#one piece is something one needs to experience it can't be described shortly why it's so f good

[peonac]

I’m so glad to have a friend who enjoys One Piece! How did you get into it? Do you have a favourite character? One you can’t stand? A favourite arc? Any fic recs?

I WAS FUCKING WAITING MY WHOLE LIFE FOR THIS ASK. NOT EVERYONE KNOWS IT BUT ONE PIECE IS THE SERIES OF MY LIFE. I CAN'T IMAGINE AN EXISTENCE WITHOUT IT!

probably the longest post I have ever made incoming:

I got into it in April 2003 (I was 11 at that time). Watching anime on TV was the only way for me and my brothers, there was no computer and internet around. We were hooked since episode 1 and never missed an episode, we would watch all the re-runs and be hyped about every epic moment and cry our eyes out at every tragedy or happy moment. Laughing our asses off at the jokes (Skypiea and Thriller Bark are imo the funniest!) And since then I'm a huge fan, though there were several years I lost touch. I picked up the series again a few months ago and stopped at the beginning of the Wano arc (due to low energy, yk how it is with taking care of the family etc).

And OMG I have so many faves!!! Nami!!! Her arc inspired me so much I took her name as my nickname. For a lot of rl friends, I'm just Nami, sometimes my teachers were confused and asked me if it's my middle name fklsdhfsjdůlkasd!!! She is so caring! Big sis vibes!

Zoro! He is so cool! Do I need to explain this? (also I find his relationship with women really interesting, the guy is so traumatized! And also he would literally die for you!) Devil Child Nico Robin. She is smart, powerful as hell and MORBID and her sense for cute things is just immaculate. The episode when she got to be part of the Strawhats is still one of my favorites. Maybe I'm mistaken but she is the only one that invited herself and not because Luffy told her so. I... okay, I will stop because otherwise, I will write a whole ass essay about her and why she is THE QUEEN of all queens!

The future king of the pirates Monkey D. Luffy! Period.

Trafalgar [redacted] Law.

*GRABS YOUR CHEEKS*

*PULLS YOU VERY CLOSE, OUR NOSES TOUCH*

You will understand once you watch more.

PERONA. I don't know why but I fell in love with her so hard I want for her to be real so I can propose to her! (but I also ship her with Zoro)

And here is a list of others I like: the whole strawhat crew (Jimbei ofc included), Sir Crocodile, Bartolomeo the Cannibal (I couldn't get enough of him, he is so silly), Donquixote Rosinante, Smoker, Tashigi (I ship her with Zoro too, wtf is with me to ship Zoro with so many characters!), Bon (Mr. 2), Boa Hancock, Bepo. I'm sure there are more, but I will stop here haha. I hate Donquixote Doflamingo, the Cipher Pol agents, Big Mom (she...I... she is a monster, like...wow), Buggy the Clown (imo the most pathetic anime guy in history, but the comedy around him is good), most of the Marines (what a bunch of assholes, really, it's a mirror to our world) and ugh, I'm sure there are more, but I can't remember XD! Fave arcs: Arlong Park, Loguetown, Alabasta Saga, Sky Island Saga, Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark, Summit War Saga And here begins the controversy, ofc I'm not including the Wano arc because I haven't seen it whole yet...But I'm not able to enjoy the after-time-skip arcs. Great animation moments, the story is amazing too, but the pacing is just so bad. So many fillers within the episodes too, Dressrosa was a torture to watch. So if I just judge it by story everything is great! Maybe reading the manga would be the better choice. But I didn't want to miss the great animation.

I haven't read any fics yet but I have a few in my marked for later list:

What I enjoy the most are artists that create nice little stories and AUs! I'm going to make a separate post and tag you, the list is too long!

#one piece my beloved #one piece is something one needs to experience it can't be described shortly why it's so f good #it has also the best female cast in whole shonen imo #also Oda said TRANS LIFES MATTER #I can recall only OP and MHA with trans representation and the good thing is it doesn't serve to a general imaginary #favourite #ask

[fycarmensandiego]

A chat with author Melissa Wiley

In 1996, HarperCollins published six Carmen Sandiego chapter books, featuring VILE villains from the then-current "Deluxe"/"CD-ROM"/"Classic" generation of computer games and a new lineup of Acme agents, headed by a Black female Chief (Lynne Thigpen ha impact), and focusing on kid detectives Maya and Ben.

The series included two books each by two writing teams and one solo act, Melissa Peterson. I got in touch with Melissa, who now uses the pen name Melissa Wiley, and she graciously answered some questions about writing the Carmen books and beyond.

To get you caught up to my knowledge before the interview, here's Melissa's website, and here's her bio as printed in the two Carmen books (accompanied by the caricature above):

Melissa Peterson is the author of several books for young readers. Born in Alamogordo, New Mexico, she has lived in eight different states and visited Germany and France. She has never ridden a dolphin, but she did eat a great deal of sour cherry ice cream outside the cathedral in Cologne. [Note: These are both references to plot points in Hasta la Vista, Blarney.] Her research for Hasta la Vista, Blarney included many hours playing Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? An official ACME Master Detective, she lives in New York City with her husband and young daughter.

FYCS: Thanks so much for agreeing to this interview.

Melissa Wiley: What a fun blast from the past! The Carmen books were my first professional writing gig and I had so much fun working on them.

That's so exciting to hear! With that being the case, how did you get involved with the books?

I was an assistant editor at HarperCollins, working for the wonderful Stephanie Spinner. I started out as her editorial assistant at Random House right after grad school and moved to Harper with her a year later, shortly after [my husband] Scott and I got married. Stephanie knew that I wanted to be a writer, and she often sent in-house writing assignments my way (lots of cover copy). When I left Harper in 1995 to have a baby, Stephanie recommended me for several book assignments, including the two Carmen Sandiego novels. That project had been underway for several months—Harper was doing a tie-in with the game and TV show. There were six books in total; two were assigned to me and four went to other writing teams [Ellen Weiss and Mel Friedman, and Bonnie Bader and Tracey West]. I often joke that I got my first modem, my first baby, and my first book deal in the same month!

I loved working with my Carmen Sandiego editor, Kris Gilson. The two books were a blast to write and a great learning opportunity for me. Ellen Weiss remains a good friend of mine. She's a true gem of a person!

Have your experiences writing the Carmen books influenced your work since then?

With Carmen, I discovered how much I love writing humor. Before that (in grad school), my poems and stories were on the serious side. I had so much fun with the playful, sometimes goofy tone of the Carmen Sandiego books that I definitely shifted afterward to more of a focus on humor in my books. I still find writing from a place of playfulness to be my most satisfying kind of work.

Were you familiar with Carmen Sandiego before writing the books?

I loved the computer game! I'd seen several episodes of the show—it's all a bit blurry now and hard to say which I encountered first—and really enjoyed it, but I especially loved the game. Instant classic!

How much guidance did you receive from HarperCollins / Brøderbund? Were the plots your own, or were you given plot outlines?

We were given the basic descriptions for the two kid detectives, and I had a couple of meetings with the editors and the other writers to flesh out the characters a bit more—give them personalities. I don't think Mel was in the meetings, but Ellen was there, and Tracey and Bonnie.

Then I wrote outlines for my two books and the other writers outlined theirs. I was assigned one "Where in the World" mystery and one "Where in Time" mystery. I think I submitted several plot ideas for each—the big challenge was thinking up interesting objects for Carmen and her henchmen to steal. The Blarney Stone and cocoa beans were my favorite ideas and I was thrilled that they got picked!

How did you research the books?

Those were AOL days, and the web wasn't yet a place for intensive research, so I spent a lot of time in the library. For The Cocoa Commotion, I conducted phone interviews with staff members at the Hershey chocolate factory—lots of fun. But I never did get to visit the Blarney Stone!

What was your favorite part of working on the books?

Researching the history of chocolate! Naturally I had to do a lot of sampling in order to describe it properly. ;)

Your author bio in the books mentions that the scene in which Maya and Ben eat sour cherry ice cream in Cologne, Germany was inspired by an actual experience of yours. Did any other experiences of yours make it into the books? Have you had any other travel experiences that notable? (Note: I'm originally from Northern Michigan, so travel experiences involving tart cherries are a high bar to clear for me.)

Ohhh, that sour cherry ice cream! I hope I get to taste it again someday. Apart from eating a lot of chocolate, I can't remember any other personal experiences that informed the books. If I were to write one today, I'd make sure to set a scene in Barcelona. My husband and I spent a week there in 2008 and it was an incredible trip. The paella! The Gaudí buildings! Art on every corner! I'd love to go back someday.

The bio also features a caricature of you with your baby daughter...

That drawing was made by the brilliant comic book artist Rick Burchett, who was working with Scott on Batman comics at the time. Scott was an editor at DC Comics and Rick was one of his favorite artists to work with. When I needed a bio illustration for the Carmen Sandiego books, we commissioned Rick to draw it. I love that piece so much! The baby is my oldest, Kate, who was born right around the time I started working on the books. We still have the original art!

You've written over 20 children's books for a variety of ages, in a variety of genres. Do you have any favorites among them?

That's so hard to say—I'm fond of all of them and I dearly loved creating worlds and adventures for Charlotte and Martha in my Little House prequels—but The Prairie Thief and The Nerviest Girl in the World are extra-special to me. I grew up in Aurora, Colorado and had a summer job at a wildlife refuge on the prairie, a landscape that served as the setting for Prairie Thief. I loved getting to weave secrets into the prairie setting that means so much to me.

Your most recent book, The Nerviest Girl in the World, was published last August. Can you tell us a bit about why you wrote it?

I lived for 11 years in La Mesa, California, a small town just outside San Diego. While I was there, I learned that in the very early days of silent film, there had been a film studio in town. Eventually the studio moved to Santa Barbara, but it was exciting to discover that before Hollywood was the center of the American film industry, little old La Mesa was a moviemaking place. I began reading everything I could find about the studio, and when I learned that many of the cowboys in those early Westerns were real cowboys and ranchers, an idea for a book began to take shape—the story of an adventurous girl who stumbled into work as a daredevil film actress along with her cowboy brothers.

Of course, I'm legally compelled to ask the question that literally every interview currently includes: how has the pandemic changed your job?

LOL! Yes, it's the question right now, isn't it! Well, I've worked at home since the Carmen Sandiego days, and I homeschool my kids, so in the biggest ways our lives weren't hugely affected by the shutdown. But I used to do a lot of my writing in cafés, and I miss that like crazy! I had to think up all sorts of new strategies for staying focused at home this past year. I'm hoping to get back to the coffee shops this summer!

Something I found really interesting is that you have a Patreon, which you explain you started to help pay for medical bills. How has that experience affected your work as an author?

I've played with lots of kinds of content on Patreon and really enjoy having a space to share behind-the-scenes stories. It's a more intimate and personal space than social media, so I feel free to let my hair down and be really frank.

Thanks so much for these fantastic questions! I had so much fun reminiscing about the Carmen Sandiego adventure!

#carmen sandiego #melissa wiley #interviews #mine #csm