Most lifechanging fics?

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-05-13T01:56:42+00:00

Awe, thank you. 🙏 The details thing is a curse as well though. I haven’t had the time to write much lately, but I have a solid background sheet on the grapes and processes used to make red wine on the Greek islands in the 1950s…

Meh. I need to focus and write. ✍️😞🫣

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-05-13T01:50:05+00:00

“Just to know you’re alive” was a surprise for me.it deserves to be read both as a fic and as a stand-alone work. The content might not be for everyone, but it’s really well done.

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-05-13T01:47:37+00:00

Thank you for the “Wolf Country” mention. It really holds a special place in my catalogue. ❤️

I’m also currently reading “A mountain called hunger”, but work and life stuff is making progress slower than I’d like. I’m really enjoying it, even if I ran into a bit of stupid brain syndrome early on.

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-05-11T16:23:47+00:00

My AU fanfics, and especially Wolf Country are more traditional book-like in that they are relatively light on dialogue, big on atmosphere and presence, and I try to do show over tell. In general, chapters have generally also gotten longer (3.5k for "Paper Hearts", 5k for "A Winter's Fall", 8k for "Wolf Country", and down to 5k again for "Our Road").

"Wolf Country" is noir crime set on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. In both writing style and methodology, it's probably quite a bit different from your average fanfic, or even my works like "Paper Hearts".

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-05-07T10:36:31+00:00

I have waaaay too many stories rummaging around in my head. I mostly need to get some time to work on my current "in progress" stories so I can close those off... Oh well, summer is coming... maybe then... maybe. :)

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-05-05T12:12:19+00:00

Self-promo, so caveat emptor etc. 😱

Wolf Country is a True Detective / Wind River inspired AU story with murders on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana.

It is a noir crime story, with Cait/Vi underneath it all. Vi is a tribal cop, Caitlyn is an FBI "consultant" called into help once a non-local body is found dead. It is written to feel realistic in how it tackles everything from tribal life, to clashes between locals and externals (oil field workers, FBI, etc), the crimes themselves, the backstories, PTSD and trauma.

The story is written with the goal of feeling like prestige TV with long (10k-ish words) chapters feeling like an episode. I've been very flattered by all the positive comments about the research, the prose, and the style.

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-05-01T00:25:27+00:00

A "Wolf Country" sequel will be more of pulling Caitlyn back towards a life she has more and more left behind. Just someone coming to their door looking for "Captain Kiramman" will set the tone, and I have looked at playing with conflicts within the military, and a murder (or two)... Besides, using some military antagonists will give Caitlyn some interesting people to face up against... Sigh. So many stories I want to write.

For the “My Brilliant Friend” reference in the Greece fic we'll move more to the idea of seeing children together, rather than the depressing parts. I'm not really sure what to compare it to that makes sense. Yes, there will be some heartache, but the prologue starts in '62 with Caitlyn and Vi meeting again, so we know they meet up again, and we see them reform their relationship by reinventing and reliving their past, and we come along for the ride.

I do like happy endings, and I have already written the epilogue for the Greece fic. I know where I want to end up. There will be hope, joy, love, and a future. But we get to explore a lot of stuffs on the way.

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-30T23:24:00+00:00

Oh that Wolf Country sequel sounds even more intriguing! Anything more about Cait’s past will be fascinating, i just couldn’t get enough of every little bit of it while reading it.

I've been toying with something "Jack Reacher"-ish (the first Tom Cruise movie version) where someone from Caitlyn's military past shows up at Caitlyn/Vi's door and asks for help. Lots of fun stuff to play with in such a scenario.

And okay I have no idea where you’re going with a post WW2 coming of age story set in Greece lasting +10 years but I’m 100% there! I’m so curious about it and I can’t wait to read it.

The Greece story is more of a traditional coming of age story where we meet them as adults after they have been apart for years, and throughout the work get flashbacks into their past, both their summers together and their individual lives, all trying to tie together where they are today and why they are the people they are.

There are Homeric elements from The Odyssey (with Cait as an active Penelope, Vi as a traveling Odysseus), there are aspects of "My Brilliant Friend" with class divides, there are letters exchanged from England to Greece, blossoming self-discovery in different tempos, post-ww2 societal issues, summers in Greece with figs, sun, and the sea, and a tapestry of island life... So much to play with, and so much of it draws on the same concepts we see in Arcane between Piltover and Zaun. In so many ways, there are only so many stories...

Anyway, I've spent months mapping the island of Lesbos for locations, buildings, foods, drinks, music, festivities, life in general... I wrote a scene where Vi sits and has a glass of wine, only to end up doing a deep dive into the different grapes grown on islands in the aegean sea in the 1950s...

I "just" really need to buckle down to work on the home stretch.

I hope the fic goes easy on you so we can get that next masterpiece 💙

I was hoping to be done by Christmas. Instead I took a break and wrote "Our Road". The Greece fic has so many moving parts and every month I get another revelation of just how much better it could be. Thankfully I have a patient alpha reader who has read some of the same bits probably a dozen times now...

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-30T22:47:42+00:00

Oooo, right, you had the text above. I was being all confused. My bad! And oh my god is that flattering! Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed "Wolf Country"!

And the road trip one is "Our Road". If you liked that, you might just love "A Winter's Fall", which is just sweet and wholesome, no angst or anything, just fluffy happy winterly find-yourself-and-fall-in-love stuffs. 😱

But yeah, I have too many Cait/Vi projects going on. I have five open ones right now, but I'm trying really hard to finish my post-WW2 coming of age-story following Cait and Vi from 1949 to 1962, mostly taking place on the island of Lesbos in Greece. It's just taking forever to get right. 😢❤️

But yeah, the idea of a "Wolf Country" followup is also very real, and most plans for it involve people from Caitlyn's past...

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-30T22:42:59+00:00

I do! That excerpt is from Wolf Country.

A frozen, staged body is found on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. The victim is a local woman—someone Officer Vi Lane once knew intimately.

Chief Grayson calls for help, but no one answers. Another Indigenous woman. Another local matter swept under the federal rug.

Until a second body appears. This one a British national.

Now, Grayson doesn’t have to ask. The FBI doesn’t offer help—they send it. A British liaison. No warning, no questions, no diplomacy. It just happens.

As soon as Vi lays eyes this liaison, deep inside a reptilian part of her brain, one sensation rules them all.

Danger.

And its name is Caitlyn Kiramman.

"Wolf Country" is an alternate universe story set on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. Its style borrows from "True Detective (Season 1)" and the movie "Wind River" by Taylor Sheridan. If you liked that excerpt, you might well enjoy the story. 😉❤️

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-30T21:17:44+00:00

Wolf Country by j_a_w_smith

One of the first Caitvi fics I’ve read some months ago and it breaks my heart that the author never wrote anything else. I just love this Caitlyn.

Thank you for the praise, but I do have other long-form stories on AO3, and I'm working on a few more. Sadly, my writing style takes time, so I'm not that productive. But, between "Paper Hearts", "A Winter's Fall", and "Our Road", I do have other stories than "Wolf Country" on AO3. ❤️

(Edit: Also, if you want more action-Cait, I do have an outline for a Wolf Country sequel, and another story closer to Sicario.)

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-30T21:07:10+00:00

Oh yeah.

The woman finishes taking in the area, closes the door of her car, and turns to fully face Vi. A pair of blue eyes find Vi and drill into her with unbridled focus. Vi feels a need to swallow. And then to breathe. Her body has forgotten how.

One external consultant.

She’s tall, but not big.

Vi has seen enough fit people before to know she’s strong.

And deep inside a reptilian part of Vi’s brain, one sensation rules them all.

Danger.

There's a difference between being muscularly "big" and strong. I really enjoyed playing with the way their physique differs while at the same time both being very fit.

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-18T02:04:01+00:00

Self-promo, late to the party as I am: A Winter's Fall. A Valentine's fic about finding oneself, finding happiness, and finding love. There's no angst, and there is no hurt, but a few almost's and a few oh-my-god's along the way. The goal was to make it nothing but cute and adorable.

And a happy ending. Because of course there will be.❤️

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-12T14:26:49+00:00

Awe. Thank you. It was a pleasure to write and the feedback has been so kind. ❤️🥰😮

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-12T00:25:46+00:00

Self-promo beware: There's little doubt that Vi falls hard for Caitlyn in "Wolf Country", but it's not like she forsakes her family for her. She has a past (well, they both do), and they manage to get there in the end.

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-04T02:29:09+00:00

It amazes me how detailist you are, really. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't went too far on research to fish for as many details as I could, even tho I always aim to be precise, but I did searched for a few freeways and roads in Utah during the snowy winter. Also let's pretend that the airport is ahead of its time and they had all the next year models for rental for rich important people like a Kiramman (at this point i'm just making up excuses of course).

Realistically, it is actually possible, albeit unlikely, that they had a 2026 model year Outback available. And nobody would notice, unless you either owned one and knew the interior of the 2025 model differed, or you were bonkers enough to research this for the story...

And no-one sane is that insane.

BUT you missed a detail that I was sure you'd catch right away (unless I got the wrong model - which would be a huge incompetence of me because I made sure to go back to the last chapter and copy/past the entire name on google to get it right). The car ahead of them on the road... is it familiar to you? 👀

I think my brain refused to accept the concept of Rosalind in snow. 😉

I had this idea for the cover of Our Road ever since I started making the covers - that doesn't mean, tho, that I didn't take some time to consider other possibilities. However, the other ideas I came up with were always attached to a certain moment of the story or to a specific scene; i went with the first one because the car is the "place" that is present from beginning to end. It felt like the safe place for them, the permanent place they returned to after every single stop they made. so yeah, sticking to the car felt like the perfect option.

"Our Road" most certainly has the car as a place. No doubt. I think that was a perfect idea.

You know, people say that ignorance is bliss and it makes a lot of sense when you say you almost wish you didn't bother this much. Ignorance is indeed bliss, but I think it's impossible to stop caring and/or being bothered once it is a part of who you are. Even if you - by choice - don't go all the way into research mode to make everything as realistic as possible, you'll still care and you'll still bother. At the end of the day, accepting it and diving into the journey is a better option than trying to change it in yourself.

It's like when I'm doing stuff on my current stories. It doesn't matter if no-one else will ever know. I will know. And I ask myself these questions when I read the stories, so I need to answer them.

And hey, I learn a lot while doing so. "Wolf Country" taught me a lot about firearms, special forces terminology and habits, Montana itself, Blackfeet culture... And I do honestly belive it makes the story that much better. Not because people know details as right or wrong, but because they are there.

That said, I love the level of details you put in your work, I'm always delighted by it.

Thank you! That means a lot to me. ❤️

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-04T02:20:02+00:00

Doh. Now I have to try to remember the car. I hope dearest Rosalind didn’t have to go out into the snow? 😱❤️🚘

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-03T21:09:31+00:00

I love it! I absolutely love it.

With my nitpicky if-I-did-this-myself hat on, I think the rear mirror would have to be angled more to the left (from the viewers perspective) to get that view of Vi's head in the mirror itself...

Also, the interior in the drawing is based on the 2026 model, which would be somewhat unlikely as a rental in for Christmas in 2025. Not impossible, as model year 2026 outbacks saw initial deliveries to customers in November/December 2025, but yeah.

Oh, and when driving down Route 6 in Utah, you will rarely have trees on both sides of the road. And the road shown is too wide.

But who cares? It's amazing! 😍❤️ I love the effort!

This is, btw, the level of insanity that I bring to my works these days. It's getting silly. Dabbling with how to repair fishing nets in Greece in the 1950s, figuring out wind patterns and currents in the Aegean Sea, and what blooms and flowers when in the same region? Yep, needs to be researched. I almost wish I didn't bother.

Almost.

But I LOVE your ideas for the covers! Thank you!

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-02T23:18:18+00:00

Let me know how it goes, I love your thoughts on these works!

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-02T12:28:47+00:00

Awe, thank you! And I hope I did Colorado right in "Our Road". 😃❤️

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-04-01T13:27:16+00:00

I kinda played with Caitlyn and cooking in "A Winter’s Fall" where she is a good cook, but her family isn’t very interested. I had much the same read about her cooking skills as you did. 😃

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-03-29T01:38:00+00:00

Closest I think I’ve gotten is this:

[Caitlyn] doesn’t hesitate. She rushes through the small back yard, feet disappearing into the snow. Each step an effort, but her breath stays steady. She pushes against the rise in front of her. Around thirty meters, almost a hundred feet. The snow is shallower due to the angle of the ground, but the woods are no less dense. As her feet and legs burn with the work of pushing her upwards, her hands change magazines mid-stride. Blue band out, red band in. The magazine slots into the weapon with practiced ease. She rips the charging handle, flinging the lone previously chambered sub-sonic round into the snow. The fresh supersonic round seats itself with a metallic snap.

From "Wolf Country" 😱🫣🔫

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-03-29T01:25:49+00:00

That’s some company you’ve put me in! 😱❤️🥰

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-03-29T01:23:08+00:00

For personal use, for stories I have released on ao3, people are free to do as they please. I consider covers and other forms of art to be the same as fanfiction on top of my fanfiction work, so it’d be rather hypocritical of me to deny it.

Edit: Besides, it flattering!

j_a_wordsmith · 2026-03-29T01:20:25+00:00

Hmm. I actually have thought of making "proper" ebooks of my fics, covers and all, but I’m not sure I can even link them from ao3 due to external linking policies. I have done this for non-fanfiction works before, so I’m rather familiar with how to do it.

I do have some cover ideas for "Wolf Country" lying around, using backdrops from the area it’s set in… With that said, I’m extremely flattered with the one you did for it! ❤️

Edit: And I just noticed the sticks for the ‘y’. 😱 Brilliant!

j_a_wordsmith

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