Hello! I'm currently a second-year anthropology major living and studying in Southern California. While I don't have as much time as I would like to write fiction, I do get hit with little bursts of inspiration from time to time and store those bursts away in a safe place (scattered Word documents in a special folder) so that I can elaborate on them later. If you review any of my stories, a big thank you. I'm not a great writer, so I gladly accept constructive criticism as long as the content remains reasonably civil. I also highly recommend the stories in my favorites list.

5/24/08 News: With the school year settling down, I'm finally ready to return to Fictionpress and I have a story idea lined up. This time though, I'm going to try something different. My biggest failure has been that I never finish any of the stories I start writing. Now, I think I've figured out why that is. Even though I have a general idea of where I want my stories to go, I don't write them down in an organized format, so my thoughts wind up all over the place and it's easy to lose direction. So for the latest story idea I have, I'm not going to post any chapters until I've finished them all. It will be a very simple and short piece. If I can't accomplish at least this much, I don't deserve to call myself a casual FPer.

As always, I've more than proven my inability to keep a consistent update schedule. I can't apologize enough for my sporadic updates or my long absences. Thank you so much for being patient with me.

Stats (for fun?):

Preferred anime/manga: Naruto, Bleach, Ghost Hunt, Noir, Black Lagoon, Death Note

Preferred books: The Joy Luck Club, The House of the Spirits, The Hundred Secret Senses, Harry Potter series, John Grisham novels

Preferred styles of music: Instrumentals, Vienna Teng songs. I'll listen to pretty much anything though, except dirty rap.

Hobbies/Interests: Reading, video games(!), forum roleplay, Chinese traditional dance, occasional fiction-ing

Preferred styles of fiction (not necessarily all in the same story, of course): First-person PoV, ample amounts of sarcasm, told in the vernacular, a healthy mix of romance/angst/violence

Screenname inspiration: In my freshman year of high school, my AIM handle was lil shdw drgn. Typical? Quite. So I just kept the 'shdw' part and switched to another mythical beast. Heaven knows why I didn't call myself 'shdwphnx', though in retrospect I'm glad I decided not to. So yeah. And no, I did not tYpE lYkE dIs, though I personally think it's natural that most teenage girls should go through a phase of odd chatspeak at one point or another.

Story Info:

Once Under a Blue Moon: Yes, supernatural creatures like vampires and werewolves can be quite kick-arse and so deliciously evil. But I thought it would be interesting to see how a 'normal' teenager living in modern times deals with being different. This story has a decidely cheerful narrator and is part action, part romance. The plot starts with a little bit of both and will slowly develop them side-by-side.

Boulder: A weird little one-shot that came to me when my roommate had me listen to Vienna Teng's The Tower. As I thought about the lyrics, words of my own came to me, and it was one of those brilliant "light bulb turns on" moments that don't happen nearly enough. So, I ran with it and this entry is the result. The story in no way reflects my real life circumstances, though I'm sure we've all felt like that at one time or another.

Mikasch: A widow in her early thirties finds a wounded merchild in the tide pools. Her maternal instincts demand that she take in the poor thing and protect her, so she does, but it's not as easy as it seems. The State has a harsh policy when it comes to demi-humans, and the woman fears they'll force a terrible fate on this child. So she runs. This story shouldn't go for too many chapters and shouldn't have any intricate plot twists. I'm writing it mainly to appease my muse. Since it deals with non-humans, you might notice some similarities between it and Blue Moon.

Bronzework Dragon: I don't even know if it's fantasy enough to qualify; I'm considering moving it to Manga just so I'll feel more comfortable and so I can inject some manga/anime quirks--and I don't only mean the right to give Ritz green hair. XD Anyway, I'm exploring a different type of writing that's not so plot-driven: make some characters, put them in various situations, and see how their relationships develop. There is magic involved, as well as "creatures" called demons (misleading name), but the setting is a bit more modern.

A Duet of One: I was watching a Youtube video with two sisters playing a Chinese wind instrument, and their harmony was so beautiful that my thoughts turned dark and I imagined what it might be like if one of the sisters wasn't there. It seemed perfect for a one-shot, so I wrote about it. In this entry, a young flute player who has lost her sister tentatively picks up the music again and searches for her sister through the song. I think most of it is an extended metaphor or something. I'm not sure. Should've paid more attention in English class.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson, "A Return to Love"