Welcome to the

CAT-ASTROPHE ZONE

of fandom!

Enter at own risk :)

Hope you enjoy your stay!

Me in a nutshell:

- passionate person - catlover - literature addict - proud wanna-be writer - occasional harp player - music fanatic - free spirit -

My name is Stella and I live in Switzerland (near Zurich) in a little flat (number 13) , which I share with my three cats (well, according to them, they share with me).

One of my great passions, next to cats and music, is literature. I can remember loving books and stories from childhood on. This passion made me choose my study subjects (English and German, both Language and Literature), and last year, I passed my final exam which allows me to call myself MA (Master of Arts). Currently, I'm working as a teacher at a vocational school. In addition, I am an aspiring journalist and a proud wanna-be writer :)

What else?

Want to know more about me? Or my writing? Or do you just love rants and random stuff? I have a livejournal account now:

You are very welcome to visit :)

About my stories:

Have I mentioned before that writing is my passion, my life and my therapy? :)

That has been the case for as long as I can remember, and my dream is to see one of my original stories published one day (I'm working on it ;)

My prefered type of story (both for writing and reading) is drama/tragedy, balanced with lots of bright spots. I love to describe the subtle play of psychological mechanisms that shape and influence the human mind; and those can be seen best in somewhat 'darker' modes. When I write romance, it's usually the bitter-sweet kind.

And as you can see, I'm currently practising my writing skills with fan fiction.

So far, all stories published here can be read as 'stand alones', but they are all parts of a single story arc. If you read them all, you'll see that they are connected by hints and allusions to each other. A lot of my 'older' stories are in desperate need of revision, and I really intend to do so as soon as I find some spare time...

Current projects:

What I am working on at the moment (unless some sneaky plot cat gets in the way...):

"Fragile Bonds"

A somehow sequel to "Ties of Fate", the story that was suppossed to be a one-shot, but grew to a multi chapter and started the current 'arc' of my writing. For more information on questions like 'what?', 'how?' and 'why?', please take a look at the preface (first chapter).

Status: Ongoing

Expect updates to come along slowly... The story does suffer from a severe lack of time, not dedication. Therefore, I'll occasionally have to ask you for a little patience...

"Ties of Fate" - Version 3.0

Status: Scheduled for revision

Ignoring my very bad first try at fan fiction, ToF is the first story I ever wrote, and this shows. A lot.

A long time ago, I tried to fix the most obvious issues; still, it seriously suffers from lack of style and violations of the 'show, don't tell' rule. A complete revision is on my to-do-list for the next school holidays.

"A Guide to understand the Author's Mind" - More or less FAQ:

Q: Why do all your stories start either with a 'list-like' introduction part or with an extended Author's Note you call Preface? Do you want to confuse/bore your readers?

A: Quite the opposite. I usually start my one-shots with a short explanation of setting, background etc. and my multichapters with a short 'excursion' into my creative mind ("welcome to chaos"). This is simply to help the reader settle in and to provide information that might be necessary. You don't have to read any of that; most likely you will understand my stories without doing so, but sometimes it might be interesting, entertaining or even somehow crucial to know just a little bit more... So in a way, my introductory notes are like medical prescription leaflets - but much more fun to read (and without side effects), I promise!

Q: Why do you quote lyrics all the time?

A: All my stories happen to have a very extended sound track, including songs that just go with a certain scene (in my opinion) or that help me get into the mood. Music is a great way to convey emotions, and I love to display emotions in my stories/writing, so that's a natural match. A lot of those songs are never mentioned at all, yet occasionally I like to share my ideas with my dear readers; and that's why I mention or quote certain lyrics. It's completely up to you if you want to check out those songs (I'm not promototing any artist/group in that way, very often a quote is only about the words, the lyrics as such, not about the actual song and surely never about the artist), if you simply read those lyric bits as poetic quotes hinting on the following events or if you want to ignore them completely. Just like the 'mute' button on your remote control, I guess.

Q: Why are you so slow at updating?

A: I'm a real perfectionist, and I am never satisfied with the results of my work, so I edit endlessly (and still find more issues whenever I re-read something I wrote). In addition, events in most of my multichapters depend crucially on things that happened before (like the chain of evidence in a detective story), so in order to avoid mismatching and confusion, I need to have a story pretty much finished before I can put up the first chapter. Next to that, I have the usual excuses: busy life, a demanding job, my kitties, etc... and last but not least, inspiration comes at weird times.

Q: I read one of your stories, and I think your rating is too high. Are you somehow prude and/or insecure?

A: I assure you that I'm neither (ok, maybe a bit insecure about my writing in general). I guess I'm just a 'better safe than sorry' person, so I rate rather high, compared to most other authors. Most of my M-rated stuff is in that category because it contains 'scenes that certain people might find disturbing' (a point that includes themes like death, suicide, child abuse etc) rather than sexual content. You will get a rough idea about what to expect if you read my preface-parts at the beginning. In the end, I just want to be able to say: "You were warned..." ;)

Q: I hated/despised/loved/adored/... your stories. Can I tell you that?

A: Of course! I'd love to know. Any comment is welcome, feel free to review, message or email. And if you want to be especially awesome, just tell me what you hated/despised/loved/adored/..., so that I can improve.

Finally: Feel free to ask any other questions you want...

Visuals ;)

Truth be told, I never thought that my writing would ever inspire someone to do artwork, and I still have no idea at all how I deserved this, but the sweet and talented Abyss-Valkyrie dedicated two incredibly beautiful pictures to me. They are not exact illustrations, but story-inspired ("Fragile Bonds"-inspired, to be precise). And did I mention wonderful? :)

Have a look:

Seriously, go and check this girl out. She has a really beautiful gallery, and her eye for details and colouring is amazing.

Critique, Reviews and Encouragement very welcome:

I am not a native English speaker (you might have guessed by now).
Nevertheless, I decided to write in English, not only to be understood by a larger audience, but also because I really love the English language, and I very often think or dream in English, even if it's far from being perfect. So I apologize for any grammar, spelling or expression mistakes. If you let me know, I'll correct them ;)

Thanks a lot in advance!

Other people have plot bunnies, I have plot cats. =..=

The common sneaky plot cat (felis fabulae vulgaris) will appear out of the blue to circle your legs or to wake you with its more or less subtle purring in the middle of the night. If you dare to ignore it, it will disappear and you'll regret that forever.

Like all felines, plot cats are really temperamental. They turn up whenever they please, never when you want them to, so forget about any deadlines right now... But in the end, there is nothing sweeter than a cuddly plot cat sleeping on your lap :)

Recommendations:

My stories are sometimes underlined by quotes of songtext lyrics. Most of the time, it will make sense to check out the song, e.g. on youtube.

In case you are interested in the original Japanese game cutscenes (English subtitled) or a complete script of 'Crisis Core', please visit this excellent site:

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. For entertainment purposes only. The writing published on this page is purely fan-made. I receive no material profit from it whatsoever.

All lyrics'/songtexts' rights belong to their righful owners. All FFVII characters and respective elements belong to Square Enix. The rest (self created plot/characters) is taken from my own imagination.

To put it short: They own the neighbourhood, I'm just playing in the back yard :)