deb, great news. Congratulations!

connie -- all writing is writing, and I'll be happy to swear on a stack of bibles that it's just as difficult to write good fanfic as it is to write good profic. The differences that I'm pretty sure about are
a) one success marker that profic has (that fanfic doesn't) is $$$ as an indicator
b) profic is more likely to end up in libraries
c) profic is more likely to be accorded respect
d) profic is usually original (except for licensed work-for-hire) and thus the author has copyright/creation privileges.

Writing fanfic doesn't make you a lesser writer (imho) but it does make you a writer who doesn't have access to the privileges of profic.

The differences that I'm pretty sure about are...

Well, and then there's that whole not having to make up original characters thing. (:

There's plenty of fanfic that creates original characters. Just ask Theo, who's practically a legend in X-Men fandom.

There's plenty of fanfic that creates original characters. Just ask Theo, who's practically a legend in X-Men fandom.There's plenty of fanfic that creates original characters. Just ask Theo, who's practically a legend in X-Men fandom.

I'm joking, for the most part. I've written a fair amount of it myself. And no, writing it has nothing to do with writing well or otherwise. Hell, Neil Gaiman's up for a Hugo for what amounts to the same thing. (Sherlock Holmes in the world of H.P. Lovecraft!)

That being said, I've never sat down to write one of these things without the full knowledge that I'm playing with other people's toys, and sometimes that takes a wee bit of pressure off. And adds different sorts of pleasure.

ETA: Huh. Meant to say "adds different sort of pressure," but pleasure works too.

I managed to make a Live Journal entry. (I'm gingerk. I have no imagination for pseudonyms.) Yay, me. I keep thinking that doing a LJ would be another way to keep me writing, although today it would be another way to keep me not writing about energy-efficient patio doors. Now on to this "friend" thing.

Place drabble #2:

They take the ropes down twice a year. Without them, the hands, touching, touching, might wear stone slabs to fragile columns, in a hundred, a thousand, years. Without them, scratched and inked names, dates, love forever, might whittle the supports until the lintels fell, startling the sheep. A touch, a name, might connect you. You might feel the sweat of tattooed men, straining to push the stone upright. Your love might last forever, captured on the rock. They take the ropes down twice a year. You step inside the circle and watch the sun flare between two stones and disappear.

Oooh -- Stonehenge? Very nice!

I friended you, Ginger. I'm arliss.

And I love the Stonehenge piece.

Okay, I just realized that always in forever in my head? It's Stone'enge, courtesy of Spinal Tap.

Yes, Stonehenge. I was there for the winter solstice once, when the ropes were down.