I Just Want You To Know That I Read Go Your Own Way In Just A Couple Of Days And Am Now Most Of The Way

I just want you to know that I read Go Your Own Way in just a couple of days and am now most of the way through the sequel and I am in love. There are a lot of fics that pair Joel with ocs and then present a pregnancy but I just really appreciate that you went the other way about it and have shown another side and that you have approached that subject with such compassion. Your OC is so well developed, I just love her. I really hope those two manage to have a happy ending but also I am hoping she doesn't have a surprise pregnancy or something, though I don't think you would do that. I can't wait to catch up!

Hi, anon. And thank you - glad you've enjoyed my blorbos. ☺️

I struggle with the concept of motherhood, myself, and these fics are part of how I work through that. I'm not really trying to say anything about anyone else's fics by writing my version of it, you know? That's the great thing about fanfiction; there are so many different ways to write things, and there's truly something for everyone, haha.

I thought it was important for them to try to find happiness in other ways, considering this - which is the reality of many people (myself included). The characters all mean a lot to me, and I'm happy to have been able to share their (mis)adventures with other people, and that others have enjoyed them.

♥️♥️♥️

I still stare at this all the time. Just such an amazing bit of art brought to me because of two of my faves.

Sunny Side of Heaven

Nobody mind me, I'm just over here happy-sobbing about this piece of fanart that @march-flowerr commissioned from @mote-of-star-dust, based on a scene from my GTHB fic, Sunny Side of Heaven.

🦋🦋🦋

As they watch, more and more of the swarm are coming loose from the tree – and then they erupt, like floating lava. All at once, an entire branch of them breaks free, and they begin falling through the air as a spiral, a chain reaction that unleashes the swarm from the trees in a cascade of orange and black. In just seconds they’re completely enveloped – and she gasps, instinctively takes a step toward him, and it’s second nature for him to wrap his arm around her shoulders, steadying her.

Everything about this is overwhelming to the senses; the air is full of orange and black, his good ear is hearing nothing but the rustling of wings that drowns out the rest of the world, and he can feel them, their delicate touch a constant whisper across his skin. Ellie’s shoulders tense against him, and for a breathless moment he’s blinded – by flashes of color, and a love so fierce that it all borders on unbearable – and he wishes that it was all easier, that this girl standing next to him, leaning into him can just know that the tangle of love and grief, for him, is sometimes indistinguishable, but that it’s also not her burden –

– and then it ends, the cloud lifts, the vibrant azure of the sky and the bright sun begin to shine through once again, and they’re left to stand together on that blanket, stunned and smiling and overwhelmed. They watch as the swarm ascends, and soon there are only flecks of orange left – including a single monarch that clings to Joel’s hair, wings bending slowly, blinking down at Ellie as she snorts back a laugh.

“Here –” she says, and he bends without question so she can reach, her fingers sweeping lightly at the butterfly until it finally flutters away, a zigzag of warm color against the clear sky that joins the few dozen other stragglers still circling through the trees. He watches it fly away, and he doesn't say it out loud, but he thinks it: Hi, baby girl. Behind them, their horses stir restlessly, and Shimmer whinnies softly, both horses pawning nervously at the earth, dark eyes following the cloud as it slowly winds its way south, low against the ground.

Thank you, my friends. 😭

GIRL

Oh no…if Tommy takes Ellie to the fireflies, please tell me he makes the right choice at salt lake 😬

I don’t know! That was a WIP by @lauronk I reblogged! Lauren, any insight here? 🥹

Sorry I know I'm predictable, but I would like "3.) Smut Smut Smut Smutty Smut Smut" Pretty please

OH WOW GO FIGURE 🤣

Tbh I couldn't even remember what it was until I clicked on it just now, haha. It's just a few scenes of cute smut between Joel and Benny that I never got to fit in anywhere. Have a snip:

It was only then that she caught his reflection in the mirror – and she paused, momentarily stunned. “I’m sorry – what are those?” She spun around immediately, her surprise morphing quickly into a wide-eyed grin.

Joel Miller, a man seasoned by the salt of a lifetime's worth of judgments, rarely tasted the tang of bashfulness. He'd spent his entire childhood being ridiculed by his peers for his threadbare clothes, his unruly hair, and the rust-bucket cars of his later youth – and his adulthood came with a whole different type of judgment, other adults (usually the parents of Sarah’s classmates, who were mostly older than he was) looking down their noses at his perpetual lack of everything (money, time, patience). And yet it rarely touched him, this prickling self-consciousness. But this was different somehow; his wife’s gaze, wide and shimmering with disbelief, suddenly a spotlight on something he didn’t know he was insecure about until this very moment. Heat crept up his neck, a brushfire warming his cheeks. He snapped the book shut, letting it fall flat in his lap.

“Don’t start,” he warned her, but his tone lacked bite. She edged closer to his side of the bed, one delicate hand tracing along the edge of the quilt. 

“Don’t start what?” Her voice was practically bursting with glee. “Where did you get those?”

“Tommy gave ‘em to me.” He shifted uncomfortably against his pillow, his fingertips brushing the black frames of his reading glasses. “Saw me squintin’ at the patrol log today, figured I could use 'em. Look, I’ll just –” With a sigh, he reached to remove the glasses, but her hand darted out, landing on his wrist. She perched herself on the bed’s edge right next to him, the mattress, worn and welcoming, dipping gently beneath her thighs. “You don’t…have to,” she drawled, and she met the tired raise of his eyebrow with a widening grin. “Why don’t you keep them on?” "Keep them on for…how long, exactly?" he huffed. Her hand drifted away from his wrist, traveling down until it could slide along the top of the quilt, running along his thigh. A shiver ran down his spine, her nimble fingers edging closer –

"Until I say you can take them off," she answered simply, and then she moved quickly; almost before he could react she swung her legs over the side of the bed and grabbed his book, tossing it to the nightstand so she had more room to straddle him – which she did, enthusiastically, as he groaned in surprise, her fingers already winding around the back of his head and threading through his gray curls. “Don’t tell me this is what does it for you,” he scoffed. She moved her hips against him, pressing against the length growing into the front of his sweatpants, and he immediately groaned. His hands found purchase along her thighs, following her purposeful movements. “I look like an old man.”

“Whatever you say, Mr. Miller,” she purred, her voice syrup-sweet, batting her eyelashes in a clumsy imitation of someone far younger and more doe-eyed than she actually was – a performance so exaggerated it felt like she was mocking the act of flirting itself. Joel snorted in amusement, the sound rumbling through his chest.

“No. We ain’t doin’ that,” he sighed, shaking his head. “S’weird.”

“I have an idea about some extra credit I can earn.”

“I got concerns about the teachers you grew up with.”

I have dragged myself to a coffee shop and am going to force myself to write, even if it's not great. Keeping myself accountable: starting word count is 2,988.

EDIT: Final count, 3,485. Nowhere near what I hoped to accomplish, but at least I finished a scene.

I just wanted you to know that I am OBSESSED with your writing and with Benny and I hope your fics go on forever even when you move on from this current verse. You are crazy talented and I share your stories with my friends to read because they just do not get enough attention!!!

^ Basically what I looked like while reading this. Thank you, anon. ❤️