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Writing stories over at A03, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErsatzErmine/pseuds/ErsatzErmine, she/her/hers

[ersatzermine]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/67725991/chapters/175086411

New story -- "Across Deep Waters"

First chapter went up today, very curious to see what people think of where things are going to go.

[rraebearr]

Updated a bunch of my Zutara Fics recently

The Dragon of OmaShu - Zuko is an MMA fighter and Katara ends up being his Physiotherapist

Across Impossible Divides - a/b/o ATLA retelling with Zutara stuffed into the cracks

Bloodlines of Legacy - Dramione & Zutara Crossover, Zuko POV

Not Acid Nor Alkaline - Very NSFW, lots of spice, Cheating AU

Damage gets Done - Post Canon Zutara AU (starts directly after the final Agni Kai)

[ersatzermine]

And they're all amazing, but I'm really enjoying "The Dragon of Omashu" right now!

[rraebearr]

Updated a bunch of my Zutara Fics recently

The Dragon of OmaShu - Zuko is an MMA fighter and Katara ends up being his Physiotherapist

Across Impossible Divides - a/b/o ATLA retelling with Zutara stuffed into the cracks

Bloodlines of Legacy - Dramione & Zutara Crossover, Zuko POV

Not Acid Nor Alkaline - Very NSFW, lots of spice, Cheating AU

Damage gets Done - Post Canon Zutara AU (starts directly after the final Agni Kai)

[addictofreading]

This is an updated version of a drawing I made some years ago when I was first getting heavy into Zutara fanart. It was always a favorite, so I wanted to add the print to my shop, but realized I had improved a tad bit since I first drew it and it needed some love.

I always loved how Zuko and Katara switched colors when they were their masked identities! <3

(Also! I am selling some fanart prints in my shop! Right now there is only one size for each print, but if people let me know they want a bigger or smaller option, this could change. I'm almost confident I know what I'm doing!)

[ersatzermine]

Halloween costume

Hey, just in case anyone is thinking about Halloween costumes (and, really, it's mid-July -- SHOULDN'T you be thinking about Halloween costumes?) this is just a friendly note that I sell a very fun pattern for a bird costume in my Etsy shop, and that I'm running a 20% off sale for the rest of the month.

Thanks so much! Sorry about the shameless plug, will go back to normal immediately. :)

[myjetpack]

A heatwave cartoon for New Scientist.

[ersatzermine]

Hello! Thank you for your zutara fics. I love them immensely, I would go and comment on all of them but I will admit I have just been binging all of them and mayhaps have not thought abt commenting till now (I have not started The Firelord is Dead, though I am very excited to and will be commenting that shortly). I was able to binge your work so quickly is because I think you capture their bickering super well and it's always a delight when Zuko is just out of his element (what a funny lil guy). It's really fun reading through it all. Though so far, I will admit surprisingly my favorite has been Drowning! I cannot stop thinking about it. Just all the sad parts of Zuko not being with his family, the way he realizes that Sokka is his kids dad. Azula just GIVING Zuko Izumi. I wish the cousins got along more but it makes sense. It's a delight to read everytime (I may have read it like 10 times since finding it) hmmmm maybe I should have just written this appreciation under Drowning... yeah I truly do enjoy reading your fics I think you capture Zuko's thought processes very well

Thank you so much, and I really appreciate the comment! I'm so glad to hear your thoughts on "Drowning" -- it was definitely a darker story, but a very fun one to plot out and consider. I liked the idea of Izumi ultimately becoming the primary antagonist of the story -- she was a character that was in a particularly complicated situation, and she ultimately came to really hate and resent her cousins, in a large part because of how obvious it was that Zuko wished he could be with them, and she felt abandoned by both her mother and her uncle.

[ersatzermine]

since chapter 7, every update feels like you have taken the floor from under me. i should be focusing on the new natla season, but all i can think about is your fic. a part of me wants to congratulate you because divorce in an arranged marriage fic is not a twist i was expecting and on some level thats delicious, but another part of me wants to kill you for divorcing my babies 😡😡

the comments are annoying me a bit, i get feeling for zuko because he is fully alone now and katara doing that without talking to him is hypocritical as fuck, not to mention that realistically they wouldnt be able to come back from this (thankfully this is a work of fiction so i can still delude myself into thinking they will somehow be happy together). but like. she has shown him time and time again that she loves him and he never said it back. everyone saying that she knows he loves her but is socially awkward and traumatized are pissing me off. WE KNOW THAT because we have access to his inner thoughts. im pretty sure even he isnt fully aware of that, because love is so twisted in his family. much less katara is aware that he loves her. as far as she knows, he is doing his duty and diligence as usual. and he needs her because she is useful by his side. she is so used to being needed and taking care of everyone, that doesnt feel like love to her. she thinks all there is to her is a marriage where she is in love with a husband that yes cares for her but is only doing his duty. i bet she was waiting for him to reciprocate her confession with words, but since it never came..... it hurt. i cant blame her for wanting to end such arrangement. she was there to make sure the fire nation wouldnt attack and restart the war and she knows zuko wont. she is being careless and dumb because she is leaving him in a super unstable situation which means that her year there would be for nothing if he was deposed lol. she is also super selfish for doing that when he needs her the most, but can you blame her? i certainly cant.

idk i feel for both of them so bad. i want them both to be happy, but i doubt the divorce will bring that.

i know you probably wont want to spoil me (i wouldnt mind tho, i love spoilers 🤭🤭) but could you at least give me some peace of mind for the next updates? will it have a happy ending or should i prepare myself for angst central? im so scared of them wasting years apart or worst never reuniting....... i need some reassurance. or to know how to emotionally prepare myself against tragedy if thats where we are headed lol

Hi, thank you so much for your lovely comment, and I'm sorry that I didn't see it in time to give you confirmation that this story was definitely always going to end happily!

I always appreciate when people get engaged with stories, but this did turn into a very active comment section -- I haven't had that happen to this extent since my first story, "Crossing Paths and Blowing Sands," when Katara and Zuko broke up and Katara started a relationship with Jet, but I did know at that point that some people were going to be upset. I didn't quite expect how very, very upset some commentators got about this story. Which, is absolutely okay for people to be and feel, but I did end up taking a bit of a step back from the comments section for a while, so that I could focus on writing the story that I'd intended to write, rather than feeling pressured to go in a direction that I didn't want.

With the whole story done, I hope that you enjoyed where it went, and I really appreciate you dropping a note here! :)

[ersatzermine]

Do you have any recommended reading on storytelling and writing fiction? Loving all your stuff over on AO3! Thanks. =)

Thanks so much for asking! One of my favorite books about the writing process and storytelling is Stephen King's "On Writing" -- he is a pantser and I am a plotter, but it's a really good book about the thought and process that goes into writing, and it's a good one. If you're interested in other writers, I know that Kameron Hurley and Cat Valente both write a lot about their process on their Patreons!

[lukasadss]

Slow mornings

[RB]

[pink-concorde]

Another romance novel style cover for another amazing aged-up canon divergence Book 2 AU by @ersatzermine!

[ersatzermine]

IT'S AMAZING AND I LOVE IT!

[unleaveable]

This zutara edit by Alexa Lexie on tiktok is making me lose my FUCKING mind

[ersatzermine]

Oh, man, it's like all my favorite visuals of the whole series. I need to save this forever, because this is what I need to look at before I start writing.

(for the curious -- right now what I do before I start writing is listen to James Blunt's "Same Mistake," because that always works to get me into a Zuko headspace)

[unleaveable]

This zutara edit by Alexa Lexie on tiktok is making me lose my FUCKING mind

[ersatzermine]

Polar Prisoners is done!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/69032141

My Zuko-captive Northern Water Tribe story is COMPLETE!

[myjetpack]

'My year end reading statistics' p.s. There's still time to pick up new book 'Physics for Cats' at good bookshops and online http://tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2

[ersatzermine]

☹️☹️☹️

Um, could I have slightly more context?

[spacelattesao3]

Under the Mistletoe

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Rating: M

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count: 8,376

Summary: Katara isn't sure what's worse: Aang's poor attempts of using the Yule season for an excuse to hang sprigs of mistletoe as a chance to kiss her, or the fact that the person that she keeps winding up under the mistletoe with is, decidedly, the last person she'd ever expect.

Not that she's complaining about the latter part.

Much.