This month’s spotlight is someone I consider to be a pretty innovative author. Jesse-may is always coming up with new and unique challenges which I love participating in.
Right now, her stories are mostly offline as she decided to close her domain TheTruthInLies.com and move her fic to LiveJournal. Her LiveJournal, if you’d like to check it out, is located here.
ETA: Jesse-may is now located right here on PlaceToHide.net! Her stories can now be found at her new site, The Truth In Lies.
Why did you start writing hanfic? How long have you been writing?
I started writing way back in ’97 when a girlfriend of mine (a fellow Hanson fan) came across a hanfic online somewhere. She printed it out and we both read it and then decided it would be fun to write a story like that. So we both started working on stories. They were all hand written and we would swap and let each other read what the other wrote and we would even like work on them together when we had sleep overs and stuff. It was so silly, but so much fun! After that I just kind of stuck with it… although off and on at times… I’ve been writing ever since.
You’ve recently decided to close your domain and move your fic to LiveJournal. Why did you decide to do that?
Because I had a moment of insanity! I think there was like a 6 month or more time period where I hadn’t written a single word and that’s when I figured it was stupid to be paying for something I wasn’t using. However as luck would have it, I got a new burst of writing energy right as it was shutting down. So LiveJournal was the next best bet, however I’m definitely really REALLY considering re-opening thetruthinlies.com just because it made my life easy! I’ve been way too lazy to put all my stories on LiveJournal!
What are your favorite hanfic stories and authors?
I’m always declaring stories my “favorite” so I can’t really say that I have a favorite… however I definitely tend to gravitate toward certain authors. Renee C. and Renee P. have always been favorite authors of mine and I’ve done co-writes with both of them, and they are great cheerleaders for me! I love almost everything that Nat writes and I think her stories are hilarious. I’m also into Bethany, Diamond, and Becca. Those are all my typical go-to authors when I want something fantastic to read… I hope I’m not forgetting anyone!
What is your writing process like?
Very sporadic stints of writing. I wish I had a good process that kept me motivated and forced me to write, but I don’t. I usually get a new idea and knock out like 7 or so chapters in a week or two and then I get bored and don’t write for awhile. I have to force myself to get over that 7th chapter hill and then it’s usually a chapter every week or so. I don’t really brainstorm or plan anything out, other than a very basic plot line and so I think that’s why I get stuck a lot. So I guess the answer is I don’t have a process… I write when I’m inspired to write.
Where do your ideas and inspiration come from?
I wish I knew! I will literally just be driving to work on day and bam! An idea just flies into my head. I don’t know where it comes from, but apparently my brain has some secret Hanfic department that’s always at work… haha. Other than that inspiration comes from reading. If an author I like is really cranking out chapters of a story I’m into, it keeps me inspired to keep writing as well. I guess reading in general keeps me going, whether it’s Hanfic or not, but Hanfic tends to keep me MORE inspired. Then of course music, but more on that later…
Which stories are you most proud of having written?
Well, I think pretty much all my stories are works in progress… but I’m really liking where Last Summer is going. I was really into Fire and Ice for awhile, but I hit that writers block with it. So I guess Last Summer would be the one I could say I’m curently proud of.
Favorite songs to listen to while you write or which inspire your writing?
Well most who know me know I’m a huge Jason Mraz fan and as weird as it may sound his songs inspire a lot of my Hanfic. I think his music is so beautiful and tells such great stories that I take a song of his and create a story around it. He’s a huge musical inspiration. Hanson of course inspires me. They are the reason behind it all. I honestly don’t listen to much AS I write, but with my iPod on shuffle all the time in my car there’s a lot of musical inspiration there… maybe that’s why I get my ideas while driving! All it takes is one lyric or phrase to inspire me.
Thank you, Jesse-may, for being the August spotlight. Whether you’re on LiveJournal, your own domain, or wherever — we’ll always enjoy having you around 🙂