Following an author’s path from AO3 to getting published is such a trip. Mandatory disclaimer that it’s important as a fan not to get delusional, overfamiliar, or parasocially weird about it, and to remember that you don’t actually know them as private people. But as long as you (and I) remember that, we can bask in the sheer wealth of hilarity that presents itself to the longterm fan.
- The author of the Hugo and Locus-winning Teixcalaan series met and courted her future wife (the author of the Greta Helsing series) on AO3, in the public comment section of a Kylo Ren/Hux fic the latter was writing.
- More than a decade ago, the author of the Locus-winning, Hugo and Nebula-nominated Locked Tomb series wrote a gift fic that features, among other irl people I can’t identify, the future author of the Homestuck Epilogues, the future character designer of Hiveswap, the future author of the Teixcalaan series, herself, and a well-respected Classics scholar from Oxford. As Homestuck trolls.
- The person mentioned in the Locked Tomb’s dedications has an AO3 account where you can read all of his novel-length Homestuck fic. The same person also features in the acknowledgements, and I don’t know how ironic the author is when she implies that she still thinks of him as her moirail.
- The Astounding Award winning author of the WFA-winning Greenhollow Duology served as the beta reader for the free online version of the space opera romance novel Winter’s Orbit. She had to resort to obscene stick figures to explain why the sex scene wasn’t working yet.
- Naomi Novik. Basically everything about Naomi Novik, in perpetuity.