Author Spotlight: TwilightCakes

Love This Pain
by TwilightCakes
Main Characters: Seth
Genre: Romance, FriendshipX
Rating: M

Summary:

Seth Clearwater is a 27 year old police officer and werewolf extraordinaire in Forks, Washington who is just biding his time and waiting...for her.

He had always hoped to imprint, but after over a decade of waiting he has lost all hope after not finding the one meant for him.  He watches as his friends and pack mates meet their imprints and move forward in life, happy and content.   Meanwhile, Seth is stuck, frozen in time as he waits for girl that will make everything worth it.  Lonely and losing patience, the only thing he could do was continue on with his life, working with Charlie Swan as a cop during the day and patrolling at night with his pack.

Suddenly, is life is turned upside down when sixteen year old Regan comes to stay with Seth's mother Sue and his step-father, Charlie.  Regan is Renee's niece, and has had a rocky past as a wild child in Phoenix.  When she meets Seth unexpectedly, she can't figure out why he is so drawn to her, and her to him.

1. How did you come up with the idea of your story?

I wanted a mature Seth fic. He’s a wonderful character that I wanted to know more about. I read Breaking Dawn and fell in love with his character after Edward says to Jacob,

"He has one of the purest, sincerest, kindest minds I've ever heard," Edward murmured when he was out of sight.  "You're lucky to have his mind to share." 

That spoke volumes to me. I found myself so curious about Seth and the rest of his story, and I couldn’t find anything out there that quenched my curiosity about what could have happened to this amazing, kind hearted character. When I saw Booboo Stewart in Eclipse, my mind was made up. Both Booboo and Seth are wonderful, but far too young to write the type of story I was searching for. So, I imagined the character older and a bit wiser, but as close to his original personality as I could. So, 27 year old Seth was brought to life.

As for his imprint Regan…she just sort of came to me. As nice as it is for the wolves to meet imprints who are their age or close, I couldn’t see it all being that easy. Seth is 27 when the story begins and Regan is 16; nothing is going to be simple for these two. I wanted conflict; I wanted problems to arise, and I didn’t want Regan to do or say things that people wanted her to say. Let’s face it; normal teenagers aren’t who we want them to be. I wanted to challenge Seth’s happy-go-lucky attitude by making him wait for an imprint for over a decade. I also wanted to challenge him by giving him a troubled little teenager to deal with in the meantime.

2. What is the biggest struggle you have with writing your story?

Honestly, I have several. First, it’s getting people to read a Seth story – especially one that involves him imprinting on a teenager. Most people read the summary and think, ‘ew’. Not that I blame them – imprinting, if not explained right, can be creepy. When Love This Pain was first submitted to Twilighted, it was rejected for being unrealistic and ‘plot not plausible’. I think the underlying worry was the fact that it dealt with the potential romantic relationship (even though there isn’t one) between a 27 year old and a 16 year old. However, I plead my case and continue to do so when asked about the storyline. Those who read it every week I think agree with the fact that it’s not about a romantic/sexual relationship – yet. Regan does age, and meanwhile Seth is still frozen in time. My critics also argue that Seth would look too young to ‘appear’ to be 27. However, we can all remember when Taylor Lautner almost lost his role as Jacob for New Moon for not looking old enough or being big enough. A lot of people forget that when the wolves phase, they also all age to look like they’re in their twenties. So, in my mind, Seth would appear to be about 22 or 23, even though realistically he’s 27, almost 28.

Another thing I get in trouble for with some reviewers is Regan’s behavior. Most importantly, I want to point out that Regan and her personality and behavior is all modeled after both my teenage years and those of a few close friends around me. Something tragic happens to her before coming to Forks, and she acts out – plain and simple. She’s a teenager who doesn’t know how to get positive attention, so instead she gets it in negative ways. I’ve had people criticize me for writing her as such a reckless little mess. Sure, most teens don’t have problems like that, but some do. A huge them for this is just because someone has been damaged in their own eyes doesn’t mean that they aren’t worthy of someone’s love and affection. People can heal. While Regan does do some things that make readers want to shake her and give her a good slap, I think she’s pretty real. Teenager screw up – especially ones that don’t have strong parental figures in their lives, which she does not.

The main feel of the story for now at least, is friendship. Seth is in a lot of ways very ideal for Regan because he is slowly becoming her support system. I think some of the strongest relationships come from strong friendships. Seth is there for her because he wants to be. He won’t abandon her when she needs him the most because she is his imprint, and let’s face it – teen years would have been a lot easier for all of us with an older, wiser friend around who was there to save us when we needed it, right? Seth is definitely that for Regan, and hopefully someday more. But for now, he’s just there to help her out when she needs him and lend a friendly ear and a shoulder to cry on when Regan needs it.

I also write a version of Claire that not many people have seen before. I get so many reviews that are ‘Oh my GOD CLAIRE! ULGH! What a B*TCH!!! A lot of people have a hard time getting used to her, but I had a hard time (in real life) getting used to the person she’s based on…and now she’s one of my best friends : )

3. Is there a particular character in your story that you identify with the most?

Regan, hands down. She is modeled after myself as a teen. I never could really do or say the right thing, and I think that is Regan’s biggest issue. I was always kind of awkward and shy, which she definitely suffers from a little bit. I just wanted to fit in and survive my teen years the best I could, so I identify with her a lot that way. Although sadly I did not have a hunky wolf there to help me sort things out ; )

4. Is the story all planned out or is it write as you go?

Love This Pain is all planned out. The ending is still a bit foggy in my mind, but I know what has to happen in the story. I have all the chapters planned out to a ‘T’.

5. Do you have a particular process when it comes to your writing? Mood? Specific Environment? What do you do to get in the writing mood?

Well, I scribble notes and ideas that come to me during the day on post-its that hide under my keyboard….oops. When I get home, I write like a mad woman. I don’t have to be in any mood really – I can sit down and write and I rarely have writer’s block. I have too much to say! I’m really lucky to have the words come to me that easily, and I’m super grateful. R

6. Have you got any other projects going on? Any planned for the future?

LTP is first in a series that I’ve named ‘Love vs. Misery’. They are all intertwined and while the timelines for each of the fics do cross, but I try to avoid re-writing the same events from different POVs. My main focus for now is Love This Pain, which is Regan and Seth’s story. However, in January I will be starting Embry’s story. He imprints on a girl that’s a little older, but she’s got a whole other set of problems. A lot of people who read LTP also hate my jerky version of Brady, and I wanted to give him a chance to tell his side of things. Finally, I will be writing Quil and Claire’s story. Whew!

7. Are you out of the closet with your Twilight love? Or do your RL friends and family know about it?

I am not, sadly. My parents do not know, nor do my friends. They know I enjoy the books and movies, but that’s about it. I finally let my boyfriend in on the secret about three months ago, and it was like huge weight off my shoulders. He wants to read my stuff, but it feels too personal. I keep it to myself, but he knows now and is very supportive.

8. Do any FF authors inspire you?

Anyone who does anything different. While I love Edward and Bella, I feel like their story has been told…and told…and told. I am a horrible Bella/Edward writer, but it doesn’t really bother me because Edward and Bella have been done, and there are far better authors who can write them better than I ever could. I just have a lot of respect for authors that try anything out of the ordinary. A storyline with a twist, a non canon pairing, a story about a minor character, etc. Just anything we haven’t seen a million times really.

9. What is your FanFic Pet peeve?

Forced dialogue. Sadly, a lot of people suffer from it, myself included. I try to imagine my characters so that they say things that they really would say – not what I would want them to say. Sometimes people say things that make you go ‘What?!’ but that’s real life. People don’t always do or say the things we want them to, and such is life. I really try hard to have my characters reflect that. R

10. Do you have other writing experience besides fan fiction?

I do….um…*hides face* I used to write for uh…another fandom once upon a time. When I was twelve, I fell in love with Hanson and I wrote ‘hanfic’ for about four years until I was sixteen and erm…developed a life of my own. I took a break from writing til I discovered Twifics.

11. Shout out to your betas.

My first beta was Rain-It-Shall, and she betas ‘Untouchable’ (my first twific, a Jake/Ness fic) and my canon series of one shots, ‘Immortal’. She is a sweetheart and I love her to death because she will often ignore her homework to beta for me, and she is simply wonderful. We’ve become really good friends, and I love talking to her about waiting in line to see R-Patz movies : )

My other beta, mama23keiki betas ‘Love This Pain’ and ‘Fairytale’. She has also agreed to beta Embry’s story, the sequel to Love This Pain. I made a shout out on Twitter about six months ago that I was in search of a beta for a wolf fic, and her friend let me know that she wanted to beta something. I took a chance on her, and I’m glad every single day that I did because she is wonderful! She really encourages me to write what I feel should happen and she makes what I crank out legible. Another totally awesome person that I was very lucky to meet. I love both of my betas, you girls rock!

12. Any fic recs?

One of my favorite fics – I’ve read this one almost three times now – is Vanity and Patience by Achelle131. It is a beautiful take Rosalie and Emmett’s start.

Another one of my favorites is a fic called Vicissitudes by Twilightzoner. I stumbled across it one day and it’s normally not what I read, but….it’s an amazing alternate take on Breaking Dawn, minus one of my favorite characters, Renesmee. I LOVED BD unlike a lot of ppl - I didn’t think I would like it, but I ended up falling in love with it and have read it several times because it is so beautiful. Try it – I promise, Pro BD or not, you’ll love it.

13. Anything else you want to add?

If you like Love This Pain, stick around for Embry’s story, ‘Taking Chances’, as well as the rest of the series. I have big plans for these characters – they’re not going away any time soon.