What next?

So I've been making some decisions recently about my life and the direction that I want to go with it. But I'm pretty sure none of you really care about that so I thought I'd just tell you that I'm looking for a fic to do my next review on. If you have a suggestion let me know. Till next time everyone!

My first fic review! - Real Women have Curves by: Truefan

Okay so for my first ever fic review I really wanted to do one that is near and dear to my heart and that is the story Real Women Have Curves by Truefan.

In this story Bella moves away from Pheniox to live with her dad in Washington. She's met with the same problems as most new kids face. Trying to make friends and fit in, getting up to speed in class and things like that. Sound familiar? It should if you've read the books. However unlike in the book series where it seems Bella is self conscious for no real reason, this Bella has one. She's labeled as a “big” girl, if you know what I mean. It's a stigma that she's lived with her whole life at first it appears that Forks isn't going to be much different than Phenoix was. There are still the same clicks and the same personalities that always made fun of her before. She's determined to stay as invisible as possible at her new school, but that isn't really possible and it's all because of one person. Edward Cullen.

Edward is Bella's lab partner in Biology and at fist she figures he's probably your average jock, but what she doesn't know is that there is nothing really average about Edward. Edward doesn't care what the other kids think. From the minute he sees Bella he's drawn to her. He sees her as beautiful inside and out and eventually he gets Bella sees it that way too. But she's been burnt before and her past always seems to rear its ugly head at the most inopportune moments. School bullies, jealous girls, town gossips, all of them are rooting against them, will their unexplainable connection be enough or will Edward just be another heartbreak for Bella?

Are you intrigued? Good because this story is so worth the read. It's well written and very detailed. The descriptions are absolutely amazing. I hate it when stories or chapters seemed rushed and I never feel that way with this story. Each chapter has that slow natural build that they always tell you is needed when you study creative writing in school. However nothing seems forced. The situations are real and so are the people. In my opinion True is a master at character development. The characters are not only fully developed but complex, and not only the main characters. True really took the time to see that even the minor characters shined through and were important to the story as a whole. Let's take the character of Emmett. Now in a lot of fics the secondary characters sometimes get forgotten or at least reduced to where it seems that only one aspect of their personality is showcased. Emmett usually gets the short end of the stick because lets face it Stephanie didn't really show us a very deep well emotion when it came to Emmett and most authors follow her lead making him you average or even kind of slow jock. He gets labeled as a goofball but a lot of people don't go any deeper. In this story we see that he's not only goofy, and yes a little slow witted, he's also fiercely protective and able to admit when he's wrong. True also has one of my favorite Tanya's ever! I do not lie. Yes in this story Tanya is the bad one...and what a great one she is. She's kind of your typical bitchy cheerleader at first glance but she's so much more than that. Her mother is the principle of the school and her father is the mayor, so not only is she a bitchy cheerleader, she's a bitchy cheerleader with power, and she uses that power for her own evil purposes. Seriously I've never seen a more underhanded, dirty high school girl than True's depiction of Tanya.

However important all of those elements are to the integrity of the story, that's not why I chose to do review it. I told you that this story was close to my heart and there's a good reason for that. It's like True took pages from my diary and wrote a story about it. I lived Bella's life. I lived Bella's life until I went away to college. I know what it's like to be laughed at every single day, to feel worthless, and wish that for once you could disappear into the cracks. I know how it feels to diet and exercise till your exhausted and hungry only to be discouraged when the weight never comes off. I've cried in dressing rooms and I've never once felt beautiful. Reading this story something resonated with me for the first time. I felt hopeful. Seeing that it's not impossible to find someone out there that would possibly want to be with someone like me gave me hope. So if you ever felt even the slightest bit out of place in school this is the story for you. If that's not you and you just enjoy a really sweet (sometimes lemony) love story you'd really enjoy it as well.

Hugs and Kisses,

-Katiecav

Link to the story on fanfiction.net - Real Women Have Curves
Link to the forum on twilighted.net - Real Women Forum

My reactions to the hatred in the Fandom

I know that I've been MIA for quite some time and I'm very sorry for that, but I have a plethora of personal reasons that I shall not get into here. Let's just say I've been busy and leave it at that. I'm going to try to do a story review on Wednesday for you guys. I'm not really sure which story I'll do but I'll figure that out later. Now on topic for this post.

First I want to just say that this issue wasn't even on my radar for the longest time and I guess that's just because I had never been very involved until recently. Now however it is clear to me that it's just slightly ridiculous and I, like many others, am a little tired of the meanness and worse the just plain hatred that is in this fandom. It's gotten to a point where many of my friends are considering leaving or have left it entirely. We are loosing not only good people but amazing authors because of this sort of thing. What is this sort of thing, you ask? This sort of thing is sending hateful reviews or mean e-mails to authors, aimed at hurting rather than helping. Authors are not immune to handing out this hatred though. For example some have been publicly bashing reviewers and readers. (I've been on the receiving end of this one...and I can tell you personally that it's not fun)

Maybe it's my innocence or my optimist nature, but I can see some very easy ways to rectify this situation.

1. Maturity

I can tell you that many authors are delicate fickle flowers. I know it seems strange to some people but it takes a lot of guts to put something out there for other people to read. I second guess myself every single time I post something. Also, as an author I can say that you become very attached to your plot and your characters and when someone says something negative, constructive or otherwise, authors sometimes they react like you were attacking their children. Try to read, review and respond maturely. Readers try not to attack the author, think of them as a cornered snake if you have to, if they feel that either them or their story is being threatened they will strike. Chose your words carefully when you press that little review button. And follow Thumper's advice. "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it all." That being said, authors try not to take every single negative thing someone says as a personal attack. You must be mature enough to set your personal feelings aside and look at the review objectively. It is not the intention of most readers to insult you or your story. Many times what they are offering, while it can still be criticism, is meant to be constructive or is just a matter of opinion. If it differers with your opinion, well it differs there's nothing you can do about that. Attacking them only really succeeds in alienating them.

2. Understanding

Really they kind of go hand in hand, maturity and understanding. But one without the other won't solve the issue. Readers, here is the big thing you have to understand. We all have real lives and really more often than not they call us away from our fandom life. Some authors need to take a break for long periods of time for one reason or another and you have to understand and accept that fact. That's just how it is. Plain and simple. Sometimes it sucks, but that's life. Authors, you have to understand that not all the fandom realize what is going on in your life also you have to realize that unless you post strictly M rated stories your audience is widely varied and their response to your story will differ based on how old they are and how exposed they've been to the rest of the fandom.

The most glaring example of lack of understanding and maturity I can think of right now is the negativity surrounding an author that's in the hospital right now with a very serious condition. Readers and Reviewers, you have to realize what you say will be read by others, IT WILL BE SEEN. Reviews aren't very private things so take that into consideration before you post something. Authors, and their good friends, There is something else you need to understand. Everyone might not be as informed as you. Before you react consider that maybe they just haven't been told the situation.

Now before you all hang and quarter me let me just say that I'm not excusing the behavior in any way. What I am saying is if you react to hatred with more hatred what are you accomplishing? After all and eye for an eye will just leave the world blind right?