Smack The Job Market In The Face

I made it back from the two feet of snow I was buried under in Jersey! Yay! However, due to the extended time away from my laptop, the next chapter for Call My Name may have to wait until next week. I'm going to try and finish it tonight, but we'll see what happens. The Dragon's Jewel will have its regularly scheduled update. I also took down the Persona 4 one shot due to lack of interest but I have a random PoP one to take its place. Nothing on Sarat or Spitfire yet.

In gaming news, I'm about halfway done with my Apocalyptic run of Darksiders. I couldn't help it. I'm already going to have to put Splatterhouse down because my mom hates it and I want to focus on Call My Name. For whatever reason, though, she's okay with Darksiders. I need to play something or my head will explode. Next on my list is Enslaved, which I finally picked up, until she goes back to work next week. Then its back to Splatterhouse. Cheers!

Although it may sound weird, I'm kind of relieved that my running stories are dwindling down to just one. It gives me more time to focus on my job hunt. Seriously, guys, this is the worst possible thing anyone could experience right now. There are hundreds of jobs out there that I qualify for and yet no one is willing to take a look at anyone who doesn't have 5+ years of experience. The problem is that this round of college graduates doesn't have the experience so their skills are rendered useless. None of us are going to get good jobs until we're thirty, and by then the market will be looking at the graduates after us for their energy and enthusiasm. This generation got the major shaft. Its awful. I wouldn't wish this on anyone, much less myself.

I apologize for the depressing nature. But its the position I'm in right now and I hope this will explain some of my lack of energy and motivation for Fanfiction and FictionPress. Thanks to everyone who's poked at me to finish my current stories and encouraged me to write new ones. You guys keep me going. For reals.

The end is here?

Guys, I'm seriously thinking about giving up on FanFiction and FictionPress. I'm just not getting the same kind of feedback and attention that I used to and its getting a little depressing. Sure I have one or two people that constantly let me know that my stories are being enjoyed and that's great. But its hurtful when I ask for reviews and no one takes the time to leave me one, and yet there are stories written by people who don't grasp the concept of punctuation and grammar who have hundreds of reviews. I don't understand it. I don't think I ever will.

At any rate, the last round included chapters for Call my Name and The Dragon's Jewel along with a one shot for Persona 4. I'm thinking of taking the latter down because no one's reading it. Call My Name probably won't get any more love until after Christmas but look for new Dragon chapters by Thursday.

Current Plans and Future Stories

For those of you who still check my FictionPress.Com page, I apologize for the update taking so long. Sarat stuff is moving slowly and Punch Down even more so. I'll talk more on that in a minute.

For the Fanfiction.Net crowd, I'll definitely have the next round for The Dragon's Jewel up by Thursday. The next chapter for Call My Name will have to wait until next week since I'm only one page into it (still).

I spent a while thinking about what I wanted to do with my pages on both sites this past week - helped by my resolve to halt the job hunting and resume tweaking until the holiday insanity is over. Here is the plan I've come up with regarding both for the near future: First, I'm going to get the rest of Dragon posted. There's a note dangling above my computer to remind me that this story needs love every Thursday until it is completed. Second, I'm going to take Train Wreck and divide the 'chapters' up into individual stories. Its just not getting the attention I thought it would as a story. Any more one shots that I finish for Deadly Premonition will follow this vein. The same will go for any Persona 4 one shots I've done and will finish in the future. This will require some maintenance for my profile section, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Third, I'm going to focus solely on Call My Name when the first two parts are done. Anything else will only get attention if I'm suffering from writer's block and need to get into the writing groove.

Once I have my currently-running stories taken care of, I plan on starting an ambitious project. If I can prove to myself that I can stay on a writing schedule for more than a few days (a.k.a. everything I've said above goes to plan), I'm going to start New Kingdoms and pick back up with Sarat. That way I'll stick to one story on FF.Net and one story on FP.Com. Spitfire will be updated periodically, most likely. Depending on how well I keep up with both of those stories, I'll slowly introduce more of them. This will also depend on what happens with any possible jobs that come up and the completion of my copyediting certificate.

I still have plenty of FF.Net stories planned, including the Haunting Ground one, a Harry Potter fic that I doodled on vacation back in July, a full-blown PoP story that incompasses both storylines and a rewrite of my first ever DW story (written for a friend's website that, unfortunately, stopped taking submissions a week before I was ready to send it). I also found notes for stories in the Ronin Warriors and Reboot universes. I'm a sad, sad woman, folks. I have a bunch of stories that might make it to FP.Com, but I'm more hesitant to publish those. I do plan on pursuing publication for most of them. There are some that I could spare for FictionPress though.

I think that's all for my writing updates. Now I must return to my video game juggling. I'm finally wrapping up PoP: Forgotten Sands and slowly working through Splatterhouse. They're both gorgeous and wonderful to play, but the latter is my favorite so far. I'm a horror girl at heart. Plus I really enjoyed the arcade versions of the game. My next project is the new Castlevania, which I started but had to stop in favor of Splatterhouse. Sore thumbs, here we come!

Frustration

Unfortunately I'll probably only get one update this month. At the very least I'll get the next chapter up for Dragon. The goal is to get the latest chapter done for Call My Name, but I haven't really made any progress with it yet. We'll see what happens. Nothing new for any of the other stories. Its been a stressful couple of weeks. I'm still out of a job, my family is in a spending frenzy and my mom responded to having her house cleaned and decorated by handing me a bill. I'm a little miffed right now. Many apologies for letting the stress get in the way of my writing. That's just how its going to be for the time being. Keep checking back for updates. And for those of you who celebrate Christmas (I don't, but I know I'm a serious minority here), many good tidings and blessings to you this holiday season!

General Ramblings

I updated Call My Name, The Dragon's Jewel and Train Wreck yesterday. It'll probably be a while before I post another DP one shot for that last series. I'm still plowing ahead with Call My Name and my Persona 4 stories. I'm also working through the Haunting Ground stuff, so as always I guess we'll see what ends up being posted. I won't make any promises because there's no point - things change too quickly for me.

Writing update aside, I'm growing increasingly frustrated with the Playstation Network. I've spent several days now trying to update profile information and game lists and whatnot, but every time I try to leave the page I have to log in again. Now I'm at the point where I won't even stay logged in from the sign in page to the home page. What gives? I have things that need to be documented, people! I can't be waiting around for this forever.

I think I'll stop my rant there before I go into overdrive. I need to focus on this weekend anyway. BJ Penn is fighting on Saturday and WWE Survivor Series is on Sunday. I have to focus on something else besides the Dolphin's embarrassing loss yesterday to the Bears. *Think Dashing*

Why Job Hunting Is Useless

My resume-sending count this week is up to 57. This is insane. I can't get a job in my field because I don't have office experience, and the places that could give me office experience don't want to because I'm out of state and heaven forbid we conduct a phone interview. If this keeps up, I'm seriously going to consider a move to another country. No one here is willing to take a chance on anyone or anything. We wonder why our economy continues to suffer, and yet we spend all of our money sending people to school to train for jobs that are skipping the country. Screw this...I'm not spending anymore on college.

Oh, right, story updates. My bad. Chapter 11 of Call My Name and chapter 18 of The Dragon's Jewel are undergoing revisions. I'm about one page into chapter 12 for the former story. I'm tweaking the next oneshot for Train Wreck, although that probably won't make the Thursday update. I've also been spending a lot of time writing bits and pieces for the inevitable Persona collection. So far I've finished the Fool and the Magician, I've got a few paragraphs left of the Emperor, I'm halfway done with the Priestess, I've written a few pages for the Empress and Fortune and I have ideas/outlines for Justice and the Chariot. So far so good, I think. Look for some new stuff on Thursday since I'm actually on track.

Now I'm going to go back to sulking about my job situation. Toodles!

Too Many Stories!

I finally got around to posting new chapters of Call My Name and The Dragon's Jewel. I'm currently one page into the next chapter of the former and doing minor edits on the latter. I've set aside my Sarat updates for the time being. There's just not enough focus. I really love those stories and that universe, but I've discovered that I need to be 100% focused on it to make any progress. I'm not sure when I'll get back to it, but as always I have a ton of notes to help get me back in the groove.

I'm kind of torn about where I want to focus my attention right now. Its the curse of having too many ideas in a tiny brain. A majority of it will stay in the RE universe until I'm further along there. I have outlines and ideas for that story; its just a matter of wording everything correctly. I have a couple of chapters for my Haunting Ground story and the Persona oneshots, half a oneshot for my Prince of Persia series, one and a half oneshots for the Deadly Premonition universe and New Kingdoms looming over me. For right now, the rest of my attention is with Persona, but only because I've been playing the fourth game and researching the third one. I'm familiar with the first two (including both Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment), but I'm not entirely comfortable writing about those characters yet. I guess we'll see what happens.

I think my real confusion is that I don't want to post another story without having the majority of it written. I fell behind with Call My Name and now I'm struggling with it. The DP oneshots don't worry me because I have enough to keep my interest when I'm having trouble with my other stories (that's how the first two were written, in between chapters for my other works). Both the Haunting Ground story and New Kingdoms require research and checking some terminology, so progress there is slow. PoP is stuck until I start another run-through of the game. So that leaves the Persona stories. My fear there is that I'll get three, maybe four stories posted and then become distracted as usual. This isn't a oneshot collection where the number of stories is irrelevant. The number needs to match the arcana.

Hmph, this makes my head hurt. I guess I'll keep going with my RE story and see what I end up doing for the rest of my stuff. Whatever takes my attention will be next, I guess. The worst part is that I have about 10 other folders with story ideas related to fanfiction, and I could pick up one of those at any moment. Ugh. Its one thing to have a creative writing streak in you...its another thing when you can't control its flow.

At any rate, look for more regular updates with Call My Name and The Dragon's Jewel. In all likelihood, another story will be posted once I'm done with Dragon. And now I need to lie down. I think I have stories leaking from my ears...

Oh you RPGs

This has probably been one of the most productive weeks I've had in a long time. My goal is to post the next chapter of Call My Name tomorrow and possibly the next chapter of The Dragon's Jewel. I've also got another one shot for Train Wreck, but that may have to wait until my next update.

I think I'm going to have to change the status of New Kingdoms. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get enough written for the story to make me happy. My thought right now is to leave the snippets up on FanFiction as drabbles right now and then change its status when I overcome this blockage. I think the problem is that I have too many stories on my plate right now to be able to focus on such a large undertaking. But fear not. I still have a ton of notes to help me pick this back up when I get some more ideas out of my head.

I've been spending my time playing the new Castlevania game and Persona 4. I'm not sure what prompted me to pick up the latter, but I've been unable to stop writing stories for it. I know...you're shocked. I'm refraining from posting anything though until I get more stuff written. The idea right now is a series of one shots based on each of the social links. I have The Fool done, part of Fortune and The Emperor, and I'm ready to dive into The Magician next. We'll see what happens with that one. You know, this is why I don't get into RPGs. Too much character investment and too many story ideas. I need to FOCUS!!!

For the FictionPress crowd, I've finished the edit of Sarat and have been working on typing the second draft. The next chapter of Spitfire is almost done as well, although I'm not sure when I'll post it. As I said, there are a ton of stories on my plate right now. We'll see what happens.

Unrelated note: I can't decide who I want to win the World Series. Its 2-2 in the bottom of the 4th of Game 1 right now. I really need to make a decision. Football and hockey take my attention, but none of my teams are playing right now. So I have to focus on baseball. Gah! Too many decisions!!

What the heck is in Iowa?

New update today! I just posted chapters/stories for The Dragon's Jewel and A Beautiful Train Wreck. The next chapter for Call My Name is done. A few edits and some polish and I should be ready to go next week.

I've been taking a break from survival horror and started playing Persona 4 a few weeks ago. I admit I'm addicted to it. There's something about the story and the characters that just draws you in. I'd compare it to Deadly Premonition in this sense. Even after only a few hours, you become so invested in what is going on that you feel like you're a part of the story. Its fascinating. Its also nice to get a little cultural lesson thrown in to the game. My only problem is that I'll likely get an idea for a story or one shot series now. Yeah...like I don't have enough on my plate.

In other news, I finally got the chance to go and visit my sister in Iowa last weekend. Most people think of corn and farming and nothing when they think of Iowa. People, there is so much more to the state. I fell in love with Des Moines just as quickly as I fell in love with Australia. I've spent the past few days looking at jobs out there so I can live in the city. Its so young and clean and hip out there. Wish me luck, guys!

And will someone tell the creators/publishers of Splatterhouse to stop pushing the release day back? I'm supposed to be enjoying the game right now and Thanksgiving is too far away.

I wish I was dashing.

I'm slowly working through the next chapter of Call My Name. My goal is to get another 4 pages or so in since the plot is thickening quickly. I'm also finishing an small edit to my next Deadly Premonition oneshot. They're kind of addicting to write; there's so much you can do with the cast that its a bit overwhelming. But at least its enjoyable. Its hard to write when you're not 100% into it. Work is also progressing with RONK. Haha...I just realized what that looks like...sorry *ahem* I'm a nerd. I've finally decided what I want to do with the opening chapters, so that should be picking up soon. I'll start posting for that story once The Dragon's Jewel is completely up.

In other random news, I watched WWE Raw last night for the first time in its entirety. Usually, I'll just watch the first half or so and then lose interest (I'm a Smackdown girl at heart). But I was curious to see what would happen after a huge PPV match the night before. I wasn't disappointed. As a bonus, Dashing Cody Rhodes fought another tag team match. He's my absolute favorite. The best part, aside from watching him fly around the ring, was listening to the commentary about what makes him so dashing. I wish I could be that dashing. Seriously. But alas, I would have to be a WWE Diva and I would not forsake my dignity to dress and act like they do. I guess I'll leave the dashing-ness to Mr. Rhodes.

General Story Update

Happy Wednesday! My typical posting day is coming up tomorrow, so I think I'll celebrate my return to normalcy by posting for The Dragon's Jewel and for Call My Name. I'm finishing up the editing for the latter's chapter and have already dove into the next one. I'm also working on a challenge set up for me by a gamer friend of mine. We've both finished Deadly Premonition at least once and we've been comparing stats and theories for a few days now. He has asked me to explore a bunch of the relationships in the story to see what I can come up with. We've counted almost thirty different interactions that happen between sets of people, so there's a whole lot of them to explore. I've already written two of them and I have the rest of the list waiting. We'll see how many I can get through.

With that being said, I'm going to be setting my Prince of Persia oneshots aside for a little while. I have stories outlined, but I need to go back and start playing the PS3 release again to get back into the groove. I will get back to them, but its going to take a little bit of time for that to happen.

I'm kind of happy that the next game I have on my list is the Splatterhouse remake. Its due out in October, right before Halloween, and I don't have any plans to write stories for that game. True, the underlying story makes for good drama. The games themselves, however, are focused on beat 'em up play and copious amounts of gore. Unless the PS3 remake focuses more on the story (which is doubtful if you've seen any of the trailers), I'll be able to keep my focus on other stories while I work through that game.

A couple of people have asked about the other story on the bottom of my FF.Net page, the Haunting Ground one. I'm very, very slowly working on that. Its another story that flows better when I'm in the middle of the game, so I'll have to go back and play it to get the story moving again. I have the first two chapters done, but I want to be further into the story before I post it. No worries, it'll make an appearance in the future.

New Postings and a Million Spoilers

I finally did it, folks. I gave up on the job that has caused so much grief for the past 9 months or so. While I will miss most of the people and the full time benefits (kind of), it makes me feel so much better to know that my health will finally improve and I'll be able to focus on more important things...like writing...and getting a job in my field. Here's to hoping that I will be able to concentrate more on my stories and my sanity than surviving at work.

To celebrate, I will be posting two new bits at some point today. The first will be the next chapter of The Dragon's Jewel. The second will be a short one-shot based on Deadly Premonition. I'm still tweaking the latest chapter for Call My Name, so that will hopefully be my next post sometime this week.

For those of you who have been anxiously waiting for Romance of the New Kingdoms, that is the next story on my list. Seriously. I'm waaaaaaaaaaay overdue to post the first official chapter for that one. I think the hardest part for me has been taking the historical narrative and translating it to modern day. I want all of the battles to stay the same, but I know that they can't because they would happen differently today. For example, the Battle of ChiBi took place on Cao Cao's fleet of ships, but that can't happen very easily when you're in the middle of a big city/cities. Characters like Sun Ce that died from health problems would likely still live with modern health care. See where my problems lie? But fear not. I will persevere.

In the midst of all these stories that I've been working on, I've been jotting down ideas for one-shots based on Deadly Premonition. The characters in that game are some of the best I've seen in a very long time. For those of you who haven't played it, the story is set in a small town in the Northeast (presumably Washington) where a murder has just occurred. Each person you come into contact with has their own unique personality and series of quirks that either help or hinder your investigation. Some of them make you laugh, some anger you, and some are just too weird to comprehend. But they all add color and dimension to the narrative in a way that makes the game captivating and intriguing. I'm already in my second run of the game to work on side quests, which give you the chance to interact more with the cast.

Overall, the game is a brilliant piece of work that is barely hindered by out of date graphics. My one gripe is that the game sometimes crashed unexpectedly, but so far it has been right after save points. Driving was also a pain, but I suck at driving games so most of the issues were based on operator error.

In reading other reviews, I've noticed that a lot of people were genuinely surprised by the ending and discovering who was behind the whole plotline. I can't say I felt the same. SPOILER ALERT!!!! SWERY did a fantastic job in hiding clues all over the town to help the player figure out who the murderer was and who was pulling the strings. Yes, there were two antagonists. The first one - the killer - was the most obvious. With all the focus on red trees and their connections to the murders, one would think that anything red would immediately stand out. For one, there was a red tree in front of the police station...another was in front of the murderer's house. It stuck out like a sore thumb every time I drove past it. His whereabouts during the in-game murders were always at the scene of the crime. Finally, during a scene where he and an officer quickly leave an apartment building, the licence plate give him away: HESTHE1 - HE'S THE 1. Seriously, if that doesn't give it away than nothing will.

The second one - the initiator - was a little trickier to discover. He didn't really appear until after the game had started, but he was immediately suspicious. After all, he handed the main character a red seedling, and red was already an established theme. Some of the things he said were also suspicious...how can you let a dog out of the window when you're locked in a cellar and the dog's outside of it? Finally, in the scene where one character talks about the purple fog, there is a seedling in a pot resting on top of the clock tower, just inside of the frame on the right, and there is one soldier who looks and moves exactly like him. Despite all that, I pegged him as the initiator as soon as I saw him because of one early clue. In the very first room, where you first interact with the angel twins, there is a map on the table of all the other red seed murder locations. Each is marked with a doll in the initiator's liking. There are no other characters that look remotely like him in the game. END SPOILERS!!!

So while the mystery wasn't hard to figure out for me, I would still highly recommend this game. It was easily one of the best I've played in a long time...and I've played a lot of them. At any rate, stay turned for more updates and possibly more reviews if I can find the time to finish all my games. Toodles!

I liiiiiiiiiiive!

Sorry for the long wait with no news, folks! I've been going through a bit of a crisis since May. Its finally starting to ease up, just barely enough for me to get my head above water. But there is some good news in this. I promise.

Following my complete mental breakdown last week, I went into hyper writing mode. It can be both a scary place and a wonderfully creative place. While in said overdrive, I managed to complete the final chapter of The Dragon's Jewel AND the epilogue. Win. I will be posting them slowly over the next couple of weeks. By slowly, I mean that every four days or so I will pop up with another chapter until everything is posted. I have to keep you guys guessing a little bit.

The next story I plan to finish is Call My Name. Honestly, its the only one I have any energy for right now. Its also my most popular story, so I feel obligated to pick back up with that. Everything else is going to be on the back burner until CMN is done or mostly done. Here's hoping I don't fall back into chaos.

P.S. I finished my first run through of Deadly Premonition last weekend. Look for a random one-shot posting in the near future. Its becoming a theme with me, unfortunately.

Wow I'm slow

Wow I can't believe March is almost over! At any rate, I finally have my Internet back, so new chapters of Dragon's Jewel and Call My Name will go up either tonight or sometime tomorrow evening.

I think I stated this on my FF.Net profile, but I'm putting most of my stories on the back burner for the time being. Details are in the personal blog. My focus for the moment will be in finishing up The Dragon's Jewel, which only has a few more chapters left to be written, and Call My Name, which is one of my more popular stories. FP.Com's focus will be Punch Down, I'm thinking. Sarat revisions are creeping along as usual.

I received an email from a girl I've known for a while over at FP.Com about why Punch Down has taken so long to write. I've gotten quite a few emails and whatnot about it from fans despite the lack of reviews. Basically, I suck at writing romance. Seriously. I'm terrible at it. That's mostly because I'm not a big romance reader and quite frankly, romantic things in general make me feel uncomfortable. Some of that might be apparent in my DW fanfiction. Punch Down is, at its core, a romance. The humor and sarcasm dripping from Sandy's mouth is how I react to romantic nonsense in my own life, but that doesn't mean I haven't experienced it. This makes is that much harder for me to write something that is believable without being flat. I'm trying, guys. It will get done; I don't like to leave stories unfinished, especially those that are so close to my heart.

Fear not, however. If I have to call off of work for an entire week and do nothing but write the whole time, I will do it to finish Punch Down. The same goes with my other stories. Stay tuned.

Another quickie...

I WILL HAVE NEW CHAPTERS BY TUESDAY!!

No, seriously, I promise to have new stuff for Call My Name, Dragon's Jewel, and quite possibly *gasp* Punch Down. Woot! I'll have more info in the general blog, but I'm finally coming out of my dark time, and that combined with two days off in a row means that new stuff can be posted.

Sarat revisions are still underway. That story is going to be the death of me, I swear.g

Writing Related update

Hello all! I apologize for not getting the next chapter of Call My Name up like I said I would. I probably won't be updating for a few days due to some major setbacks in my life at the moment. As usual, nothing can space itself out in my universe; it all has to happen at once.

Please keep your thoughts and prayers with me over the next few months. I'll do what I can to get more chapters churned out and finish up the Sarat revisions. Thanks to everyone for your support and patience...it is much appreciated.

Updates and the Usual Nonsense

I just posted Chapter 11 of The Dragon's Jewel this morning. Call My Name may or may not get an update today. If it does, it will be after I get out of work at 10. Yuck. I'm still working through my Sarat file while trying to churn out the rest of Dragon's Jewel. I'm...so...close...bah! Seriously, you'd think that another 3 chapters or so would be cake. But its the climax of the story and I want it to be good.

On a slightly unrelated note, I checked the story stats on FF.Net for the first time in forever today. Over 2,000 hits on Rebel's Honor and The Tigress's Song, just under 2,000 for Nightmare's Calling, over 1,000 for The Dragon's Jewel and just under 1,000 for Call My Name. Cheers! It makes me feel all kinds of happy to know that people are still reading and enjoying my stories. I haven't checked FP.Com yet, but I've been inactive there for a while so I'm not sure what it would look like anyway.

Return to FictionPress

I've mentioned a few times that my brain is a never-ending fountain of randomness. Proof appeared last night in the midst of work on my PoP story. For whatever reason, I decided to take a break and pull out my Sarat file. And now I can't focus on anything else.

I wrote Sarat years ago for a creative writing class. It started as a short story that would fill about 20 pages and would be based off of a previous work or author writing style. My teacher gave me the Harry Potter series. But, as we all know, I am incapable of sticking to page guidelines. It went from 20 to 160 in the span of two months.

As of right now, its the only full length novel I have posted for others to read. I have more finished, but I'm not entirely comfortable sharing them because I would like to get them published professionally. Yeah, right. But I'm still going to try.

At any rate, I've picked up my Sarat revisions where I left off. My guess? I'll probably get to around 200 pages. Eek. If I can stay on track and keep my focus on the story, I can have the edited version up within a week or so. There are a lot of things I never explained, words I misspelled (shudders) and plot points that need to be moved around. Its a rather daunting task. But I think I can manage it.

Regardless of where I get to in the Sarat rewrites, I will have the next round of chapters up for my FanFiction stories by next week. I'm in the middle of a 7 day work week...otherwise I'd be more diligent.

New Post!

No new updates on my writing, but I'm happy to announce that I will be posting new chapters for Call My Name and The Dragon's Jewel at some point today! I hope to finish the second PoP oneshot today as well, but that may be asking for a miracle.

Check the other blogs for more updates.

Almost ready...

Happy New Year! Chapter 9 of Call My Name is nearly finished, and I'm ready to wrap up The Dragon's Jewel. The first chapter of the Haunting Ground story is also done, but I think I'm going to save that one for when my other stories are finished. I'm nearly done with my research for the first chapter of New Kingdoms as well. With luck, my first round of chapters for the new year will be up sometime this weekend. Stay tuned!