Beneath the cut is a permanent entry that collects annotated summaries of my various LJ entries on aspects of writing or fanfic.  Most recent at the top.  If you're looking for the History Meta, find it HERE.

Replies are turned off, as this is a permanent entry.  If you wish to respond to an entry, please reply to THAT entry. BE AWARE ... I don't have time to go back through all these old entries and correct links to the defunct website, so names of stories/novels on the site should be searched on other archives:

Most of my X-men & Harry Potter novels/series (ebooks)
All my Harry Potter stories (The Quidditch Pitch)
All my Twilight stories (Twilighted)
Fanfiction.net page (includes many X-Men short stories but not all)
(Most of my fiction can be found in one of these four places.)

A book any and all writers (fanfic, profic, aspiring profic) should read/have read:
Techniques of the Selling Writer Dwight V. Swain
http://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292300916&sr=8-1


( COLLECTED LIST OF LJ ENTRIES ON WRITING )

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In (sorta) thanks to my FL for all the help with languages, I'll share the COOLEST story I've read all week (maybe all month). I found this via Joy Harjo, who herself reposted it from Terry Gomez.

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right (via NPR)

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm." ...

( The rest of the story )

I hope if your read it, that story brightened your day as much as it brightened mine.

My son's teacher wants "International Studies" in as many languages as she can get.

She has the following: Kiswahili, Somali, Chinese, German, French, Spanish. I've given her Miami (Indian) and (modern) Greek. And I'm getting (modern) Hebrew, Czech, Italian, and (possibly) Lakota from friends/colleagues ... maybe Arabic if I can pin down the husband of an acquaintance, but that depends on when I see her next (ergo, if anybody reading this can give Arabic, go ahead).
(ETA: I now have Polish, Hungarian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Welsh, Irish, Catalan, Galician, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, Russian, Solvenian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Finnish too.

So ... lay it on me, guys. I know I have folks reading this from all over the place. Please translate "International Studies" in your native language (and tell me what it is!). If your language uses a non-English alphabet, please give both the term IN that alphabet as well as a transliteration in English characters (as best you can).

THANKS.

(ETA: As always, you guys are AWESOME ... she's going to have more than she ever dreamed I could get her, I think ... ha) My Friend's List Knows Everything! Feel free to keep adding!)

I can hope for Greece, but I fear they're going to fall to Argentina today. :-(

(Not really a football/soccer fan, but I'll at least cheer for Greece.)

Okay, I had a really funny discussion/debate/argument with an old friend about the name "Rachel." My mother had an uncle who insisted on calling her "Rachel" because, he said, "Anybody with hair as black as yours ought to be a Rachel." But my buddy found this very funny, as he associates Rachel as a name for BLONDES only. I currently know four Rachels/Rachaels, and two are blondies, one has medium-brown hair and one has very black hair.

So naturally, it's time for a silly poll!

Poll #1580703 Rachel/Rachael
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 201

When you hear/see the name Rachel/Rachael, what hair color do you envision?

View Answers

Black hair (or very, very dark brown)
56 (27.9%)
Blonde hair
15 (7.5%)
Light or medium brown hair
43 (21.4%)
Some shade of red or auburn
30 (14.9%)
I don't associate any color at all with the name
57 (28.4%)

You will find HERE one of the best summaries of facts and speculations that I've seen to date on the infamous Marion Zimmer Bradley fanfic suit that has been used for years and years as an anti-fanfic cautionary tale among pro writers.

Note: I heard this (basic) story (somewhat distorted) about Teh Evol Fanfic loooong before I ever read any of the X-Files, much less wrote any for X-Men. It deeply affected my initial (very negative) views of fanfic back in the early '90s, despite the fact I had, many years before as a teen/YA, been a fan of Vonda McIntyre, John M. Ford, Diane Duane and Margaret Wander Bonanno, et al., who wrote what amounted to published Star Trek fanfic with their classic ST novels.

Still, I think this sort of collection of the facts, insofar as they can be public posted (without suit, anyway) is very helpful to clarifying what is the genuine *issue* that many SF authors fear (being out potential work due to accidental conflict) versus what's hyped-up paranoia by agents and lawyers.

P.S. I'm headed off again, so this post is mostly informational/pointing rather than invitational for discussion.

Just for fun, here are some final figures on The Medicine Wheel before I bring it down.

Total visits (as opposed to page views) across about 9 and a half years: c. 1,661,350
(Obviously, this doesn't account for time the meter failed, etc., etc., purely a generic figure.)

Averages change hugely, depending on a lot of things, but for the last 2 weeks, it's been averaging about 600 a day, with an average length of visit at about 15 minutes. For the last year, it's averaged 12,000 visits a month, with the highest average at 18,000 last August.

Unsurprisingly, the chief language of the viewers is English (88%), with the next main language being German (5%). The rest all come in under 2%: Swedish, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Norwegian, Hungarian and ... Greek! :-)

Most visitors are from North America (69%), with the rest made up of Europe (19%), then South America and "Unknown" or "everything else." (Given the language distribution, I'm betting a large chunk of "everything else" is Australia/New Zealand).

A little over 24 hours, folks, for The Medicine Wheel.

It's my own fault, but I have FINALLY got through the ridiculous backlog of email and ff-net reviews in my inbox. Feel accomplished, although I'm not admitting how many were there (for shame). I did discover that LJ has not been emailing me notifications of replies to old entries, so I've no doubt missed some.

Okay, folks, you can find the Heyoka novels at the link below:

HEYOKA MAIN MENU PAGE

Thank ladyjestyr.