a long time

so I always give this speech at the beginning of a post now that says I'll start doing better at posting and then I never do so i'm going to stop making promises because i don't like not being able to keep them. My Real Life has been hectic to say the very least. I don't remember if I mentioned it but I've made some life changing decisions lately. One of which being that I'm going to Culinary School. I'm unsure as to what my schedule is going to be like once I get up there because I'm going to have to go to school and work, so that I can buy things like food (because for some odd reason we all must eat eventually). I'm still writing and I'm trying to balance my life out but sometimes it doesn't always work out like I want it to. I'm changing the blog up a little to make it more appealing looking and everything. Thanks for hanging in there with me guys. A new post to come soonish hopefully.

"Lucy I'm Home!!!"

Good morning, afternoon or evening...where ever it is in the cosmos that you are. It has been FOREVER since I posted here hasn't it and for that I feel ashamed. But there is good news. I'm here now! That should count for something, right? I hope so...Anyway I've got a crap ton to catch this blog up on I don't even know where to begin.

First I'm going to be doing some hard core reorganizing of this blog eventually, so just be aware that you might get alerts about new posts but they are just posts you've probably already seen. 

At the time of my last post I told you that I was going to try and get a review blog up and running and well it's up and running. It just took a heck of a lot more time and work than I had anticipated to get it that way. I hope by now some of you have ventured over to check it out. if not please do our address is http://twificreviewsa-z.blogspot.com/?zx=bb4f54e1adbdd283 and we do all sorts of things there including a contest so if you're a writer of the fanfiction variety, you should look over there.

I wrote a story for Fans Against Domestic Violence that I'm extending into a three shot...I know I know, but don't fear it literally takes me forever to write a chapter for that story because of the content of it so it won't put me any further behind than I already am...which brings me to my next thing. Some of you may be wondering why you haven't received a ff update for Leave It All on the Floor in nearly two months now. Well allow me to explain a little. I'm currently trying to catch up with my editing. I started the story without a beta and not only picked up one but two beta's at about chapter 16 so I'm going back through to edit all of the current chapters before posting another...at least that's the plan. 

I started posting on Twilighted, TwiWrite, MyVampFiction, and The Writers Coffee Shop...well pretty much anywhere that I can get my stories out there I'm getting them out there. Since Fanfiction.net has been a pain in everyone's butt lately. It let me log in this morning so hopefully the problems are fixed but I won't hold my breath.

Our, and by our I mean mcgt's and my, new contest started. It's a spring contest called showers to flowers and the link to all the info is up in the heading bar. See it? Good. Make sure to check it out later too. You still have plenty of time to write. It's a pick a picture contest and so far we only have four entries so please check them out and start writing.

As if I didn't already have enough to do, I'm working on a contest colab with Mcgt. Yes the same one I'm hosting the contest with. I can't say much about it because its an anon. contest but I can tell you it's for the Strictly Charlie contest. Both of us being Charlie fans it just seemed to pour right out of us. Yesterday we spent nearly three hours flushing out our plot bunny and writing an outline on google.docs. I can already tell that google docs is going to be our friend when it comes to this piece. I've never worked on a colab before but I can already see the draw to it. Brainstorming with M was a bunch of fun and really having someone else's input about characters and events was super helpful. M and I work really really well together when it comes to the contests we seem to balance each other out and hopefully my love of dialouge and her love internal musings will balance our story out as well. I'm sure I'll be talking more about this as it progresses. 

I'm going to try and get better about posting here. Now that I don't have a post on my review blog at all unless I really want to it should be easier for me to focus on my writing. Love You all! Until next time 

MWAH!

-ME

*sheepish smile and wave*

Hello there folks I know you are all probably thinking I dropped off the face of the earth and well that's not that far from the truth actually. I've been really busy with tons of things. Organizing not one but two contests and getting together another blog. It's called Twific Reviews and basically it's my friends and I rec'ing some of our all time favorite fics so please check it out. http://twificreviewsa-z.blogspot.com/

This site is going to become my personal twific blog site...where I'll talk about my own stories and things of that nature. I hope to see you all over on my other site eventually and if any of you are interested in becoming reviewers let me know because I'm still looking for staff ;-) Till next time my lovelies

XOXO

Katiecav

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?

Leave it all on the floor Chapter 16 - teaser

Okay so here's a little taste from Chapter 16 of my story Leave it all on the Floor:

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Tell me something?” Edward asked as he took a drink from his glass.

“What?” Bella asked taking her own bite of tortilla chip and salsa.

“What you were like as a kid?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…I know how passionate you are about dancing and that it started when you were young, but what else did you do? Where you into sports?”

Bella barked out a laugh, “No. Sports aren’t really my thing. I mean I grew up in a house with just my dad so I get the ideals, I can watch football and yell at the screen as well as anyone,” she pumped her fist in the air half heartedly and Edward couldn’t help but laugh with her. After their laughter died down she continued. but other than that…I didn’t do much other than dance really. It was my life, where I was able to find my center. Life made sense there, on the dance floor. I didn’t feel out of place or so alone when I was dancing.” Bella cleared her throat before continuing. “If I was dancing I was studding. I had to keep my grades up after all. That was a stipulation from my dad. We both knew that I wanted to dance but we didn’t want that to be my only option. I was actually on my way to being valedictorian when I was accepted into the ABA.”

“That doesn’t really surprise me much Swan,” Edward said with a small smirk before firing another question my way. “What’s one of your favorite memories from childhood that doesn‘t involve dance?”

“Okay I’ll tell one but you have to go next,” Bella smiled as she took another bite from her chip.

“That’s fair enough,” Edward conceded.

She absently twirled a chip in the salsa bowl as she began, “I was probably about eight or nine years old and my dad was off of work and he was going to go down to the lake and go fishing with one of his friends and his son and for some odd reason I got it my head that I wanted to join them. Seth and I were fine in the beginning, really were excited to see each other. It’d been a while with my Ballet lessons and the separations in our schools. It was getting to us.” Bella brought the now slightly soggy chip up to her mouth and ate it. She sighed and continued her story. “After a while though the excitement wore off and we quickly became quite useless, and more than a little whinny. Seth had said something that had upset me. I don’t even remember what it was now, but it really aggravated me.” Bella chuckled already knowing where the story was going. “I shoved him and well…needless to say sleepy children do not equal good balance and we ended up turning the boat over.” Bella and Edward were both laughing now. “I still remember my dad‘s when it happened. It was a strange mixture between anger and surprise.”

“How did you manage to overturn the boat?” Edward asked still laughing.

“Well I shoved Seth and he rocked a little too far and fell over the side. His dad reached to grab him and the mixture of the sudden shift on that side caused the little fishing boat we were in to flip. Luckly we weren’t that far away from the shore when it happened but it certainly ended our trip early and that was the last time our dads took us fishing, we always had to stay back with Seth‘s mom after that.”

“So fishing isn’t your sport either?”

“No. Not at all,” Bella answered with another chuckle. She swiped another chip from the basket. She smiled as she looked out onto the dance floor.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

If you liked it let me know what you think, leave a comment, stalk me on twitter whatever works best for you. :-)