Throwback to last spring when I wrote a Jure Maček focused fic. This was the first time I wrote something from his point of view. Jure is my favorite member of Joker Out ever since Eurovision, but I had overlooked him a bit when getting into the fanfiction part of the fandom.
"Jure Mačka"
The concept of the fic was to explore Jure through typical cat behavior, because I couldn't resist the pun. I don't have a cat of my own, but I've met a few over the years. It felt important to me to not have a romantic ship for Jure this time, focusing on platonic relationships with his bandmates. Looking back, this might have been influenced a lot by @electron-road-suspect whose Soulmate fic "The Marks on Our Skin" (link) features an aroace Jure.
All in all, my favorite chapter is the Jan one. This fic has such a fun concept, and I am still very proud of it and surprised it hadn't been done before.
More about the chapters under the cut
Chapter 1: Kris - demanding attention and affection:
The first time I wrote something that highlighted Jure and Kris. Little did I know the fic I would write later... The relationship here reflects the way I ended up writing my later fic as well. Very cute.
Chapter 2: Jan - hiding and purring:
Reading this now, I wish I would write even more about these two. They are a rare pair, even as friends, that has a lot of potential. The Jance side-plot happened by accident, as I needed to find a problem that needed a solution Jure could fix. This chapter also shows that I had started to really get into the nitty gritty of band lore, including how Jure enjoys sleeping on the tour bus.
Chapter 3: Bojan - providing food
I used to know a cat who had a habit of wanting to prove how much of a hunter they were by bringing back prey to "feed" the family they lived with. Bojan being ill all the time worked perfectly with this, and there was an opportunity for Jure to also show that he's been in the music business for a long time.
Chapter 4: Nace - imposed self-care day
I remember that this chapter was less obvious than the other chapters. I had the image of a mother cat looking after her kittens, even if the kittens weren't really having it, in mind. But how to translate this into something Nace related? Cue Nace's mullet! rip Nace's mullet, you were beautiful. This also worked well to continue the Jance side plot and tie it up.
Chapter 5: Everyone - Turning the tables on Jure
My favorite trivia from Jure's tour of the tour bus was that Jure hoards the plushies the band gets as gifts. I had to spend some time to try and understand the layout of the rehearsal space for this chapter. Which turned out to be really useful later as well. The rehearsal space is in my head Jure's territory, a place he built himself, and we know now that Jure spends a lot of time there whenever the band are in Slovenia.
Time for my fourth published Joker Out related work, and my first ever bojere fic. I'm a Joker Out fan first, and a casual enjoyer of Käärijä second. When erasedjanna on ao3 published a fic inspired by the absolute tease Käärijä was in the Kot Kot promotion videos, I jokingly told her I would write the sequel if she wasn't doing it.
She told me to do it, and that's how the fic came to be! I rarely back down a challenge, which is why I semi-seriously refer to Takavoltti as the perfect description of my writing style.
"Under the bathroom lights"
Under the bathroom lights is the direct sequel to Janna's "Under the purple lights" fic, and is my first Bojan centered fic. It was the first time I collaborated with Janna for a fic, and this fic spawned into a whole series that completes each other. At the time I wrote "bathroom lights" I thought it would just be a fun one-off, but the series evolved into a much bigger thing with "Under dimmed lights" somewhere in the horizon.
Looking back, writing "Under the bathroom lights" has had a big impact on my writing as it was the beginning of something much larger that I had no idea about at the time <3 It brought me and Janna together as a team, and we're still friends over a year later!
It's been one year since I published my first Joker Out fanfic so to celebrate, I'm going down a trip on memory lane and giving some behind the scenes/director's cut information.
Based partially on a true story, as I realized last year that there's no way my partner and I could afford a wedding so we ended up pushing the date with a year.
At the time of writing, I had been reading Joker Out fanfiction for about a month. Turns out, there is an interview where Nace mentions wanting to have a big wedding and Jan says he wants a small one, but I had not seen it.
Looking back, my style has changed over time but there are several parts I found that I really liked during my re-read. I didn't have a beta at this time and didn't know anyone in the fandom so I was taking a bit of a risk and jumping into the unknown.
I was really surprised by the attention the fic got, as I got comments in the first hours after publishing. It was been the best welcome a writer can ask for, and made me want to stay connected to the fandom. And even more surprised when I started getting comments just this month, showing the fic isn't forgotten.
So thank you all for the very warm welcome, and for the love you've showed towards this fic ❤❤❤
Looking back, this time last year I finished my first mini-series in this fandom: the "Hidden Depths" trilogy. This was the series that brought me and @electron-road-suspect together for the first time, when I slid into Erssi's DMs and asked about possibly reading something I've written.
"Hidden Depths" started out as a character exploration of Nace, and it ended up with a Jan chapter and a special appearance from Jure. I would call it a very typical Nace focused story arc with a red thread of self-acceptance.
The first published story, "Hidden Depths" (ao3 link) is edited together from what I lovingly called the Nace trash can. Thanks to Erssi's gentle words and coaxing, the first chapter became much more coherent and matched the beat of the second chapter.
The second published story, "Behind Closed Doors", (ao3 link) was in response to how the Damon photo shoot might have gone.
The third published story that is chronologically the first, ' "Me and Nace met on Tinder" ' , (ao3 link) is my take on the throw-away line said by Jure in a Eurovision interview. I can't get enough of fics with that premise, and I consider that event canon in all my fics even if it's not explicitly stated.
