happiness take 2 xD

This morning I’m happy. Simple as that!

The sun is shining, it’s almost fifty degrees out, and I’m seeing all my friends today in civics class + chorus + band! Two hour band practice! I also rediscovered Lily Allen — who actually is a bit like a british Katy Perry, only Lily Allen is much better in my opinion. I normally steer away from pop, but Lily Allen is more pointed than most pop I’ve heard. So I’m getting her two CD’s from the library.

Yup, life is good.

I finished Supernatural season one, and was actually disappointed. The season finale was the FIRST one that has ever NOT made me cry. However, the first episode of season two did do the job, which was another first. I’ve also finally decided if I’m a Sam gal or a Dean gal … firmly in favor of Dean. He’s just less whiney and scores a bit more on the eye-candy scale. I’m really liking season two, and people tell me things just keep getting better and better.

I think spring should come a few weeks early this year … I mean, we’ve had our obligatory snow, and what’s the point of winter if all it does is make a lot of really cold wind and really cold faces. It’ll be nice to be able to walk the dog first thing in the morning and not have to bundle up like I’m going on an arctic exploration.

I’m really excited for this summer, I’ll probably be involved in a musical, and the family might be going to Canada again. Speaking of which, I miss the place. In particular I miss Nova Scotia + Cape Breton. I miss the laid back feel, I miss the fiddling coming from odd corners, and for goodness sakes, I miss the bagpipes.

Bagpipes. I have to ask myself how sane I am …

The recent bit of productivity in the writing world has also given my mood a boost! Awesomesauce!

Whinging

Lately I’ve just been … well … slipping. I’ve only just managed to get things beta-ed for my author, I had to send an e-mail to the person I owe a banner to telling her that I honestly couldn’t get it done because of all the personal ick going on, and though I’d absolutely love to be working on Soul Searching sequel (it’s been in the works for nearly a year …) I just don’t have much time.   I honestly can’t blame myself, because these last few days/weeks have been a little bit hellish. I know I’m making the right choices in where I put my priorities, I just wish I had an extra hour or two to the day. 

I’m really hoping that things’ll clear up in the next few days and I’ll be able to get to work finishing up that sequel, and then focus on my Denali fic. 

So many plot bunnies, so little time!

I’m putting all graphic production, aside from banners and requests, on haitus for the time being. I’ve spent a glorious two months focusing mostly on that, gotten situated on several amazing forums, and now I need to step back and take a break.

He Cooks Spaghetti and Plays the Saxophone

Second chapter of ››Not With a Bang but With a Whimper is out. I’ve decided to extend it into a series of unrelated one-shots in the point of view of various newborns created during the Southern Wars as well as Victoria’s rampage in Seattle. 

And I’m working on a new fic involving the Denali Clan … I’ve got it all outlined, it’s longer and definitely more detailed than anything I’ve done before. 5000 word minimum chapters. Still writing the first chapter. It’s as long as I want it, and now I’m just … messing about with it. I’m hoping I’ll have it done and beta-ed by the spring/summer. 

I’m really excited about both new writing projects! 

And now I have a goal to write a chapter of Letters to the Dead a Week. It’s five hundred words a week at least, that’s not hard. 

Then again, it is. When I wrote Soul Searching, all the angst was just … easy. I’m in a different place now, it’s been nearly a year. It’s hard to go back to that semi-depressed manic twilight phase that got Soul Searching out, along with 20 + fics, in about three months solid. I should really get organized and figure out a working idea of how long this is, and what the plot will be. 

I FAIL AT PLOTS.

Eh. Enough whingeing!

Instead of writing, which I really should be doing, I entered a wild-card challenge at the Vesperarium. That means by January 27th I need to have made 28 graphics on the theme of the word “ring”.

10 down, 18 to go!

And … I’ve finished Doctor Who (all four seasons and specials). I’m watching Firefly now.

Joss Whedon is amazing! I want Dollhouse to hurry up and premier, so that when I’m done with Firefly I’ll have something of his to watch.

“I Suck at Summaries”

Something that I find odd when perusing a fanfiction website: finding a summary in which the author says “I suck at summaries, but give this a chance, it’s better than it sounds.” 

First of all, this draws attention to what may be a non-existent flaw. 

If the author cannot write a decent summary, that certainly doesn’t give the reader any confidence in the ability of the author to write a decent story. It really seems like shooting yourself in the foot to bring attention to the fact that you think you can’t write a summary. All good-quality fanfiction I have read does not have “i suck at summaries” in the summary.

11.21.08

The new twilight release date. Wow, despite being a Harry Potter fan as well, I’m quite excited about this bump up! Particularly because I’m actually more excited for the Twilight movie than for the Half-Blood Prince.

I’m surprised on how much anger there is among HP fans about Twilight being moved up though. It’s not like they had anything to do with Warner Brothers decision. 

My dad finished Breaking Dawn and … liked it! He actually thinks it’s better than Eclipse. So I have a Twi-Mom and a Twi-Dad.

new clothes for the website!

I’ve got a new layout now! I think I like this one a bit better than the last. I’ve made a custom header now that reflects the banners that I’ve made to represent myself on all the websites I submit to. 

Scrivener … I’m in love. It’s a word processing program that’s designed specifically for drafting long documents, such as novels or long fanfic. It only works on macs, but it’s fantastic! I’m on the thirty day trial period — gosh I wish I could actually buy it!

Still haven’t started working on that challenge fanfic — I should stop procrastinating.

I’m back and ready to write!

So I’m back from my vacation and ready to start writing again! Breaking Dawn has obviously sparked new one-shot ideas, as well as given me more insight into characters that are featured in a few of my works in progress. (That Tanya one-shot that’s been in the works forever comes to mind). I’m planning on participating in the Novel Novice Twilight challenges as well. 

 

please do not read the rest of this post if you wish to remain spoiler free. 

**BREAKING DAWN SPOILERS**

 

 

 

I’m surprised, first of all, by all of the Breaking Dawn hate that’s been showing up all over the twilight communities. Sure, there were a lot of surprises that came along, but really … referring to the book as “the book that shall not be named”. I can sympathize with a little bit of the dislike — my first reaction to a lot of the book was face-palming and rolling of eyes and annoyance. After digesting all of the book for a day, and reading the book for a second time though, I’ve gotten over the annoyance. 

After all the scathing reviews of “Edward gets human Bella pregnant”, it is slightly humbling to have Bella, in canon, become pregnant. Most of us thought it couldn’t happen. My mother when reading the books had no problem wrapping her head around pregnant Bella. This was because she’d been just reading the books, not the Q and A sessions with Stephenie Meyer that I had been reading prior to the release of Breaking Dawn. 

Overall I quite enjoyed it, particularly the insight it gave into the Denali coven. It was such a relief that Tanya was quite nice, and not the jealous shrew that she’s often written as in fanfic. I also enjoyed seeing more of the Clearwaters. I’ve been writing quite a bit of Seth in the sequel to Soul Searching, as well as a short story focusing on Leah — and it’s a relief to know that I’ve actually been writing the characters in a way that’s consistent with the canon that’s now out.

I must admit that the name Renesme is, in my opinion, awkward. I did enjoy Bella’s reaction to Jacob’s dubbing her “Nessie”.  

So that’s my two cents. While Eclipse is probably my favorite Twilight book, I thoroughly enjoyed Breaking Dawn, and think that it finished quite well. 

•• update ••

After reading some more Q and A’s by Stephenie Meyer, my quibbles with the logistics of Bella’s pregnancy are gone. 

Stephenie Meyer: 

One of the longest things about this last year is that I’ve been reading all these quotes that people have been attributing to me that I never said. I had a rough draft of [this story] by the beginning of 2004, so before I ever did a tour or answered any questions or did an interview, I knew where the story was going. … When people said, “Hey, can vampires have babies?” I always said no, because female vampires don’t change at all, and it takes a lot of change for your body to accommodate a fetus, so it’s not possible. But I never said anything about the part that I knew was coming. … It is true … there’s a whole chromosomal-count difference, but venom works a lot of different ways, so for me, it always worked just fine.

     — MTV “Twilight Tuesday” interview

I also wanted to make it clear that I loved the book — faults and all. I think that there wasn’t really any book that could have satisfied every fan, but Breaking Dawn did a good enough job of satisfying me. 

Again, I’m not dead …

I’m just out of the country, and so therefore writing is a bit difficult (not time). You won’t be seeing much activity from me on any of the websites I submit to. I wish I’d have been able to get out that tanya one-shot I was working on before I left …

See you guys around August!

By the way, I’m on the staff of a twilight chatroom called twilight-irc.net. The server code is: irc.twilight-irc.net or visit our java

The website is here.