Saturday Sit-Down with LaVitaNuova!

Let’s start off with the basics…

What’s your penname?
La Vita Nuova


Where do you post most often?
The only place I post right now is fanfiction.net, but Twiwrite.net has been recommended to me and when I stop being lazy, I’ll probably put my stories up there too.

What’s your favorite pairing? Favorite genre?
Hmm, favourite pairing would probably be Bella and Jasper, but I’ll take Bella and one of the Wolves any day. I don’t really care about the genre, I’ll try anything.

Is there a pairing or genre that you absolutely cannot stand?
I used to hate Bella and Jacob, but I’m slowly getting over that, I just can’t stand it when he’s weak and panders to her every whim. Oh, Alice and Jasper drives me nuts, probably because like a lot of people, I just can’t stand Alice.

What got you into the Twilight Fandom? It’s all the hot guys, wasn’t it? Don’t lie.
I can say without a doubt that it was Edward!... I was completely obsessed. But fanfics helped me get over that. Initially I devoured anything and everything with him in it, but I think I overdosed somewhere along the way and now I can’t stand him… unless he happens to be covered in tattoos (not sure why!), or the story holds its own so well that you could replace Charlie as the leading guy and it would still enthrall me.  

What do you find to be the most challenging part about writing your fics?
Motivating myself to write when I really just want to hide under a rock is the hardest thing for me. I’m not one of those people who write the whole thing before I post, mainly because I actually need to impetus to finish. I can’t tell you how many unfinished fics I have gathering dust in my laptop.

Best review you’ve ever received? Worst?
I think the best has to be when someone told me that my style of writing captivated them, it was a huge ego boost and you just can’t help but smile when someone says something so complimentary. The worst was for In Omne Tempus, for the epilogue someone told me that I’d written the characters all wrong and I shouldn’t bother writing if I couldn’t get it right. I hate that I just remembered the bad so accurately over the good, but I guess that’s just human nature L

How do you get into the zone? What’s your method for getting the creative juices flowing? Dancing around your living room in nothing but a baseball cap, weird shit like that?
Maybe I’ll try the baseball cap thing the next time I’m feeling all uninspired… I’m afraid I’m not nearly that interesting. Mostly I write my stories in my head when I drive. What About Love? came from a long trip to see a friend while I was singing my little heart out to 80’s power ballads.


Do your friends and family in your real life know about your fanfiction alter-ego?
Nope. They have no idea and quite often ask what the hell I’m writing all the time, I just don’t feel like they would understand.

What do you look for in a good fanfic?
Plot, prose, well developed characters, the usual I guess. I’ll read most anything, but only if it’s finished, I just don’t have the patience for unfinished fics.

Tell us a bit about yourself…

Anything you’d like to share with us? Married, single? Kids? Covert CIA agent? Alaskan crab fisherman?
Lol... Well I can tell you that I’ve never caught a crab and I would love to be a CIA agent, but I’m not a US citizen so that one’s out too. I’ll tell you that I’ve been married, but other than that it’s all a mystery I’m afraid.

Spill! What’s you guilty pleasure? I promise not to judge you, as long as it isn’t Justin Beiber.
I think it would have to be musicals. I would love to live in a world where people just randomly broke out into song and an occasional choreographed dance… I mean wouldn’t that be great!

Do you have a favorite published author? Someone that actually has printed novels with a publishing house, like Stephanie Meyer.
I have so many, but I love Margaret Atwood, I think JK Rowling has an imagination to die for and if I could ever write something original, I would want to be as thought provoking as Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin

Favorite musical artist? Anything we should definitely check out?
I’m so completely uncool when it comes to music, but I think you’ve probably guessed that from the whole musicals thing. My ipod is filled with such a weird mixture of stuff, and I’ve never really had a favourite artist, but I’ve just got into the Rolling Stones – I’m a late bloomer!

Time to spread the love…

Who do you drop everything for, including the urn with your great grandmother inside, and run to the computer when you get an update?
Sadly I don’t read unfinished fics, but I was CRAZY about Oracle Vas’s First Love Lost and Last Love Found, I think both are just amazing.


Do you have an author that you fangirl over? And do you squee? I do. Many times.
One of my favourite authors is mel.wolfgirl, I would love to write something so multi layered as her fics, I think if she ever reviewed one of my fics (positively of course!) then I would absolutely freak out.

If you were to break someone into the Twilight Fandom, what fic would you give them to read first?
That’s a tough one. I think Oracle Vas’s First Love Lost is a great start and doesn’t require any knowledge of the characters, however it also may not be so good as an intro because it’s an AH. So I think maybe NusiainForks Golden Moon, or Lillie Cullen’s Lesson In Release.

Can you suggest a fic to be recommended on the blog?
I think The Imprint Chronicles by mel.wolfgirl deserves way more love than it’s received, she’s the only author who makes me want Seth, and not in a little brother kind of way.

And now for a bit of fun…

Give a shout out to your team!
My beta Twiticulate is the most wonderful little lady I know. I can’t even remember what life was like without her, and we’ve only been working together for half a fic really. She pimps me out and has the patience to pull me out of the ditch when I’ve decided that my words have jumbled into nothingness. We have an absolute honesty policy and I can’t even imagine how hard it is for her to tell me when something needs work, but she does and I know that my stories will be so much better simply because I have her onboard. I just wish I could repay her for everything she does for me…
My prereader, Liamsgurl33 is also fabulous, she reads my stories at strange hours of the night and is often the last little boost of confidence I get before posting.
So a huge thanks to both of them!


Stephanie Meyer’s Bella… Strong, independent woman and a role model for all girls, or a sniveling, whiny, spineless twit? And do you that KStew makes a good Bella? Anybody you think could’ve done it better?
Terrible, terrible role model. A perfect lesson is how not to be strong and independent. Not only that but she is one of the most selfish characters I had ever read, but I was completely oblivious to this for the longest time. 
I have to be honest and say that bar Jacob and Charlie, I think the whole film was poorly cast. I know plenty of people who disagree, but that’s just how I see it. My beta and I went back and forth a few months ago over who we’d cast, dead or alive and it was really interesting who we came up with. I can’t remember who we thought would be a great Bella, but I think Mila Kunis was up there – probably too old though.

Ever imagine yourself in the place of a character in the fics you read? (It’s the lemons, isn’t it? Naughty naughty!)
Always – maybe that should have been my guilty pleasure!

Let’s say that your friends and family don’t know that you write fanfiction. You’re at the office, or the family get together, and someone mentions that they’ve be reading this fanfiction online. As you listen to them recount the details of this story, you realize with growing horror that this is your story! How do you react?
Go bright red, excuse myself in a completely obvious yet weird way and then secretly feel fantastic or forlorn, depending on what they thought of my writing. But I still don’t think it would give me the confidence to come out of the fanfic closet.

Thank you for participating!
Thank you for having me!