Q: Where do you get your story ideas?
A: The stories I write tend to be a side effect of spending most of my time in an imaginary world, and building on what happens there. Sometimes a line from a song or from another story grabs my attention, and a whole different story slowly grows from that fragment.

Q: Will you give me a story idea?
A: Maybe. If I can think of one that I don't want to write myself. And even if I do, the idea will probably be very vague.

Q: What's your real name?
A: As if I'd tell you over the Internet. Sarah will do.

Q: Did you base the first part of your name on the Sarah Lee pancake brand?
A: I didn't even know there was a pancake brand named Sarah Lee until I was asked this question.

Q: How old are you?
A: Nineteen.

Q: Are you an author in real life?
A: Working on that. I've got a few partly-written books, and seven written ones. Unfortunately, most of those books are in a badly-written series, and will need a lot of editing before they are publishable.

Q: Could you give me some writing tips?
A: To avoid the appearance of arrogance, I should mention that this is one of those questions that I actually have been asked. Anyway, here's the list of tips, which is badly in need of updating when I get around to it:

1. The characters are arguably the most important part of any story. If the characters are interesting, people will want to read about them no matter what they're doing. If they're boring, they could save Neopia and I doubt a single reader would care.

2. DON'T RUSH THINGS. This is a mistake commonly made among authors, as they skip from one important scene to another, resulting in an overdramatic, overdone, and rather corny story. Add a bit of everyday life into the mix. Let the characters talk and banter between dramatic battles and narrow escapes. Start a snowball fight (paper wads work too). Mention a quirky idiosyncrasy (for those of you who don't read the dictionary, an idiosyncrasy is something unique or interesting about a character that helps define their personality). Little things like that that add substance to a story can make all the difference.

3. Be descriptive in your writing, but don't explode a blood vessel in your head trying to make every description dramatic. Simply tell things the way you imagine them, and try to find comparisons that other people will understand, and that will help them create a better mental picture of whatever you're trying to describe. Originality in this area doesn't hurt, either.

4. Try to be creative and find ways of saying things that other people don't normally use (Example: instead of saying, "The snow fell off the tree branch and landed on his head", try something like "The branch's sparkling burden chose that moment to answer gravity's call and dive-bomb its unsuspecting victim"). I've often found that using that method, describing the actions of an inanimate object as if it were alive, adds wit and colour to a scene.
   OK, that's all I can think of for now.

   Q: Can I use your character(s) in one of my stories?
   A: I don't have a corner on Lord Darigan or Sloth or Dr_Death or any of these other official Neopets characters, so you don't even need to ask me to use them; but as for my own characters, feel free to use the side ones, like Konar, Rorn, Boloro or Togthar, for example, just so long as you ask first and mention that they're mine. As for the main ones, like Tamiya, Tenultra, Filora Evenlight or Miaglo Darkwind, you DEFINITELY ought to get my permission first. If I know you and your writing well enough to know that you won't mess up my characters, I'll probably say yes.

   Q: Will you be my Neofriend?
   A: I ended up blocking Neofriend requests, due to the inexplicable glut of people who would Neofriend me and then vanish into the sunset before we'd even said 'hello'. I've pretty much quit making exceptions for the 'no pressing the Neofriend button' rule. The only time I do it is when I have a long-established friend that I want to be sure to stay in touch with.

   Q: Will your pet fight mine in the Battledome?
   A: Only if we've confirmed over Neomail that we're both on at the same time. I HATE it when people challenge me to a fight and then never show up, so I blocked Bdome challenges.

   Q: Are you going to write any more stories?
   A: As I said above, right now I'm concentrating on my real-life writing, so probably not for a while.

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   Any questions I missed? Feel free to Neomail me on my main account!