Happy Thanksgiving!

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Now I know Thanksgiving is only happening right now for Canadians, but even so, Happy Thanksgiving! I’ve taken a moment to reflect on everything I have to be thankful for. To be honest, this is something I try to do every day. Gratitude is such a powerful thing, and I know it has done a great deal towards making me happier and even healthier. We all complain so much, but when I take a moment to realize all that I have and be thankful for it, it truly makes life better. Even when remembering bad things that happened, it helps to try to think of some way that some good may have come of that bad thing. It’s how I came to see the beauty in life. It’s how I hang onto hope, and it’s one of the ways I find happiness. So I’m taking this moment to say thank-you. Thank-you to anyone who reads this, and thank-you to everyone in my life.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Constructed Languages

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Constructed languages, or “conlangs” are something that have always fascinated me. I was never a Tolkien fangirl or a Trekkie, but the invented languages in those fandoms intrigued me nonetheless. In the Valdemar series of books (some of my favorites), there was also a people who had their own language – multiple ones, come to think of it. As much as fully constructed languages intrigue me, however, I think I have more of a soft spot for when key words and phrases are cherry-picked and used the way the Valdemar books did it. Regardless, here is a very cool presentation on conlangs:

I’ve always wanted to create my own language, but I have to admit that it’s not yet something I’ve done. I’ve tried making bits and pieces here and there, but they haven’t ever turned out quite how I’d like… maybe one day!

Crazy Awesome Woohoo!

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So this weekend, I attended WANACon! WANA stands for We Are Not Alone, and it’s a community of writers online. WANACon is an online conference (the second so far) that I attended last year, and then again this year. Want to know how awesome it was? Here’s a sample from the little social (PajamaCon) session that kicked it off. According to Gry (another attendee), this is Danish humor:

The next day there were TONS of talks – not as much infodumping as I recall from the first one (which I actually rather liked) but tons of interesting and engaging speakers. Kristen Lamb was one of my favorites – I hugely respect her for her work with writers and her writing itself, and she’s an all-around fun person. She summed up Lord of the Rings as a story where an evil ring needs to be thrown into an evil volcano before darkness covers the world. …It’s strangely accurate, however humorous. If you’re a writer, her blog is a must read. She also has a book out that’s extremely helpful, I recommend it.

The second conference day was awesome too. The idea of writing a unicorn horror story even came up at one point (I’d read it). One presenter talked about websites. It inspired me to tweak mine, but it also admittedly made me feel a little insecure about it and wish I had money to throw at a website designer. Alas, more money is going out than coming in at the moment. *sigh* One day… Anyways, I got a couple of those infodump sessions I was looking for this day too. Hurray!

In other news, I found an editor! I sent her my short story, so hopefully everything goes well! I’m very excited… and nervous. Regardless, this means the short story should be up soon! I will, of course, make an announcement and link to it the moment it’s up. :D

And finally, my scalemail costume has been coming along nicely. I work on this project on and off (more off than on, most times). Here are the update pics:
front back

That is all.

Nerd Decision

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It has come to my attention that there is a very important decision to be made:

Now we all have our fandoms of choice. I must admit that Doctor Who would be my favorite fandom… but would the sonic screwdriver be my tool of choice? Honestly, I think I might go for the wand… as awesome as having a sonic screwdriver would be, I think the wand is more versatile. Oh the conundrum.

Which would you choose? Comment below!

A Wee Bit of (My) History

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So I figured I should do a post where I let you know who I am and what I’m doing.
…That’s as far as I got before I realized that I don’t know what I’m doing.
*Ahem*
Fortunately, I do know who I am! …But I have an About Page already… But I suppose there are a few holes in the “details” section.

Basically, I’ve been writing for… forever. Or grade 5 at least, when my teacher held “journal writing” every day and I started writing stories. My first one was about a unicorn: so was the second. There were a few in there, one with cats, another with leopards and magic, and then… I stopped finishing stories. I got too ambitious and wandered away from stories after getting a few ideas and writing a couple chapters. I had one story that I worked on for years before finally abandoning it, and I roleplayed or “rped” on forums for many more years. That only stopped when I started to get serious and decided that I was going to finish something. A year later, I had a manuscript. A year after that, I had a second, the sequel that completed the story. Now I intend to get the first one published (and the second one after that, obviously). And that, more or less, is the history of me writing (trust me, there’s a lot of terrible stuff in there, stuff that will never see the light of day… at least not without being heavily overhauled.) Although, my characters from the books I’ll be publishing actually originated as rp characters (even if they were altered for the novels).

Other than that… I’m just a somewhat nerdy chick with a cat. You will no doubt hear about said cat. Her name is Loki, and yes, that’s a boy’s name, and yes, she’s a girl (my sister named her, as I got Loki from her). Here’s a picture:
Does it look like I'm laughing?
Yes, she’s in a jester costume… it’s better not to ask.

Anyways, I play video games, do crafts and stuff (I’m working on an awesome scalemail costume), read (mostly fantasy – always feel free to comment with a book recommendation), watch TV like the rest of humanity, and I love cats, dragons, candy, and crepes. I’m not sure what else there is to say, so I’ll leave ‘er there!
So that’s it for my lame-o introduction.

Have an awesome day,
Stephanie

P.S. Here’s some cool science news:
Scientists create matter out of light

More Than Just Surviving

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Well, it’s about time I got this ball rolling. I confess, I’d planned to start blogging sooner than this, but life has a way of taking the reins away sometimes, doesn’t it? Step one of getting them back is realizing you’ve let them go, and thankfully I’ve reached that point. I’ve got a book to publish; it’s time to get to work!
Now I’m going to be as honest as possible – I find this whole blogging thing pretty scary. I’m not the type who is naturally inclined to spill my life on the internet. That being said, I want to create a connection with my audience, and to do that, I need to give first! As much as I might like to hide away like a little mouse, safe in my nest, all the new and exciting (and shiny!) things are out there in the wide, scary world.
So, now that life has calmed down (relatively speaking), I’m going to start blogging regularly. I know it’ll teach me a lot, and I hope to meet some awesome people! So please, if you even sorta want to comment, do! I’d love to hear from you.

Look for a new post next week!
See you then,
Stephanie

P.S. For your entertainment:
Time to leave the ocean forever

Getting up and running

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Welcome to my website!

My name is Stephanie, and I am the author of the fantasy books, Stories of Fire and Stone – all  of which, unfortunately, have not been published yet.  But I’m working on it!  I’m currently hunting down an editor, and the posting of a short, free teaser-story and some samples will follow shortly after.  I’m obviously new to this whole self-publishing thing, but I want to do it right, so please bear with me while I pull all this together.  I realize my site is quite skeletal right now, but I’ll be fleshing it out as I go.  I’ll be updating as progress is made.

Thank you and have a wonderful day!  I hope to see you around Twitter or here. :D