#him not being able to speak it anymore is a bummer but like fuck canon lol

[quail-in-red]

I always thought it was pretty neat that Harry could talk to snakes tbh. Love when it shows up in fanfic!

#hp fanart #harry potter #him not being able to speak it anymore is a bummer but like fuck canon lol #snakes are pretty cute but also I know if I ever saw one irl I’d scream

[pynkhues]

HI! I’m one greedy person and want some insight into your writer brains!

(you can totally skip out on answering this)(I’m doing this off of anon because that seems to be dangerous territory)

1- Did you write something recently you thought you’d never write?

2- What’s a line you’ve written that you’re extremely proud of?

3- Is there something you wrote you thought people would hate but they ended up loving?

4- Did you read something recently that was different and ended up liking? If so, what is it?

5- What does your brain go through when an author you fan-girl over reads, kudos, comments on your stuff?

6- What do think you do best in your writing?

7- What’s something that makes you nervous about your writing and when it comes to posting? (I thought of ways to word it better but my English isn’t the strongest – sorry)

8- What’s something you do in your writing process that wastes time, but you still do it because that’s the only way you’re able to get something out?

9- Is there something you’ve been working on a lot that you can’t seem to get out?

10- SHARE A SNIPPET OF Q9

Hi! And oh wow, thank you! This is so fun! Okay! 

1- Did you write something recently you thought you’d never write?

Yeah! I can’t say I ever saw myself writing a Mick x Mary Pat fic, haha, so teasing out that dynamic has been extremely fun. It’s been interesting too to try and capture both of the character’s voices and to explore what they might be like interacting with each other, particularly given they’ve never shared a scene together. I’m pretty happy with the result, and have been totally delighted by people taking a chance on it given it’s such an odd pairing, haha. 

2- What’s a line you’ve written that you’re extremely proud of?

A lot of them, actually, but this one from Drive You Mad often springs to mind:

He hooks a finger in the edges of her panties, yanking them down over the swell of her ass, swallowin’ her hitched breath too before finally shifting back enough to pull them off the rest of the way. He tosses them to the floor and then he just - -

Looks at her.

Takes in every soft, long, pale, twisting inch of her.

Some Madonna in the mornin’ and a nymph at night, don’t matter, she always leans fey, leans into otherworldly, leans into somethin’ he wants to kneel at the feet of and worship, somethin’ he wants to catch in his hand and lay out in his bed, and fuck, he knows he could lose hours, days, years in the curve of her breast and the crease of her thigh.

Could lose forever in her lips.

Somethin’ more in her cunt.

3- Is there something you wrote you thought people would hate but they ended up loving?

I don’t think I’ve written anything that I thought people would hate per se, but there are definitely stories I’ve thought would be more niche than they ended up being? I thought that both of my big AUs - the pornstar au and the pirate au would be much more quietly received than they were. I figured they’d have a few people who liked them, but that they would have a much smaller audience than they did. I’m forever thrilled in that sense that so many people connected with them both! 

4- Did you read something recently that was different and ended up liking? If so, what is it?

I’ve already recced it a few times on here, but I’m thoroughly enjoying @joeyjoeylee‘s Both Sides of the Law! I’m not the first person to jump on fics that age Beth and Rio down a lot, purely because I like their dynamic in canon and I like that they collide after really having lived a life each, y’know? I just find that fun and interesting and a bit unique.

That said, certain writers are really able to translate that dynamic richly to younger settings and different contexts in ways that work, and @joeyjoeylee has absolutely done it in their law school au, and I love it.

5- What does your brain go through when an author you fan-girl over reads, kudos, comments on your stuff?

I get extremely smiley, hahaha. There’s nothing like a great comment, honestly. I’m not always the best at replying to them because I often just get overwhelmed and am never entirely sure how to reply in a way that really conveys my gratitude. But yes, it’s extremely lovely when anyone takes the time to comment, and when it’s an author I love and respect, it has the added bonus of making me blush, haha. 

6- What do think you do best in your writing?

I think I’m pretty good at capturing atmosphere and nuance? I like to write description generally because I think it creates mood and builds narrative tension, and I think I generally do that pretty well. I’m always trying to get better though! 

7- What’s something that makes you nervous about your writing and when it comes to posting? (I thought of ways to word it better but my English isn’t the strongest – sorry)

Ah! Your English is amazing! And I don’t really get nervous about posting anymore, but I do feel like my writing can occasionally have what we call in editing a ‘saggy middle’. In that sense, I think sometimes it can feel a bit poorly paced and need more tightening up than I like to do, but again, that’s something I’m trying to get better at too.

8- What’s something you do in your writing process that wastes time, but you still do it because that’s the only way you’re able to get something out?

Oh god, too many things, hahaha. Generally speaking though, I spend a lot of time thinking a story through before I even start writing it. In that sense, I tend to go for long walks and just chew through story problems which is a process that really works for me. I have a good memory for that sort of thing too, so as I rethink things, it often feels a bit like I’m ironing out the creases in a story. It’s a system that really works for me.

9- Is there something you’ve been working on a lot that you can’t seem to get out?

Yeah! It’s a bit of a bummer, but it’s the second two parts of See You in the Light, which is insane really, given I posted the first part so long ago. It’s something I keep stop-starting working on, which is not a good habit to get into. I am really hopeful I might be able to get it done by the end of the year though!

10- SHARE A SNIPPET OF Q9

They’re barely in the front door before Elizabeth’s turning on him, her lips pulled into a thin, hard line and her blue eyes flashing bright, and just fuck if that isn’t rich right now. He feels his own jaw tighten before he can help it, feels his shoulders roll back, his traps shift and coil, and he’s ready for it when she says:

“Do you enjoy provoking him?”

She’s got this tone is the thing – all patronisin’, all high ground and at least that figures. Trust her to play naïve, trust her to play like she don’t know exactly what that dumbass ex of hers is like.

Striding past her, Rio starts down the hall into the house, heading towards the kitchen just to move, to shake some of the irritation out of his legs, to give himself some sort of direction that lets him play this lighter. Lets the anger seep out of his tone just because he knows it’ll piss her off.  

“Yeah, you know what? I think I do,” he hums flippantly as he glances back at her, and it’s like a prize, the way her chest flushes red in fury. “Yeah, kinda like an experiment. See how long it takes him to figure it out. He this slow when you married him, or he inhaled too many car fumes runnin’ that business of his into the ground?”

Thank you again! <3 

#my fic #welcome to my ama #see you in the light #sucklimesouttabodies

[warriorgays]

I'm going to ask the most broad and annoying question so forgive me, but what happened to everyone after Through the Gay Days ended? I have never been more invested in a group of characters in my life and I desperately want them all to be happy, whatever form that takes, in the end. Also! what other sources did you draw from besides Coming Out Under Fire? I was so impressed with how well researched everything was. 💖

OH MAN I didn’t expect to actually get a question, lol!! And that’s one I’m happy to answer, because I did think a lot about it. idk if I’m ever going to actually write a follow up, because my WIP list is soooo long and, tbh, the 50s are SO DEPRESSING in terms of LGBT stuff.

IT TOOK ME AN HOUR TO WRITE THIS UP. I APOLOGIZE. UNDER A CUT BECAUSE HOLY FUCK. I apologize for any typos but I’m just publishing instead of proofreading because what the fuck.

In terms of sources... I really think Coming Out Under Fire was the main “intentional” one. I have a BA in history and I’m getting my MA right now, so I’ve READ a lot of history and probably unconsciously drew on a lot. the other one I can definitely think of is Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, by Lillian Faderman, which covers lesbian U.S. history from the early 1900s to the 1980s. she draws on COUF for her 40s chapter (which is kind of a bummer because I was hoping for more WWII lesbian-specific content lol), but she’s good at covering some of the broad-strokes history of sexuality and LGBTQ identity. Becoming Visible by Molly McGarry is a really cool illustrated history, too, I’ve read that a few times over the years.

SO, for post-war lives, I’m going to warn you real quick it does get depressing for everybody for a little bit because uhhh the 50s fucking sucked? Faderman talks about this a lot, and actually Stephanie Coontz is a good source too--she has this book titled The Way We Never Were, which basically debunks the idea of “the ~traditional~ family” and looks at the ways our perceptions of society’s values have changed. and one thing she points out is that the 1950s are really the first time when society looks at single men--all single men--and thinks “there must be something WRONG with them.” before that, people were willing to accept that some dudes just didn’t want to get married, for plenty of reasons that had nothing to do with homosexuality, but in the 50s everyone was so gungho about The Family that anyone not into it was looked at with suspicion. add that to the whole “homosexuals are susceptible to Communist blackmail, better fire them all” and things fucking sucked.

I PROMISE HAPPY ENDINGS, THOUGH, because the whole “LGBTQ people lived depressing lives until these Enlightened Times” trope is my least favorite trope ever.

SO, for Gene Roe, my first thought for his post-war life was this Gaslight Anthem lyric that @antiquecompass prompted me for a Snafu/Roe fic foreverrrrrr again: “I’m in love with the way you’re in love with the night.” so I imagine that Snafu comes home, and they try to just settle into things as usual, but Snafu starts really pushing Gene’s buttons. being more snide, being disrespectfully obvious about being nonmonogamous (like it’s one thing to go cruising and another to bring dudes home to the apartment you’re sharing with your boyfriend, COME ON MAN), trying to pick fights. and of course the impetus for all this is Snafu struggling with PTSD and thinking that Gene is too good for him but not being able to end it himself. of course Gene doesn’t put up with this bs, so one day Snafu finally admits he’s doing this because he’s afraid the war turned him into kind of a fucked up asshole, and Gene’s like “you were always a fucked up asshole? what’s your point? I love you?”

so then things kinda simmer down. Gene’s not Officially a doctor anymore, but he and Snafu live in an apartment building in the poorer part of the city with a lot of ~ethnic~ folk nearby some black neighborhoods, so he does some informal community doctoring around those buildings, and that earns him enough goodwill that he and Snafu don’t really have to worry about getting caught out. it’s the kind of neighborhood where a lot of people have to... bend the law a bit to get by, to be happy, whatever, so people trade food and skills as needed and there’s always an alert if the cops are coming by. it’s a good place for them. they’re happy. I’ve only really thought ahead like ~ten years, but I can imagine them eventually moving on when the community moves on, you know, whether to another city or somewhere a little more rural, depending, and that being okay. and I think, with Gene’s influence, and seeing how strong the ties are between the Pansies with Parachutes(TM), Snafu is able to reach out to Sledge and Burgie and the rest more than irl/show canon.

Babe and Spina are the other two that totally make it, soulmates, heartbreakingly cute. but I promised a little heartbreaking, so basically my idea is that they actually move in together a little while after the war, but at some point Babe’s mom realizes what’s up and... does not take it well. gives him an ultimatum, break up with Ralph or she won’t let him near the family, which Babe finds agonizing because he’s really close with his family but Ralph doesn’t have very many relatives, at least not close by (in this verse at least), and even if he could bring himself to break up with Ralph, at this point he doesn’t think his mom will ever treat him the same anyway.

in my head there’s a really sweet scene when Ralph finds out what happens and a lot of hugging and comforting. but yeah. that briefly sucks. what DOESN’T suck is when Babe decides, after a few months, that he has to tell Bill (because Bill has gotten so close to the Heffrons that of course he notices when Babe suddenly isn’t speaking to them), and Bill proves himself to be a total Bro who decides that, well, the typical idea of a homosexual CLEARLY doesn’t fit Babe and Spina so... it’s all good? like c’mon they went through a war together, that’s worth something, right?

I think eventually Babe and Spina move, too. not super far, just maybe to, idk, New York, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, somewhere they can visit everyone but maybe far enough to put some distance between them and bad memories, and also because South Philly is small when your family isn’t speaking to you, you know? possibly they end up in the same city as Luz and Tipper (see next), I’m not 100% sure but I’m vaguely attracted to the idea of everybody ending up on a commune, lol.

so I think I’m probably meanest to Luz, because I imagine him getting arrested at some point. sorry, boo. his reaction is to pay the fine and slink out, and get out of dodge for a while to avoid his family getting any blowback, and he ends up visiting Tipper, who’s really frustrated (which I alluded to a bit at the end of Through the Gay Days) because he just doesn’t click with his old friends as much and he hasn’t had a lot of luck romantically. and again I have this clear scene in my head of Tipper helping Luz dress in drag for the first time, lots of giggling and teasing, but Tipper doesn’t really do drag anymore because he can’t keep his balance in heels, and they end up talking about their frustrations and venting and whatnot. and eventually Luz is like “you know what? fuck it! run away with me!”

and Tipper’s like “fuck it, let’s do it!” so they just kind of live a semi-nomadic life? idk, maybe not really nomadic, but they get jobs that let them move/travel, so they don’t have the pressure of expectations. I’m on the fence about whether they do this as lovers... I would say not, like, REALLY. like possibly a friends with benefits thing (and I’ll point out that Luz is one of the only other named characters who interacts with Tipper, other than Liebgott, because Tipper’s in charge of the map during the Major Horton scene, so that chemistry could totally work). because they’re, like, the two from the fic whose relationships don’t end up going anywhere, and I don’t want them to pine after the Joes forever, and they don’t, but sometimes people just don’t find their soulmates, it happens, and they can at least make each other happy.

this is one of those verses where I’ve decided Liebgott gets to keep his wife-and-kids dream. I do think he’s gay in this verse, and when he gets engaged he writes a letter to Tipper basically seeking closure, admitting he dealt with things in kind of a shitty way and admitting it might be nice to have a Gay Posse, but he also takes his marriage seriously even if it’s not a love match, and doesn’t seek romantic or sexual encounters with men. idk if Joe Toye actually gets married in this verse, but I don’t see him as gay. if we were to retroactively apply the Kinsey scale, I’d say he’d be a 1 or a 2, in which the situational aspect of war kind of pushed him towards interactions that he may have subconsciously desired, but definitely wouldn’t acknowledge in a normal time and place.

as for Chuck! I kind of like the future I give Chuck, partly because he conveniently is from the LA area. so for him, I imagine that at some point Ron Speirs just kind of shows up on his doorstep one day and they become, like, an actual Thing. and it’s good for a couple of years, but Ron seems... restless. and eventually Chuck sits him down and flat-out says “look, I really don’t think you’re cut out for this settled-down long-term-relationship kind of thing. we had a good run, we can part on good terms, but you can travel and have adventures and do all the stuff you want to do.” and then, correctly, points out that one of the reasons Speirs is so reluctant to do that is because he feels guilty for Chuck getting shot, which doesn’t really make any sense. Chuck’s only request is that Ron NOT GO BACK INTO THE ARMY, because fuck Korea, have you heard how many gay soldiers are getting kicked out of the military nowadays? Speirs agrees and they break up amicably.

(is Chuck still in love with him? yes. does it hurt like a motherfucker? yes.)

ANYWAY. the L.A. is where the Mattachine Society, the first official homosexual organization in the country, was founded in 1948... or maybe 49. I forget. the founder started asking around a while before he found people who were actually willing to join up. I figure Chuck eventually joins up and is the first of the Pansies with Parachutes(TM) to really develop a political gay identity. and through that org he eventually meets Beth, a lesbian who’s just broken up with her gf and is kind of panicking because now she might have to leave her apartment and go back to her parents in Nebraska, and they become fast friends and fuck it, why not get married? it’s good cover, and I could have also gotten a chance to talk about the working class lesbian bar scene in the 1950s, which is a cool topic.

if this were a formal fic, I would end it with 1952, when the entire group reunites in honor of the 10-year anniversary of them meeting at Toccoa. since it’s not, suffice to say they do have all-group reunions, and they also visit each other and call and write letters and stay friends 5ever. at some point Babe and Spina have a not-wedding (there’s a picture of a wedding in the 50s with two grooms in flower crowns in Becoming Visible, I love that picture) and they all come and celebrate. OH and at some point between Luz getting arrested and meeting with Tipper, he definitely visits Gene in Louisiana and they make out a bit. because, tbh, I caught a bit of UST in Through the Gay Days--I don’t know if it’s a ship I’d ship in any other verse, lol, but in this verse I feel like they need to make out.

anyway. eventually the 50s end. I want to say that by the time Stonewall happens, either Tipper&Luz or Babe/Spina (both??) are living in NYC and for three days everyone is frantically calling each other going “DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS???” and Chuck becomes totally into the California gay scene, and Babe’s nieces and nephews eventually reach out to him, Tipper and Luz either... idk, become real boyfriends or get hot younger boyfriends and become Wise Gay Dads to the younger crowd. Snafu and Gene grow old together, as hard as it is to imagine old Snafu.

EVERYBODY IS HAPPY AND FRIENDS AND GAY, THE END.

#onlythenuns