My Dragons

[pensnest]

If you'd like to leave feedback on Pen's dragons, please add a comment.



So. If I saw your guess as to who wrote The BFL, you guessed that I wrote it, and you were quite right. Well done. It's rather gratifying to be so recognisable. Many thanks to ninjetti75 for the beta.

It's kinda also gratifying not to be so recognisable! It was arguably a bit sneaky to write *two* stories, but in truth, although Prone was the story I wanted to write, I was far from sure that I'd get it done in time. 'Twas a real struggle, even though I knew what the story was - I kept doing 'research' instead, so I could tell myself I was really working on it, not actually procrastinating at all. In the end, I began The BFL in case I didn't get this one ready - it would have been too embarrassing not to have a story done for my own challenge!Many thanks to joyfulseeker for the beta work. And for those of you who may not yet have discovered it, I found little_details extremely useful when it came to finding out details about getting a tattoo. A handy resource for writers.

Phew.



And in other news - I'm half-way through the Fanfic 100 table now. 122,000+ words, jeepers!

Comments

[turloughishere.livejournal.com]

You wrote two stories, how sneaky of you :-)

My guess for Prone was really off *sulks* It's an incredibly good story in any case and I think it and the one you wrote for SeSa (have forgotten the name at the moment, I seriously need to re-read it, it was sooo good) are really the best stories you've written this far. Both Chris and Lance are such well-rounded characters in both of them and the ways the their relationship is changing and growing so very well-told. Absolutely wonderful stories both of them, the kind of stories I want to re-read many times!

[pensnest]

Aw - thank you so much! I actually had a mini-crisis while writing Prone because I thought to myself, I keep writing the same long-term pining Trickyfish story again and again... otoh, they do tend to turn out well. (Prize is the other one you're thinking of.) And, I guess, long-term pining Trickyfish is what I like.

Also, as I recall, you did some pretty good guessing, there!

[turloughishere.livejournal.com]

In some writers' hands long-term pining stories can be incredibly angsty and not my cup of tea at all but you always seem to infuse them with a kind of lightness, a sense of "life goes on and living is still fun despite occasionally pining for a loved one" - the pining doesn't take over the character's lives. And you always include the other guys too, which I think enhances the feeling that love might be important but friendship is even more necessary. Basically I think it's your ability to write everyday, normal life with the occasional dash of fun and games, and intense feelings and passion, that really makes me love these stories.

[pensnest]

*beams* I think... I like there to be a happy ending. It's probably because I'm happy. Some people love the pain, and though it can be good to read, I wouldn't want to re-read a painful story that didn't come through with a happy ending. Also, there are times when characters pining incessantly makes them seem like adolescent girls, which isn't something I particularly want to read about, let alone write. There has to be something else to their lives!

And I know that the main reason I became addicted to this popslash stuff is the humour in so many stories, so I have to keep that.

[turps33.livejournal.com]

The BLF had so many touches that said you. The phrasing and dialogue and humour especially. Oh, and the trickyfish hint. But like I said, I didn't get Prone as yours at all.

I so love that story. It's long and involved and I love how you structured it around the tattoo.

[pensnest]

It makes sense that The BLF was obviously a Pen story, because it was basically easy to write. Whereas with Prone, I was trying to do something beyond what I usually do, which is why it was so hard. I'm not even sure whether I did what I originally intended, but I'm most gratified that it worked for you. (And, like ephemera_pop, I wanna see the ink... Thanks!

[nopseud]

I loved The BFL and Prone, but I didn't guess either of them as you, because I'm hopeless at guessing. :-) The BFL was fun (although I did wonder who had stolen the egg in the first place). And Prone was great too, with a Chris that made me happy. Maybe I should've been thinking of you as the writer, because of the Trickyfish. The research really showed through, but not in an OTT obvious way, just that it felt very real and vivid. It reminded me of a friend who has phoenix wings tattooed on her back.

[pensnest]

I just reckoned it was a Transylvanian poacher or forester who stole the egg. Or possibly Igor.

I'm glad the tattoo stuff worked - I had a feeling there are probably quite a few potential readers who have tattoos, so didn't want to make a mess of the details. (I still wish I'd included the idea of skin peeling off like eraser shavings, or was it pencil shavings? Can't remember now...) That site with the phoenix wings is wonderful! One of the people who gave me info on getting a tattoo has an erotic story of a woman who gets wings put on her back, here.

[vaudevilles.livejournal.com]

I laughed a lot in The BLF... I loved the banter (one of my absolute favourite things about Chris / anyone stories is the wit.

And Prone was beautiful - I've read it three times already. The tattooing description was really accurate (weirdly, I'm about to get a dragon tattooed on me next week) because it had the same kind of sense-expanding feel that the tattoo needle does - so your research and care definitely paid off.

[pensnest]

Thank you so much! I'm glad I got the tattooing stuff right - I found I was quite tempted to have one done myself, having read so much about it all...

[bellamyrose.livejournal.com]

This is the first story I've read of the Dragon Challenge and I adored it. Tattoos are one of my major likes in a story, and it's Chris and Lance and that just made it so much better.
Kudos to you for writing this, and I'm sure I'll be back again to reread, probably more than once. :D Thank you.

[pensnest]

Ah, well, you have treats in store. I got a lovely crop of stories in for the Dragon Challenge, none bad and some excellent. I'm glad you enjoyed 'Prone'. :-)