Handle: Giggling Maid

Age: Young in body, Old in spirit

Status: Most likely insane. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure it's not contagious.

I'm a fan of what now?: Several things actually, but as far as books go my favorite authors include: Jane Austen, Alexander Damas, William Shakespere, Mark Twain, Charlotte Bronte, Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mercedes Lackey, Robert Jordan, Cameron Dokey, Terry Pratchett, and many more. As you can see, my taste run half and half...great clasics versus modern fantasy, epic fantasy versus simple fairy tale retellings, college level reads versus junior literature.

Why write? More specifically why write fanfiction?: Truth to be told, I'm a horrible writer but someone forgot to tell me that! I love to write. I thrive in writing, and explode in creativity when I have no access to unleash my imagination. However, my writing leaves much to be desired which you will soon see if I ever get around to writing anything for here and is far from orginal. Fanfiction gives me a structure that allows me to unleash my creative side while allowing for the fact that most of my "orginal" writings have elements of everything I have ever read so that even my "orginal" works have more in common with fanfiction than I would like to admit.

Disclaimer: The Five Hundred Series was written by Mercedes Lackey, and all the creative property associated with it is owned by her. Although the books focus a little too much on sex (with a little s with the exceptions of The Fairy Godmother and Fortune’s Fool which feature Sex with capital S and has major plot points, but managed to avoid SEX nicely and smut only narrowly), the concept is a good one. The Concept, to put it simply and probably very badly, is this: Everyone knows that Fairy Tales follow a set pattern that is predictable to a fault, what if the reason behind this is a giant magic semi-intelligent force that actually coerces/forces individuals to play out certain patterns to which they match? What if this force was called The Tradition, a secret power that had the potential to shape the entire universe? Of course for every Cinderella, there isn’t always a Prince or even a dashing farm boy, and not all Fairy Tales end are “nice” or end with simple “Happily Ever After”. For those who met the circumstances that have the potential for a fairy tale (you know the drill: orphan, mother had a weird craving at birth, father re-married, got lost in the woods), the more fairy tale circumstances fail to be met the more the “potential” or “pressure” is expended to try to force a fairy tale to run its course and as a result “magic”, for the lack of better word, builds around these failed fairy tale characters that have to be released somehow. In Mercedes Lackey, Five Hundred Kingdoms this occurs in one of three ways: the fairy tale circumstances are met, the person is abducted by an evil magician who uses the power around these failed fairy tale people as a source of problem creating a whole new fairy tale path, or that person is “drained” of the potential of fairy tale life by a friendly Godmother who then uses that power to help others in need (all that turning pumpkins into chariots takes more than just glitter and bippity bobbity boo, you know!). Fairy Godmothers are also in charge that the darker versions of fairy tales don’t occur, that villains are defeated, and that there always a hero to save the world. Each Godmother is in charge of particular district which seem to be modeled after the major cultural regions that are centers for Fairy Tales. One such Godmother, Elaine whose story is told in Fairy Godmother, is in charge of 100 of those kingdoms who seem to be largely modeled after the Western European region (German, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and other typical “Traditional” fairy tales).

From Mercedes Lackey, I have borrowed the idea behind the series, the general framework, and the over-all humorous tone without borrowing any of the characters or kingdoms already mentioned in the series. I have also, due to my rather conservative nature, have avoided the sex thing entirely and while romance is, and probably always will be, a central feature of Fairy Tales I have tried to shift the focus away from romance so that while it may be present it will never the key issue, plot point, or turning point in any one story.

Note: I apologize for my spelling, grammar, and sense of humor but nothing else!