Shameless Plug

So, as some of you know, I've been involved in writing fanfiction on the side since I was about thirteen. Kid you not; picture little pre-teen, angsty me writing about the Teen Titans.

It was the best, though, because I was able to connect with other writers, and some of them who were older and better at writing were able to tuck me under their wings and help me improve. Y'know, teaching me things like how to not overuse adverbs (still a problem for me) and how to avoid passive voice (getting better) and how to do dialogue properly (this one I've actually got pretty well in hand, though I could always improve).

During my later years of high school and much of college, I sort of stopped writing it, though. I tried a little in my freshman year of college, and I have to say that the story I started was actually pretty good, but I never did finish it because I got sucked into the whole graduating on time and actually doing something with my life thing, you know?

Anyway, flash forward a few years. During my senior year of college, I had started back into writing fanfiction while I was working on other book projects because it was a good outlet for my creative juices when I hit writer's block for things. Then, it started to become a bigger part of my life, until I was writing huge stories that had hundreds of followers.

It was crazy. Still is.

Anyway, I guess I got on someone's radar, because towards the end of the year last year, I got a message asking me if I'd like to do a collaboration.

"Sure!" I said, because I love to connect with other writers and to learn from their writing and to improve my own with their critiques.

Flash forward to now, when the collaboration is well under way. It's a huge project, encompassing 24 authors. Each of us is doing our own character, and we're doing a 24 author/24 tributes project in which we take Marvel characters (Avengers, X-Men, etc.) and put them in the Hunger Games universe. Each author gets to write a tribute and their stylist/mentor/friends back in the district/etc.

I'm Kate Bishop, of District 12, and last week, my Reaping chapter finally went up.

So, I thought I'd share it with y'all, because even though I'm not getting paid to do it, even though a lot of people will say it's not "real" literature/writing/whatever, I have put my heart and soul into this project, and I have already learned so much and gained so much in writing experience that I will be forever grateful to be part of this project.

Anyway, you can read my chapter here (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11012470...), though you're welcome to just go ahead and read the whole thing because it's just that good.