February 2016: I wanted to announce that I am officially making the move to AO3, Archive Of Our Own, for all new stories from here on out. I know I've been hinting at this for some time, so hopefully none of you will be surprised. Rest assured that I will continue to update Grievance here on FFnet until it is complete, but I already have a new short that is posted at AO3 that I will not crosspost here. (My other current WIP, Skýli, is on a temporary hiatus while I rework it, and whatever I come up with will be practically an all new fic, so I will not post it here, either.)

If you do not have an account at AO3, you can still comment. And unlike guest comments here, I can reply to you. Feel free to visit me over there! The address is archive of our own DOT org SLASH users SLASH peaceheather

I am not going to close this account; AO3 still does not have a private messaging system, and that is pretty much the only thing that FFnet does have that they don't. So if you wish to reach me privately, you may do so here.

To those who have confided that they do not like AO3 or find its search function to be a pain: I know how you feel. I resisted the call of AO3 for a very long time, but once I made the switch, and took time to get used to its tagging system and so on, I found it no more difficult to use than FFnet. (And it is much, much easier as an author to post stories there.) It does take a bit to learn, sure, but any new thing does. I invite and encourage you to give it a try.

Blessings to you all, and I hope at least some of you will be willing to follow me to my new fic home.

March 2016: I have gained another reason to make the move to AO3, and also to remove my fic from this site. Mirror sites are popping up that imitate FFnet in every respect, except that they are loaded with ads and spyware and possibly viruses. By imitating FFnet, they are in effect stealing the work of every author that has ever posted here, and attempting to make money off that work through advertising revenue on their own sites. Therefore I am removing my stories from FFnet so that the mirror sites will not have access to them either.

I know there is a risk that I will lose readers over this move, but I can't leave my work out where it will be stolen and used without my knowledge or consent. I hope you will understand, and that at least some of you will follow me to AO3, where my work is better protected.

All the best,

Heather

I'm in the US, I'm in my early 40s (god why), and when I'm not writing fic I work as a freelance manuscript editor. I know there are a lot of people here on FFnet who are considering or actually writing their own original fic. If you decide you might want to publish, and you're shopping around for an editor, drop me a PM and we can talk fees and such. I am not a publisher, and I make no guarantees that your work will make money, but I can promise that it'll leave our hands (you and me, we're a team) cleaner than when you first handed it to me.

Squee! I won Best New Author at the 26th round of the Sunnydale Memorial Fanfic Awards! (This was when my BtVS story Distress Signals was new.)

Here are two miniature rants disguised as helpful tips:

1. If no one in your story is actually getting sick or injured, and no one else is actually taking care of them, then don't label it hurt/comfort. Seriously. I am a h/c junkie. Almost nothing is more annoying than hunting for something to read, finding a story tagged hurt/comfort, that doesn't actually have anything to do with the genre. I say almost, because...

2. The very best way to write a songfic is: don't. I hate songfics. I know it's a matter of taste and some people like them, but I just really, really don't. At all. By all means, get your inspiration from wherever you want - certainly there are some songs out there that really capture a mood - but when you intersperse your story with song lyrics every two or three lines, it throws off the rhythm of the story without actually adding anything. If you want, use the lyrics to write your story, sprinkle them in there wherever it makes you happy, and then once you're finished - go back and delete the lyrics. Read the story through again and see if it doesn't flow better. I am trying to remember if I've ever read a songfic that didn't annoy the heck out of me, and I think there might have been one once, back in the 90s, but I'm not sure anymore.

I have other mini-rants, but I promised myself I'd stop at two.

Fanfic is awesome on so many levels.