that is, if we’re counting the fic I consider to be my 1st fic. Technically my 1st fanfic was a writing assignment for an intro to fiction writing class I took in uni, where the prompt was “write a story based on an already existing story,” but I don’t count that 😂)

😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original?

To write: I like writing short angsty character studies best, so I tend to prefer keep my fics pretty canon-compliant (and if they are canon-divergent, it’s usually just because I wanted to explore a certain character-centric theme or relationship and canon doesn’t let me do that). I’ve only tried to write wildly au fics a couple of times and every time I find them quite exhausting to write, so I don’t like writing them much but I will do it if I have quite the strong plot bunny.

To read: both! When it comes to fanfic, I’m very open-minded about what I read and mostly I care about the quality of prose. If my brain deems the writing “good enough,” I will read anything and everything, even ships/tropes/kinks that generally squick me out. It’s why one of my fanfic reading hobbies is to read long fic for fandoms I’m not even in 😂

🔎 Does anyone beta read or edit your fics?

For the most part, yes! My dear irl best friend, who does not read fanfiction bless her soul 😂, beta-reads all of my writing, unless I’ve indicated otherwise (either with a “no beta” tag or I’ve had a specific beta for a fic I wrote for a specific fandom event)

🤖 Are non-fandom friends aware that you write fanfic?

Only certain close friends. My aforementioned irl bestie was the 1st person that I ever told I write fic. I have one other friend that also knows and I have sent them PDFs of my fics before. However none of them know my ao3 and I’ve asked both of them not to go looking for it. So far they’ve respected my wish (or at least haven’t told me if they haven’t respected my wish 😂) and I hope to keep it that way 😂

Sincerely,

You'll Never Guess Who Remembered to Turn on Anon This Time

Alas, I am but a simple lass who could NEVER guess who this anon bully is 😔