Lunaescence Archives :: Moderated Creative Writing Community

Contacting Me

Respect me, and I will respect you. I may be formal, but I am not unapproachable.

I do not mind if you call me KS, Kerri, Kerr, or something else along those lines, just not Kerr Bear. Kerrigan Sheehan is not my real name, though.

I do not keep social networking profiles. You won't find me on Twitter of Facebook. (This is for very serious personal reasons related to real life.)

To use the "Contact Author" form, please sign in. I have it set that way to eliminate potential spam. It will tell me you're from Lunaescence (In fact, I have a separate email for Lunaescence.), but it won't tell me your username, so you might want to include that.

If you're using any other method of contact, please let me know who you are and that you're from Luna.

Common Questions

When will X be updated? I can't say for certain. That's up to a conglomerate of factors including which project is most active at a given time, how busy I am, and the whims of my cat.

Why was my story denied? Chances are, you received an email for that. If it turned up blank, let me know and I'll give you a basic list.

Will you look at my story in the queue for me? That depends. If it's for a fic trade or some other challenge with an upcoming deadline, of course I will, regardless of how long it's been there. Otherwise, I request that you wait to ask until it's been there at a week at the very least. I'm not going to give priority to someone who asks as soon as they post unless there's a deadline involved.

Will you be my beta reader? I handle this on a case-by-case basis. It depends what you need a beta reader for (grammar, canon, general feel, etc.), how long the project is, and how busy I am. I don't like to shortchange people whose stories I'm beta reading, so I usually won't take on large beta projects when I know I'm about to be very busy. Generally, I can do up to about 5k quickly. Anything longer than 10k (in a chapter) is going to require me to set aside a decent chunk of time. I'll do it, but don't expect it back within an hour. It will probably take 1-3 days, depending on offline factors. I'll beta any canon and any content, but I won't tell you how good your lemon is or how in-canon something is, since I probably won't have a reference for that.

How do you create OF characters/universes? How do you write OF fantasy? Practice. I'm sorry I can't give you more specific knowledge. There are some general norms, and I wrote a guide for that, but it's something you really have to do for yourself to gain the experience, just like learing to walk, ride a bicycle, read, tie your shoes, play an instrument, etc.

Recommended Links

How to Write Good - A list of style rules written so they break themselves.

The 37 Dramatic Situations - Georges Polti's original 36 Dramatic Situations plus one he forgot, with examples.

Godchecker - A great mythology resource.

Kate Monk's Onomastikon - One of the best naming sites out there. It's aimed more at roleplayers and writers than new parents and has both first and last names.

About Me
My husband and I grew up in the same town in New England, though his job in the US Navy means that we live elsewhere. We're 20-something goths, well...basically goths (We don't go clubbing. We're boring like that.), who have cats instead of children. (See pictures below.) We do not watch television or own a television set. My husband identifies himself as agnostic. I am not religious, or even particularly spiritual, though I do not consider myself an atheist. I play the violin. My taste in music ranges from classical to folk metal. I like to read classic literature and some fanatsy. I'm quite shy, and I love history. I dress in a rather strange manner, including full skirts and corsetry, even when going grocery shopping. I'm less than 5'/1.5m tall and have an extreme hourglass figure and very long hair, so I look a little like a doll. I'm very camera-shy. I write original fiction, typically longer pieces, mostly fantasy and historical fiction. While I can often tell you who influenced a character or what influenced a particular chapter or short story, I don't really have one influence for everything. I started writing as a child, mostly little things here and there. Shortly before my eleventh birthday, I literally woke up one day and decided I was going to write a novel, and I did. I haven't stopped writing novels since. Although I am a musician and a writer, I cannot dance and have no skill with visual art, despite much serious effort at the latter.

Current Projects

Nevermore: The Heart Rested Inward

A Little Love Story

Corvi et Columbi

Noble Intentions

Heroes of the Skies

Goblin Tales

Unlike many authors, I don't put a percentage next to these. There are a few reasons for this. One is that, in most cases, I simply don't know how long something is going to be until I'm at least halfway through it, so I wouldn't be able to give an accurate percentage in many cases. Another is that I write most things by hand, meaning that some stories end up with several chapters written ahead of what's posted. I also tend to chapterdump, and there are instances where I might think that something is going to be a single chapter until I edit and split it into two (or even three) chapters, which messes up any count that I may have had.

Rules for Derivative Works
Derivative works of my original fiction series and stories are allowed with the following conditions:

Permission to post derivative works made with my characters extends only to Lunaescence and Fan Nation members posting on Lunaescence and/or Fan Nation. If you wish to post them on another site, let me know your username here and there and the name of the site. (FoS-FF is fine with me if the admins there are okay with it.) This is to avoid derivative works being confused with my canon.

Derivative works made with my characters and/or original worlds are not my canon. Do not consider them as canon. If you're writing one and posting it on a website where I post, please include a disclaimer.

If you'd like to post on Luna, let me know, and I'll create a category for you. (If you're an original fiction author on Luna with fans who want to post fanfiction here, I'll create the category for you if you send explicit permission and have a disclaimer in your profile/notes/author forum explicitly allowing it.)

Please do send me a link. If it's for a story or series that isn't complete, I'll put it into a list to read later. I'm not ignoring you. I'm just protecting myself (the way many authors do) from influence before a series is complete. Fanart, on the other hand, I'll view as soon as I get the link.

As an author of Adult+ fiction, I can't deny you writing such fiction about my own characters. Adult works are fine, but I have a few limitations, which are explicitly listed here. Bestiality and pedophilia are explicitly forbidden. (I'm fine with two older teens, but no adult/child relations. Go by the canon for age of consent in a particular story/series. If you're unsure, ask me or assume that it's eighteen.) Also, no out-of-canon (no romantic or sexual relationship explicitly stated in canon, "implied" or "read into it" doesn't count) sexual relations for stories or series that aren't complete. This is to protect you from accidentally creating an incestuous work, since not all relationships have been fully revealed in some works that are still in progress, including between some characters who know each other quite well otherwise. Other out-of-canon content is fine, though, as is out-of-canon sexual content for completed series or individual (not part of a series) stories. (For example, The War is part of an in-progress series, but Flowers of Cortia is an individual story.)

If you have canon-related questions of any type, ask me.

Have fun with it. Fan works are supposed to be enjoyable.

Cat Pictures
Then and Now