Well I'm back, i really didn't think it would take me this long to find my next author. There's a love of wonderful folks out there making some fantastic fiction and this time i actually Snagged me an OnyxIvyStone. Personally I think I've been following her work for almost a 2 - 3 years now. I've told her many times that i thought she was one of the greatest, and i always find myself happy to see her updates. She's very busy in real life so i'm glad she took a bit of time out of her day to do this with me.
1. What is your preferred genre? Action? Romance? Comedy? Other?
I love reading just about any genre, but I do have favorite genres for writing. I love a good romance but am particularly enthralled with writing darker stories that end happily. I’m not sure if you could call them “Dark Fics” but they are very similar to traditional fairy tales in their construction.
2. What introduced you to the Sesshomaru/Kagome pairing?
I was bored and stricken with writer’s block in the winter of 2006. My brother had told me about fan-fiction that he had been writing for Pokemon around the time that an Inuyasha marathon was playing on Cartoon Network. As I watched it, I became enthralled with the story and characters and so decided to read some Inuyasha fan-fiction for kicks. Most of the ones I read were so sweet my teeth hurt or so contrived and off base from the characters I’d come to love that I didn’t want to bother. Then I came upon the alternate pairing of Sesshomaru and Kagome. I don’t know if it is the caliber of writing I encountered or the true love for the pairing I consistently read in each pairing, but I was hooked almost immediately and read Sess/Kag exclusively now.
3. Do you have a favorite and least favorite of the stories that you’ve written?
My favorite story that I’ve ever written for this pairing has got to be
“Chimera.”**Note: 'Chimera' is rated M on Dokuga** I love all of the others that I’ve written, but this one, I feel, is the culmination of my journey in the pairing. My least favorite story is probably my first,
“The Choices We Make.”**Note: CwM is rated M on FF** Oddly, it is the one I still get the most hits on. I guess it’s just that it doesn’t ever feel finished, no matter how often I return with the editor’s pen.
4. Do you have a favorite story written by others?
Do you have a week to list them? I have so many beloved stories, I can’t really hope to get them all written down here, but the one that really cemented my love for this pairing long before I ever joined ASingleSpark or Dokuga was
“Temporal Sequence”**Note: TS is rated R on Spark, and M on FF** written by Chaos-and-Serenity. This story was the catalyst for me beginning to write again.
5. Any odd things you do when you write? Or do you have a set pattern you have to follow?
Lately it involves me bashing my head against a wall because “Chimera” is such a spoiled brat about being written. I research a lot and not just about the anime/manga. Research is always where it begins with each chapter and then I quite literally sit down, put on my “Thinking Cap” and start writing. Often I have interior conversations with characters to help me during the writing process so I can get myself into each particular mind-set. It really depends on what I need at the time, but there is always research.
6. Do you research things you do or just wing it?
Yes and yes. I research everything at the beginning, but often I just let things come in their own way. Beloved Rumiko wasn’t entirely true to the historical sequence of events in Japan while writing her story and so I allow myself some wiggle room when I realize I just don’t know about Japan and Japanese history/language/culture to do total and perfect justice to what I am writing about.
7. Do you have one thing that challenges you in your stories? i.e. writing a synopsis, sagging middles, going off plot, etc.
I love happy endings. I am a sap for a romantic scene. These two weaknesses, if you can call them that in reality, cause me to make mistakes in narrative rhythm at times or to channel too much of myself into characters while writing.
8. Ever dealt with writer’s block or a temperamental muse? If so, how did you deal with it?
Yes to both. Writer’s block was and is a chronic condition for me. If I am too stressed out, I can’t do anything. For fan-fiction, particularly Sess/Kag, my temperamental muse has puppy ears and wears red. He sits on my shoulder and taunts me when I do something he doesn’t like and sulks when I make him the bad guy. All kidding aside, when stories don’t want to be written, I walk away for an hour or two and do what ever I need to do in order to get back into the writing vein. Coffee works as do naps and chocolate or a really good movie or book. Stress is a story killer.
9. Are people you know or are close to know you write fan fiction?
Yes, and it is fine with me, however when my brother reads my work aloud in the movie trailer voice, I wish I’d never let my secret out to my family and friends.
10. When did you know you liked to write and wanted to do it in some fashion?
I know there had to be a time when I decided “I’m going to be a writer,” I just can’t remember it. I honestly can’t remember when I didn’t want to write and tell wonderful stories.
11. Have you ever had a story you’ve been writing that you found as you wrote it you just couldn’t stand it anymore?
Yes and I scrapped them. I didn’t even think twice. If I couldn’t stand them, I knew sure as heck no one else would.
12. Is fan fiction the only thing you write?
No, I write poetry, short stories and novels as well as music and the occasional play.
13. Is updating a problem for you or not?
It honestly depends on the story. With
“To Know The Man,”**Note: TKtM is rated M on FF** I updated sometimes three times a week. With “Chimera” you’ll be lucky if I get a chapter out in a month. I think this comes under the temperamental muse thing and not so much the writer’s block. Some stories are just harder to write for one reason or another.
14. What inspires you to write? Is it one thing or many?
I’ve been inspired by challenges on sites, songs, stories, poetry, television and, sometimes, ideas just jump into my head.
15. What is the strangest inspiration you’ve gotten for a story?
Scientific theories such as string theory, quantum mechanics and mathematical principles. Take a look at the chapter titles for “Chimera” and look up the first half of the title’s definition.
16. As you see it, what’s the biggest problem in fan fiction?
The biggest problem, from my point of view, is when people take it too seriously. I’m not saying that this genre of writing isn’t important or that I disrespect it in any way, however, there are certain individuals within the fan-fiction community who take the genre so seriously that any artistic license that doesn’t fit into their opinion of accurate becomes a salvo for attack. See my answer to number 6. Just because I haven’t gotten my doctorate in Japanese history/language/culture does not give anyone the right to tear into me. It’s childish, it’s rude and it’s just inviting bad karma.
17. What is your current goal in writing? What is your future goal?
I want to get a novel published someday but, for now, I would just like to continue enjoying the process of creation and escaping the mundane.
18. Do you think the end of the Inuyasha manga or the re-birth of the anime will help or hurt the Kagome/Sesshomaru pairing fandom?
I don’t think it will hurt or help anything. I didn’t even read the manga until it was over and I take or leave what was in it as it suits me. People who love the pairing won’t be swayed by the end of the manga nor the re-birth of the anime simply because the two sources are only means for inspiration, not the be-all-end-all. I guess what I’m saying is that Kagome and Sesshomaru not being together in the manga/anime’s reality has never stopped those devoted to the pairing from daydreaming, writing and reading, so why should it now? At the most, we’ll only have more inspiration to continue our work.
19. Aside from Kagome or Sesshomaru, who is your favorite Inuyasha character? What is your least favorite character?
I love me my puppy eared boy. Inuyasha is my favorite next to our favorite pairing. Least favorite? I’ve faced down my demons and come to love all characters save Kikyo. I’ve even put my squig factor for Naraku to bed. He still makes a wonderful villain, though!
20. What can we expect from you in the future?
I will be finishing “Chimera” eventually and, as time goes on, reworking my past work so I can happily put them to bed and move on with more stories.
Because you've finished a fic that's both more then 10 chapters and over 50k:
1. What did it feel like when you knew it was getting close to being done?
Sad in some ways. Wonderful in others. I love the stories I wrote and miss them so much that I often read them again.
2. How did it feel when you finally finished it?
It felt good to finally find the happy ending. I missed writing them afterward, but I was happy that the characters found peace at last.
3. Any hints you can think of to inspire others to finish?
Finishing is always the hardest to do. Tying up all the loose ends and bringing a story to the close it deserves can be grueling, however, my best hint for others to finish would be to treat the story as a world and the characters as being waiting in as much expectation as the readers.
4. What do you think should be done to encourage more to finish works rather than leave them hanging?
That’s a hard question to answer. Different people write for different reasons and sometimes those reasons don’t extend to finishing a story. They lose interest and move on to the next story without really thinking about the readers they have left behind. I guess the best way to encourage more writers to finish is to help them remember that they do indeed have readers who love them and the best way to do that is through reviews or messages, I suppose.
5. Do you think anything you’ve finished has the possibility of being translated into something publishable?
The world I created for
“Pale Morrigain”**Note: PM is rated MA on Dokuga** is one that I might translate into a novel someday for publication.
Again i want to thank you so much for doing this with me! I personally loved all of your fics, and you've always been one of my favorite authors because as you said earlier your not a sickeningly sweet author who just makes it easy. I have always remembered what i reviewed to you once saying that your work was morbidly beautiful, dark and brooding but sweet in a way that makes you feel like you've read a real romance. I'll probably always adore your writing and will always want for more.
And just so you all dont think i'm gushing to gush this is a real review of To Know the Man, which is probably one of my favorite's:
Sugar0o
2007-06-11 . chapter 20
I've been reading fanfics now for abotu 6 months now, i never really thought about it before, and in the maybe 100 stories or so that i've read, I find yours some of the most interestingly real fanfics that i have ever laid eyes upon. you have good reason to get your ego stroked with reviews, b/c i cant help but find myself waiting, longing to find out what happens when I'm unable to finish a story of yours, when the day has expired and i no longer have time for anything but sleep and/or work, its so worth missing sleep to read what you have to give the fanfic community. You lay words out like the sun rises, perfect and never wavering, and honestly i read what you have to say and feel so paled in comparison, not that that matters, but you should feel delicious in what you have, the gift for words and story telling that you have been graced with. I cant wait to read the next chapter until the end, and i know that i will not be left with a wanting for more. thank you.
-r0o
Either way, You readers of this can find more of OnyxIvyStone's work here on Dokuga, Spark and FanFiction.net >:3 and yus! all of them have something on the profiles that might not be on one of the others 
Well thats all, have a wonderful day Dokuga.
