[Back][ Forward]

After that infamous beach trip where I read several romances, I was hungry for more. So, I went to the bookstore. Browsed. Happened to pick up a handy little book called Night Pleasures by Sherrilyn Kenyon. It was a whim purchase. I knew nothing about the book except the back blurb. I also knew nothing about the author.

The book mentioned this website several times, www.dark-hunter.com. Curious me had to go see if it was real. It was! And I found a center of fandom for Sherri. Among the things I found were fanfiction loops. I’d never done anything like that before. But it sounded like fun, and it was writing so it appealed to me.

I hopped in with both feet into the chaos. Had no idea what I was doing in the early days.

In doing the fanfiction, I found a group of online friends. Several were aspiring writers. We worked together on stories on the fanfiction loops. And found we were cutting writer’s teeth. We could experiment in ways that we might not have in real life writing, and we received feedback. We found out through trial and error what worked and what didn’t work so well.

The group of writers banded together because writing isn’t for sissies. We talked craft. I went to my first Romantic Times Convention and joined RWA at the urging of one of the friends I met. In that group, I found critique partners (Hi Shy, Maureen, and Melissa!). I found a writing partner, Melissa Lopez, for my real life co-authorship, Melany Logen. I found a mentor, Mary Stella, who made some things about writing make sense to me. I found friends that could commiserate and celebrate with me on this writing life (Hi Squirewriters!).

The time on the fanfiction loops helped to prepare me for the real thing. It’s where I unofficially got my start.

Mechele Armstrong aka Lany of Melany Logen
http://www.mechelearmstrong.com
http://www.melanylogen.com