Gift Exchange: Withering the Ferns by angstgoddess003

http://angstgoddess003.livejournal.com/19068.html
http://community.livejournal.com/twi_exchange/11880.html

The fanfiction link has been edited for content and so there is some “fade to black” that is not present on the live journal versions:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5281881/1/

Official Description: Isabella Swan, infamous rich girl from SoCal, meets Edward Cullen, the dark, mysterious guy from the wrong side of the tracks after an unfortunate accident. Lost in the dense forest surrounding Forks together, they must survive complete isolation while gradually unearthing each other’s secrets.

Q&A with AngstGoddess003:

If you got more than one prompt – why did you choose the prompt you did?
I chose this particular prompt because I felt it’d be the most original and the biggest challenge for me.

Was this prompt out of your comfort zone as a writer? How so?
I think I purposely made it out my comfort zone. Even choosing that particular prompt was so far off from usual characterizations that I felt it’d be a challenge. But then I went one step further and made it present tense, which I’d never done before. I would say that the length of it was out of my comfort zone, since I’m so wordy and have a difficult time summarizing, but… I ended up making it long anyways. That was one personal challenge I failed.

What was your favorite passage that you wrote in the fic

His eyes, green and shining, fill me with wonder. I want to pretend to be the little flecks of gold that hide just beyond the drops of black, and scatter myself about in their fashion, spreading and resting haphazardly against the green heat of his intensity. I want to extend my fingertips and smooth away the furrow of his brow should it ever return. I want to see where the water departs when it bleeds down his skin and explore his every reaction so that I can only ever bring him happiness. That urge is not selfless when it’s this. It’s completely unquestionable. In the same way that fire burns and ice freezes. Much like the sun will rise and set and the ocean will wax and wane. It’s similar to death and birth and rebirth. No other option exists.

Did you know the person you were writing this for prior to receiving the prompt? If you did know them – did their likes and dislikes influence the plot choices you made? How so? If you did not know them did you just write the fic the way you wanted to or did you make any effort to get to know them?
Well, I was told that my original prompter pulled out at the last minute, so as I was wrapping up the story, I found out it was going to be given as a gift to someone else. Before I’d known, I did stalk my prompter a bit, looking for little clues into her likes and dislikes and tried to investigate what she’d be most happy with. I think I kinda creeped her out. I saw her make a passing reference to eyebrow piercings, and I had already written 60k words of the fic. So I went back and gave Edward an eyebrow ring. Little things like this shaped it, I suppose…

How long did this take to write? Did you write it at the same time as your other fic(s) or did you put them on hold in order to finish this? Has this influenced your other fics at all?
Oh, I think everyone who knows me is quite aware that WTF took me a month to write, and I put WA on hold to complete it. My readers weren’t happy, but I think people forget that sometimes, things can get boring, and it’s rather nice to work on something else and step into another world for a while. Looking back, I’d probably be more attentive to my obligations, but I don’t regret it because I completed something. And poor Ginny had to keep asking for mine. Though, I must say, it was very difficult getting back into the style of WA after doing WTF. I found myself writing everything in present. I’d have to keep going back and editing paragraph by paragraph. I do think it influenced the chapter of WA that I wrote after WTF. I nitpicked over it for a week before I decided that I couldn’t figure out why. I’m still a little grumpy about that chapter.

Why did you choose the prompts you gave the author who wrote your fic? Were these ideas you had for yourself or just fics you wanted to see written?
Both really. The prompt she chose, I’d had a very fleeting inspiration to do, but decided that I could never do it justice or get the research right. I wanted to see it done though, so badly. Another was an Eclipse AU where one of the Cullens die in battle. I mostly just wanted to see the angst from that moment between E/B. The last was kind of silly, where I wanted Bella to inherit a haunted house. I have no idea. I just love ghost stories. I figured if someone didn’t want the angst of the other two, they could go with the fun one instead.

Would you do it again?
Right now? Fuck no. But in the future, maybe late winter-ish for a Christmas type thing… I think I’d be elated. It really opened me up to new concepts and got me outside my box.

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mozzer0906 says: I’ll be perfectly honest – when I started to read WTF I was getting bored of the Twilight fanfiction world. I was tired, I was uninspired, I was questioning what I was still doing here. I happened to click on the gift exchange fic link prior to when the authors were revealed and decided to read this having a fairly strong inclination that this was the one written by AngstGoddess003, whose other works I have absolutely loved. One mention of demon babies and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was her fic. I was completely drawn into the world and the characters and had completely tuned out the world around me engrossed in every word. I was guessing what was going to happen next at the end of every chapter and excited and energized with each word I read.

Then I got to the end of chapter 9.

Then I realized exactly why I’m here in this fandom.

I get to read something this amazing, something that literally takes my breath away with its ability to convey such powerful emotion and meaning into a few short paragraphs. I get to read it for free. I have no doubt there are many authors in this fandom who will move on to writing original content and we will hear from them again, Angstgoddess003 is one of them.

To say I went a tad lunachick after I read this chapter is a mild understatement. For a few moments I lost my 37 year old mind and became some freakishly Alice-like teenager fangirling to the extreme, losing any modicum of social grace I have acquired by emailing the author personally to be sure she knew how much of a crazy ass fangirl I am as my review was simply not enough. I’d like to say that I’m sorry for doing this,
but really I’m not simply because it reinvigorated me. It reminded me that there is still much to be said in this fandom, many great things to be read, words that will inspire me to write reviews such as this because simply that is all I have to add to this fandom. Hopefully it is understood by those authors on the receiving end of my crazy fangirl reviews that they have moved me, that their words have become part of my soul and that I am forever grateful they have given me this gift.

All of my crazy fangirl moments aside, did I happen to mention that WTF contains the VERY BEST dry hump scene in all of fanfiction? AMAZING. The ending of said dry hump was just so completely ungh worthy I think I drooled on my keyboard. In order to get the dry hump in all of its frictiony glory you will need to read this on either the gift exchange site or AG’s live journal as the FF.net version is edited for content.

This is AG’s first suspense fic and I have to say she delivered, my heart was racing and I was completely drawn in needing to know how it happened. She doled out relevant plot twists slowly, but carefully, never taking way from the suspense but yet not revealing too much too soon.

WTF may be the longest fic in the exchange, but it never felt that way to me as I was completely drawn in and I had to rip myself away from the computer in order to get paid, feed my kids, all of that annoying life stuff that gets in the way.

Anyway, as the length of this review can attest, I highly recommend WTF, it is easily one of the best things I’ve read in the fandom. It has a little something for everyone, angst, suspense, hot sexy dry humping and great banter. Also in a sort of refreshing change of pace, this fic is entirely in Bella’s point of view, which proves that AG can knock it out of the park either in the male or female voice.

Kassiah says: On the day that the exchange stories got posted, I saw secamimom and sunshine_00 tweeting about WTF. I asked them what they were talking about and they sent me a link. To say that I was engrossed would be a huge understatement. I couldn’t stop reading.

This is one of the most well-written and best stories that I have ever read. I can’t add much to what Shannon said, other than that I whole-heartedly agree. You know I would be, er, all over that dry-hump. It was…amazing. Amazing doesn’t even cover it. You have to read it.

Like Shan said, this is the longest fic in the exchange. But it is well-worth the read. AG herself said she planned for this to be around 20K but got so engrossed in the story that she couldn’t stop. You will too. You will find yourself panting and begging for more. Trust. You will want to kick yerself in the ass if you miss out on WTF.