I thought it may be a good idea to bring forward from the original Animal Crackers site--the introduce yourself part. I like getting to know everyone.
I'll start, but just so you know, this was CR's idea to begin with. The man is brilliant, I swear.
This has been transferred from the original page. I didn't move anyone else's because I didn't know if they wanted me to. If you want to move yours, please do!
Me: So, I've been writing since I was a kid, I've loved fantasy since I learned how to read, and I love to read just about anything anyone shoves under my nose. I have a tendency to stay up all night devouring a book, even if it means I have an hour of sleep before I have to get up and teach in the morning.
Cheesy vampire romances are my guilty pleasure, but I'll go for some solid fantasy or sci fi, even a romance or two (sans the pseudo-Fabio on the cover--those are a bit hard to swallow). I tend to avoid bodice rippers, but I can get attached to those new "girl alone in the city" types of urban fantasy that are so popular right now. To list my authors would take too long, but a recent showing would include Stephen King, RA Salvatore, Diana Gabaldon, Stephenie Meyer, Jane Austen, Patricia Briggs, Neil Gaiman, Kim Harrison, Terry Brooks, Terry Pratchett and NOT Terry Goodkind.
I have a really hard time writing short stories, so I don't get published anywhere. I never know when to stop, so I have all of these half-written novels lying around. The Hannah trilogy is the first I actually finished (not the third book yet, but the rest is done-ish). I'm a lazy writer, so I need someone to beat my ass into shape, or a looming deadline in order to really produce.
Oh, I teach college too--writing classes and lit classes and classes to teach people how to write professionally. I have a small resume writing company on the side, too, so I can get sidetracked doing writing that pays instead of writing that is just for me. I write some reviews on occasion and articles for a local paper when they'll have me.
I do have a small addiction to BBC shows. Robin Hood rocks, but Torchwood and Dr. Who rule. I am completely smitten by John Barrowman's futuristic pheremones. While I don't quite live in BFE (like CR does), I have a house full of critters as well--the world's fattest beagle, Scout; a fun-loving black lab, Thessaly; an aloof cat, Greyhame; a ridiculously fat cat, Guenhwyvar; and a wonderful boyfriend who puts up with my late-night typing sprees, Remi. As you can tell, my pet names run towards the literary-ish.
Basically, I took a writing class and discovered that having a workshop where other writers give feedback was the best thing ever. I hope that this writing group lasts longer than the brief tides CR mentioned, but even if we're all only here for a little while, it's worth it.
I think that writing can be a very lonely business sometimes, so it's nice to know that there are other people out there in the dark, frantically recording the spasms and cries of their own Muses.
Greetings and salutations to everyone. If I still had a hat on, I would tip it to you all.
I thought it may be a good idea to bring forward from the original Animal Crackers site--the introduce yourself part. I like getting to know everyone.
And here's my group intro:
I’ve been involved in creative writing since the mid 80s. What I’ve published has been early on, in very small college journals and, well, a phase of purple prose in the early 90s. I got very distracted by a corporate career that put my ambitions to publish on hold, which fueled a perfectionist neuroses joined with a rising level of insecurity that are flaws I’m now fighting. The result has been a piling up of manuscripts that I continually rewrite. I fear I’m becoming that character in Camus’ The Plague who continually rewrites his first sentence.
These types of online writing groups are a godsend. I live in a very rural part of Central Florida and though I met many wonderful writers at the University of South Florida in Tampa while completing my master’s degree, those people were just too far away to visit. Unfortunately, I’ve also learned that online writing groups operate much like the tide – for a year, maybe two years if I’m lucky – the most incredible collection of writers will surge together, produce wonderful things, and then almost as quickly ebb back into cyberspace. Here’s to hoping for a long tide!
I have always toyed with sci-fi, working on plots and research, but for the most part my focus has been on realism until about three years ago. Since then, I have been steadily working on mostly sci-fi, studying the conventions, exploring the authors, and choosing my own preferences. I prefer works with very intricate and elaborate backgrounds, such as Herbert’s Dune, where religion, economics and politics compete for dominance. I also prefer works with a heavy concentration of character development, especially those who are deeply flawed or who act as antiheroes. Lastly, I tend to veer towards hard science, along with those works that are deeply immersive, dropping the reader into the middle of a very complicated world and forcing him or her to figure it out. I greatly enjoyed Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow.
That said, I have a soft spot for fantasy. I’m in the middle of reading Sarah Monette’s Melusine chronicles, which I find very well crafted. I have yet to find a writer, though, who tops Storm Constantine’s Wraethru chronicles, but to be honest, her other works leave me cold. I love Neil Gaiman (his American Godsbeing my favorite), but I wish he’d spend more time crafting his sentences. I also love Terry Pratchett, but again, I wish he’d spend more time crafting his sentences as well. I can’t help it – English teacher. I’ve recently discovered Christopher Moore; I enjoyedA Dirty Job, and have Practical Demonkeepingand Lamb in the wings.
Also on my pile of books – Cory Doctorow’s Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town and Jeff Vandermeer’s City of Saints and Madmen.
For guilty pleasures, I watch Dr. Who because David Tennant is just so charming, Torchwood (though John Barrowman drew me to it, I now watch it because of Eve Myles), and my collection of Buffy DVDs.
As I mentioned, I live in rural Central Florida where I’m an adjunct professor at a local community college, teaching English. I survive here thanks to my partner and soul-mate, Chris and our two four-legged dependents, Penelope, our dog, and Zoe, or cat.
That’s enough of an introduction. A cordial welcome to all of you!
I've been reading books and fiction since I was about 8. I love stories and plots and characters. I tried writing out when I was about 13 but never finished the story (what kid has?). Since I do read so much, I've found that I can write pretty good, at least well enough to get my ideas to the reader.
My favorite authors vary a great deal. I like to read Palahnuik, Steinbeck, Eddings, and Gaiman. I've found myself becoming more and more intrigued with the actual technical aspect of writing. The way Steinbeck brings his characters to life is phenomenal. Eddings and Gaiman both made worlds that I understood completely and took me away from Earth for a little while. And Palahnuik, well, go read some Palahnuik, he's in a class all by himself. I swear they should put him in his own section at the book store.
My interests and hobbies vary alot as well. I tend to stick to creating rather than doing. For example, I like art, music, and writing more than watching sports or going to bars. I don't have the space anymore, but I used to play drums. I dabble in graphic design and my own writing and I'm also going to school to become an Electrical Engineer.
I live with my most excellent girlfriend and two dogs and two ferrets. I also have two growing and great boys. To top it all off, I work for the Coca Cola North American Company on third shift. I'm busy most of the time and I wouldn't have it any other way.
To finalize, anyone that I may critique: I read your works as a reader first. Not a teacher or writer. With that, I am simply trying to help, not offend. You're the author and you have the final call, but since you're here, you probably want some input and I can give plenty =)
Okay, so I guess I should add a little something about myself here.
My earliest ambition was to be a writer, and although it took me about 25 years to get started, I've never wanted to stop. I toyed with poetry early on, and threw together a few poor short stories in between doing a lot of travelling around the world. I tell you - backpacking is a great way to collect inspiration for writing! While house-sitting a castle in Scotland, I wrote my first "novel" - ie, a story that was more than a thousand words, but maxed out at about 65,000.
A year later I began work on what was to become the first of a fantasy trilogy of 5 books (Doulgas Adams is much missed in my house). The first book took me 3 years to finish, and I almost gave up more times than I can count. But inside of a year of giving it to an agent, I had a publisher in the UK. The remaining books took me on average 18 months to write each. All 5 have been published under the name of Kate Jacoby (my publisher's idea).
Since then I have worked on a number of projects without completing many, but it has taken me a few years to effectively recover from what was a huge and difficult process to write the last book in the series. I am hoping that being a part of this group will help me get back to where I want to be in writing and I look forward to both your comments on my work, and see what you all post on this site.
First I want to say that I am honored to be amongst such talent...After I read Jen's surface profile on the Sunoasis, I was enthralled.
The first piece of creativity that I wrote, was a simple rap at age 12. In High School I had a rap crew, and we battled emcees' (lyricist) in the streets for respect. I wasn't athletic, so my sport was lyrically killing emcees on the mic lol. As I grew older and went to college, I got into poetry and literature. Once I understood the power of such words, I was truly inspired. John Adams changed my views on society with this quote: " My country has in it's wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever in the invention of man has contrived, or his imagination conceived." This was pretty much J. Adams calling out his country against people who supported slavery.
I loved college, but unfortunately I was forced to drop out when my mother broke her leg in a car accident. I had to tend to my little brother and make sure that she was mending. A young man needed an income, so I became an Electrician. I did the trade for 8 years, and I truly despised it. The only good thing about it, was the money, and the side job offers.
About three years ago, my wife (Caroline) and I, we're watching the movie unfaithful-and we hated the ending. My wife said, that if she could re-write the movie, she would have made the ending better. I told her, I can write a movie! Her response was a bloat of laughter. A year later, I wrote my first full length screenplay titled: (Harlemites)
I kept writing, and then I took some classes at UCLA, and my instructor loved my work. So then, I joined a writers organization called OBS, and they hooked me up with Tyler Perry's talented cast. I sold spec-scripts to him as a freelance writer, and had the blessed privilege to see them aired on the television show "House of Payne" on TBS.
I kept writing and writing and one day a young producer called me at like 11pm on a Saturday night. My wife was looking at me like she wanted to choke me out, so I didn't answer. The next morning, I called the producer back and it was upcoming New York Producer Ryan Mc Glazer. He said that he found my blogger on Mandy.com and loved my synopsis'. He flew out to California and we met, it was a gig then.
I've been doing the Screenwrting thing ever since. The current novel that I am writing is a fantasy about three Generations of African warriors, and how they are connected to an immortal witch. Originally, this was a film going into production, but I thought to make it a novel first, and then kind of sell it like J.R.R Tolkien did creating my own genre, that might be appreciated a hundred years from now.
It must have been destiny to find you, because you all will be the first to read my vision in it's entire novelty. :excited:
I have dreamed up stories ever since I can remember. Most of the time they were science fiction or fantasy related, even before I knew what those categories meant.
Like many, my problem has always been the "apply ass to seat" part of writing. Teasing the idea out of my head like cotton candy onto a paper cone and making it something visible in the real world, ink on paper or words on a screen, seems so unlikely.
CR and I went to college together, and I agree with Jen that he is brilliant. We have just reconnected after about 20 years.
I have a heart condition and an implanted defibrillator that I insist makes me a cyborg. Confronting my mortality (not to mention my 40th birthday) made me realize that I don't want to die and have everyone who knew me and the lifelong writing ambitions I've nurtured say, "Too bad he never got around to writing that novel." So 2009 is the year. CR told me about this forum and invited me over. So now I intend to impose on you all.
In the late '90s I wrote some gaming material with a friend from high school, Steve Brown. He'd written many books for White Wolf's "Vampire" line and others and decided to launch his own company. So I spent some of 1998 travelling the convention circuit and pushing his work, "The Everlasting." I creates several of the character classes, the magic system and some of the overarching storyline, but I don't know how much of the latter ever saw print.
I've been a journalist for the past 15 years and am currently a copy editor/designer (and trainer) in west Georgia/east Alabama, right on the banks of the Chattahoochee. I'm lucky in that I get to write every day (all the headlines) and have about 100,000 readers (on Sundays anyway) and that I sharpen my skills continually as I try to teach my writers the things they should've learned in J-school.
I'm married to a wonderful woman named Tracey who is also an sf/fantasy/comic book/gaming geek like me. She is an artist, but her desire to break into the comics business is currently hampered as she copes with spinal stenosis, which has robbed her of most of her mobility. We also have a cat, Whisper. Well, she has a cat. The cat hates me.
Thank you for allowing me to participate, and I look forward to reading your contributions and contributing myself.
Welcome, welcome! We are a quiet bunch at the moment, after having been blind-sided by this last semester. My new year's resolution, as I'm sure everyone's is (hint, hint) is to be better at posting and reading. Part of the problem is that too many of us are tied down by school (me, Jen, Ken and Tracey), and we left Moses high and dry. As we get more people, we'll be able to lose a person or two but still keep puffing.
Moses has two new folks he's trying to rope in as well, so hopefully you won't be the newbie for long!
As for everyone else, I was quite convinced in my blushing youth that Christopher was by far the better scholar and writer, so hold onto the sides of your desks and be ready for a fantastic ride!
Hey Christopher! It's nice to meet you, and I can't wait to read some of your stories! If CR says you're the better writer, I can only imagine what kind of treat I'm in for.
Greetings Chris...splendid introduction! Yeah if CR gives you this praise than I too look forward to reading your work. I was in Barnes & Nobles today and I ran across the latest Conan comic: The Frost-Giant's Daughter and Other Stories by Kurt Busiek and the Artist: Cary Nord & Thomas Yeates. This comic had me glued to my seat and it read like literature, great dialogue and the story is compelling.
Hi, everyone. I found out about this place via CR while taking his "Science Fiction Literature" course last term, and, impressed by his commitment to applying "serious criticism" to nasty old genre fiction, figured this would be a great place to hone my writing skills. It was surprisingly easy to weasel an invitation (of sorts) out of him, and so here I am.
I've been interested in writing roughly since I began reading, and can recall writing (no doubt horrible) short stories as young as four or five, substituting drawings for words I didn't yet know how to spell. I wrote a few pieces here and there while growing up, but serious production didn't really begin until 2003 or so. Since then, I've written about two dozen short stories, and one "novel". The latter was actually written in six days during a week-long fugue of despair while employed as a water-stocker at Wal-Mart during hurricane season. Recently, I've been working on a second novel, and hope to make some substantial progress on it while out of school over the summer.
I've never published anything, but I'm not sure if this is because I'm terrible or just because I've only ever sent in one submission. I've come to understand there's a certain skillset involved in "getting published" that I just have no knowledge of whatsoever. If I happen to pick up some pointers on that while here, so much the better, because I'm definitely not predisposed to excelling in anything that is of practical value to anybody (hence my studies in literature and philosophy!). Just kidding, of course.
Most of my writing tends to have sci-fi elements, but they're not always right up in the forefront or anything. I was explaining to CR that I like to write stories with a kind of Twilight Zone-ish feel, where it may be that just a single element of the natural world is tweaked, or in some cases, an entirely new world altogether. In either case, I enjoy how tweaking setting opens up the possibility to explore themes in a universal way, without complicating them with the fact that readers will naturally have prejudices regarding things/people/places that exist in the actual world. For me, that's the primary strength of sci-fi, and my favorite works are those which capitalize upon it the most.
Speaking of favorite works, I guess I should mention a bit about my influences. As a child, I was mostly interested in horror fiction, and read most of Stephen King's work before I even became a teenager (the first Dark Tower book, "The Gunslinger", "The Stand", "IT", and "Eyes of the Dragon" being my favorites). From there, I moved predominantly towards fantasy in my teenage years, and despite what reputation they might have as schlock, I still love the original Dragonlance novels, and old-school D&D aesthetics in general. I didn't really get into sci-fi until after I became a fan of anime around 1990. As some of you might know, anime in the 1980s was heavily inundated with sci-fi works, and exposure to some of the classics of that time like "Megazone 23", "Akira", Ghost in the Shell", "Bubblegum Crisis', and the original "Mobile Suit Gundam" TV series sort of sparked a latent love for the genre as a whole in me. Ever since then, I get chills just by being exposed to the elemental symbols of New Wave sci-fi, like neon lights, beam-swords (lightsabres), ray-guns, or ridiculous motorbikes driven by nihilistic teenagers. At the same time I was developing this love, I also became enamored with French Romanticism, as well as Russian literature, and Dostoevsky in particular. I'm of the opinion that "The Brothers Karamazov" has yet to be matched for sheer psychological depth, philosophical force, and emotive power. As such, if there's any overall "goal" that I have as a writer, or as a student of literature, it's to synthesize these two forms of greatness and to encourage the view of science fiction (and other "genre fiction") as containing the same potential merit as anything in the Western canon.
At any rate, that's that! I plan to start posting some fiction beginning later tonight, and look forward to reading all of yours as well. Thanks for having me!
Hey welcomed to Animal Crackers KW! Splendid introduction and I respect you for already posting. That shows your seriousness about our craft. I will check out your short story and I look forward to your work. You sound like you know your stuff, and you're a descriptive writer yes!
A Stephen King fan! Yay! Not to give myself excuses (actually, to completely give myself excuses) I've been occupied revising my dissertation on King's The Stand. A publisher may be interested if I make it longer, so here I am back in King's world with the Dark Tower. It's good to know I'm not the only Stephen King nut in the group.
Jen, that's awesome about the King book. Here's something you may not want to hear. Rosalie Baum advised us to wait until we got a tenure track position to convert our dissertations to a book because we would only have five years to write a book during the tenure process. Do you think you could write two King books?
Ok. I was dragged kicking and screaming, alright well maybe not entirely kicking and screaming here, by Moses. Who has decided, I believe to coach me because I tend to have the same issue Christopher does. I have started a few stories here and there and never made the effort to finish any of them.
Lets see...
I have been online roleplaying for 11 years. Posting paragraph after paragraph, bouncing off stories and dialogue in a give and take environment in chat rooms and forums. I prefer fantasy, I tend to stay away from modern, which is odd because that is what my present writing endeavor is. Set in modern day with a serious fantasy twist. I guess I wanted to work out of the box.
Writing is both challenging and fun when it comes to stories because I have no one to bounce ideas off of. I am not sitting in a chat room, waiting for someone to reply so I can react to their post, what their character says or does, I'm creating the story myself which is what I like and, as I said, what I sometimes find challenging.
My favorite authors in no particular order: Laurell K. Hamilton, Anne Bishop (LOVE her), Stephanie Meyer, James Rollins, Clive Cussler, Stephen King, Anne Rice....god I could go on.
I am an AVID reader. For the moment my ride into work takes 2 hours there and back and what do you think I do? I have my nose buried in a book.
Slightly shy at first until I open up. Mother of two boys, one 4 and one 6. Wife of nearly 5 years.
I think that's it!
-- Edited by Olivia on Tuesday 9th of June 2009 04:34:18 PM
Wonderful! Welcome! Thank you for joining Olivia and I warned CR that you will be one that definitely sticks around.
We usually post our stuff once a week, on the weekends. CR & Jen are preparing for Summer so I assume that we all will be more active. Once you start posting, you will see me on a consistent basis.
Excited for you and congratulate yourself for wanting to finish!
"Statistics say that almost everyone in America is working on a novel. But how many of them will actually finish it? The percentage is so small that it doesn't even compute on nonscientific calculators. Are you one of the few, the elite, the unrecognizable percentage who will actually finish your novel?"
-Gerald M. Weinberg
-- Edited by Moses on Wednesday 10th of June 2009 02:48:20 PM
Welcome Olivia! Moses is right. It's summer now, so we should get to posting more often. And my we, I mean me. Grin.
As for writing two books on King? I'm certainly up for the challenge, but I think the odds of me getting tenure are miniscule by any measure. I'm just glad to have someone interested in this thing!
So I thought I would come here and see what my wife, Olivia, was up to. Then, i remembered that I am a bigger writer than she is and thought I would throw my hat into the ring and see what you guys thought of my work and maybe help out a little where I can.
So, I am a 29 year old guy who is stuck in the bizarre land of Quebec. I am a husband to Olivia and a father of two of the cutest little demon spawn you have ever seen.
I have been writing since I was about 7 years old, mostly poerty and essays about things I loved to think about.
When i discovered the Internet I realized I could write far more than I had been and, in a word, began to write profilically. I have hundreds of thousands of words on dozens of websites, blogs, forums, social network sites and what not.
I love to read anything, science fiction, fantasy, crime, psyops, spy novels, vampires and demons and even the occasional classic.
My fav authors have to start with Tolkien and Heinlein. Orson Scott Card, Clancy, King, Rice, Burroughs, Clavell, Rand and a myriad of others from ancient Rome, Greece and medieval France.
Pleased to meet you KB! If you enjoy Tolkien and Clancy then you're in the 'write' place lol, I am a big fan of action Sci-Fi and fantasy also. Oh' Olivia didn't tell me you were a writer, so now I am overjoyed that she has two coaches to push her to finish her story. I truly look forward to reading your stuff and no we won't hold back! Welcome to Animal Crackers!
-- Edited by Moses on Monday 15th of June 2009 05:04:25 AM
