Flipped spoilers: make up spoilers for my story and I’ll respond to what I think of your spoiler. 

Unsettled

So the very next chapter [ I know I know it’ll see the light of day eventually ] sees a sort of variant of that. I utterly failed at the whole ‘he doesn’t get the girl’ thing, which was the original premise of the story. I’ll accomplish that eventually, maybe. Might not be a Hiddleston story but I’ll accomplish that plotline damnit. 

As far as Unsettled goes - as hard as he’s fought to try to reestablish and rebulid those foundations that he mangled - it is absolutely heartbreaking to think that he’d give up and let the chasm reestablish itself. Back when I first introduced Jack - when I thought I had a hope of accomplishing a ‘he doesn’t get the girl’ story - I intended for him to wind up being the Tom stand-in in MM’s life. I liked the notion that she could survive the heartbreak, rebuild, and find happiness with someone else. As I said, though, failed spectacularly in accomplishing what I originally set out to do. Love love love the idea of him ultimately giving up the fight to make things the way they once were, allowing things to settle into something akin to platonic, or at least civil, with MM for Max’s sake. 

I do honestly have absolutely zero chill, it’s my one redeeming quality :D

And I’m very relieved to know I make someone laugh besides myself lol

Hi love!!!! 

Another Writer’s Spotlight and this week I featuring @winterisakiller​ \ @winterisakillerwrites​.  This is actually one of the first fic writers I found on Tumblr and I feel honored to feature them today.  She is the queen of angst and ripping my heart out.  Yes I have “yelled” more than once “fix it now!” at them after reading one of their stories.  They write killer OCs and are a genuinely great and supportive friend

The Basics

Any other names you want people to call you?

Cait

How long have you been writing fic?   

Oh goodness, since I was 12...so fourteen years give or take.

What fandoms and/ships do you write?

Currently Tom Hiddleston RPF and in that fandom Tom and OFCs. I also used to be active in the AFI fandom writing mostly slash fic, with the occasional OFC throw in.

How did you get started writing fic?

I have always loved making up stories in my head. I started reading fic ages ago (Hanson fanfic to date myself) and found myself going....I can do this, so I did. My first fics are horribly embarrassing and thankfully aren't to be found anymore. But it was good practice and it gave my the excuse to put pen to paper so to speak.

Story Recommendations

Which of your stories are your favorite?

That is a tough question, its like asking me to chose my favorite child. But if I had to I guess I would say its a tie between my two multi-chapter stories, Love & Great Buildings and Get Better. I love L&GB because it was the first long fic I wrote on my own from start to finish in YEARS. And Tom and Rosie have come to mean so much to me, especially being my first foray into the Tom fandom. Get Better I love because it let me explore the Tom I had created in Brave Face and let him find the happy ending he felt he no longer deserved. Cath (the main OFC) was such a fun character to explore as well. Building their relationship was a challenge (mainly trying to get them to cooperate with me) and one I enjoyed immensely.

Which story are you most proud of?

Honestly, Imperfect Tense because it was such a painful and difficult story to write. And it makes the only story in which I absolutely could not stand the Tom I created. He is a selfish in it and a coward and it costs him everything in the end. He had so many chances to come clean and be honest and he ran from each and every one until the truth finally was revealed and by then it was far, far to late. I love the OFC in the story, Molly, because she sticks to her guns. She loves Tom, trusted him implicitly, and he broke that trust and no matter how much she loves him, there is no way she can forgive him. And she sticks by that, even when the circumstance she finds herself in would be so much easier with him actively involved. So long story short, I'm saying Imperfect Tense because it wasn't the story I wanted to tell but the one that it needed to be.

Which of your stories do you think is the most underrated?

That is another tough one. I think I am going to have to go with Becoming. For one its a general Tom fic, not an OFC or reader fic, which meant it definitely didn't get a great deal of traffic. For another it was a challenging fic, for me, because I had so many ideas about what I wanted to explore and narrowing it down to focus primarily on building the relationship between Tom and his son and how that impacted Tom as a person (the guilt, the confusion, and the desperate need to get this right).

Someone is new to reading your stories, which story/stories should they read first?

I guess I would say either the Last Minutes & Lost Evenings series (Tom and Rosie) or the Brave Face series. Though any of the one shots I've written are good jumping in points as they are mainly independent stories (unless otherwise marked).

Which Story did you do the most research for?   

Honestly, Get Better (and in the same vein its prequel Brave Face). Get Better because it was sent in and around the London Betrayal run and I wanted to be as accurate as I could be. Brave Face because I did a LOT of looking into Tom's schedule at the time (2014-2016) as it played a very big role in the way I was writing Tom's character.

Which Story was the easiest to write?

Surprisingly, Brave Face...It almost seemed to write itself. I seriously blinked and somehow a 13,000 word story appeared. It never happened before and I seriously doubt it will ever happen again.

A random bit from a random WIP - another one from Book Four of The Mcclary Chronicles:

That shaggy head appeared again, just for a second, and then with a heavy grunt and a splash of wet mud, the six foot five inch reluctant king of Claighe landed in his heavy boots in front of me.  It was a good nine foot drop and he went to his hands on the ground when he landed, but he stood to full height just a second later and made a grab for me.  His hands were filthy and I squirmed away from him, clutching my arms over my chest. 

“No, no sweets for you until that goose is gone!”

Dave MacDale strolled around the far end of the barn, shaking his head and tsk’ing disapprovingly; while I was distracted King shoved his hand down my sweater and grabbed a fist full of chocolates.  I squealed and slapped him away but it was too late - he had his prize and the goose was still in the house. 

And now Dave was here.

Yay fanfic ask game questions! Having one of those mornings and need a distraction (I’ve already had a run in with the coffee maker and came out of it with coffee ground burns on my palms. It’s gonna be a day... ugh.)

F. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it. 

First thing that comes to mind is from the very start of You’ve Only Just Arrived - taking place between Benedict, Tom, and our girl (aka the reader): 

“I don’t have a special someone to ask and Mom sadly couldn‘t make it out here to join me.”

Was it your imagination or had Tom’s smile grown a little more upon hearing confirmation that you were unattached? He is focused so intently on you that you forget about the massive room surrounding the pair of you until Benedict walks up and claps his hand on Tom’s shoulder. “And what shall we be naming the first born?”

As for why I’m proud of it? It was so early in the story but to my mind it perfectly captures their dynamic, and hell if I don’t swoon and giggle a little bit when the version of Benedict that lives in my head utters those words. 

J. Write or describe an alternative ending to [The Journalist]. 

That story was one of the early attempts at writing a ‘he doesn’t get the girl’ something. Yes, I failed miserably... The alternative ending that I was aiming for was them parting ways. I was thinking it would end her career, as breaches of that nature could potentially do, and she would pick up and find a new beginning someplace else - someplace not tainted by what had happened. Maybe that can be a different story in the future. 

K. What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with? 

That’s a tough one because though I fiddle with fluff and sweet nothings I tend to veer off towards angst if I’m not careful. Blackforest might take the cake, though it hasn’t been fleshed out or even really focused on all that much. 

Z. Major character death - do you ever write/ read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate? 

Fanfiction Writer Asks

20) Are there any stories that you wished you’d ended differently?            Ended? More like ‘wish I could find an ending to’... but um, no. Sure, some things have surprised me for the direction they’ve taken but I’m happy with where I’ve left each of the stories I’ve closed the book on. It’s usually the letting go of the characters that I have trouble with which is how we end up with prequels. (TJOURN I’m looking at you.)

39) Do you prefer first, second or third person?           Preference has little to do with it, I think. For me it’s just adapting to whichever formatting works best for the story. I enjoy the challenge presented in choosing different perspectives - what you can convey, what can be known, what is forced into supposition.