fortnight and september :)
fortnight: what wip do you plan on posting next, if at all?
Finishing the ongoing one would be a good start skajasjkdklhflsjks
Out of the unpublished ones, there’s only one thing I’ve officially started working on (i.e. have words on paper) -- a Chiello/Monto thing where they’re awkward teenagers awkwardly falling in love between junior tournaments and azzurrini training camps -- so all things considered that should be the next one, but that doesn’t count for much before I actually continue working on it.
september: share a comment or review which still warms your heart?
So many. So many. How am I supposed to pick just one?
I’m gonna go with one of the recent ones, namely the first one I got after getting back to posting after almost a year’s hiatus (on the Monto/Alessio thing, obvs):
Here's a meandering (consider yourself warned!) account of how I discovered your work and how much I love it!
So I discovered this whole football fandom thing only last year - and quickly figured out that serard (Ramos/Piqué) is my OTP, and I love love love angst. An advantage of coming so late to the party was, I had a whole back catalogue to work through. But then, nothing lasts forever and at some point I ran out of angsty serard. So I read any serard. Then I ran out of serard all together (oh the horror!). But luckily for me, my favorite serard author had written about other pairings too, and I learnt they didn't have to be my OTP for me to enjoy their stories. It's okay to cheat a bit. So I was on my merry way, till I just kinda sorta ran out of well written angst all together. The ones which feel like a published novel, you know?
Then the Football Challenge 2018 was on, and I was there mainly for the serard fix. But I saw the Pirlo/Inghazi fic in the list of works for the challenge and went, well I love Pirlo and they have angst in their name, and I have read all the angst about the pairings I like, so why not. Boy was I impressed! I was SO impressed, that I went back and read all your back catalogue, and enjoyed all of them! Even though I had to Google who Montolivo is, who the other people are, and what the references are. (In my defense, I took a decade long break from football after 2007, because, well Life, and came back only in time for the 2018 World Cup. And I an EPL person through and through)
Even in this fic, I had to Google most of the references - thank God for the internet and it's archives of information :-D But I enjoyed every single word of it!
Your writing is wonderful, brilliant and a gift to humanity ;)
I didn't comment on any of your back catalogue because I, like most of the internet, am a lazyass person who thinks "this deserves so much more than a generic how wonderful comment! I'll come back and leave a proper appreciation note later" and well, as they say, tomorrow never comes.
I was going to leave this piece without commenting too - not least because I haven't actually finished reading it. There has been a dearth of "my kinda work" on AO3 recently - and there's always a shortage of writers as good as you (no, really, your works read like professional published content, not a fan writing imagines about their favorite players). So my heart leapt with joy when I saw your name in the fic list, but also sounded a warning - "you finish this, you'll have nothing left to read". So I am rationing this fic - I shall read only a little each day, and make it last. So ya, this time I had a legit reason for procrastinating.
But then I saw you had posted on your Tumblr that football fandom being as niche as it is, you worry that you might not have any readers at all and have to be your own cheerleader. So here I am telling you, you do have readers. You have readers who love your work so much, they go back and read your entire back catalogue, and take the trouble to Google the players and get to know them, and their stories - all thanks to your writing.
I still don't follow Milan, or Seria A. And I won't watch Italy play unless they play England in the Euros, or reach the final. But I love your stories - they are so universal, and so so beautifully angsty!
Wow, that was a lot of words to tell you I absolutely adore your writing ♥️ Please do keep leaping angstily!”
I have to give a shout-out to you though, because another comment that immediately came to mind was the one kicking my ass for taking too long to update the Hogwarts AU (with my permission, no less) -- I didn’t even remember who sent me that so I had to go back and check and I immediately went “well of course it was Kellin akkashhdjs”. I’m pretty sure we didn’t even know each other back then?