About
I'm Hal "HJ" Bender. I've been writing fanfiction since 1995. I didn't know it was called fanfiction until 1997, when I became active in the online fandom community. I taught myself HTML and began building websites around 1998, although it wasn't until 2001 that I was finally able to publish my first webpage on the internet. In 2002 I bought my first domain, and though it's changed names twice, I've been running the same personal fandom archive for over 20 years.
A Wayback cap of my first published website circa 2002.
By some miracle a portion of it is still up on Angelfire.
My current hobbies include writing fanfiction, drawing fanart, making GIFs and edits, basically all things fandom. These days you can find me hanging out on Tumblr almost exclusively.
In the pre-AO3 internet days, I helped build archives, designed skins, hosted LiveJournal Communities, and maintained websites for fandoms I am no longer active in but that remain very close to my heart, particularly the Alex Rider Slash archive and the Good Omens Library.
I've been in many fandoms over the years, including (in chronological order):
- Ronin Warriors/Yoroiden Samurai Troopers
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Gundam Wing
- Lord of the Rings
- Good Omens
- Van Helsing
- Metalocalypse
- Ghost Rider
- X-Men
- Jurassic Park III
- Band of Brothers
- Alex Rider
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
- Young Guns II
- Captain America
- Thor
- Star Wars: Rebels
- Danny Phantom
When it comes to fandom, I'm from the old school of "don't like, don't read" and "ship and let ship". The only thing I’m "anti" is censorship. I support creative freedom and AO3/OTW. I have a strict block-and-ignore policy when it comes to antis and all forms of morality wank. I do not tolerate harassment of real people over fiction for any reason. No, not even those "really gross" things.
