Bmitw Pursued by Mmsimpy09

The Pursuit of Bmitw, author of Gods and Wolves
Author Name: Bmitw
Stories: Gods and Wolves
Where to find Bmitw: TWCS | FFN | JBNP | Tricky Raven

Mmsimpy09: So, let us start with something simple! Is there a story behind your pen name?
Bmitw: The penname bmitw was chosen when, after about six months of lurking on Fan Fiction sites, I decided to join FanFiction.net. I chose it as it is the initials of a nickname my children gave me a few years ago. It stands for Best Mummy In The World. They're adults now and still call me that!

Mmsimpy09: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Bmitw: Well, I'm Australian, divorced and have two sons. My teacher father taught me to read and write when I was three and I've always loved to read - if I was ever separated from my parents in a store they always found me in the book section. I read voraciously but didn't pursue it as a career because I didn't want to become a teacher myself, and didn't really have the confidence to try to be a writer. I like to escape when I'm reading, so prefer fantasy or historical stories over modern ones.

Mmsimpy09: How did you find your way to Fan Fiction?
Bmitw: It was a roundabout route to be sure. One of my sons was scouted to a college soccer team in the USA, and he ended up in WA and on the Olympic Peninsula. I saw a DVD of Twilight in the supermarket and knew that it was set there, so bought it to watch. After that I was completely drawn into that world, read the books in days and then wanted more. I was on the Lexicon and saw references to the stories Wide Awake and the Submissive/Dominant/Training series by tarasueme, which I read. Then I realized that there were thousands of other stories and that I didn't have to read Bella/Edward and so I don't! The first non-canon stories I read were actually Volturi fics.

Mmsimpy09: What story (ies) are you reading right now?
Bmitw: My update list is long, and I don't know if I will ever get through it all, as I am writing a chapter a week at the moment. In the past couple of weeks I've been reading Swan's Mate for life by my beta Mrstrentreznor, and rereading The Mating Imperative series by LJ Summers. When I can, I catch up on my to-do list which includes stories by Nauticalmass, Mortissues and Merina Green, as well as fics on Tricky Raven and Jacob Black n Pack.
Mmsimpy09e: Do you have a favorite character and if so, why that character
Bmitw: That's an intriguing question. Had you asked me that a year ago, I'd have said Jasper. He's badass, and has such a fascinating back-story, which was little used in the books but which has been the inspiration for some wonderful fan fiction. But now that I have begun to write a story of my own, which is set mainly in the Pre-Twilight era, my favorite character is Ephraim Black. Writing about him has enabled me to create a character who would own his role as a wolf and as Alpha in a way that the canon pack weren't able to either because they were teenagers or because their characters weren't fully realized. When I write about him, it's not me writing, I almost channel him, he's that real to me. I see him as flawed, sometimes too trusting, but a leader of his people and a man of integrity and honor, a loving family man.

Mmsimpy09: Is there a pairing that you are intrigued by and would love to someday write about?
Bmitw: I don't know about that; there are so many stories in the fandom now that many of the pairings and situations, like Bella/Jasper, seem to have been exhausted. And I sometimes fear that this was my one great idea and I'll never have another one. But I have been thinking about that of late as the story is now more than 25 chapters in, and at this stage I think that it is most likely that if I was going to write another wolf story I would write Bella with one of the lesser known wolves. I've created two extra packs in my own canon; I might as well use them. If I was going to write a vampire pairing then Bella/Caius or Bella/Demetri would be the most likely unless a very different Bella/Jasper or Bella/Peter idea came to me. I’ve also thought about writing a work of original fiction. Calling all plot bunnies...

Mmsimpy09: Was there a part in the Twilight Saga that inspired you?
Bmitw: I'm not writing the story to right any wrongs, which I know motivates some writers. I'm not on a team, and I don't really care that Bella ended up with Edward, because the books don’t mean that much to me. I am thoroughly non-canon in my reading and have been for some time. I will say that Breaking Dawn appeals me on so many levels I don't know where to start. So if there is a motivation for me to be found in the Saga, it's in the plot holes and inconsistencies which bugged me when I was reading it. I wanted, for my own reasons, to see if I could write something that within its own universe made complete sense. I will admit that from time to time I write things to address elements of canon that I disagree with. To me the most egregious of those is the concept that bloodlust and love are the same thing. They're not.

--Stories--

Mmsimpy09: First off, can you tell us a little bit about your story?
Bmitw: It was an idea that came to me when I was vacuuming, and then I dreamed about it some more. At High School I'd seen a movie called Village of the Damned based on the book The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. There were aliens in the movie - children with powers and eerie eyes. It hit me that their eyes were like the Cullens’. From there I visualized Bella walking into a school with children who were more eerie than just the standoffish gorgeous models of canon, which meant that the Cullens had to have been around for a while, and had to be behaving in a more sinister fashion at least some of the time. I came up with the idea to have them never leave after they signed the treaty, which immediately brought Ephraim front and centre. But I didn't post it until I'd brainstormed it with Mrstrentreznor and others, and ironed out most of the kinks. It's amazing how much detail is involved in this style of story, and how easy it would be to trip myself up. At the moment, having shown Ephraim imprint on Bella in 2005, I am working through the period from 1936 to that year, putting everything in place for the end, and developing the relationship between the wolf packs and the Cullens over time. There will be four wolf packs in the end, as the continued presence of vampires in the area means that each generation will phase.

Mmsimpy09: Why did you pick the pairings that you did?
Bmitw: It was a desire that I had from very early on in the brainstorming process (I still have the emails) to just make this story all-encompassing and bring in lots of themes. Not so much a linear story as a tapestry. Ephraim is paired with Bella so that she may be his third wife, as I wanted to mirror Ephraim's life to some extent with Taha Aki and give him a substance and heft that an ordinary Alpha would not have. And let's face it, it's not a common pairing; I always have to be different...

Mmsimpy09: Anyone who has read the books or watched the movie will know that Ephraim is not a main character. How hard is it for you to write him?
Bmitw: Writing Ephraim is easy for me. Partly because as I said earlier he's very real to me and the words seem to flow. But also because there's a big knowledge gap there about him that's just waiting for me to fill and few other portrayals of him to contradict mine. I'm already finding that some readers treat my writings about him as canon, which of course they can never be. The only issues he presents for me in my writing relate more to the trajectory and style of the story. As was said to me once by my beta - "...don't you dare feel the need to skip a single day of (his) life...no-one writes him...he's relying on you." There's a balance I need to achieve between doing that and satisfying the readers who tend to not want to wait for the main pair to get together quickly.

Mmsimpy09: Do you have a favorite point of view to write in?
Bmitw: There is no doubt that some are easier than others. I find it easier to write in a male POV than a female one, and of those the two that are easiest for me are Ephraim and Jasper. Probably because they are both very sure of themselves - I can write authority, or combativeness, but have nothing to draw on when writing submissive or spineless characters.

Mmsimpy09: The motivation behind posting a story for the first time is different for everyone. What finally made you decide to take the plunge?
Bmitw: I wish I could say that I decided that I would be able to do a better job than the writers I'd been reading, but I never thought that. The brainstorming began in March, and it was a full month later before I began to post it. Even then it was the result of some concerted pushing in chat rooms from friends of mine who wanted to have the chance to read it. So I took a big deep breath and posted, waiting for someone to tell me it sucked big time and to go away and do something else...but that didn't happen, at least not in the early days.

Mmsimpy09: Have you ever changed your story outline based off of a review? If so, what was the review and what did you change?
Bmitw: Not really. This story is very tightly plotted; it has to be in order to make sense. Which means that I can't deviate too much from what I've planned. Apart from deciding to include Ephraim's POV of meeting Bella once the story returns to 2005, which there were quite a few requests for when Chapter 2 was first posted, the most I've ever done is to fill in something that I might have otherwise glossed over, or given an alternative POV. When I posted the last chapter, I invited readers to suggest outtakes that they might like as an alternative to disrupting the story flow. I do find it intriguing though when readers take what I've written and go off on tangents that I was never going to entertain; it just shows how powerful the imagination is and that every story is different for every reader.

Mmsimpy09: Has there ever been a review that just brightens your day and makes it all seem worth it? If there has been one, do you care to share it with us?
Bmitw: Recently I received one on fanfiction.net which really made my day because it assessed my story as a work of literature. Most reviews are all about the things that readers like/don't like/want/don't want more so than the worth of what they're reading. But this one said "I see lots of interesting plot lines, and I cannot wait to see how they all develop. I also want to congratulate you on a tightly written story. I was truly amazed at the ground you have covered within the posted word count, and I do not feel anything has been glossed over or left out. I tend to be verbose, so I am thrilled to see such a finely crafted story...". A review like that, from someone who gets what I am trying to do, makes it all worth it.

Mmsimpy09: Do you have any advice for the newcomers that are nervous to post their first story?
Bmitw: This is still only my first story, so I don't know whether I am qualified to give advice, but I would say that if you have an original idea which speaks to you and which you NEED to write, then that's a sign you should write it. I've read before about how that's how writers are; the need to write rather than it being just a pastime. Read extensively and work out what it is that you do and don't like about various styles of writing and then try to come up with your own. I've been writing in other forms for decades so I already had that. And when you have your story brainstorm it and work on it for some time before you post it; make sure that the workings of it have an internal consistency and logic to them. Even with Gods and Wolves there are things that I wrote early on that I wish I hadn't written now because they boxed me into a corner and prevented me from doing other things along the way. Finally, get yourself a top notch beta and pre-reader; I can honestly say that the involvement of Mrstrentreznor and feebes86 has improved the story far beyond what it would have been without their help, both in the ideas and in the execution of them.