Celebrating 2 years of Cegan!
I did my AO3 wrapped for the first time last year and I'm so happy to be able to do it again this year.
I wrote 380k words last year, which was both crazy and unsustainable, so I'm not entirely surprised I got to 85k this year. I'm very happy with this number, especially considering I went through a blank page period as well as multiple big changes in my life.
In 2024, I published the second part of my Savior!Carl AU and started posting part 3 as soon as I was done with it.
I love the Savior AU with all my heart, but after writing 380k words of it in 12 months, I took a much needed break from it. I wrote and finished another long fic, All That's Left at the End of the World, also a zombie apocalypse AU, this time set in Dead City. Last year really was my zombie era, with very dark and compelling Cegan stories that fulfilled me so much.
However, after a whole year of writing zombie stories, I expanded my sandbox and wrote a whole lot of new AUs in 2025. I also tried my hand at Cegan short fics and wrote 7 one-shots, 5 of which had no zombie whatsoever.
December of 2024, I started a new long fic which happens to be my most popular one in 2025. Strawberry Mama is a fic I had at the back of my mind for a very long time (since the "Here's Negan" episode where Negan calls Lucille "Mama" in fact) but I didn't post it for a while because I didn't think anyone would really be interested in an AU where Negan isn't violent or where two male characters being turned by the mama kink. When I did post the first chapter, it was because I wanted a fic that was the ultimate indulgence to me: no zombie, no big sprawling plot, no canon to bother with, just domestic it, fluff, super indulgent smut and Negan being the ultimate romcom dreamboat. Looking at the stats on that fic a year later, it's mind-blowing. I never imagined such a positive response to it and I'm so happy that so many people have found comfort in the story of country singer Negan and Mama Carl.
Strawberry Mama is not only my most popular fic of 2025, it's also my favorite, but for the sake of not being redundant, I decided to choose the favorite one-shot I wrote in 2025 which is The Abduction of Hippolyta. This fic was the second medieval Cegan AU I wrote and I love it because it was my first time using my absolute favorite trope: mistaken identity. Prince Carl's castle is being invaded by warlord!Negan and when Carl meets Negan, he mistakes him for a common soldier rather than recognize his sworn enemy. I am feral for mistaken identity and secret identity as well as enemies to lovers AU so this just ticks all of my boxes. I'm really looking forward to writing the sequel one day.
I'm also very happy to report that I finally blacked out my @ceganbingo card for 2024!! I'll try to black out the 2025 card in under a year this time...
This wraps up my second year of writing Cegan and I couldn't be happier 🥳 thank you to every who kudos, comments on, reblogs and comments on my stories. You are the reason I share my writing.
May 2026 bring even more Cegan 🎊🥂
