I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. *
...
*The quote above is from Douglas Adams, author of The Hithchiker's Guide to the Universe, and it's as much of an encapsulation of my philosophy on life and writing as anything.
Hi, I'm Maygra, and oxoniensis kindly asked me to be the Ask the Author kibbitzer this month. I think an eager "yes" would not be an underestimation of my response. I love talking about writing: mine, yours, ours. I'm a serial monogamist when it comes to fandom and you can find pretty much everything I've ever posted [[here]].
So, something about me; to give you background. I've been writing steadily since I was very young, which is a lot of years as I'll be 48 on my next birthday. I was a comics and sci-fi/fantasy fan in my teen and early twenties, mostly X-men and Superboy & The Legion of Superheroes (old school), and first read Elfquest when it was coming out in its first printing. I worked conventions in the Atlanta area, including the precursor to Dragon*con, mostly as security, before they got humongous. I'm an action/adventure junkie in television and movies and rarely met a buddy cop show I didn't like.
I didn't get involved in media fandom until I got online and was a little late to the party, getting online late in 1995 and posting my first story in 1996. I started writing fanfiction in Highlander: the series, and Supernatural is my current mad crush. There's a good decade in-between where I've written and hopefully honed my writing skills somewhat in fandoms like Star Wars: The Phantom Menance, Mag 7 (TV), and The Fast and the Furious. Mostly I tell stories I want to hear and I've been lucky in that other people want to hear them too.
My real name is Valerie or Val, I've pretty much always written and been known as Maygra and answer to that in fandom and real life alike, mostly because I'm a wee bit flaky about pseudonyms and the only other pseudonym I write under that has stuck is leila_sharpe Which I used in Mag7 and once in SPN, and managed a record of keeping it secret for about 10 minutes. I do have other pseuds but they aren't necessarily fannish ones (used for political forums, or other areas of interest outside of fandom, which means I have more email addresses than is probably healthy or sane). My fannish activities aren't a secret to anyone in my family or in most of my real life, not flaunted but not hidden because fandom is a huge, important part of my life as are the people in it with me, and I'm both not willing and kind of sucktastic at compartmentalizing my life.
So, here I am ready, willing and able to answer your questions about pretty much anything: my writing, my stories, writing in general, fandom, my life beyond the keyboard. Feel free to ask or poke, and I'll do my best to answer and entertain.
A couple of notes: I am going to Winchestercon in LA on Thursday, so may have limited access over the weekend, but I will get back to you if I don't catch you before I leave. Also, I don't have access to LJ during the day, so I'll be answering in the early morning and evenings, but I will answer. So, there you go...fire away.
Hi! What do you want to know?
*The quote above is from Douglas Adams, author of The Hithchiker's Guide to the Universe, and it's as much of an encapsulation of my philosophy on life and writing as anything.
Hi, I'm Maygra, and oxoniensis kindly asked me to be the Ask the Author kibbitzer this month. I think an eager "yes" would not be an underestimation of my response. I love talking about writing: mine, yours, ours. I'm a serial monogamist when it comes to fandom and you can find pretty much everything I've ever posted [[here]].
So, something about me; to give you background. I've been writing steadily since I was very young, which is a lot of years as I'll be 48 on my next birthday. I was a comics and sci-fi/fantasy fan in my teen and early twenties, mostly X-men and Superboy & The Legion of Superheroes (old school), and first read Elfquest when it was coming out in its first printing. I worked conventions in the Atlanta area, including the precursor to Dragon*con, mostly as security, before they got humongous. I'm an action/adventure junkie in television and movies and rarely met a buddy cop show I didn't like.
I didn't get involved in media fandom until I got online and was a little late to the party, getting online late in 1995 and posting my first story in 1996. I started writing fanfiction in Highlander: the series, and Supernatural is my current mad crush. There's a good decade in-between where I've written and hopefully honed my writing skills somewhat in fandoms like Star Wars: The Phantom Menance, Mag 7 (TV), and The Fast and the Furious. Mostly I tell stories I want to hear and I've been lucky in that other people want to hear them too.
My real name is Valerie or Val, I've pretty much always written and been known as Maygra and answer to that in fandom and real life alike, mostly because I'm a wee bit flaky about pseudonyms and the only other pseudonym I write under that has stuck is leila_sharpe Which I used in Mag7 and once in SPN, and managed a record of keeping it secret for about 10 minutes. I do have other pseuds but they aren't necessarily fannish ones (used for political forums, or other areas of interest outside of fandom, which means I have more email addresses than is probably healthy or sane). My fannish activities aren't a secret to anyone in my family or in most of my real life, not flaunted but not hidden because fandom is a huge, important part of my life as are the people in it with me, and I'm both not willing and kind of sucktastic at compartmentalizing my life.
So, here I am ready, willing and able to answer your questions about pretty much anything: my writing, my stories, writing in general, fandom, my life beyond the keyboard. Feel free to ask or poke, and I'll do my best to answer and entertain.
A couple of notes: I am going to Winchestercon in LA on Thursday, so may have limited access over the weekend, but I will get back to you if I don't catch you before I leave. Also, I don't have access to LJ during the day, so I'll be answering in the early morning and evenings, but I will answer. So, there you go...fire away.
Hi! What do you want to know?