Monday Meet & Greet with circe290

with

circe290

Hello, Lambchops!

Circe290 is the author of a fantastic Jasper/Bella AU fic called Full Circle, and its sequel The Sword and the Shield. She also wrote one of my personal favourites, Serendipity. She's written 10 stories to date, about half of them a series of oneshots.

After writing non-stop since she joined the fandom halfway through last year, she took a brief hiatus. About a month ago, she returned with a brand new fic, Ambiguous Morality. I, as I'm sure a lot of us, am very excited to have her back!

MissMaj

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

I'm divorced, I'm perilously close to 40, and now thanks to fanfic I have seriously unrealistic expectations and will probably remain single for the rest of my life. So not kidding. I have two boys, 13 and 17, who pretty much make my world go around. They're pretty tolerant, especially for boys, of my Twilight obsession. My oldest impressed some girls at school with his knowledge, and they were pretty excited, thinking he'd read the books. He said, "No, no -- I only know stuff because my mom's a Twilight freak." I told him he was nuts and should have let them think he'd read them; chicks dig boys who like Twilight.

I'm a medical language specialist, which I've been doing for 20 years, and I work from home. And I have a cat. Christ, how boring is that? Oh, and I live just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (the mullet and flannel capital of the world), where we're currently enjoying another hideous western PA winter.

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?

I resisted for as long as I could, I swear. I did the whole derisive eye roll at people who talked about it and everything. And oddly, I'm a book over movie person. Always. But I saw the movie first because my youngest wanted to watch it with me, and I was hooked. God help me. I then proceeded to plow through the books in less than a week. This was only about 18 months or so ago. I kind of hated that I was so sucked into them because they're....and this is going to sound horrible, or like I think I could do better (not the case even a little bit)....really not the best writing I've ever encountered, but the characters and the story were what pulled me in.

I liked the first three, although I think Eclipse is probably my favorite, which made the train wreck that is Breaking Dawn kind of a disappointment.

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

I've always had zero interest in fanfiction. Even if I didn't agree with how a story ended, it always at least seemed somehow right. I went looking for Twilight fanfic early last summer for probably a lot of the same reasons a lot of people began reading it. I wasn't happy with Breaking Dawn and the "battle that never was," and I wanted more than the fade to black scenes that kept Twilight a teen book. And I discovered this whole world of amazing stories by really talented authors I'd have missed out on otherwise.

I don't remember the first ones I read because that was before I made a profile and started adding alerts and favorites, but I do remember that I wasn't even remotely interested in AH stories at first.

Which are your favorite stories?

Oh gosh, there are so many. First Love Lost and Last Love Found by Oracle Vas, Clipped Wings and Inked Armor by hunterhunting, Safe and Sound (and Lost and Found) by Touchstone67. Pretty much anything by ElleCC and LaViePastiche. I have a ton of stuff on alert, but my favorites list stays relatively small, so if it ends up there it means I'm completely in love with it.

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

Favorite is Jasper. Hands down. In nearly any incarnation. I found Jake rather annoying in the books, but he worked his way into one of my own stories and I ended up loving him. Go figure. My least favorite? Alice. Ugh. I'm not crazy about canon Alice to begin with, and fanfic has pretty much made it worse. She so often ends up turned into a caricature of herself (and I'm guilty of that myself), and yeah...not a fan.

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

The First Breath by ElleCC and LaViePastiche, Forgiven by socact (and I drop everything when that updates), The Corner of Your Heart by TheHeartOfLifeIsGood, Lessons Learned by mistyhaze420, A Priori by mopstyle, and The Last Mile by catonspeed.

What made you finally decide to start writing your own?

Honestly, I just wondered if I could. I've always been interested in writing and language and whatnot, and I read voraciously. And an idea popped into my head that just would not leave me alone.

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?

Pretty quiet. I'm easily sidetracked, not gonna lie. If I have music on, it's very low. When the kids are around there are interruptions, and that usually works out pretty well, because I frequently find that if I walk away, even for a few minutes, I have better clarity when I sit back down.

I do drink occasionally, but just beer. No hard stuff, no wine. I'm a Coors Light kinda girl. I'm as classy as they come, I tell ya! And I do smoke, yes, in moderation except for when I'm writing. I have a tendency to want to chain smoke when I'm writing. Not sure what that's all about.

What else do you like to read besides Twilight?

Stephen King is undoubtedly my favorite author. I love The Dark Tower series, Insomnia, Rose Madder, Duma Key, Bag of Bones....holy hell, I could go on forever. I'm a huge Tolkien fan as well. And I'm hugely interested in mythology, mostly Celtic, Greek, and Egyptian, and also Egyptian history. God, I'm a geek.

What else do you like to do?

Anything involving my kids. And other than reading and writing, I'm a bit of a movie buff and love music. Sadly, there's not much else. BRB while I re-examine my life.

Tell us a secret.

Umm. Hmm. Oh! Okay. I used to dance. Ballet, tap, lyrical, modern. I danced professionally for a short time (pre-babies) with a group in Pittsburgh, and I taught a competition group for a long time after I stopped performing. We used to travel to competitions a lot. The last one I did before "retiring" was in Virginia Beach, and I got food poisoning at a seafood buffet. While my girls were dancing their hearts out in front of the judges, I was trapped in my hotel room violently ill. Good times.