Monday Meet & Greet with Chicklette

 with

Chicklette

Hello, Lambchops!

The first time I ever came across Chicklette was during the For the Love of Jasper contest. She wrote this really awesome entry, Camels and Cloves, and it quickly became one of my favourite entries in the contest. 

She also wrote another one-shot for the contest, Unbroken. The line,

"It's tomorrow," he says. "Can I come back now?"                                                    

is one of the most memorable lines I've ever read in Twific. Seven simple words, yet it really touched me.

She writes mostly Jasper/Bella stories and I loved them. One multi-chapter that stood out the most to me the most is Get Me to You. It's a short 6-chapter and completed fic and you should definitely check it out. Right now, her WIP Venice Beach Stories will be seen recommended throughout twitter and other forums.

When I found out that she has twitter, I took the opportunity to follow *cough*stalk*cough* her right away. From there, I get to know her a little bit better. She's one of the nicest, funniest person I know in the fandom. She's very easy to get along with, and really awesome gal overall. I'm very humbled to be chosen to give her the introduction to this week's M&G. 

She's also a part of the Eclipse Edition of FGB. If you're interested in bidding on her, check her out at this link.

MissMaj

Tell us about yourself. Married? Single? Kids, age, ..whatever you'd like to share.

Married, to the best guy in the world. He fully supports my twific habit, while simultaneously mocking it and cracking me up. His MST3K (Mystery Science Theatre, 3000) of Twilight is hilarious. I work full-time for a government agency, live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and have enough cats to plant me firmly in the realm of “Crazy Cat Lady.” No kids – I can’t imagine how the writers with children do it.

Tell us about Twilight. How did you first get into the Saga, when was the first time you read it, and which book is your favorite?

So, in May of 2009. I was driving home listening to NPR, and this middle-aged man came on talking about the books as his “guilty pleasure” and just raving about them. I happened to be in Costco the next day and saw the books there. I picked up the first one and set it aside to read when I got around to it. I ended up reading all four books in three days, and (like a lot of twifans) was starving for more. Twilight remains my favorite.

What got you to start reading Twilight Fanfiction? Do you remember the first fic you read?

I wrote a (scathing) review of Breaking Dawn on Amazon, and someone there pointed me in the direction of FFN. I found an Isle Esme/missing honeymoon scene fic first, but shortly after, I found Scotch, Gin and the New Girl. I read it all in one sitting and I’ve never looked back.

Which are your favorite stories?

Scotch remains my absolute favorite. Recently, I’ve loved Suicide King and Emperors of Washington – both incredibly original stories. Because I love the J/B pairing, I adore pretty much everything ElleCC and LaViePastiche have written. And of course, I love the fics I’m betaing – The Velveteen Mother, and Three Graces and a Muse. Anything by Zigster is going to be *hilarious,* and she writes some of the sexiest slash ever. Finally, fic that is completely owning me right now is We Used to Be a Love Story. It’s amazing to me how much emotion she can pack into just a few words. My writing tends to be overwrought and overwritten, yet that doesn’t appeal to me as a reader at all. Less is more.

Who are your favorite characters, from who you like the most to er...who you would like to kill right off the bat?

I don’t honestly have a pairing preference. I don’t usually like Jasper/Alice fics, and I’m hesitant to try an Emmett/anyonebutRosalie fic. When writing, I really like to play with J/B (obviously) but I also recently started an Em/Ro multi-chap. I really like the opportunity to play with the non-E/B characters. They were left so flat in the books, so I think there’s a lot that you can do with them that’s different from the thoroughly explored E/B pairings. Oh, and for some reason, I really love the idea of killing Alice, even though she was one of my favorites in the books.

Which fics are you reading right now, and which ones have your complete attention whenever they pop with an update?

Oh gosh, my alerts list is about 100 fics long – maybe more. My “drop everything” fics are probably The Naked Guy Upstairs, A Litany at Dusk, Redshift, Blueshift, Ethan Church and Son of a Preacher Man.

What made you finally decide to start writing your own?

I’ve always been a writer – I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t making up stories. Most of my original fic has ended up in a box, or on a flash drive somewhere, just gathering dust. I came to FFn with the outline of a Breaking Dawn rewrite already done,  and a few other potential stories running around in my brain.  All of the writing communities I’ve belonged to previously have really looked down their nose at fanfic, so I felt really weird about writing it. But then I got here and saw all of the amazing talent, and I was just in awe.

What's the atmosphere like when you're writing? Music.. quiet..kids screaming and ripping each other apart, or husband bitching in the background? Do you drink and/or smoke?

Hmmm… In an ideal world, I’ll have the TV on, but muted, and some quiet. In the real world though, I’ve got cats fighting, my husband talking to me, and I’m compulsively checking twitter every ten seconds. I don’t drink when I write – it just makes me silly. I do a lot of Writing Challenges with my friends – it’s a great time – very supportive and the timed aspect means I really buckle down and get to writing. I also like to write in crowded, busy places. On the train is great, until I look over and see that someone’s grandma is reading the lemon I’m writing over my shoulder. Talk about embarrassed.

What else do you like to read besides Twilight?

Hmm…I just started reading Neil Gamon, so I have a bunch of his books. I’m a huge fan of Tom Robbins, Margaret Atwood, and Stephen King. Jhumpa Lahiri writes beautifully, and you can never go wrong with Willa Cather.

What else do you like to do?

I love to cook. Baking is probably the thing in life that I do best, and I'm a pretty good poker player - we have a monthly game with some friends. I love to garden, although we’re moving in the spring, so I won’t be able to put in a vegetable garden this year, and I’m also something of a political junkie.

Tell us a secret.

Fanfic *is* my secret. Almost no one in my real life knows I write fanfic, except my husband, and my mom. It’s like having my own private world, and when I’ve had a truly terrible day, I always have this other place to escape to, where there's (almost) always a happy ending. It’s incredible.