I'm Autumn, a 21 year old female currently attending university. I'm an anthropology major, minoring in history, with hopes of becoming a paleoanthropologist, meaning that my focus would be on ancient hominids and hominid evolution. I write for the simple pleasure of it and to clear my mind. Because my stories are a sort of 'therapy' for me, I do not write them for the sake of reviews, though I confess I appreciate every review I have ever received. I take pride in my stories and spend a great deal of time formulating and developing a plot before writing it down; the very reason why months may pass before I produce another work. As each story is special to me, to know that you, the reader, enjoys my work as much as I love writing them, is truly wonderful, and something that I cannot thank you enough for.
Some of my interests, besides writing, are reading, researching, religion, politics, debating, music, history, and working with animals. I have a ball python named Grace. I'm open-minded and extremely opinionated. I'm cynical. I love religions but I am agnostic. I love sarcasm and a dry sense of humor. I have a phobia of modern slang speech. My inspiration for my stories comes from many sources, from the songs I like, to the authors I read, to the shows I watch. Musically, I'm diverse. I love rock music-and I do so love the Beatles-but do confess to enjoying classical pieces from time to time. I read everything and anything, especially Michael Crichton (whom I adore), Stephen King, and J.K. Rowling, among many others. I freely admit to being a science and history geek. House M.D., Project Runway (a favorite, sadly obsessed), Shear Genius, Futurama, Family Guy, South Park, Good Eats, and Law and Order: SVU are the shows I make it a point to watch.
Below, I've outlined the stories that I have written and posted here on Fictionpress. Behind every story, there is a background to it, and as the author, that is something I would like to share.
Deliverance- This would be my first story to be posted on here. It's a good reference point for how much my writing has developed. I wrote it in my junior year of high school-now almost four years ago, and now that I look back on it, I cringe. There's so much I could have done with it, so much I could have added, taken away. I keep it only for memory and reference's sake.
Oblivious- A story that was written around the same time as Deliverance. It's short, cute, and definitely not up to my current standards. The plot consists of a girl confessing her love to her best friend and picking out points she loved about him. It's simple and a light read.
Insatiable-Created on a whim, this story was more of an experimentation for me. The plot is simple and virtually non-existant. However, Insatiable is one of the first stories I've written that contains a sensual scene. The quality of writing is moderate at best, but I do look upon it somewhat fondly, if only because it marks the beginning of a new writing style for me.
Goddess-Another experiment produced this story. If before my stories had a 'teenage' charm about them, Goddess represents a writing style that is more adult, more primal, and more raw. Compared to later stories, the plot is not well represented, but I admit, this story has a sort of charm for me.
Dark Enchantress-Created, or the idea anyway, while I was sitting in my anthropology class during summer session at university, it really epitomized a dark persona that I wanted. I wanted it to be a love story, but I also wanted it to be dark, haunting, leaving behind almost an uneasy feeling. I wanted it to focus on the primal emotions of humans, instead of the sweet, serene style usually chosen for a love story. I wanted it as raw as I could get it.
Submission-I wrote this one on a whim. I took an emotion, doubled its intensity as well as stretched it out considerably, and this was born. Like Dark Enchantress, I wanted it to be raw, crude, vulgar almost. It's about the feeling of being used by a lover, only for sex, never giving emotions one might crave like love. Because it's so raw, I choose language that was similar. Curse words flow quite freely. I didn't want this to be a sappy lament. I wanted it to be hard and emotional. I wanted it to be true to human form.
Edge of Sanity-I've seen plenty of suicidal stories. And while many of them are good, they always bothered me because they were from a third person perspective. What went through their mind as they lay there dying? What emotions do they feel? So I decided to write my own giving that perspective. This story is the result. Darker than anything I had previously written, in a way, it was a personal triumph. I expanded beyond my usual romance story, and the results-this story-were actually quite satisfying.
Leaf-From one small phrase, this story was created. Another experiment, I chose a situation that I was unfamiliar with (this story deals with twins, and I cannot say I have one of those), and more so, wrote this in the first person perspective.This story pushed me outside of my element, but I admit, I'm pleased with how it turned out.
Vertigo- Combining literary and musical references, this story became one that is close to my heart. It was a joy to write and I was quite involved with it for several days. It is a love story, but with it, I took a different approach to the plotline. Most romance stories focus on how 'perfect' the person is-with this story I tried to emphasize their flaws. I didn't want just characters, I wanted people. Real humans with real emotions.
Confessor- I've often thought of taking this story down. It's short, emotional, and yet I feel no real love for it. Still, there is a vulnerability about it that I like, which is probably the only reason I've kept it.
Perdition- The story of a murdered girl and her quest for revenge. What I really wanted to do was show the process of losing humanity, of losing sanity and hope, but finding it again. I just really wanted to delve much deeper into the human mind than I have ever gone before, play around with psychological themes, and really, draw out the horror of it all. Something different from my usual works I must admit.
Primordial- Though I'm agnostic, I confess that I love to ponder the concept of God and fate. And with this story, I wanted to do something different than my other stories. It's a love story, but I wanted to bring ideas and concepts that maybe people weren't aware of. I wanted people to think as well as enjoy it. Everything about this story is significant, from his name of Michael (the Biblical angel of war-fitting as he's a soldier), to her name of Cheyenne ( named after the Native Americans. I confess to be a fan of their culture and their ways. This was my meager tribute to them), to each personality and the setting. It all tied together, the earth, the weather, with the questions and the discussion that is carried on throughout the story. Definitely a thought-producing piece. Hopefully.
Insomniac- This story is the result of yet another experiment of mine. The plot consists of a therapy session between the main character, a resident at an asylum, and his psychologist. As I usually write stories centered on romance, I wanted to try something different, something darker than anything I've written before. I wanted to try the horror genre. It was a step out into a realm I had never been before.
Perception- I was toying around with the idea of perfection, why we want it so badly and what-not. And the thing that stuck out the most was how we are often our own worst enemy. From that idea came this story. I wanted to keep it simple, as the idea behind it was so complex. No names, just a man and a woman, battling their versions of perfection. Each one, according to their own perspective, was not good enough for the other. It was intentional that they have similiar thoughts, and hopefully my message shown through. Often we think we are not perfect, but to someone else, we are. And while we don't think of ourselves as being 'good enough', often, we are.
Requiem- I was listening to one of my favorite bands, and the whole notion of paganism really got me thinking. I've always loved learning about religion and all of my stories are set in present day. So I figured, why not take a chance and write something that would have taken place so long ago? The story focuses on the time when Christianity was really taking over paganism, and how a pagan is really upset by this shift. I put it into the perspective not usually seen.
Inferno- This story was never meant to be anything serious. Simple and romantic, I decided I'd toy with the 'brother's best friend' cliche and put my own twist onto it. As a rule, I generally stay away from popular cliches as much as possible, but I have to admit, I had fun with this one. It wasn't the main focal point for the story, but rather a backdrop, which meant that I could use a cliche, but wouldn't be confined by it. The story evolved on its own. When I began, she wasn't a professor, he wasn't a doctor, and the plot line was small and short at best. It was a joy to write, and to date, one of the best stories I've written.
Dead Lands-This story is, yet again, another experiment. I've always wanted to do a story with apocalyptic themes. Not a long one, but something short that still gets some sort of message across-this one being that humans will destroy themselves if they're not careful and that even if humans go extinct, the world will continue. I wasn't sure how to label it; originally it was under romance, before I moved it to general. The musical references and influence provides the backbone for this story-especially The Beatles. This story, for me, has a certain charm; namely, the more I read it, the more I like it. However, it was more or less created to help me get rid of writer's block. I like pushing boundaries and I like making people think. Hopefully, this story did that to some degree.
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