Hello.

I'm Tammany. I have no idea if I'll fit in here, but after due consideration it seems to me that I've been producing enough writing to warrant at least some introduction.

I'm an old broad. I won't swear I'm older than you, and I'm not quite older than the hills, but by fannish norms I've got roots and branches older than some of the young sprouts here. I may even have leaves older than some of the sprouts here! That's not a brag, or a vanity thing, it's a warning. I react like I'm old and cranky because--surprise!--I *am* old and cranky. I'll chase you off my lawn, tip you dimes when you help bring in the groceries, and I'll call you kiddo. I'll shout that no one speaks clearly because I will forget to turn my hearing aid on. I may even ruffle your hair. It comes with the turf, along with age spots and arthritis. That's not changing any time soon, either: statistical averages suggest it will only get worse...assuming I'm given time for it to get worse in.

I've done fanfic before. Having done fanfic has colored my ideas about how I want to do fanfic again. I adore comments--indeed, I'm a freaking comment-slut--but I respond seldom, specifically because I want to keep as much of my comment-sluttishness out of the stories and their reception as possible. Feed my habit--I will love it. But know that I respond only rarely, and do so for reasons of experience and considered principle. Stories should speak for themselves. I will intrude occasionally with author's notes at top and bottom of postings, and I will post the occasional public response to things, and I will occasionally respond to a comment privately, but on the whole I try to stand back as far as possible and let the fic hold the traveling spotlight in center stage.

I have done a bit of all sorts of fics over the years, and have read more. I can't be easily shocked, I don't object to many uses of fanfic (if any) but I myself am currently doing some very narrow range,"conservative" work. That's not because I think fanfic should conform tightly to common-range canon interpretations, it's because there's some stuff I want to explore in that range. So if I do limited slash, limited radical AU, and very carefully formulated speculative material, it's not a judgment, it's an experimental parameter. As such I am not passionately dedicated to it, but I'm often passionately dedicated to the experiment itself. That means if I do "Frodo and Sam are straight," it's not because I'm wedded to Frodo and Sam never being interpreted as slashy, it's because I'm currently involved in seeing what effects are generated by avoiding slash and writing within the parameters of "single estate vanilla."

I try to play fair with readers. I'm not out to get you. I'm not out to get the characters--though they may get some rather profound life-lessons in the process of being ficced by me. I'm a bit of a beast, but a just beast.

I hope you enjoy my stuff. I love telling stories, and I love telling stories people want to read. Please, enjoy. Yes, please feed my comment-slut addiction in spite of my evil reclusive nature. But mostly--read. Laugh. Cry. Care. Enjoy the Fantoccini, for they are beautifully human.

Thanks,

Tammany Tiger

The Tyger (Songs of Experience)

William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

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