Question
Answer
So, Michelle:
Do you like candy?
Yes, I do. Especially plain M&Ms.
Do you have any?
Not at the moment.
Why is this page called "Cards Of Destiny?"
This is the title that Rachael picked when she did the stellar graphics for this page. When she turned it over to me, I kept 99% of the layout and all of the graphics. I like the title a lot. After all, a synthetic destiny is better than no destiny. I think it's appropriate. Yes, I know that the acronym is the name of a fish.
Why is your prose so thick?
I don't know. Too much Jane Austen and Edgar Allan Poe as a child, I suppose. This faq is more or less written in my regular writing style. Any comedies that I write are also in this more casual style, but when I write a drama or a romance, I tend to use a much more flowery style of prose. I know that makes it hard for some people to read, and I've been working on toning it down a little. These days I proofread everything I read for mistakes, and then for ways that I can make the prose a little easier to digest without losing any of the impact. When I write short introspection pieces, I try to pack as much meaning as I can into 10 or 12 k, so I don't worry too much about those being too purple. My longer stuff, though, I try to simplify if I can.
Why fanfiction?
It's fun. I enjoy reading it, so I decided to try writing it. That was back in ‘96. It's easier for me to get inspiration for fanfiction than for original pieces. Easier to ask ‘What if?' within an existing framework than to begin from the ground. Also easier to show my work to others without being incredibly self conscious.
I relate strongly to a lot of anime characters (It's probably easy to tell which ones.) so my muses like to interpret/redefine/torture them. I wrote a lot of original stuff when I was in high school, but none of it was any good, and after that it dried up for a couple of years and I didn't write a thing until after I discovered fanfiction. I'm beginning to feel like I might be able to do something original again, but I don't think I'll stop writing fanfiction for a good long time.
Why Card Captor Sakura?
It's CLAMP. That means that whatever else it may be, it's full of dark subtext, betrayal, plotting, and sexy sexy bishonnen. I love Tokyo Babylon, and X, and RG Veda, but for pure warm fuzziness and pink and kawaii magical girl goodness amidst back stabbing and machiavellian scheming, you can't beat Card Captor Sakura. I love the cognitive dissonence if nothing else. All of the characters are likeable, and everyone's position is empathetic, and yet, there are a million questions left at the end and a million things that still seem wrong against the backdrop of a fairy tale ending. What could be more fun?
Besides. Yue's hot.
If you're over sixty pages into the sequel to ‘ad finem,' why haven't you posted any of it yet?
I'm struggling with it. A lot. For the first time in years and years and years, I started a story at the end. I know where the story needs to go, but not how to get it there. I'm finding myself re-writing a lot of scenes and going back and adding scenes to parts I thought I was done with. I have a few pre-readers that have been a tremendous help, and I apologize to the rest of my readers, but when I release it, I would like to at least have a consistent outline.
It shouldn't be too much longer now, though. The working title is ‘the wasteland,' and it's well over half way done. I'm working on it nearly every day.
Where is the image gallery?
It's gone. There are hundreds of good image galleries on the web, and this one had nothing in particular to recommend it. I'm not a terribly artistic person when it comes to visual stuff, so I never know where to crop or how to organize pictures into an appealing format, so I decided to use the space for something else. The paper dolls page will be up soon, but that'll be it for scans from Michelle. Sorry for any inconvenience. I do have most of the art books still, but I'll be using them in future for personal inspiration and the occasional graphic to enhance whatever html I may write. If you would like to find a good Sakura image gallery, I recommend looking at The Anime Web Turnpike. They finally organized their CCS page, and you can actually find stuff there now.
How frequently are these questions really asked?
Umm ... Usually more than zero times. ^^; Usually. It's just that faq sounds better than ‘Michelle gives spiels on a bunch of random stuff' I think. I have been asked most of these questions multiple times.
Where's MeiLin?
Who?
Most of my work here is manga based. MeiLin does not appear in the manga. At all. Right now the only story I have that is tv/movie based is ‘strongest feeling,' and MeiLin is mentioned in that one. Other than that, you probably won't see her. This is really for the best. My portrayal of her would annoy a lot of people who like her. I don't like her, and if I wrote anything about her, it wouldn't be flattering.
Are you ever going to write a serious story about the kids in high school/college?
Maybe. I don't know. I have a couple of ideas for such stories, but nothing that's solidifying in a way that I like. For now, I'll probably stick to short one shot comedy pieces like ‘strongest feeling' and the futurefic pieces. When I'm done with ‘the wasteland,' I'll probably go back to Ranma Fanfiction for a while. That audience has been good to me for many years, and I feel bad about keeping them waiting for new chapters for so long. Now that I'm feeling better creatively and am writing at a good pace, I really want to finish the current project and then go back to some of the old ones. There may be a third longish piece after ‘ad finem' and ‘the wasteland,' but nothing definite is planned right now.
Why does it take you so long to finish a story?
Lots of reasons. I'm employed, I have a family, friends, and numerous hobbies, I have Inattentive ADD, I am rather perfectionistic about my writing. There's more, but those are the main reasons. I tend to write a story and then hold on to it, sometimes for months before releasing it. My fanfiction debut was a story called ‘waking up.' I worked on it for well over a year before I released it. When I did release it, I had edited and proofread it numerous times, and it came out all at once. Beginning to end. When I released my second story ‘martial arts marriage ceremony,' I decided to go with a chapter at a time. What I didn't realize was that it would take more than four years to complete. If I had known that, I might have held on to it until it was completed also.
My latest completed story ‘ad finem' is one that I began working on in October of 2000. I worked on it steadily (between actually writing new scenes and editing and revising and triple checking I worked on it nearly every day) until the final draft was ready in June of 2001. It's possible that ‘the wasteland' will take just as long. It's turning out well. I'm very happy with it so far, I just don't know from one day to the next which parts of it will fit in with the final product, and which will need to be changed or cut for the sake of continuity. If I had begun at the beginning, I may have started releasing pieces of it months ago, but I have to make sure that I can actually get to the ending that I have not only planned, but written.
What's your favorite color?
Umm... Green?