I’m the gal that would roller-skate my way around the Labyrinth, ninja the Mad Hatter's teacup and then proceed to snog him senseless, and dance with wild abandon until the Ruby Slippers cracked and crumbled off my feet in a sparkly mess... I’m rather too much fun to be a very good damsel-in-distress, you see.

My mind - much like the TOS of this website - is subject to change at any time and without notice, thank you, and have a nice day. :)

If I ever write an extended fic (y'know, longer than a one-shot) and I see you put something like this in your review: "Update soon plz!" ... I swear I will personally beat you over the head with a frozen fillet of mahi-mahi.

I tend to think and associate things in music. I remember my life like one long soundtrack and series of play-lists - weird, but true. So if I say or imply that something you wrote caused a song or a snatch of music to run a heist on my train of thought, take it as a compliment! :) If nothing else, your work now has a theme song and the beginnings of a soundtrack now, right? So it's all good!

I've got a thing for Beauty-&-the-Beast-ish scenarios and pairings... guess I just like 'em wild and dangerous, gotta love the claws and fangs! WHOO!

The most frustrating thing about being a writer is that everything is already there in your head, in all it's epic glory, the difficult part is getting it defined into reality, such as it is, and in such a way that a reader can digest it, and concur that "yep, you've proved it, this !@ is epic!"

You know you're doing something right when you start seeing fanfics in honor to your fanfiction.

Stories with fluff are all well and fine, like any girl I like fluff, but seriously, folks, y'all keep the Disney at home! (Unless you're writing a Disney fic, of course.) There's a profound difference between sweet or romantic and gag-me-fluffy.

EVERYONE HAS MY PERMISSION IN ADVANCE TO ADD MY STUFF TO THEIR C2! MUCHO THANK YOU! :D Just be sure to let me know in some small way after the fact, please, so I can check it out. :)

Somehow, for some reason, there is just NO SUCH THING as a movie/story couple that does not fit having a fan-vid made of them to the song "Hanging By A Moment," by Lifehouse... Has anyone else ever noticed that?... Seriously, why is that? Every time, it always fits! ... Not that this is a bad thing, mind you.

Dear Mary-Sue: IHATEYOU!IHATEYOU!IHATEYOUWITHAVENGEANCE! WHY must you scar the minds of the masses with the sickly-sticky-sweet fart that bleeds from your so-called brain of lemony sugar-fluff? To be quite frank, Miss Sue, your flawless looks, eternal youth, insufferably pure innocence, and downright obnoxious naiveté, along with your innate "the 'chosen' one/special one"-ness -- and your utterly unfounded yet somehow all-permeating sexual allure -- has cursed us all long enough. It has to stop. Yes, STOP. Stop taking our heroes and turning them into very un-heroic mooning, crooning, crying, sighing softies with jelly guts that worship the ground that your shadow falls on. Stop taking our heroines and turning them into ditzes and harridans with no souls and no qualities, or just outright taking over their whole beings and enacting your teary-faced, hurt-me-love-me-just-keep-thunking-of-me evil upon us through them, ala Agent Smith. Enough is enough. And, again, to be quite frank, Miss Mary-Sue, we've all had more than enough of you and your sappily-ever-afters. DIE ALREADY! Best Regards, Your Name Here: OceanFire9 (Post this on your profile if you are in on the fight against the Mary-Sue ideal)

Guillermo del Toro is like the Godfather Drosselmeyer of the modern movie-making world, I have yet to see anything that's been written or directed by him that didn't totally ROCK SOCKS! Tim Burton is the king of surrealism, really, his knack for it is undeniable (though I think I liked his stuff better before he got corrupted by CGI overkill). Peter Jackson dresses everything in Epic... Not as in the common, modern slang term "epic," I mean the classic term, like sit down for The Odyssey "epic." Definition: "Of legendary proportions," epic. :) Don Bluth's artful animation = the stuff that dreams are made of.

I make a point of NOT reading fics that have things like this in their summaries: "I suck at summaries," and "it's my first fic, bear with me." Why do I do this? Because talk like that is making excuses for your work. It shows insecurity, that you feel that your writing is not all that great, so you want others to be extra- kind and gentle with their criticism and comments, and to just "bear with you." :P If you feel that you can't even write two measly lines to sell it to your reading audience, then how am I supposed to believe that the actual story itself is any good, either? If you feel that you need to highlight that you're an amateur so that people might feel it in their hearts to be nice to you if they don't like what you wrote, then how am I supposed to take it seriously that you feel your work is good enough for anyone else - much less yourself - to begin with? STOP MAKING EXCUSES! STOP PROJECTING INSECURITY! Take all criticism in stride, and make yourself better. Proceed with confidence. THAT is how you win readers who will want to read your stuff!

Things I crave immeasurably in both original fiction and fanfiction: 1) FUN WITH CANON! OOC as a general thing (outside of parody and satire) is my biggest turn-off; 2) Slow-boil chemistry between characters in extended fics, because love and lemons at first sight is just... too much; 3) NEW ANGLES on old stuff, original "what-ifs," elaborations on elements that are often glossed over (like what happened in all those years Snow White spent with the dwarves, eh?); 4) Characterizations (for OCs) and plot possibilities & twists that deviate from the generally used fan clichés... Clichés are to me what garlic is to a vampire, you see.

Lately I've been finding that I am REALLY tired of seeing a lot of cut-and-dry stories with definitive roles of friend, love interest, enemy, ally, mentor, protege, bad guy, good guy, the doomed, the hopeful, and so on. What I want to explore is more in the way of genuine complexity. A "story" where the lines between all of those roles are blurred into utter oblivion. Anti-heroes, "frienemies," friends-but-not, and hard-core flirting with the razor-fine lines around the hard obstacles of faction play - that is the stuff of some damn good drama! And quite frankly, it's far more interesting, I think, to have multidimensional antagonists and heroes that are flawed and anything but paragons of virtue.

To everyone still waiting for more of Princess: On hold until further notice... in other words, don't hold your breath, but don't abandon hope. Inspiration to continue it may strike me again one day. :)

To those of you waiting on Confessions of a Casino Diamond: I am so sorry to say it, but I am never finishing it. My reasons: I cringe every time I read back over the story. Really. I essentially do not possess the desire to try to finish it in full-glory form. I leave it up (instead of removing it) for two reasons only: 1) I can't find it in my heart to take away from you guys something that you liked *hugs for you* and 2) I leave it as an example to myself of what transpires when I try to force things into place, instead of just letting a piece develop as it needs to. Such a thing reminds me that I am human and I make mistakes, in which there is no shame, only room to grow and improve.

To all my fellow writers, May the Muse Be With You! (And the Force, too, if you write Star Wars-related stuff.)