Paige Reviews Fanfiction: i don’t blame you much (for wanting to be free), by The_Blonde/leblonde

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my second ever fanfiction review, aka the blog post with The Longest Title Ever. Seriously, I have thought this through over and over, but there is no way to make the title shorter, so I shall work my magic with tags and categories, and then y’all can live with it. Besides, it adds to the word count. 

My fanfiction review today requires a bunch of back-story. I was first exposed to leblonde’s work while trolling around ao3 looking for fanfics to read. I was looking for something long, that didn’t drag on too much. Something well characterized, and full of heart, that could make me feel different emotions within the same story, or even chapter. And most of all, since I was actually reading about a couple that I do not ship romantically (Dan Howell and Phil Lester, “Phan” – they’re YouTubers), I needed to truly believe in the romantic elements, should there be any.

I won’t bore you with my account of how long I spent on the website, filtering by rating and hits and bookmarks and length, and thoroughly ruining any chance I had of being awake the next day. Nah, I’ll keep that short.

When I saw this story, with its intriguing title of “I don’t blame you much (for wanting to be free)”, I had to read it. I just had to.

A quick scan at the tags and summary revealed the concept – Dan, the MC, worked for a group of art thieves. Phil was involved in that, I thought that maybe he’d caught him, or something?

(Spoilers ahead. You have been warned.)

I was right – Phil worked as a security guard at one of the art museums Dan was stealing from, or, “rescuing”, as the leader of the group called it. They, while Dan was using a fake name and job, fell in love, and the story alternates between telling how that happened, and starting from the next time Dan saw Phil.

I will not spoil too much, even though I put the warning, simply because I would like everyone reading this review to open up a new tab. That’s right, open it. Now, go here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6725836/chapters/15375055  And now, spend the next couple hours of your life reading this story.

It is a gem. I will be blunt and say that not many people have read the sheer amount of fanfiction, or Phanfiction, that I have. I know what good fic looks like. That’s why I can’t write it.

Kidding! However, I’m serious about the rest of it. This right here – this is Good Writing, capitalized.

Reading it the first time, I was captivated. I immediately read almost everything else the author had ever written. (I later came across her coffee shop AU and was hit with inspiration, but that’s a story for another day.)

And then what? Well, I’m sorry to disappoint – but then, I did nothing.

I didn’t reach out to the author, I didn’t leave a comment on the story, I didn’t offer to do a review, I just left. I left in pursuit of the next good story, like I’d done before that, and even typing this makes me sound cold-hearted. If you’d seen the amount of tears I cried over the ending of that story, you wouldn’t ever consider me cold-hearted, haha.

But here’s what stopped me: I could not stop thinking about that story. Her other stories, I’d kept in the corner of my mind as “really good fic”, but this particular one stayed. I started seeing her everywhere – people were mentioning her on Tumblr, and on other stories – inspiration from The_Blonde, dedicated to The_Blonde. She was popular, she still is, and obviously that’s well deserved.

Fast forward to a couple months ago, when I made my Tumblr account. Circumstances that I can’t reveal yet (sorry guys) brought us together, and when I started talking to leblonde on Tumblr, I realized that she was The_Blonde from ao3. Well, um, cue the fangirling.

I asked her for permission to write this review, and hopefully she’ll be one of the first to read it. We still chat, and she is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of interacting with online.

I don’t blame you much (for wanting to be free) is art, with absolutely no pun intended. It’s beautifully written, yes, but also beautifully formatted, which makes so much difference. The author juggled a massive (for a fic) cast of characters while keeping them all equal in their own distinct roles, with nothing falling flat. The main romance, while I do not ship these two together, was written in a deeply touching and heart-wrenching manner which had me sobbing into a pillow at 2am, and there are few higher compliments.

10/10, thank you, leblonde, for letting me review your fic, and for writing it in the first place.

One of these days, I should really start reviewing fics that aren’t my favourites ever…hmm, or maybe not.

Thank you for reading! Please check out leblonde on Tumblr, or The_Blonde on ao3, and show her stories some love!

Cheers, Paige

Being “Consumed” by a New Fandom

Hello everyone!

This title may seem silly, or dramatic. It could even border on the author not knowing what she’s doing enough to find a proper title, or think, or edit this awful grammar.

If you made any of those assumptions, you are absolutely right. I can’t even think right now.

But don’t worry – I’m not sick, or hurt by something tragic happening in my life, or anything that most people would find truly serious. Unless, of course, you’re a Tumblr person, or a fanfiction person, or a nerd – then, you will definitely have understood my pain already.

Recently, I was knocked head over heels, punched in the gut, whatever you may compare it to, by a new fandom. This fandom’s name is Once Upon A Time (the TV show).

I had watched a couple episodes before, just the beginning of the first season, because my brother is completely crazy over it (he’s almost through the entire series). He almost constantly bugs me about watching the rest of it, and is a proper fanboy over this series.

Truthfully, I didn’t get it at first. I thought the concept was cool, but I find it really hard to get into TV shows, usually. For anyone who doesn’t know, Once Upon A Time is about a woman named Emma who comes to a town called Storybrooke, where all of the inhabitants are under an evil curse that transported them out of fairy tales and into the real world, erasing their real memories in the process. It’s quite entertaining, but like I said, I didn’t get into it.

Until I did get into it – then I fell fast.

I’ve watched until the end of the first season so far, and I am loving it so much. My brother is over the moon about this, and he likes to rub it in my face (“I knew you’d like it, etc).

This serves as a perfect example of what it’s like to, for lack of a better phrase, be “consumed” by a new fandom. It occupies a lot, if not most, of your thoughts, and you find yourself obsessing over it at any given moment.

I’ve noticed a pattern, when one gets immersed in a fandom (look, I found a better phrase!):

Stage 1: The introduction – this can go one of two ways. One, the person is hooked on whatever it is immediately; or two, like me and OUAT, it takes a moment, or a few episodes, or chapters.

Stage 2: The obsession: when the person can literally not stop thinking about whatever this thing may be. The actual flaws of the thing are never noticed at this point, and it’s a little bit like the typical “honeymoon phase”, except applied to fandom.

Stage 3: This is the part when the person decides that they need more, and they immediately start exploring the entire canon world – e.g. binge-watching a show, speed-reading all the books in a series, or re-watching a movie.

Stage 4: Now comes the exploration of the non-canon world, and the expanded universe. One might troll around an author’s social media for tidbits, follow a hundred fandom blogs on Tumblr, or start reading fanfiction out of desperation for more of this wonderful thing.

Stage 5: This is the point when the person starts to notice the flaws, and starts to accept that there is only so much of this thing. This is the cool-down stage, and also the most important stage of being consumed by a fandom. If one stays with the fans, after this stage – it’s forever, but it’s also manageable and not as crazy. The other way this goes, well, it was a passing obsession. Introduce somebody to the thing, and give your merch and obsession to somebody who will love it for real.

I’m on Stage 2 right now, with Once Upon A Time, and I can’t wait to see where this goes! And yes, before anyone asks, I’m past Stage 5 with many, many things. I’m still a girl of many fandoms, though the cringey username is gone. (If you have no clue what I’m talking about, please refer to my blog post “Rebranding, the Phandom Big Bang and My Novel” – and also, hi!)

Please tell me in the comments if you’ve ever felt this way as part of a fandom, and what it was – I’d love to hear your experiences, and possibly suggestions. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Cheers, Paige

Slow Progress (a post for writers)

Hello everyone!

This type of post is a little bit unusual for me, but I am actually doing something writing-related today, so please bear with me. You would think a blog called Writing to Music would have more to do with writing and music than cupcake recipes and hotel stories!

Today I would like to talk about the concept of slow progress. It’s a very real one. Fast progress is incredibly nice, but also rare, and that’s why every aspect of our world today is looking for the same results in a shorter amount of time. And when you’re talking about, say, microwaves, then that can be a very good thing. That’s why it’s called progress at all.

But some things can’t be rushed, like my inability to stop using “but” to start a sentence (it isn’t grammatically correct). Like, writing skill. Any writer knows how much work it takes to improve your style and technical ability and everything else. It takes a lot of work, a lot of time, and enough writing to make you want to tear your hair out!

However (and that is an okay way to start a sentence), if you love something, you will continue doing it. This holds very true for writing. You could be frustrated and annoyed at it, but you’ll come back to it, and that’s part of what makes a good writer.

When you’ve been through all that hard work and effort, then the magic happens. You start to improve. You read something that you’ve written and think, “hmm. Not bad. Not bad at all.” You feel the rush of pride – and then you catch an error and start over because that is what makes an author.

I was reading over a few things I’d made in years past, and I thought I’d share some today, to show how much writing skills actually do improve.

Paige, age 5: This (picture) is Flutter. This (picture) is Petal. They are fairies. Fairies are beautiful and small. They fly with wings or ride on butterflies.

I was obsessed with fairies since I was old enough to read, in case you couldn’t tell.

Paige, age 8: Dear (imaginary friend), I feel sad that I write you so many letters and yet you never reply. I got shoes today and they are size 3, I feel like I am too big to write to you anymore. I like writing letters but I feel like I don’t know you anymore.

8 year old me obviously felt strongly about a lot of things, haha.

Paige, age 11 liked Taylor Swift so much that she started writing love songs and breakup songs and they are so embarrassing I’m not even going to copy them here, but I think they deserve a mention. I even wrote music for some of them.

Fast forward a few years. Anyone who is here from my fanfiction.net account, Sarah Kemsley, has read or at least seen my story, Mistletoe. I wrote that well before I started my account, and so it serves as a good example for what I wrote a couple years ago.

For an example of what I wrote last year, we have my National Novel Writing Month novel, So There’s This Girl. That is on fictionpress.com, link here: (please check it out, I am so proud of this, even though it’s not fully edited yet) https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3306438/1/So-There-s-This-Girl

As for now? Well, you’re reading this, aren’t you?

Where was I, in the point of this article? Oh, yeah, slow progress. Well, my progress was definitely slow, but over a lot of time, I got to here, and I will keep on going.

As will you, if you are a writer. Hold your head and pen up high and keep on going.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Cheers, Paige

My Top Ten YA Books of All Time

(Note: for those of you following 30 Days of Blog Posts, I apologize that there wasn’t one up yesterday. This was due to a scheduling error on my part, and so that’s why two posts are being uploaded today. On to the post-)

Hello everyone!

I believe the title for today is pretty self-explanatory. I love YA books, in all their different genres and forms. I’ve even written one! And while I’m not reviewing books on this blog (not yet, we’ll see), books are such a huge part of my life that I feel like I should share some of my favourites here.

My favourite books of all time are not on this list, but that’s because they’re not YA books, funnily enough. They’re Jane Eyre and the Da Vinci Code, in case anyone was wondering, but today’s spotlight is for YA books only.

It was so hard to only pick ten…and to put them in order…wow. I feel like I’m being asked to pick a favourite child, haha. But here’s the list!

10. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

I just know I’m going to get a comment from somebody, Internet or real-life, who complains about why this book isn’t higher on the list. These fans are opinionated! I love it! But really, I still liked this book a lot. The first time I read it, I was too shocked by the young ages of the characters and the gore content to love it, but since then, I have read it many times and enjoyed it.

9. Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park is an extremely well-written book that made me laugh, cry, get angry, and smile like a goof, all within a few chapters, and it deserves high honours. If this was a proper book review instead of just my favourites, it would be higher up there, but I feel like I would have connected more if I had related to the characters. No fault of the author’s – my life is just very different from theirs, which is probably a good thing to be honest. Great book.

8. Alex and Eliza, Melissa de la Cruz

I’m a big fan of Hamilton (the musical), and this is a well-done, romantic and sweet fictional replication of the courtship between Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler. Not too deep, but very entertaining and I liked it.

7. Get Well Soon, Julie Halpern

This is a more typically-written teen novel, about a girl with depression in a mental hospital, but it’s hilarious and heartwarming and I just love it so much. It’s written in journal form, for the entire length of her stay, which I think is very smart writing, and it completely breaks the mood of teen novels. I’ve read this book maybe ten times, and I read it when I need to laugh.

6. Jessica Rules the Dark Side, Beth Fantaskey

I’ve included the second book of this two-part series, because I like it more than the first part, but definitely read the first part first. Looking past the cliched title and cover, it’s a vampire book, yes, but it’s also more than a vampire book. The inside is a new take on an old story, with some mystery and a wonderful cast of characters, and it’s funny – something one rarely finds in a vampire book. Like, I-laughed-until-I-cried funny. I recommend this book to pretty much anyone. Side note: I’ve also emailed the author with a fan letter, and she responded! She’s so nice, too!!

5. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare

I couldn’t make a book rec list without including the book series that inspired a dozen fanfictions from me, and gave me my One True Pairing (OTP)! Personally, my favourite book of this series is the last one, but I’ve recommended the first one here so everyone can go read it. It’s genuinely a good series, all fangirling aside, and will get you hooked in no time. There’s also many, many more books in this world, a TV series and a movie, so it takes a long time to run out of content. And when you do, there’s 16,000 fanfictions on fanfiction.net alone, including mine!

4. Emerald Green, Kirstin Gier

I will break the rule I just set in the above paragraph, and tell you that my number 4 YA book of all time is the last book in the Ruby Red trilogy. Unlike many other trilogies and series I’ve read, the last book is the best book to me for this one. I don’t even have words for this – just, time travelling and mystery and a great villain and a not-mushy, not-tiring romance and historical time periods – I LOVE THIS BOOK.

3. Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell

Anyone who’s read Fangirl knows why I love it. Anyone who hasn’t read Fangirl needs to, especially if they consider themselves versed in fan culture of any kind. This book is for fangirls, fanboys, fanpeople, and anyone who knows one. Enough said.

2. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli

With it’s amazing characters, well-written LGBTQ+ themes, and heartbreaking/heartwarming storyline, Simon Vs. deserves the runner-up spot on my list so much. I won’t spoil anything, but I’ve read the twist at the ending (by itself) about fifty times, maybe more, because it’s so purely sweet that I’ve cried over it. Don’t hold me to it, but I will most likely be writing fanfic for this sometime in the near future. Hats off to Ms. Albertalli.

And before I reveal my favourite YA book of all time, I give you the honourable mentions:

Presenting: Books that Paige Read Before She was Old Enough to Understand YA Books, But Still Loves! (Obligatory “they’re all awesome, go read them if you haven’t already”)

City of Ember, Joanne DuPrau

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, James Patterson

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

Are you ready? No? Okay.

1. The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness

You may be scratching your head and saying, “Come again?” And rightly so – this book isn’t really that well known. I mentioned Fangirl, and Ender’s Game, and freaking Harry Potter, so why is this book my absolute favourite of all time? BECAUSE IT’S GOOD, THAT’S WHY. That’s it. There’s no amazing, special reason why I love and am in love with this book. There’s the beauty of it, and it’s a theme that is reflected in the actual book, a story about the people that are never mentioned, when the supernatural forces come to town. It’s amazing, and it’s my number one.

I hope you enjoyed this list – please let me know in the comments if you have read these, and what you thought of them! I’d love to hear it!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Cheers, Paige

How to Make Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes (that taste amazing)

Hello everyone!

Will I do it? Will I finally break my “not a food blog” rule? Yes, yes I will. I’m still technically not a food blog, but this is a “Paige writes what she feels like writing” blog, and I have been feeling vanilla cupcakes recently.

I’m a vegetarian, and while I still eat milk and eggs, my foray into the world of vegetarianism also brought me some vegan recipes. This one is from the Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook, with some minor adjustments of my own. I do not claim to own this delicious recipe, as much as I may wish I did.

This recipe is so good, it’s “fooled” many non-vegans in my family, and it can be made gluten-free as well! (For my gluten-free people: swap out the flour for gluten-free flour, and add 1 tsp xanthan gum to the mix. You’re welcome.)

The Best Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes Paige Has Ever Eaten: 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup melted vegan butter, or margarine

3/4 cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla (2 if you feel like it)

1 cup flour

1 tspbaking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk, but I’ve found almond to be the best. If you’re allergic, try soy as a substitute.)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

How to make:

Whip out the handheld mixer for this one, you’ll need it, I promise. If you don’t have one, go get one. Mixing this by hand is brutal, and takes forever. Also, it’s sticky, so use stainless steel bowls if at all possible. Listen to me, sounding like a cooking pro, haha – I’m not a pro, they’re just tips 🙂

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 160 degrees Celsius (I’m sorry, I have no idea what the gas mark is), and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners. You could spray it, also.

Start by melting your butter – okay, you’re just supposed to soften it, but I never take it out of the fridge in time. These cupcakes are generally a spur-of-the-moment thing. Melt it if you don’t have time, soften it if you do.

Put the butter, maple syrup and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and mix that until it’s all roughly the same colour and you just want to eat it out of the bowl. Set that aside.

Next, make vegan buttermilk by whisking together the milk and apple cider vinegar and letting it sit for at least 5 minutes. When it bubbles, it’s done.

While that’s sitting, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small or medium-sized bowl. Don’t use your biggest bowl for this, use it for the butter.

Why, you may ask? Well, it’s because when everything is mixed and ready, it’s time to put it all together, in the words of baking goddess Rosanna Pansino. Start with your butter mixture, and then add small portions of the wet and dry ingredients, mixing between each one, in this order: dry/wet/dry/wet/dry, five in all. You can see why this is tough on your hands if mixing manually.

Evenly pour the batter into the 12 liners, and stick it in the oven for 15 minutes! Check them after that time – if a toothpick in the middle comes out covered in batter, give it 5 more minutes, and repeat until it comes out dry.

Now is the time when you wash the million bowls you used, and lick the rest of the batter out of the biggest bowl. It’s vegan, so no risk of salmonella!

For icing, mix 1/2 cup melted vegan butter or margarine, 1 tsp vanilla, and as much icing sugar as it takes to look good, in a bowl (usually 3 cups or so). That recipe’s mine, all credit to me.

When the cupcakes are ready, take them out carefully, let them cool and ice them with a swirly piping bag – oh, who am I kidding. I mean, you can do that, but they’re also amazing (and a bit crumbly) fresh out of the oven, with melty icing dripping down the sides. I want cupcakes right now, just describing this. Enjoy!

If you try this, make sure to let me know how it went – I’d love to read that!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Cheers, Paige