Our apologies, gentle readers (and writers!) - we completely neglected to update you about the results of the September fundraiser.

Once again, you folks proved how committed the Caryl fandom is to our OTP, generously funding the site's expenses (hosting and domain renewal) for another three years. Thank you so much! We cannot express how grateful we are to be able to continue to provide a home to all Caryl fanfiction, all the time.

We start September with two big announcements. Firstly, below you will find the details of our first fanfic challenge in several years - we hope you will be inspired to take part.

The second announcement is that, while we have been incredibly fortunate to have had enough funding to keep us going through the Caryl dark years, sadly funds are now running low. 

Our last funding drive was in 2021, and the money raised then and since has paid for upkeep costs through 2024!

We are incredibly grateful to those who have donated to the site in the past, and those who have set up a regular donation - you are seen and appreciated, friends! 

However, In order to continue Nine Lives as an active site, we need to ask for your help to boost the funds and keep the site going.

We want to keep being the Caryl safe haven you love and need through the next few years, so if you can help contribute to the running costs of the site, please click the donate button on the home page.

Thank you in advance for any donation, however small. 

FANFIC CHALLENGE - REUNIONS 

Reunited and it feels so good… After a long hiatus - enough time to take a slow boat to France and back - the Nine Lives Fanfic Challenge has returned!

To celebrate Carol’s return to the Walking Dead Universe, and the premiere of season two of TWD: Daryl Dixon The Book of Carol, we invite you to participate in the challenge by writing a fic on the theme of “Reunions”.

Just as we are reuniting with challenges, many fans are being reunited with The Walking Dead - all because we know this fall we will be witnessing another epic Caryl reunion, as Carol travels to France to find Daryl.

Your fic can be your imagining of the upcoming French reunion, or it can be any other kind of reunion. Maybe AU Caryl are attending their high school reunion? Maybe you want to expand on an already canon reunion between Carol and Daryl with new insight? Maybe pirate Caryl have a reunion on the high seas? 

Whatever kind of “Reunion” takes your fancy, here are the rules if you wish to take part in the challenge:

Challenge Dates - Submission date is September 28th; Posting date is September 29th (fics will be posted ahead of the Sunday evening premiere, to give you something to read as you wait.)

Open to - Fan Fiction (Caryl)

The Prompt - Write a story that deals with the theme of Reunion. Please remember, however, as this is a Caryl archive, the story must feature both Carol and Daryl prominently.

The Deadline - All submissions must be turned in by midnight on September 28th, Pacific Standard Time (PST).

Send a PM to tarascarol, subversivegrrl, or ikkleosu on the Nine Lives site that you want to enter the challenge. Even if you’re not sure you’ll have anything ready in time - let us know you’re planning on it. *YOU MUST DO THIS TO BE INCLUDED*

WRITE! Stories must be at least 100 words.

Multiple entries are allowed (and so veryyyy welcome)!

Do not upload it yet!

Submission Day is Saturday, September 28th – post your fic. It will not appear on the archive, but will enter our validation queue. Make sure you submit it under the Nine Lives Challenge category! Just like in challenges past, we will be suspending automatic validation for that day for all authors who enter the challenge. (This is one of the main reasons why you need to let an admin know you’ll be participating.)

Publication Day is Sunday, September 29th – We will post the master list and all of the challenges entries so everything shows up at once.

Any challenge fics posted before September 28th will be deleted. IF FOR SOME REASON you are unable to post on the 28th, please send a PM to one of the challenge mods - we will work with you.

Any questions? Post here or privately to one of the admins. Happy ficcing!

Nine Lives Archive is considering running a Fanfiction Challenge to help celebrate the upcoming premiere of Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol. We would like to gauge the interest of our members to see if this is something that would garner participation.

As Nine Lives software continues to age, we are seeing glitches and errors become more commonplace. Most recently, we are seeing author’s accounts randomly invalidated. We understand that this can be frustrating. In order for us to address these issues most effectively, it is imperative that you PM AN ADMIN FIRST AND FOREMOST. The shoutbox is not the place to address these issues. Please DO NOT post in the shoutbox if you are having issues posting a story, or difficulty with other site glitches. We appreciate your help in these matters. Thank you!

The year was 2014. The Walking Dead was in its fourth season. It’s been 9 outstanding years since Nine Lives, the first and only Caryl Archive, was founded. Our fandom has been through a lot but we have persevered, thanks in no small part to this community of Caryl fans who have put blood, sweat, and tears, not to mention words, on the line to craft this safe haven for all Caryl fans to enjoy wonderful stories about our favorite fictional duo, Carol Peletier and Daryl Dixon. We couldn’t continue to be here without all your love and support. Happy Nine Year Anniversary to Nine Lives Fanfiction Archive!

At times, Nine Lives works with and supports other Caryl-related fandom groups/sites. Events hosted by any of those are often promoted in the Events box on the front page.  However, these events/resources are not sponsored, run by, or connected with Nine Lives, the fanfiction archive.

At this time, Nine Lives Archive has a Tumblr, a Twitter, and of course, the archive itself. These are our official channels. Anything else Caryl related is not connected to us.

So, ducklings, we are aware of an intermittent fault with advanced search, where searching for specific categories/character(s)/etc produces zero results, or produces results that don't seem to relate to what you were looking for.

We've looked into it, but the same issue is currently not showing up on testing the script.

As a result, it's difficult to do anything about it. 

Our best suggestion for now is to try back at a later time. As we said, it's intermittent - a week or so ago it wasn't working at all, but the last couple of days we haven't been able to reproduce the problem.

Thanks for bearing with us!

We just wanted to share a heads up for the fanfiction community that it appears fanfiction.net is very much on the way out. The password recovery facility is no longer operating, at very least and those in the know seem to think the rest of the site may not be far behind. If you have fics housed at ff.net which are not archived elsewhere, you may want to back them up on your own devices, or rehouse them. We are of course open to any Caryl fics, and archiveofourown is probably the safest place for other fics.

With fanfic getting some attention from the general public recently, I thought this might be a good thing to share, especially if you get questions about the validity of fanfic as a creative outlet.

Is fan fiction legit?

And if you have any doubts that you are in good company -

"...most of the shit we think of as brilliant masterpieces ARE fanfic. The Hours is just a retelling of Mrs. Dalloway. Hag Se[ed] is The Tempest. Cinder is Cinderella. The Coming of the Dragon is Beowulf. Shakespeare actually wrote ONE play -- the rest are his creative reimaginings of other source material."

Wide Sargasso Sea is based on Jane Eyre. So.  Have at it, lovelies.

First off ..... Omg really!!!  me! Member of the Month - I really am truly honoured and definitely not at all worthy haha. Thank you so much xxx (bit nervous about doing this but here goes ....) 

1) Who are your favorite Caryl Authors?

There are soooo many - all wonderfully talented people, please never stop writing, you keep me sane.  This is definitely my happy place and I love you all.  

If I had to choose a few they would probably be Silversundown, Caryl is Daryl's Favorite Meal, Coreenfw, Amanda Hawthorne, Charlotte Ashmore, That1VT, Icanstopanytime, marie1063 my list is endless and I could go on and on.  I know that there are a lot more authors I haven't even looked at yet so I'm sure some of my favorites I am still yet to find :)

2) Favorite Caryl fics of the last 12 months?

Off the top of my head - Jumper Cables, Warriors, Married at First Sight (I loved his so much),  Someone Else's Star, Liberty & Justice, Barriers Within.   The fic that sticks in my head is the very first fic I read on here  (think you always remember your first) which is foreverlovingdaryldixon's Bad Seed Rising - sigh, this story got me hooked on this site so bad. 

3)  Favorite Fic Trope?

I have two (sorry I'm greedy :) )  either ZA or AU/young Caryl or present (i'm not fussy at all). First is Jealous Caryl (as long as its innocent or mistaken) no other people involved of course haha and second I love a slow burn, angsty fic that almost kills me when I read it but omg it is so worth it when they finally get together.  Waiting for those chapter updates and getting excited when I get notifications haha lord, I'm so sad!!!!  Oh and the smut, lets be honest loooool (did I actually say that).

4)  What would you like to see more of, or what haven't you see in a fic that you would like to see?

I honest to god, hand on heart, don't know how you authors think of these stories.  The twists/turns and surprises/plots are sublime, you are all truly amazing.  

What would I like to see more of hmmmm ... ooo I would love to read a fic where Caryl have a full on argument, a massive shouty, no holding back, row where they spill everything from Beth's death (Daryl being an arse to Carol on the road after her death), the whole Tobin thing (yuk), Carol leaving Alexandria, Daryl being jealous of KZ etc- I would love that .. is that too much!!!! haha

5) What made you start shipping Caryl?

The search for Sophia, the Cherokee Rose, you're every bit as good as them, the forehead kiss - sigh, I can't loose you too, the way he held her when Sophia came out the barn and he sat with her in the RV, the argument (I don't want you here), the intense way he stares at her, her little smiles at him.  Need I say more.  They have so much history/chemistry, its really sad how badly things have turned out on the show, so many missed opportunities.  

Thank you so much for making me member of the month, I know my answers are a bit hopeless but thats why I am not a writer and just an avid, totally besotted reader haha.  I also apologise for my reviews, as you can tell i'm not very good with words or expressing myself (other than swearing, sorry!) hahaha.  

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart and please carry on writing, I don't know what I would do without you :)

1.  Favorite Caryl authors? 

Honestly?  I have a soft spot for all Caryl authors.  Each and every one.  That said, I do have a not-so-short list of go-to authors for when I'm wanting to really indulge in my Caryl feels and just cuddle up on a rainy day with my big, fuzzy blanket.  

This is by no means a comprehensive list because I'm sure I'm going to forget somebody, but there are some authors that, whenever I see their username attached, I do a little happy dance.  Okay.  Alright.  It's mostly an internal happy dance consisting of a wearing a huge grin and making noises that sound remarkably similar to a happy seal that make my kittehs go WTF and any family members present officially question my sanity, but whatever. 

lilabut, silversundown, carol_is_daryls_favorite_meal, darylsdiva1, EleanorK, ICanStopAnytime, NotLaura, queenpeletier, Haitus80, ramblinrose, whowhatsitwhich, lamport, and more. 

2.  Favorite Caryl fics of the last 12 months? 

Jumper Cables, A House of Cards, Predestination, Cat Tales, Maybe It's Just Us, Reaping the Harvest just to name a few.  I don't get to read as much as I'd like, but these fics just completely sucked me in and wouldn't let me go.

3.  Favorite fic trope?

Friends to lovers, of course.  C'mon.  Basically, if it's been used on the X-Files, I'm guaranteed to go gaga over it. I'm a sucker for the whole fake relationship/dating trope.  If there's only one room/bed, I'm probably going to lose my mind.  Marriages of convenience appeal to the little girl in me that still adores the book/movie Sarah Plain and Tall.  Truly, if they still sound and act in ways reminscent of Carol and Daryl even in the most foreign of circumstances, I'm going to give it a chance.  If if flows and you use pretty words (hello, whowhatsitwhich), if you have an interesting plot (hi, silversundown), if you literally make me ache for these two characters (*waves* at lilabut), or give me any other method to drown myself in my feelings for them, I'm in.

4.  What would you like to see more of, or what haven't you seen in a fic that you would like to see? 

 Take me back to the Farm and the Prison.  That's where we all fell in love, right?  Give me more fics where Sophia was found/survived.  Somebody go back and rework the whole damn show from Season 5A on.  That's where the wheels started to fall off, if you ask me.  Prison Caryl were so flirty and hopeful and full of potential and I miss them.  Help me rediscover that old loving feeling.  Give me more stories where instead of growing apart on the long road to Alexandria, Carol and Daryl grew together instead.  Or, just have them split off on their own because that's always ripe for some good story that TPTB aren't going to give us any time soon.  Aid me in drowning in my feels.  I promise, I'll welcome it.  Oh, and I'm always up for the AUs. 

5. What made you start shipping Caryl?

Season 2.  That's it.  That's the Season that I fell for them--hook, line, and sinker.  She was so sad and hurting for Sophia and he was so sweet and soft with her even though he was still mostly the rough, grumbly redneck with everyone else. Literally.  Daryl was the only one that made Sophia a priority when everyone else was caught up in their own troubles and Season 2 and that arc is where his Carol voice originated, so yeah.  Season 2 sunk me forever and always.  Season 3 did damage of a different sort because I'll forever lament that TPTB never fulfilled all that flirty promise onscreen for us.  The timing was as good as it's going to get and they really were their best selves, but I'll hush on that before I make myself sad.  They could have stayed at that Prison for the duration of the show and made a life there and I wouldn't have complained in the least. 

 ... and the chemistry.  Melissa McBride and Norman Reedus have a special sort of transcendent chemistry I've only enjoyed a few times before.  They literally just have to look at each other and whole novels of history flows between their characters.Their shared and separate storylines initially drew me to them, but it's their chemistry that makes me a forever fan. 

But anyway.  I've rambled more than enough. 

Thank you so much for choosing me and thank you to all of you lovelies that help make this place my Caryl happy place. 

What a way to start off the new year. 

Congratulations to imothelimo, who is November's Member of the Month!

Ooh thank you! This is exciting.

1.) Who are your favorite Caryl authors?

ICanStopAnytime, carol_is_Daryls_favorite_meal and coreenfw. Thanks guys for writing such amazing fanfics!

2.) Favorite Caryl fics of last 12 mos?

It's got to be Maybe It's Just Us by Carol_is_Daryls_favorite_meal. It was funny, original and brought me right back to those beautiful prison days. I'd recommend it to anyone that wants a happy Caryl story to remind them of why we shipped those two in the first place.

3.) Favorite Fic trope

Friends to lovers, seeing as that's how Caryl will become canon!

4.) What would you like to see more of, or what haven’t you seen in a fic that you would like to see?

I'd love to see more funny but emotive stories that really take Caryl back to the "good old days" of Season 2-5. I haven't seen (there may be one I've missed) a fic of 5x06 consumed where Carol and Daryl are on that bunk bed but don't get disturbed by walkers - I'd love to see how that turns out!

5.) What made you start shipping Caryl?

Season 2, hands down. This angry, aggressive redneck who we disliked in Season 1 risked his life to find a little girl because he couldn't stand to watch her mother cry. And then this man transformed into one with feelings, that would bring this woman a Cherokee rose because he thought it would give her hope (when she needed it the most), and would then apologize (likely for the first time ever) because he hurt her.  

Furthermore, this woman told him (likely for the first time ever) that he was important, that he was worth something, that he was a good person. She gave him hope (when he needed it the most)  and was the first person to truly care about him. Carol and Daryl both transformed that season because of each other.

Even if you put all this deep emotional stuff aside, Carol and Daryl were basically eye-f***ing each other the whole season. The chemistry and sexual tension was off the scale.

It should be a crime that TPTB didn't canonize them in the Season 3/4 interlude. What a waste of potential.

However, this archive hosts a cornucopia of talented writers that can appreciate this beautiful relationship and have written more in-character and interesting plots than they ever did, so thank you again. Let's keep reading, writing and sharing joy. Caryl on lovelies <3

Wow, it's October already? Time to announce an new Member of the Month - congratulations to icanstopanytime!

Thank you!

1.) Favorite Fanfiction Authors? I first made my way over here because of one of Trogdor19's stories, but I've since found many other authors to enjoy, including silversundown, correnfw, and more.

2.) Favorite fanfictions in last 12 mos? My favorite fic that I've completed reading recently is Hers to Love, His to Protect 

3.) Favorite fic trope? "Friends to lovers," but I suppsoe that's kind of par for the course for Caryl...

4.) What would you like to see more of, or what haven’t you seen in a fic that you would like to see?  I'd love to see more non-AU stories set in the ZA and more or less within the strictures of canon. I understand the preference for writing AU given where the show is going, but I'd like to see more set within the world of the show. I'd also like to see more post-series stories and more "missing scenes" filling in the gaps within the show.   

5.) What made you start shipping Caryl?  For me, it was definitely that Cherokee rose scene when he brings her the flower and explains its significance. When I first started watching the Walking Dead, I did so a few seasons after it started airing and binge watched season 1-3. In that particular scene, as a new viewer, I already, that early on, got the impression that Daryl was falling in love with Carol.  In that scene, they were two very broken people with similar stories who seemed they could find comfort in one another, and their relationship appeared to be developing from there....So I was pretty dissapointed later when it seemed the writers just dropped that angle and stopped developing their relationship. 

Let's hear it for our September Member of the Month: Pooh120! 

1.) Favorite Fanfiction Authors?

Rambling rose, Thatlvt, charotteashmore, BettyBubble, Krissy927... I love everone and the work they do to share their writing.

2.) Favorite fanfictions in last 12 mos?

Liberty and Justice - Ramblingrose. Best friends sister - Thatlvt, Dont kiss - BettyBubble, Until last breath - Silver sun...There so many...Starting all over again - Amweaker...And many more

3.) Favorite fic trope?

Au love the different interactions..

4.) What would you like to see more of, or what haven’t you seen in a fic that you would like to see?

More AU and would love more McReedus 

5.) What made you start shipping Caryl? 

When Daryl helped Carol look for sophia...The bond they share is amazing.

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