Affiliate Spotlight: ALASL, part 2

Posted by Susan in Affiliate Spotlight | 0 comments

Affiliate Spotlight: Altered Lions & Sacrificial Lambs

interview by SusanAshlea

Altered Lions & Sacrificial Lambs is one of the funnest Twilight fanfic related blogs out there, and we are fortunate at MVF to count them among our affiliates. These ladies are smart, funny, opinionated and they all love their lemons. Since they launched, they have developed one a wonderful following and it’s one of the best places in the fandom to get fanfic recommendations.

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to have a “chatterview” with JaspersDestiny and Kaylene where we talked about pretty much anything and everything. I also sent them some extra questions that the other ladies who work at the site were able to chip in on. We talked for hours, and the result was a 22 page interview. We are splitting it up into 3 parts, so sit back with a cuppa joe, put your feet up, and enjoy these awesome women from ALASL.

This interview is NC-17, so please don’t read unless you are of age. Kthx. If you are old enough to buy smokes n porn, please read on for part 2 of our awesome interview!

JaspersDestiny: I look at affiliation like this: it’s great to have affiliates, but you plug shit you want to plug. End of. And…let’s be honest now, if I’m on a site, I will probably not click on any of the affiliate buttons I see listed there. You gain followers and you lose them… Just because. People either like you or they don’t. I would never disparage anyone for stating their opinion.

Susan: There are A LOT of people who don’t like us because Sarah wrote a post that cast a particular online community in a negative light. I have to respect the people who comment intelligently. There were people who agreed with us and disagreed, but they expressed their opinion in a smart manner. We are trying to build people up, not tear them down. And I’m not a fan of anyone or any site that does that.

JaspersDestiny: Yes, I don’t like it when someone is particularly mean to one individual. It’s the spitefulness that is wrong. But, I think that anything you disagree with can be discussed or brought up. So, if it’s about cliques, so be it. If it’s about outside publishing, so be it. But people felt like we were tearing authors down for the outside publishing thing. They thought we should have been applauding them and their achievements, instead of supposedly tearing them down.

Susan: Tina, I guess it depends on your stance on a particular issue. So, perhaps it’s much more of a gray area than I originally thought. I agree with you on affiliates, which is why we decided to do the interviews – to try to make people aware of our affiliates.

Susan: How do you feel about the perceived “Drama” in the Twilight fandom?

MerinaGreen: Of course there’s lots of “drama”. We’re a large group of people, 99% of us women. If you get more than two women together there will be drama. If we can’t get it from an outside source, we’ll create it ourselves. Now, how many females have I offended by saying that? sigh I just figure it comes with the territory and the community’s population base. Calm *cough* boring *cough* drama-less *cough* women are not reading and writing Twilight fan-fic. It’s not going to go away.

Maelyn: I’m not sure about it all because I tend to try to not get involved. I prefer to read and write as I wish. I just wish that if people didn’t like the stuff they read, they’d just click the little X rather than get on their high horse about it. Only thing I really hate about the whole issue is that so many people have had their fics pulled or have pulled ‘em themselves. I loved FFn because it was kinda like one stop shopping, but now it’s like everything is going everywhere and it really sucks.

Susan: Each of the lambs are very opinionated and aren’t afraid to express themselves. Does it bother you when people either take it the wrong way or blow it out of proportion?

MerinaGreen: Nope. It’s way too easy to take something the wrong way or blow it out of proportion when all we have is the written word to go on. There’s no body language, no facial expressions to go with the communication. It’s a shortcoming with the communication method – all the emoticons in the world aren’t going to change that. So, I can type a 5-word sentence that will be taken totally out of context, misinterpreted, and start a riot online. Then it comes down to “Do I want to invest an hour of my time to write a dissertation EXPLAINING the five-word sentence for the benefit of someone I have never met, will never meet, and probably won’t believe it anyway because they are still stuck on the first 5-word sentence?” God…that sounded bitchy. Of course, all the drama CAN be fun because, shit, when can we act like that in Real Life – even if we WANT to – and keep our jobs? Someone could do a PhD studying the behaviour of women in online groups…comparing it to the repressed behaviour of women forced to co-exist in small enclosed spaces in real life.

Maelyn: It can be annoying. I don’t mind healthy debate, but some people get too set on what they ‘think’ someone meant and rather than discuss it with the other person as an adult, they fly off the handle. That’s when I wanna just walk away and drop into my own little world. I’m generally non confrontational and most the time the other Lambs say things I would have already, so I don’t like to beat a dead horse, but occasionally when I feel I need to voice something myself, I will do so.

Susan: So, let’s talk about some fun stuff: like the men of Twilight!

Kaylene: Men of Twilight. Sigh….

Susan: How about some free association? I’ll give you the name of a Twi-vamp and you tell me the first thing that comes to mind.

Kaylene: Okay…

Susan: First things first….Edward.

JaspersDestiny: Yuck. Controlling.

Kaylene: Love him.

JaspersDestiny: LOL…first crush, long-forgotten…that’s who Edward is.

Kaylene: Seriously, we wouldn’t be doing this without him, even if he wasn’t an emo punk who royally screwed up in book 2.

Susan: LMAO, very true. Okay, how about Emmett?

Kaylene: Fuck me up against a tree.

JaspersDestiny: Big, cuddly teddy-bear who deserves MORE recognition. He deserves a WDTTL to turn his ass around in the fandom.

Susan: I luuuurve Emmett.

JaspersDestiny: Susan, have you found a WDTTL fic for him, though?

Susan: No =(

JaspersDestiny: LOL

Susan: I read the first 5 chapters of Welcome to Existence, but that was when she just started writing the story.

Kaylene: Emmett is underrated and underexplored. His intellect – and he had it – was overlooked in the stories because of the short bursts of dialogue he was given in the originals.

Susan: I wrote a chapter from Emmett’s POV in my first fic. He tells Nessie about how he first felt when he was in love with Rosalie.

JaspersDestiny: Awww!

Susan: I have to say, I’m verrah verrah jealous of the fact that you got an interview with Janna Banana.

JaspersDestiny: It’s a Canadian thing…The great thing about Janna is that she stays out of the fandom. She doesn’t get involved.

Susan: That is awesome! Well, Tina…what about JASPER!

JaspersDestiny: JASPERRRRRRRRR…

Susan: In my mind, I jumped up and did jazz hands when I said his name.

Kaylene: Jasper + ‘Darlin’ = Too fucking overused.

Susan: Bwahahah…

JaspersDestiny: I will tell you a secret. I go to bed EVERY NIGHT and put myself to sleep envisioning my own story that I will probably never write…in my head. EVERY NIGHT. It is the only way I can go to sleep. It would be a great story, too. But, alas… Jasper is…everything. He’s the gay guy who’s straight, and he’s the guy who you can tell everything to because he UNDERSTANDS on a gift-level. By the way, I HATE THE NAME ‘JAZZ’.

Susan: Have you read Scotch, Gin & the New Girl?

JaspersDestiny: No, it is AH.

Susan: Haha, I forgot.

JaspersDestiny: The only AH I have read is Dark Whispers.

Susan: It’s so epic, though.

Kaylene: I haven’t read it. There’s very few AH Jasper fics that I’ve read. It’s hard for me to imagine him not a vamp. Edward, yes. I can read those, but not with Jasper. I’m very picky. I’ll start reading it. I need to expand my horizons a little more on him. I had to give him up for a while because I felt like I was reading the same shit, over and over.

Susan: Jasper in SGTNG is done very well. He’s probably my favorite characterization of Jasper outside of WDTTL, of course. So, how do you feel about Carlise?

Kaylene: Daddy in Dinnertime is very bad. Beyond The Broken Scars by December.Eclipse. She’s got it all in this fic, and she keeps me guessing.

JaspersDestiny: Carlisle is HAWT…but mrsalreyami’s fics are the only ones I have really read. She made him non father figure-ish, which is what made it work. And I cannot stand it when the Twi-kids call Carlisle and Esme mom and dad for REAL. They’re not. Jasper would never…he’s the second eldest next to Carlisle…Jasper doesn’t need a daddy.

Susan: I have read some fics where they are called mom and dad and it works, though. It’s…hard to explain.

JaspersDestiny: But, not when Bella and Carlisle are a couple, Susan.

Susan: LMAO

JaspersDestiny: It’s hard for me. It either has to be a new character, or Bella.

Susan: Well, she could call him “daddy” if she wants.

JaspersDestiny: In the bedroom, yeah!

Susan: Meg said she is totally going to make Ashlea call Demetri “daddy” at some point.

JaspersDestiny: LOL… If you’re so worried about writing lemons, you should get Meg to collaborate with you for your FF lemons. You’ll learn as you go.

Susan: Saluki is my smut ghost. She writes my lemons, but I have written one all by myself.

JaspersDestiny: Awesome…smut ghost…I like THAT.

Kaylene: Oh, my God…Demetri-Daddy…

Susan: I want to keep FF PG-13, but my Demetri story is alllll NC-17.

JaspersDestiny: Demetri…mmmm. YES!

Susan: Well, I’m saving the Volturi for last. First the wolves: Sam?

JaspersDestiny: Sam is my favourite. I have a Sam fic playing in my head. I will get that written. Sam is all man.

Kaylene: Death by vampire.

Susan: Please do, because I love Sam hardcore. What about Seth?

Kaylene: Seth is my favorite.

JaspersDestiny: Seth is great, too. He’s like a little brother who is coming into his own. He needs a hardcore fic.

Kaylene: I’m working him into my current fic, but he’ll be older. He’ll have grown a little.

Susan: In my fic, Seth becomes the Alpha.

JaspersDestiny: Nice!

Susan: I mean, in my first fic, not Finding Forever.

JaspersDestiny: I haven’t read it. :(

Susan: It’s okay. It’s long, and tedious, and I’m not sure if I like it anymore. How do you feel about Chaaaaalie?

JaspersDestiny: NO. Charlie as daddy is great. GREAT. As a love interest? NO. Except for in Second Chances by aerialla1. He’s with someone new and around his age.

Kaylene: Charlie needs him a big fishing boat, an endless supply of beer, and a hot woman.

Susan: LMAO

JaspersDestiny: YES! Or, at most, Charlie is jerking off while watching the game…

Susan: Aw, poor Charlie…Billy burke is HOT in person though.

JaspersDestiny: YES!

Susan: Like, hard core hot.

JaspersDestiny: YES!

Susan: Like, it was a good thing there was security standing next to him when I met him hot.

And that wraps up part 2 of the ALASL interview. We have one more part to post, so keep checking in!