Ask the Author: miss_begonia
Hi, I’m miss_begonia, and I’m here to answer your burning questions! And your not-so-burning ones too. I won't discriminate against your question if it's just, like, smoldering.

My AI Fic Masterlist

Normally my stuff is f-locked for professional reasons, but I’ve unlocked my AI fic temporarily. If you want to access my fic anytime, feel free to become a member of my fic journal, where all my stuff is posted. Sorry about the drama, y’all. If I could keep my stuff public all the time, I really would.

Have a meme where I talk about writing, my fandom of shame, Neil Lambert, things that cockblock the slash, why Kris Allen is magical, and other sundry random things.



1. Briefly state your fandom experience.

Oh, geez. My first fandom was Dawson’s Creek. I was obsessed with that show in high school. I wrote fic for it from when I was sixteen on, but never posted any until I was in college. I was a total Pacey/Joey shipper. I’ve been through about a million fandoms since then: Veronica Mars, a tiny stint in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The O.C for a looong time, Supernatural (where I discovered RPS!), bandom and now AI. At some point I became mostly a slash writer, but I write het, too – not much in the fanfic context lately, but a lot of my original fic is het. The name of my LJ – “The Strangest of Places” – is a reference to a “Dawson’s Creek” quote where Pacey tells Joey that love finds you in the strangest of places, but I always thought it applied really well to fandom. I get caught up in the weirdest things, but I rarely regret my obsessions.

2. Tell us about your history with writing in general.

I’ve been writing for approximately forever. I got serious about it in college, and then convinced myself I’d never be good enough at it. I fooled around for a couple years after graduation, working boring jobs, and figured out I couldn’t shake the writing bug, so I went back to school for an M.F.A. I recently finished my first novel, and I’m currently seeking representation, which is…not fun at all, actually. I suppose we’ll see where it goes.

3. How would you describe your writing style? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

I’m not a very flowery writer. I think there can be a lot of power in simplicity. I’m definitely a character-driven writer in that I tend to figure out who my characters are first and then let them sort out the story.

I’m pretty good at dialogue, and I love writing it. I think I’ve got a decent sense of rhythm, too, as far as writing goes. I struggle a lot with pacing and sometimes get tangled up plot-wise – but hey, that’s what revision is for. I am also always reigning in my more sentimental tendencies.

4. What drew you to start writing AI fanfic?

I wrote my first AI fic on the night of the finale. I don’t know, I was really sad about Adam not winning, and so I wrote a fic about Kris. It was weird.

I think I’ve always been drawn to relationships between opposites, and at first glance, that was what Adam and Kris seemed to be – but the more I wrote about them, the more I realized how similar they are in terms of their incredible personal charm, their slightly edgy and sarcastic senses of humor, and how completely earnest they are. That combination was what drew me into AI fandom – the contrasts and the unexpected alliances.

5. How does American Idol compare with the other fandoms you've been in?

Wow, I don’t know. It’s really NEW. I mean, I realize that AI fandom’s been around for awhile, but I feel like it exploded with this season. I tend to come into fandoms kind of late and leave early, so this was a different experience in that way. It’s also a fandom that breaks the 4th wall more than ANY other fandom I’ve been in, and that includes bandom, where the actual people sometimes comment on fan fiction.

It’s also one of the only fandoms I’ve ever been in where an actual gay person is central to a lot of the slash fic. I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about that.

6. How often do you read other people's Idol fics?

Often! I try to comment, too, but sometimes I suck about it. I’ve read a LOT of good fic in this fandom, though I also think there’s a lot of crap.

7. What do you look for in fic that you read?

Good writing trumps pretty much everything else. I’ll read the craziest cracked out premises if it’s well-executed.

8. What's your favorite of all the Idol fics you've written so far? (Link, please!)

Probably my most recent fic, actually, Pass the Pulse. It was definitely an experiment in terms of style and form, and I think it really worked.

9. How did you come up with the idea for that story? Was the writing process easy or difficult?

It was partly inspired by a prompt at queenbitchfest of the David Bowie song “Let’s Dance,” and because I’m a bit of a spazz, I posted it before the deadline. I wanted to do something different than anything I’d done before, and I had this random idea of doing little flash fics – basically, scenes – that take place at important moments in Adam’s life to encapsulate his “journey,” I guess. But not as pretentious as that sounds.

I feel like people tend to portray Adam as being supremely confident and sexy a lot of the time, and not that he isn’t those things, but I wanted to flip that on its head a little. I like how it turned out, but it was definitely not easy to write. I wrote each scene individually, and I haven’t been writing anything lately, basically, so it was slow and kind of frustrating. But it came together eventually, which was nice.

10. What have you got in the works right now?

Not much, sadly. I’m in a bit of rut, writing-wise, and am sort of on fan fiction hiatus while I try to work on some original stuff. But I’m always open to suggestions? My most recent kick is that I want to write an AU where Adam and Kris are children’s TV show hosts. IDEK.

11. What's the most touching or memorable review you've ever received?

It’s really hard to say, because I receive so many comments that stick with me and mean a lot to me. I think this one from Borrowed and Blue kind of blew me away, because it’s always amazing when people just GET it, particularly people who I admire as writers. Those are the moments I live for. It’s why I write.

12. Which Idol character can you most identify with?

God, I don’t know. I guess Adam? But even though I’m Jewish and have a theater background and was a bit of a weird kid in high school, I’m not at all showy the way he is. I’m much more fade-into-the-background like Kris.

13. Which Idol character is the easiest for you to write?

KRIS KRIS KRIS. Which is weird as hell, because I don’t on the surface have a whole lot in common with him. Still, I love writing him because he’s an observer and he’s patient and unexpectedly funny and GOOD PEOPLE.

14. Which Idol character is the hardest for you to write?

Adam. He’s just so fucking complicated. He’s always talking about how he’s an open book, like he puts everything out there, and that’s true to a certain extent but also completely untrue, because he shapes his own image to fit only what he wants people to see. That’s part of why I like writing about him, but it makes him incredibly difficult to write about.

15. Which Idol character do you think you could never write?

Danny Gokey. I just can’t do it. His POV, anyway.

16. Do you have an OTP?

Not really. I definitely read and enjoy a lot of Adam/Kris, but I’m more OTP about their friendship than I am about them romantically. I always enjoy Adam/Kris in a well-written AU, because the divorce thing KILLS me. People have written awesome, awesome post-divorce fic, but it’s always sad that their relationship has to emerge from that.

17. Is there a pairing you wish more people would write?

MORE ADAM/BRAD. There can never be enough Adam/Brad.

18. Is there a character you wish more people would feature in their stories?

I’ve come to have a lot of affection for Matt Giraud, mostly due to fakeplasticsnow’s fic, and when he’s written well, he’s hilarious. I also like when people write Allison as a real person and not just some adorable throwaway. And NEIL LAMBERT. People should write Neil Lambert all the time. Okay, I’ll stop.

19. What's your biggest pet peeve in Idol fic?

When people brush off the Kris/Katy relationship like it’s not that important. I get that Katy cockblocks the slash, but seriously, they’ve been together for a long time, they clearly love each other – please don’t try to make me believe that Kris would just be totally cool with leaving his wife for another man. Conversely, I really hate when people make Adam someone who’s always willing to cheat with Kris. Of course Adam loves Kris, and of course Kris is hot, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Adam’s going to be like, “Sure, I’ll be your piece on the side!” Can’t it be more complicated than that?

20. Share your favorite line/paragraph from an Idol fic you've written.

I’m going to post a whole section, but it’s really short, I swear.

Adam is fourteen.

He is fourteen and scared, standing in his bedroom in front of the mirror with no shirt on. His freckles trace a frightened path down his chest, scattered like dust across his shoulders.

Fairy dust, his mom used to say. From where the fairies gotcha.

Adam sucks in his stomach and stares at his reflection and thinks: FAG.

It feels good to think it. It would feel better to say it. He reaches out and presses one hand against the mirror, fingers smudging the glass. He wears a silver band around his thumb, bought at the mall on a whim because he likes how it feels when he twists it round.

His hair is too light and he is too fat but he has a name, now, for what is wrong with him. He wants to say it, over and over again, until it feels natural. He wants to tell everyone. He wants people to know.

He doesn’t want anyone to know.