Thursday, December 30, 2010

Creatures of the Night

Hello all,
It is 1:30 in the morning as of this sentence.  I should not be awake, but as I haven't posted anything in two days and inspiration suddenly struck me, here we are.
I've actually written some things to Dawn of Night.  Right now, it's mostly filler and character-building stuff, but I'll be introducing an important new person at the end of this latest chapter.  He is...dun dun dun...a vampire.
So that got me thinking about creatures of the night (besides just bored and overly-analytical college students who have no sense of proper hours).  Vampires are really everywhere these days, aren't they?  Once upon a time, there were other things in the young adult section of bookstores, but now those romantic/sexy/bloodthirsty/freaky/creepy/wtfsparkly beings lurk in every corner of fiction.
That, of course, brings me to Twilight.  Some blame/credit it for setting of the massive wave of vampire fiction that now drowns the teen literature, although I'm pretty sure Anne Rice would have something to say about it (oh wait, she doesn't like her Interview with a Vampire stuff anymore since it's un-Christian...or something).  Everybody knows about Twilight and the "epic" "love" between Bella Swann and "perfect" "godlike" SPARKLY Edward Cullen.
Well, I say bugger that.
No vampire in my stories is ever going to be sparkly.  What sort of bizarre aberration against vampire mythos is that?  How is being a walking disco ball at all in tune with the image of vampires as the dark, deeply sensual beings who act as terrifying and yet incredibly alluring metaphors for sex?  Who's going to take a flipping glitter glue-man seriously?  Before anyone asks, no, I have not read the entire series.  I got six chapters into Twilight and had the following reaction:

  • Why am I wasting my time?
  • This is stupid.
  • Bella is an annoying twit.
  • Get this waste of paper away from me.

I did read Midnight Sun.  Waste of a perfectly good hour I could have been playing The Sims or watching Doctor Who.  Besides, I don't need to waste time actually reading such pointless drivel when I can find out all the plot from Wikipedia.
This is why I weep for the future of teen lit.
This has been your obligatory "Twilight sucks why does it exist go read Charles Dickens" rant.  I'll try to get some more done to Dawn of Night, and rest assured, I am going to make sure that these vampires are actually decent.
Cheers,
Shauna

Monday, December 27, 2010

Technological Documentation

Hello all,
Good news!  My camera has returned from the technology could in the sky, and I have used it to take awe-inspiring (translation: boring) pictures of the snowy outdoors.  At least these ones aren't all tiny and pixellated.






Woot.  Fear my l33t camera skills.
Also good news:  I have a 3.92 GPA for this semester at college.  Huzzah!
Bad news, though.  I've developed a whacking bad head cold from over-exposure to sickly parental figures, so the rest of winter break may not be as enjoyable as I had hoped.  Also, textbooks for next semester are shaping up to be really bloody expensive.  Seriously, are these things gold-plated or something?
I was planning to write some more to Dawn of Night last night (or very early morning, about 1:00ish), but I got distracted browsing TV Tropes, which is the Internet equivalent of crack.  Seriously.  It's fun, though.  Be prepared to lose hours of your life to learning the diverse meanings of such things as why in cutscenes characters are hyper-competent but completely incapable of any similarly-cool stunts in normal gameplay and the decay of a formally fully competent female character into a whiny blubbery mess over the course of a show.  But don't say I didn't warn you.  Mwahahaha.
Well, can't think of anything more intelligent to write, so I guess I'll try and plug away at Chapter 5 before writer's block kills any semblance of creativity I have.
Cheers,
Shauna

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Relative Snowtime

Hello all,
Sadly, my camera has vanished to the great technology cloud in the sky (translation:  I can't find it because I'm notoriously unorganized).  However, I did manage to snap all of four pics from my phone.  So here they are:
At night, with a crappy flash.  Look at the amazing white streaks of doom!
This was early afternoon.  The snow was about a foot deep at this point.
Behold the snowdrift!
Out front.  It was difficult to separate the street from the sidewalk.
So yeah.  It was beautiful and horrendously cold.  I got into a snowball fight with my dad (he retreated back inside after a little bit) and later on with my brother and nephew.  Fun times.  Although you can't tell in the photos, it was snowing HARD the entire time.  It's only tapered off within the last hour or two.
Speaking of nephews...
Why do small children exist?  They are intensely annoying and difficult to be around.  I can only tolerate anyone under the age of 10 for an hour or two at a time before I start contemplating pulling my hair out.  Seriously, they are loud, annoying, disobedient, and incapable of attention spans longer than that of a disoriented goldfish.  I'm sure that there are some small children out there who are decent, but as for the other ones...ugh.
This is why I dedicate all of my limited maternal feelings to my cat.  Cats don't scream in the middle of the night because they're teething or throw temper tantrums in grocery stores because you won't buy them their favorite sugar-laden sweet.  That, and cats are cute and fluffy.  Like mine!  Observe the contrast:
vs.

Yes, that is my kitty.  Isn't she pretty?  Now if you'll pardon me, I'm going to go hug her.
Cheers,
Shauna

Fangirlism

Hello all,
I can't write anything particularly lengthy right this moment, but I did want to get this down.
Fangirling in 3...2...1...
OH MY GOD DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL AWESOME ON TOAST WATCH IT NOW IF AT ALL POSSIBLE IT IS AMAZING AND MATT SMITH IS MY HERO!!!
Yes, I am a Doctor Who fangirl.
In other news, it is snowing like mad outside, so I will post some pictures once I can get my camera to cooperate and stuff.
Cheers,
Shauna

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Obligatory Product Placement

Hello again, all,
Just a quick note.
I actually have Dawn of Night (what little I have of it) posted up on the Interwebs.  It can be found here if anyone is curious.  I have a prologue written up, but that needs some more tinkering before I add it in as well.
Cheers,
Shauna

Sci-Fi Musings

Hello all,
I hope whoever's reading this has had a lovely day.  Today's been very quiet.  I ought to be elsewhere right now, but alas, my parents' flu has precluded traveling anywhere.  I don't think I want to test my ability to navigate unfamiliar highways.  So instead of actually doing anything productive today, the three of us sat around and watched Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Yes, it is the one with the whales.  The very awesome completely-robotic-and-not-stock-footage-at-all-except-for-a-couple-breaching-scenes whales.
And Bones's low opinion of 20th century medicine.
And "nuclear wessels." (obligatory video clip below)

And Scotty calling keyboards "quaint."
And a rather obsessive cetacean specialist with 80s hair.
Then again, everyone here has bad 80s hair.  How did people move their heads back then?  Oh, fun fact:  the characters run around 1986 San Francisco in their 23rd century outfits with no one questioning this at all.  The reason?  The movie makers had random crew members wander around the city in said outfits for a week, and no one paid them any attention.  Apparently aqua wrap-arounds and bright red navy-style turtlenecks are considered perfectly normal in San Francisco.  Hah.
On the writing front, I have written two whole paragraphs to the next chapter of Dawn of Night.  Go me.  Unfortunately, said two paragraphs are disconnected from what I've already written, so I'll have to do some welding to get everything flowing smoothly.  Wish me luck.
Cheers,
Shauna

Friday, December 24, 2010

Family Sneezings

Hello non-existent readers,
In case you somehow missed the notification, it's Christmas Eve.  If I celebrated Christmas, I would probably be excited about this.  But as I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses and therefore do not partake of such occasions, I am instead sitting at home wrapped in a battered sweatshirt and poking my brain for writing inspiration.
Both my parents are sick with the flu (oh joy), so there is little going on at the moment.  I've managed to avoid contamination so far and am hoping it remains that way.
Let's see, what else is there to say?  Ah, yes, I've seen Tron: Legacy recently.  Spoilers ahoy, can't say I didn't warn you.  Although I've never seen more than a couple minutes of the original, I was still quite able to enjoy the movie.  Plot was cool, characters were neat, Jeff Bridges is very awesome.  If nothing else, the visuals were awe-inspiring and the music was phenomenal (currently a happy owner of the soundtrack and am squeeing over Daft Punk).
I am, however, curious as to how a sentient and peeved computer program would actually be able to take over the world.  Forcible Rick Rolling of all Internet-enabled computers?  Would said computer program even be corporeal, and if so, how?  If he's flesh and blood, would he still be able to interface with TEH INTERWEBS to cause chaos?  What about his army?
Ah, the questions of a geek.
Anyway, hopefully I will start writing again soon.  For now, it's off to my room for lots of epic-ish music and an attempt at brainstorming.  Or I'll just get lazy and play The Sims.
Cheers,
Shauna

Introduction Out of Common Courtesy

To who(m)ever is reading this,
First off, apologies for the awkward parentheses.  I never can figure out which one it should be.
Second, well, hello.  I'm not sure exactly how you have stumbled upon this odd little rambling place, but since you're here, I might as well start talking.
I founded this blog to be my personal soapbox.  About what I am going to rant is unclear to me as of now, but rest assured, I will find something to ramble about.  Most likely, I will be complaining about how much writer's block sucks and how I'm not making any progress on my book and similar things.
Ah, right, I should probably actually properly introduce myself (wow, that's a lot of ly's).
My name is Shauna (last name withheld for obvious security reasons).  I'm a sophomore student in college at a university that shall also remain nameless.  As of this posting, I am 18 and living with my parents (hush, room and board are expensive!).  I'm pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and a minor in English with a concentration on Creative Writing.  The major is for my real job, the minor for my hobby.  I know that being a starving author is not the most practical of options.  Law is a tad more reliable field.
I love cats and am currently the proud owner (or servant, depending on your point of view) of a middle-aged fluffy calico cat named Cassie.  She's adorable.  I will probably post a gushing picture at some point.  I read obsessively (current book is The Sword of Shannara; it's unbearably cliche, but I've heard the rest of the series is better, and in case you didn't notice, I really like asides written in parentheses).  I write, of course.  I also draw, and those will also probably get thrown up here at a later date.
For the past two years, I have been working on a project entitled Dawn of Night, a young adult fantasy novel that is shaping up to be both long and complicated.  It's got elves, magic, vampires, dragons, vampire dragons, and various other fun things.  If I can get the plot going, it might actually be pretty good.
So that's me in a nutshell (or two).  I will try to remain disciplined enough to keep this blog going, and it might even be a bit inspiring for me in my attempts to write my novel.  So again, to who(m)ever is reading this, thank you for taking the time to deal with the meanderings of an unfocused girl, and I hope this has provided you with at least a little entertainment.
Cheers,
Shauna