I'm a Senior (in college) majoring in biology with a concentration in genetic/genomics. I write purely for the fun of it with hopes to someday publish whatever I finish. I'm told I'm a nice person, so don't hesitate to contact me, especially if you'd like me to read something of yours - I don't generally have enough time to peruse ficpress on my own, but if I'm directed to a story I'll stop to read it. I do beta/edit as well, but I don't sugar coat anything, so make sure you're ready for brutal honesty. Any questions can be directed to my email.
Authors/Books I count among my influences: George R. R. Martin (the most hardcore man in fantasy), early Robert Jordan (before Rand became an angst machine), Tamora Pierce (before Tortall became her cash cow, and every blonde person became EVIL due to their blondness), Patricia C. Wrede and The Dealing with Dragons Series, David (& Leigh) Eddings and the Belgariad/Malloreon, Orson Scott Card and everything the man has ever written, Diane Duane and the Young Wizards Series (which pointed out that magic is tough), Howls Moving Castle, Phillip Pullman (especially for His Dark Materials), Ursula K. Le Guin (the most hardcore lady in fantasy and scifi), Sherwood Smith, Lois McMaster Bujold, Susanna Clarke, Chronicles of Narnia, any and every retelling of fairy tales plus the originals themselves, and always, always The Princess Bride, which everyone ever should read
Movies/Games I constantly turn to for inspiration: Big Fish, 10th Kingdom (if you ever have 6 hours and a will to watch redone fairytales, WATCH THIS), The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Pan's Labyrinth, Pride & Prejudice, Serenity/Firefly, Stranger than Fiction, Monkey Island, and The Longest Journey Series (Ragnar Tornquist, you are breaking my poor geekish heart)
Stories that are currently posted:
Crown of Thorns: My current attempt at an epic fantasy series, throwing out all the cliche Tolkein conventions and starting somewhat anew. This is mostly about the personal journeys of the characters that populate this world, which are all tied together by the acts of two factions: the children of Balor, and the draoi. The older, unfinished version is still up, but no longer posting - it's only up there in case people want to spoil themselves up to Volume 3 or 4. It will be taken down after the current story catches up.
Volume 1: Crown of Thorns: Status: Complete. "In a world where magic has been outlawed for centuries by paranoid kings, the jaded dark sorcerers have rose from the Crown of Thorns to claim the earth for their god, Balor. The world's only hope is eleven powerful sorcerers too bad they don't know it." The start of the Crown of Thorns series.
Volume 2: The Man-God: Status: Complete. "The dark powers are poised to carve their kingdom from the world of Terra with fire and blade, led by the mortal host of their dark god and his right hand. Meanwhile, the draoi race to set in motion their plan to save their people from the rule of Balor." The continuing adventures of Arduus, Muirinn, and all the rest, plus a few more characters.
Volume 3: Journey: Status: In progress. "With their ManGod slain and their hopes dead along with him, the Draoi move to find Lugh's next host. Meanwhile, the pieces in the gods' game of good and evil have begun to move, all beginning the long journey that will shape the destiny of their world." The next chapter of the stories of Arduus, Eldari, Muirinn, Andar, and all the others, plus a few more characters thrown in for good measure.
Other stories:
Eth: Status: On Hiatus. "Maggie once lost something very valuable - something taken unjustly from her. She is given the chance to get him back. A story of friendship and devotion, of heaven and earth, of holding on and letting go." This originally started out as a short story, but is being reworked into a novel. As much as a I really love it, I have no desire to work on it for a very long time; it takes a lot out of me to write it.
The Old Soul: Status: Complete-ish. "Babushka always told Anna about the monsters from the old country, but now Anna's all grown up and she knows it was all lies, lies that were meant to keep her in line." Story written for my comp-lit class I was eventually badgered into posting. It got an A (well, actually a check-plus-plus). I may come back to this some day to make it into an actual short story, but for now I'm content to let it sit as proof that i can write 5 pages in a total of 3 hours.
Exchange stories:
A little known Sabraeal factoid: I have a tendency to write ficlets for people I beta for and who beta for me. It is usually what I consider my "review" - nothing is better than inspiring people to play in your literary playground, so to speak, and I'm the kind of person whose muses like to play by other people's rules. In general, I don't post them - the only people who see them are the authors of the original source text, and some of our mutual friends. Since I was asked (emphatically) to post one here, and since have been encourage (emphatically) by other authors I wrote for to post them here, I'll be adding some ficlets (by request only) to my profile.
Four Women Jarod Has Kissed: Written in exchange for my dearly beloved "Rose of Whitekeep", this story is a companion piece to Solemn Coyote's "Ashes to Emily", which is the warmest and fuzziest apocalypse story you can have. It's mostly a character piece, but it expands a lot on Jarod's back story, and was meant to be mostly silly. Solemn Coyote gave me express permission to play in his sandbox, in any of his fiction, and I chose this one.
Other stuff you should totally check out:
Rose of Whitekeep: This is Solemn Coyote's awesome brainchild, spawned during a completely random conversation between Locus, IAmGabe, Solemn Coyote and myself. It is a fanfic of Crown of Thorns sometime after chapter 2 or 3 in Volume 2, and if you have ever read bad fanfiction, you will enjoy this immensely (don't worry, it's purposefully awful). It is actually the best bad fanfic I have ever read, and it is all for me! Obviously non-canonical, fully Mary-Sue, and awesome.
Updates:
7.24.08
Chapter 3 of Volume 3 is up - finally! It's a beast of a thing (14 pages long in word), and I took me a good two hours to edit it into submission. I'm hoping for another update in August, but my update schedule seems to be every two months, so it may be more like September. The next chapter is much shorter than this one, but two months seems to be the rule no matter how long or short these chapters are.
6.14.08
My exchange piece with Solemn Coyote for his awesome "Rose of Whitekeep" is complete - "Four Women Jarod Has Kissed". It will make more sense if you read "Ashes to Emily", the story it was based off of, first.
4.26.08
Chapter 2 of Volume 3 is up! This will probably be one of the shortest chapters in this Volume, as a gauge. Next update should be by June.
3.4.08
Chapter 1 of Volume 3 is up! It sort of took forever - first to start, and then it just seemed to keep adding to itself. I'm hoping for an update between April and May, but as I've said, these chapters are far longer than the ones in previous volumes.
12.9.07
It took a lot longer than I would have liked, but the prologue for Volume 3 is up. The rating on this volume is M, like on the last, more for the moving room than for anything I really have planned. The chapters here should be longer than in past volumes, but I hope to update a lot over winter break in a few weeks.
11.25.07
The epilogue for Volume 2 is up, and hopefully before NaNoWriMo is up I will have the Prologue to Volume 3.
11.19.07
Chapter 8 is done and posted, and the epilogue of this volume and the prologue of the next should be up soon. I'm hoping to be able to power through some chapter so make my word count, but I'm pretty sure that won't happen.
FictionPress.com - let the words flow
