The other day in fangs_fur_fey, Jes Battis was talking about necromancy and the current trends in urban fantasy, and one of the examples he brought up was Raistlin Majere, that ugly mean mofo from the original Dragonlance trilogy by Weis and Hickman. And, of course, by ugly mean mofo I mean my absolute favorite character EVER.

That might be an exaggeration, but when I was in 8th grade, it wasn't much of one. (Those of you who've known me for a while and have read these books are probably thinking, wow, that's only the most predictable thing I've heard so far in 2009. I know.)

And I haven't thought of dear Raistlin in... years. YEARS. Back when I was 13 I tended to think his name along with romantic thoughts like, "ditch those stupid do-gooders, Raisltin, I'll have your ugly babies!!! And we shall rule the world!" Now that I'm 28, the first thing that pops into my head when I hear his name is, "I bet I could find hundreds of examples of Raislin/Dalamar slash in ten seconds. Oh, Shalafi, you know how I like it..."

It started me thinking about that time in my life, when I was hardly writing at all. I'd just moved to the Yokosuka Naval Base outside of Tokyo, Japan at the beginning of my eighth grade year, leaving behind my friends, my popularity, and everything I'd written (my whole life, iow). During the move overseas, our computer died, and I, being naive and silly, had nothing backed up. I pretty much swore off writing as I got used to my new outsider status.

Then I auditioned for a local community theater, which taught me that even if I wasn't going to be telling stories, I could be in them. Theater led me to friends, in and out of school, and one of them, upon finding out I loved to read, put Dragons of Autumn Twilight in my hands and said, "I think you'd like playing D&D. Read this."

( I was skeptical. )