#weirdowithaquill

It's the end of June, and at the start of this month I told myself I would write something for pride. Instead, I wrote four fics of domestic boyfriends for different fandoms. I don't know how I did that either - but I published em on Ao3, so here are the links and the fandoms:

Dark Reunion’s Love Ray - Saiki K Repainting - Total Drama He's Mine! - Naruto Welcome Home, Karma - Assassination Classroom

Five years of writing - that is how long I have been crafting this series. 237,000 words over 59 different instalments, and countless kudos and comments that kept me coming back to this series even when I was considering stopping. And it has finally ended with the final chapter.

But more than that, this series has been an incredible adventure. I've met some of the most wonderful people, I've had my days brightened by comments, I've made friends who have become staples in my life. This series led me to Ao3, it helped me fall in love with writing. I don't think anything I've ever written has had quite the same impact on my life.

Quietly, the author scrawled the last note into his notebook, and stepped away from the shed - it had been a long, wonderful journey, getting to know the engines who they had written so much about. After searching for the perfect conclusion for so many years, after agonising over where to end the series, over how to say goodbye to the engines who had become so dear to the author's heart, they finally knew it was time. 

That's right, we've made it here. The end of the ERS (book 59, if you'd believe!) - I really did not think I would make it this far with this series, nor what it would do for my life. I have made some truly incredible friends through writing this, and it has really been this incredible way for me to write and decompress through life over - and I checked - five whole years.

I am more than a little stunned myself!

So, thank you to everyone who has read the ERS, thank you to everyone who kudosed, who commented, who made writing this series worth every second. I hope you enjoy.

The Weirdo.

So far, I just got back reading your stories since I finished your 4th volume "Silly Big Engines", and they're really fun to read through because I noticed that they're rewrites of Season 5-7.

I have one question in mind: how do you get inspired to write?

Hello! Mentioning you discovered the ERS last month sent me checking my comments to see if I could figure out who you were XD

Ah, yes there are a lot of those old ERS fics, aren't there? Yes, a few are rewrites of classic episodes, though as I got my legs under me I grew a lot more experimental with what I was writing, both in the ERS and in general.

As for inspiration, hooooo boy...

I get inspired by just about everything. I get inspired by random thoughts, by reading other books, by doing new things, by learning about history, even by eating. I'd say the important thing is to see everything as new and exciting. It doesn't help that I have a billion new ideas every day and then can't write them - but then again, maybe that's for the better...

But to be more specific, I believe there is tremendous value in reading books and learning about the time period they were written in. For the Railway Series, that means looking at the 1940s-1960s and studying them. Awdry himself was inspired by incidents he either experienced or read about in railway magazines.

I got the idea for this particular Traintober prompt from a rabbithole I went down learning about WWI after reading 'All Quiet on the Western Front' in a German literature course at Uni.

But at the end of the day, anything can be inspiring. Writing isn't about grammar or the conventions that were drilled into us at school. It's about having a story to tell, and wanting to tell it. It's about wanting to share all the insane ideas you have floating around.

Happy New Year everyone! 2025 is finally over, and I for one am happy to see it go.

And since October, I've been working on something new, and a bit out of the blue for me

I may or may not have gotten into Gilded Age history and My Hero Academia at the same time. This is the result. A huge thanks to @lswro2-222 for agreeing to be my beta reader!

That's it. That's the post. Go be happy. Enjoy the holidays, no matter what you celebrate.

A few months ago, I was looking for any Thomas AO3 fanfics after reading stories like "God Rest, Ye Merry North-Westerners" and "Half Of A Whole", and that's when someone on Discord recommend me to your fanfic stories, "The Extended Railway Series".

Even though I haven't read any of your stories yet, am I supposed to read them in order or I can just jump into any of them that interests me?

Hello!

Sorry for the wait - it's been a very busy couple weeks thanks to the build up towards Christmas - but I've got some free time now!

I'm really happy to hear someone recommended my series! It's plenty long, so it's good for something to sink your teeth into - and I would personally suggest reading them in order, as they often have references to past instalments. So, a bit like the original Railway Series in that regard!

You can of course jump into any that interests you though! You just may have some questions that you'll find the answers to in past fics!

Oh my goodness she’s so cute! You got exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote her!