I wrote fanfiction before I even knew such a thing as fanfiction existed.

I must have been 6 or 7 years old. My sister and I were big fans of Sailor Moon; in fact, that would be our inspiration to begin learning Japanese a couple of years later. Unfortunately hardly any of the Japanese which I learned stuck, but I do remember those days in the basement of our house when we typed out several stories, each only a page long, on this typewriter that was perched on a tall, oddly-shaped table. We stood to reach it.

There is a certain thrill to writing on a typewriter. I'm guessing that most of the people reading the types of stories I write will never have seen a typewriter except out of (at best) a museum (television doesn't count). In my defense, it's not that computers didn't exist. We were the proud owners of an ancient computer that featured the real floppy disks (these were actually quite flexible!), in tandem with a more modern computer of the 3 1/2" floppy variety at the time of our typewriter escapades. Due to our ages, though (I the younger, though not by much), we typically only used the computers to play games (we had some awesome Winter Olympics and Mother Goose Fairytale games, as well as what may have been the original Duke Nuke'm). When we were just playing amongst ourselves, the typewriter was this wonderful machine that printed neat little letters (provided you didn't make a typo) accompanied by these satisfying mushing-clicking sounds that I can't liken to anything we have today.

And thus, with the assistance of this wonderful device, our silly Sailor Moon fanfics were born.

It would be another eight years or so before I would be introduced to the world that is fanfiction.

Now, here I am, regrettably more of a reader than a writer, though I am seeking to change my habits and if ever I am gripped by a story idea that keeps teasing me and won't leave me alone, I hope to write it.

I mainly read romance and adventure stories in the anime/manga communities (Naruto, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gakuen Alice, Spirited Away, Escaflowne, and the like), though I also diverge from this and can be found reading from other communities, such as Harry Potter. There are also fandoms I wish I could haunt - for instance, Korean manhwas (Kubera, Tower of God, and Cheese in the Trap are fantastic - please read them) - but despite the many amazing webcomics out there translated by devoted fans on a weekly basis, their English fanfiction community is close to non-existent.

I also want to give a special mention to the manga Please Save My Earth. I have not read any fanfiction for it, nor do I really feel the need to as I am satisfied with the ending, but I don't seem to know anyone else who has read it, perhaps because it is an older manga and some are unwilling to acclimate themselves to its dated art style. If you are looking for a lovely sci-fi fantasy romance shoujo, please consider it.