Aw, hurrah for fests and being emboldened! \o/ (Good luck with both of them!)

I wonder why I always place myself in fandom corners that no one is particulary interested in. A sub-concious fear of being read, perhaps?

I have wondered this, too. I think while I've been ill, it may actually be true. And of course, partly because you just love what you love and there you are.

Your rationale for liking dark fics is interesting. I'm sort of the opposite - I'm not especially into dark things generally, and even less so in fanfic if the canon doesn't feel particularly dark. (So I bounce off DW dark fic quite hard, unless maybe it's just a drabble, or a particular corner that it seems to fit with, but I expect a certain amount of dark in Blake's 7 or Spooks or something. And I'm fine to write unhappy, bleak stuff. Just not to read it.) Of course, some of that is being ill too - less ability to cope with some of the darker stuff. It is weird, and though, as you say, you've got to write what you love. This fanfic game is for fun, not money after all. :-)