Category: Random Asides

Sixteen Years. As many of you know, I learned the ropes of writing fiction in fandom. I’ve always left my old stories, even the ones that make me cringe, posted. It’s sort of like … proof of where I came from, how I developed, what I achieved. But it’s also because I love those stories. I’m proud of them.

Forthright’s Doku-sona (from the Dokuga website)
Gift!art by FoxOfTwilight (kinda how we met!)

This week, I received a flurry of emails from folks because fanfiction.net, the only site where all of my stories are posted, is teetering on the verge of extinction. Abandoned by its administration, the dinosaur may soon vanish, taking everything with it. And my long-time readers, the ones who go back to regularly reread my fanfics, don’t want to lose their favorite stories.

It’s a shame. I’ve often joked over the years that fanfic writers are paid in reviews. Oh, there’s a stats page, too. My numbers are crazy. If you do searches for the most-reviewed and most-favorited stories in the InuYasha fandom, I have 6 titles in the top 20.

• forthright is on the favorites list of 6,700~ members
• my accumulated stories add up to over a million (1,230,000+) words
• my most popular story, Unspoiled, is on the favorites list of 10,785 members
• my most reviewed story, Lord Charming, has 24 million reads and has just shy of 20,000 reviews (uh, that’s spread over 800 chapters, for context)

Assorted gift!art | ARTISTS: lila-me, rikayu-chan, j_lianne, janey-jane
Oodles more art on dA: Forthright Fanclub & Unspoiled Fanclub

I’m so grateful that some of my long-time readers followed me here … and trust my storytelling enough to have picked up the Amaranthine Saga. In a very real way, I wrote the series to tickle my fandom friends. A “-miko” for every main character, familiar plot set-ups (an enslaved butler, two janitors with a big secret, a hoarder and a home organizer, an accidental engagement involving a comb, and even a marooned wolf on an island with a resort), and borrowed settings (apple orchard, college campus, Founder’s Coffee Shop, and even Stately House). And Hisoka-sensei, of course (he’s an OC from Unspoiled). Early on, I used to say that I plotted the entire Saga because he deserved a story of his own.

I’ve been asked (again and again) to post my fics to AO3 (An Archive Of Our Own), which is where all the cool kids hang out these days. I did claim a profile, which is “forthrightly” since someone audaciously snagged my penname ahead of me. Here’s a link. If the worst occurs, I’ll migrate my stories to AO3. Nothing of importance will be lost.

“Miroku” | Commissioned Art by PurpleRebecca

I mean it when I say … thank you for supporting my stories wherever you find them. And happy anniversary to me! ::confetti toss::