Eek! A blank page! That means I get to share as much or as little as I want...hmm...where to begin, and where to end? A lot can happen on a blank page. For example, one day I was bored and I decided to fiddle around a bit with the character I had kicking around in my head, and the first page to Saki appeared. And I thought, well shoot (paraphrase), that sounds an awful lot like a real story. So I kept writing. Then I thought, I'm kinda liking this, so I finished it, and I surprised my friend with it. He thought it was hilarious, so I decided to put it online.

There are many ironic things about this. For example, I hated the first two episodes of Naruto I watched. Naruto annoyed me, the humor was campy, and I told my friend I didn't think I could go on, especially for a zillion more episodes. He let it go, but one day randomly teased me with the opening of the final Sasuke-Itachi battle. I said, holy crap, that's some good stuff (paraphrase), where can I get more? And he responded with a troll face and a Naruto/Naruto Shippuden episode list sans filler. Yes, that's right, I wrote my first fanfiction without even watching the entire series. I might, in the future, go back and tweak a few things based on info I got from "filler," but then I also think, if my superfan friend didn't think it was important, then who else is really noticing?

So when I first published Saki, it was my intention to just put it there and leave it there, and move on with my life. That's why my PenName is sakikui. It's actually not a self-insert despite half the readers thinking it is, and wow, thank you for thinking I'm as cool as Saki IRL! I just didn't think I'd ever write another fanfiction. But I also didn't want to be that jerk who publishes on a site and then never engages with anyone, so I started reading a bit. I definitely had an image in my head of fanfiction as being this baser form of writing that's only goal was to ship characters, and I discovered much more than that. I ended up liking a lot of things I never thought I would (Dramione fanfiction, for example). People on here are, mostly, really cool and really supportive. So thank you all for being you. Nerds are the best people on the planet.

I'd been a closet nerd for most of my life. The friends I made in school, and mostly still have, are not very nerdy. I remember writing LOTR fanfiction in elementary and middle school (and no, I will not be publishing it, because it is god awful) that a few of my friends really got a kick out of, but when I discovered the classic authors, I swore off writing like that for a really long time. If I ever wanted to be like my idol F. Scott Fitzgerald, I needed to write "real stuff." So I tried to force myself to write "real stuff." Problem with that, most of my ideas were derivative. So I'd spend a lot of time trying to make my ideas not derivative, but then you just have weird knock-off stuff that is just not as good as the original. I floundered around writing like that through all of college and didn't understand why the school literary magazine wouldn't publish my crap.

Fast forward a few years, I get a job as a teacher that I absolutely love, and that really consumes my life. To unwind, I start watching anime. The Naruto incident described above occurs, and bam! I'm no longer a closet nerd, and my students love me for it. I find my husband at a Halloween party while I'm cosplaying Amy Pond from Doctor Who. Life is good. I'm out playing PoGo with my friends and the topic of children comes up. I say, "You know, I've just never had the desire to have kids. Like, most girls dream about having kids, but, I don't know. I just dream about having Pokemon."

Light bulb.

I realize I just wrote the opening line to another fanfic, Kanto 1920. And I have mixed feelings about that, because a good part of me is still embarrassed that I published a fanfic and actively read fanfiction. But I answer the call, and I write it, and I publish it. And halfway through writing that, I got another idea. Shoot. I might, actually, be a fanfiction writer now. And then something snaps in my head. That part of me that wanted to be the next Fitzgerald dies. If THIS is where my ideas come from, if THIS is what I'm good at, then why fight it? Who cares if I can't make money doing this, that I can't become famous, as long as people around the world are reading and enjoying what I write? Isn't that the whole goal of art? People respond to my fanfiction more than they ever responded to my "regular stuff." I can only conclude that this is where I belong as a writer.

So that's my story, and that's how I got to where I am now. Now for some shout outs.

Shout out to all of ya'll who have the courage to be who you are at a young age. You are the real MVPs.

Shout out to my followers and regular reviewers.

Shout out to everyone who sends me reviews and PMs worrying that I've given up on a fic and that it won't be updated again. You guys make my day. I promise that's not the case, I just have adulting to do. If I'm updating a whole lot, then it's probably summer. If I stop updating a whole lot, it's not summer. #TeacherLife

Shout out to people who write THOUGHTFUL REVIEWS!!!!!!!! As much as I appreciate that I made you laugh so much you needed to comment "lol," it just means so much more when there's actual thought behind a review, critique or otherwise.

Shout out to those of you who also DRAW! There's a good reason I have no cover art for any of my fics. Should I do stick figure pics? Because my artistic ability ends at stick figures.

Shout out to anyone who updates Fandom Wikis. Holy crap, I couldn't do this without Fandom Wikis. I do not have a mind for recalling tiny details. Or Japanese names. So yeah, I rely on Wikis to write outlines for my fics.

Shout out to Google Drive for making being an author so much easier.