How I Discovered Fanfic

In October of 2011 - which seems much longer ago than it actually was - I found a book on Amazon that seemed interesting. A romance with a subplot about Dante scholars, which appealed to that nerdy side of me.
It was "Gabriel's Inferno" By Sylvain Renard.

After I finished reading it, I decided to go to Amazon and leave a review. I admit, I'm a person who rarely reviews books - it really has to stand out for me, for good or for bad, for me to write one, and considering I used to read between two or three books PER DAY, that's really saying something.

So, I started reading through the reviews, and found one which (rather scathingly) said that the book was once a "Twilight" fanfiction.

"Hmm. What's that?" I wondered. I typed the words into Google and my whole life changed.
I had discovered that there were other people out there who also took books and movies they loved and wrote new stories for the characters, sending them on new adventures in different setings, giving them a different love interest ... And what's more, there was a massive community devoted to these stories.

I read some of the "big name authors", a few of the most popular fics. I thought about it for a few days, and then decided to take the plunge and write down one of the stories that had been circulating in my head for years.

My first story got 45 reviews, which I thought was a pretty respectable showing. I wasn't in it for the reviews, after all, but rather as an outlet for these stories, and a small way to give back to the world of fiction which had given me such pleasure over the years.

Then, I started Written in the Stars and the damn thing just EXPLODED on me. I never expected this level of attention, and I certainly never expected to be approached by a publisher ...

So here I am, six months later, and everything has changed. I'm still reeling from it, and honestly, it still doesn't seem real. I found myself on a list of "Big Name Authors" on ADF today, and I was shocked, and frankly, a tad bit disquieted because I certainly don't think of myself that way. "How the hell did this happen?" I keep asking myself.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right?...Am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
MY GOD!...WHAT HAVE I DONE?

 
My first book will be out around the one year anniversary of my joining the FF community. I really ought to go track down that reviewer and tell them "Thank  you."