Writing About Life

Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote a post here. Long story short, I've been living in South Carolina for almost 3 months now. It's more quiet than where I used to live in northern NJ- so quiet that I need a White Noise app to help me sleep and/or concentrate. 

Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of the role-play where I eventually created my original characters. I didn't join in the fun too much this time, because of stupid useless female problems and not feeling up to it. I'm hoping to put up a oneshot on the 2nd anniversary of the creation of Svied but I'm also protective of it now to the point where I try not to post as much to advert getting the reposters and the  plagiarizers.

I also wanted to write that I wrote a review for a new book about writing. Because I'm on their newsletter, they've requested more reviews from their fanbase. So, I took it upon myself to write a review.

Real Advice- Because we aren't writing robots
"I purchased this when it was on sale after it's release, and it's truly a breath of fresh air. After reading through many articles of advice online, that solely tell us to write no matter what- I've found that most of that advice, doesn't work for me. This is the book that is real about the struggles of being a writer and doesn't harp on the idea that one person's way of doing things will fit for everyone else."

I'm hoping to make it so I can sell my original art as prints. I need a real name for an Etsy shop and elsewhere, because my tumblr username apparently has very adult and embarrassing connotations. Thanks a lot sex-obsessed society! *facepalm*

That username (cowgirl326) was created in 2014- I was into westerns (or going out of it to be honest), and the numbers had significance to me. In the American number format for writing dates, the premiere date for How to Train Your Dragon, and someone I was a fan of before (Johnny Crawford) I was into Dragons, have the same date (birthday or premiere).

As for the art shop, I hope to have it up by the end of the year.

Red Pepper, Onion, and bacon burgers

I haven't updated this blog in months, but since I made my own recipe for burgers- I've decided to share it.


1/2 pound ground beef/pork/turkey/(I'd say even the fake meat for vegetarians- yeah- I know it doesn't taste like real meat but..for those that haven't tried real meat and are used to the soy protein- go for it)

1/4 cup Diced red pepper

1/4 cup Diced vidalia onion 

Few drops Tabasco 

1/4 cup Yellow mustard 

1/4 teaspoon himilayan salt 

1/4 Bacon bits 

1 egg

About 1/2 cup of Panko bread crumbs

Put the ground beef in a mixing bowl. Add salt, mustard and tabasco and knead with hands. Pour in the red pepper, onion, bacon bits, egg and Panko bread crumbs and mix. 

Form into burgers and freeze so they will keep their shape when cooking. 

Cook on grill 10-15 minutes. Add cheddar cheese if you want, and melt on top. 

Take off grill and let rest for 5 minutes. 

Eat and Enjoy! 

Optional Sauce

Ketchup 

Mustard

Tabasco (a few drops) 

David Tennant- People Who've Inspired Me

Special Thanks to Katie (http://tennydr10confidential.tumblr.com/) for inspiring this post. (original post is here- with a bit less editing on my part) 

David Tennant- well, I first started watching Doctor Who on April 26th, 2008 (I’m crazy enough to remember the US airdate of Partners in Crime). This was on the recommendation of friends from the UK. Before I was a Whovian I had been a fan of the BBC’s Robin Hood so it was pretty obvious that I’d branch out to watch more British shows. So, watching Partners in Crime and the whole of series 4, I was hooked by the Tenth Doctor’s charm and how he always tends to ramble on. 

In my final year of high school, we had to read Hamlet in English class. I usually don’t mind Shakespeare, but I can tell when a certain filmed movie version was terribly directed and it was about as enjoyable to watch as watching paint dry. (Hint- it was the 1996 Hamlet). So I tried to just imagine him in the title role, and honestly, I still need to watch this. When David Tennant does Shakespeare, I have a huge possibility of enjoying it. 

Around the time Matt Smith took over, (I had a hard time warming up to Eleven 5 years ago), I had heard that he’d done one of the voices on How to Train Your Dragon. So on a plane ride to London was when I first watched it and I loved the movie despite David’s lines being taken out.  I wouldn’t think of it for another 3 1/2 years. 

When I finally became a fan of Dragons- one of my favourite moments came when I was watching Riders of Berk. Thawfest- the first time I watched the episode- I knew Spitelout’s voice sounded like David’s, but I didn’t want to get excited til seeing the closing credits just to be sure. Now when Spitelout shows up in a new episode of Race to the Edge- I get super excited even if he’s only on for maybe, a minute and a half our of a full episode. I love being surprised by the smaller roles. 

Fast forward to January 2015.  I was involved in a role-play and had only one character, with vague inklings into her past and her family and friends. The weekend he was awarded the Special Recognition- a character with a familiar accent appeared in my imagination and the rest is history. When I first started writing this particular character I said to myself “You’re played by David Tennant? Okay, you win.” 

I have to admit- I’ve had trouble getting past some of the later books in the How to Train Your Dragon series- so listening to the audiobooks has helped a ton, and I’ll take any excuse to listen to his voice. Heck if that Absolute Radio broadcast a month ago is any indication- he could read traffic reports and I’ll just sit there with a big smile on my face. 

Not too long ago I listened to his forward to Elisabeth Sladen’s autobiography. I was blown away. As a writer, I can only hope I can take readers into different worlds and extraordinary adventures. 

For me, he’s the “one degree of separation” between HTTYD, Doctor Who, and now Marvel.  I get blown away by his acting, be it terrible mind controlling bad guys like Kilgrave, to the excited ramblings of the Tenth Doctor. He is part of my motivation to write, and it’s a pleasure to be entertained by him. 

(P.S- looking forward to listening to that Panto next Friday early morning ;) ) 

Just Keep Writing....

Sept 17th, 2015

If there's one thing I learned over the past year, it's just keep writing.

A year ago today, an entire role-play was created all because us How to Train Your Dragon fans, on tumblr,  were all making jokes about Stoick the Vast and purposely trying to ground ourselves into a dungeon. This spontaneous chaos eventually became known as "Battle of the Grounded Dungeon."

In the early days of all this, I would merely observe- not being sure whether to jump in or not. Ten days later, my first character was created on the fly. She was quite a bit confused at first as to why she was there. Svie∂ was pretty much a supporting character out of all the big main ones in the role-play, but at the time that was all I really felt I had time for.

She would be integral in healing other characters. Sometimes that felt like the only thing she did- turns out she'd become my most introverted character yet.

Eventually I came up with more of this family, her sister and their uncle. Their backstory was slowly forming in my mind. I brought in the new characters just in time for some major BOTGD events.

Winter in reality was tough, dreary and cold. To be honest, all this dreariness starts to get to me by late January. So late March when New Jersey was still getting cold temperatures, came one bad weekend where I was just too tired out and too stressed over events, both fictional and real. That day was just a bad combination of being forced to socialize in real life beyond what I was mentally prepared to do, and trying to hang out with my role-play friends after that. Bad choice on my part because I didn't do any roleplaying that night, and ended up with a panic attack.

The days after, I managed to write fill in oneshots for my characters. If there was one thing that was going to help me get past the irrational panic attack, it's writing.

Three weeks later, in a much better mental state, one of my characters and I made a split second decision which was a major event for me and my role-play friends. Drama is fun to write for me, and this was the biggest event yet to ever happen to my characters.

Eventually we closed out the whole main story with a final thread and we were free to write extended universe and beyond. Not that there was anything holding me back from writing backstory beforehand, but now I had more time.

As time went on, I soon found myself writing events that were far into my character's past, as much as 90 years prior to the events of the role-play. That, from the very start, was my very own just because it takes place so long before the BOTGD events.

A few months ago, I found myself world building. Now all these various towns, cities, and landmarks were coming to life before my eyes.

About a month ago, I made the decision to make writing my career. If I hadn't joined in on this role-play, I just don't know what I'd be doing now. The Battle of the Grounded Dungeon has lead me back to original fiction writing and world building and I have my friends and their influence on me to thank for that.


"Eventually all the pieces fall into place, until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moment, and know that everything happens for a reason." Anonymous