Peony’s Internet Adventures

Friends, I have a confession to make. It is embarrassing and juvenile.  

…

I have been writing fan fiction.

Agh! I am a big reader, reading a fairly wide variety of books and genres, but I have always had a soft spot for the young adult genre, particularly the fantasy, fairy tale, enchanted realms kind. 

At the beginning of the month I read this book- I am not mentioning its title here- but it is the second book in what will be a three book series.  It ended on this terrible plot twist and cliff hanger ending. The sort that makes you feel like you need the final book now, not tomorrow, and definitely not next year (which is the projected release date).

I know that the adult thing to do is just to move on, say ‘it’s just a book, whatever’. But it is not fun being adult.  It is fun joining fan groups, reading theories written by teenage girls, googling fan art, and, yes, even writing your own stories. 

Needless to say, I made the second choice.

And the truth is, I don’t regret it.

I sometimes feel like I need an occasional injection of silly in my life. My husband and I read the Economist over tea. We watch lectures together on Coursera.  We attend the opera with regularity.  Of course, there are always more-sophisticated people out there, but when I hear about the ‘liberal intellectual elite’- that ever maligned group that has lost touch with so-called regular people- I identify.  

Now, I actually love the stuff I just mentioned. I am not saying it is bad or that I want my life to change, but I think it is important to make a bit of space for juvenility too- for silly things.

Did I mention the slang I have learned? Actually I think I did before, but I am still learning new words (term of week: ‘extra’).  I have also managed to discover Tumblr, which is apparently where it’s at if you are seventeen nowadays. Plus, I have over 60 ‘kudos’ on my ‘fic’, and people with names like ‘unicorn_madness’  comment to say that my story ‘gave them life’ and to keep writing.

Now, you could say some of this is this largely a result of the fact that I have basically no friends, or at least none I get to see on a day to day basis. Real life friends would obviously be the best bet for chatting about books, cake parties, and all sorts of other types of silliness.  Having recently moved to a new country, I don’t really have that in real life, so I guess I have to fill the void with virtual world.  But the virtual world is still fun.  Even when your friends are mostly teenage girls.