During the frosty months the boards held a simple fanworks contest for members. It was kind of a small, closed affair about which no fuss was made which is why it’s not so surprising that we only received two entries. But both are wonderful tales of a wintry setting written by Clement Rage and Tennyo (aka Nentikobe). In a vote on the boards, Clement Rage was determined the winner of the contest however both stories are fantastic! Take a moment here to read these incredible stories and check out the interview questions with the authors below!

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The Taste of Snow, by Clement Rage
Note: The author has asked us not to publicly share the link to this story.

Can you give us a summary of your piece?
A little hard to do, it’s basically a selection of little snippets to do with how Cloud and Tifa relate to their hometown and each other, loosely based around the Christmas song ‘Fairytale in New York’. It’s something I’ve been thinking about doing for years, that I never quite got around to until now.

What prompts did you use?
I just went with the ‘snowy subject or setting’ brief because I already had what I wanted to do in mind. Normally I’d use the prompts offered, but in this case they didn’t fit the story I wanted to write.

What would you say is the message or theme of your work?
I try to avoid writing from themes, I think stories suffer from being tied to one a lot of the time (not saying I succeed, but I try). For this one if there is a message it would be a kind of recognition of how much both of these people have been through, how scarred they are, but also how much they mean to each other. ‘Cynical optimism’ could maybe be a way of describing it.

Do you write any other fanfiction?
I’ve written fanfic for a while now, most of it not work I could stand over today, but some of it I’ve been fairly proud of. I tend to write a lot of OCs, which sometimes have a bad reputation in fanfic, but they can be a useful way to explore a setting.

Have you been inspired by any other fanfiction authors?
Far too many to list, I’ve been reading fanfic for a long time now, and most things you read will have influence in some way. I could start throwing out names, but I’m sure I’d leave people out. LicoriceAllsorts has always been very supportive, though. Biggest influences from published works are probably Terry Pratchett and Steven Erikson.

What are your hopes for future fanworks contests?
Well, I would hope that future fanworks competitions have more entries. I posted mine far too early because I was expecting to be very busy by the closing date. I ended up having more time than I expected, which I spent hoping at least one other person would enter. But seriously, judging by the Halloween contest and Tennyo’s entry to this one, I think we can expect plenty of great stories and beautiful art.

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A Shared Sorrow, by: Tennyo
Read the story Here

Can you give us a summary of your work?
I wanted my story to cover something that isn’t very common to see in fanfiction. I went with the confrontation between Cloud and Elena and Icicle Inn. I’ve always felt like this scene had a lot of untapped dramatic potential. Cloud is dealing with the loss of Aerith, and Elena is dealing with the possible loss of Tseng. Two people on opposing sides both dealing with grief and guilt. The game treats it like a joke (if you dodge Elena’s punch, that is) but I thought it was worth exploring in a more serious light.

What prompts did you use?
I did not use any of the prompts other than the requirement of the story taking place in a winter setting.

What would you say is the main theme or message of your work?
I don’t know if my story really had a message per say, but I wanted it to have a feeling of grief. I had this idea of Cloud and Elena both being two people dealing with loss at this point in the story, and I wanted to show how each one was dealing with that pain. I also thought it would be interesting having two enemies going up against each other who are each dealing with a similar issue.

Do you write any other fanfiction?
I have. My name on fanfiction.net is Nentikobe. I’ve had this account long before I started using Tennyo, although I don’t have a lot, but I’ve been feeling inspired to write more lately.

What other fanfiction authors have you been inspired by?
Probably all my peeps here on TLS. I probably wouldn’t have started having the itch to write fanfiction again without all of you.

What expectations do you have for future TLS Fanworks Contests?
For myself or just in general? For myself I will budget my time better to make sure my story is more ironed out as well as not late. In general, I hope to see more participation. I was really looking forward to reading some great stories but there were only two of us.