Hi Duudes and Dudetts

I just got some news that one of my very favorite residents died, Mrs Prance I love you and will miss you muchly

So i'm a bit sad. Has anyone got any brilliant news or stories to cheer me up or complete heart fail, you know it could even be of the HP variety.

fyt because it always cheers me up a bit

 Or anything super awesome funny like the above

(v) So...I knew a few of you love this guy (v)

^Partially (if not completely b/c of this)^

(I used that pic b/c of her shoes ~ So HOT. I want them now.)

I just watched this week's episode and it was awesome. (I ♥ Caroline) I was wondering about the books???? I haven't heard anything about them and I was wondering if they're worth the read or if I should just stick to the show?? What cha think campers?? Share the love? Or unlove? ;)

I am taking a Critical Thinking class this term at my school. The first assignment we had to complete was a 2-3 page paper about a topic we feel strongly about, since fanfiction has become a large part of my life and had introduced me to so many great and caring people, I decided to write my paper on fanfiction in the literary comunity. This week we are learning about flow charts and concept maps and one of our assignments is to make a concept map on our paper topic.

I am hoping the wonderful campers will be able to help me. In the paper I discuss professional published authors who support and are against fanfiction and the different types of fanfiction and I briefly touch on the legal issues with fanfiction. Is there anything else I should include? Do you have an opinion on whether fanfiction has a place in the literary comunity?

Maybe I'm super late to the party, but this made me laugh so much. 

http://www.nbc.com/parks-and-recreation/video/time-capsule/1283481/

Come in and share your love for Will Forte, Thursday night comedy, and most of all Aziz Ansari. I thought it was funny to see a fictional account of someone's first time reading Twilight. 

Plus: It is on like Genghis Khan wearing Sean John in Bhutan! 

It's Friday Free for All and I'm sitting here with my glass of wine and my glassy eyes, so please excuse the typos and incoherent talk.

I'm here tonight for a purpose...besides the fact that I'm a loser sitting home alone on a Friday night with a dying cell phone and a big old glass of Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio (YUM!)

I am here tonight to ask you...what are your PET PEEVES when it comes to the FanFic?

What is it that you see, over and over, in story after story (and let's face it, ladies, we read plenty of stories otherwise we wouldn't be here) that makes you sit back and say "Good Sweet Grief!  Again?!"

What recurring descriptions, characteristics, traits, phrases and overall plot devices drive you insane?

Mine will be below the fold...

(dear kind Ranger ladies, if I needed approval for this campfire and failed to do so (I'm not sure if we need approval for Friday Free for All?) then kindly do what you must and extinguish my fire...)

For all of your time....

I'm bored, so I decided I wanna go to the movies tonight, even if it's by myself.

However, I don't know what to see. Your thoughts?

My UPDATED choices are:

Tangled

The King's Speech

Black Swan

Tron (omg garrett hedlund)

True Grit

The Green Hornet

The Dilema

No Strings Attached

The rite

Sactum

YOUR THOUGHTS, CAMPERS?

EDIT: OMFG BLACK SWAN WAS WONDERFUL! Thanks for all the recs everybody :)

It's free for all Friday, right?

I am so in love with baking (I should really stop, because I always eat all the batter. And it's just so bad.) Anyway, I'm always looking for different recipes to try. Today, I made a couple loafs of banana bread. It was okay, but I want it better. I have no idea how to make the bread so... moist? My mother makes excellent banana bread, but she lost the recipe.

Do you have speical way of making banana bread? Family secrets?

I'm just looking for easy recipes (for just about anything) that isn't very costly.

Also, I'm desperatly searching for a choc. chip recipe that is just... mouth watering. I've tried a bunch, and they always come out so hard and gross.

Any recipe would be greatly appreiacted. Anything for me to try. Also, pictures are welcome as well.

You know, when I read Twilight, initially I was attracted to it because I found it on a "Clean Reads" blog. 

"Clean" as in, no sex anywhere in sight. 

Then, I went on another Twilight site, known to cater to moms because honestly, I was a bit freaked out that I enjoyed the friggin' book so much.  I felt weird and pervy for being left unsatisfied and that website explained it to me. 

Then, the website did another thing:  introduced me to this weird thing called "Fan Fiction".  I mean, why would I want to read what someone else wrote about these characters? 

Yeah, well, I was there when the poo hit the fan because the ratings went from PG to like, XXX, faster than a Bougati Veyron can go from 0-100kmh!

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the XXX sometimes.  I probably shouldn't, considering I'm becoming desensitized in a big way to all that the rating has to offer. 

Then, I read this tonight. 

This is where the interactive part comes in.  I'd like you to spend some of your precious Friday night reading and discussing that article with me. 

My question is this (and I know ya'll will end up rabbit trailing like kuh-ray-zee, and I'm cool with that!):

In what ways has the sex in FF helped or hindered (confused?) you (be as candid as you like, no judgement here!) in your sex life or normal life?

I'm thinking that this can kindof be a spinoff of the TMI Posts G.A.W is so kind to offer us (hopefully that isn't presumptuous or overstepping-it isn't meant to!)

My thoughts will be inside and I'd really like this to be an open, kind conversation. 

You can send me your keys to this in the mail-OME

I'm making this campfire for two reasons.

1)To introduce people to this band if you haven't heard of them:

and

2)To have a little discussion about songs that take you by suprise.

The first time I heard this song, I broke down into tears. I'm not a crier; I rarely do. But this song, sung so beautifully, describes my relationship with a boy  perfectly. I don't want him, but I will love him forever. And this song caught me by surprise and it struck right at the core of me.

Are there any songs that did/do this for you?

It doesn't have to be by surprise, just as song that touches you somewhere deep in your soul. If you feel like it, tell us why.

Alternately, share with us any and all music you can't live without. That what sends you somewhere you love or hate and can't get enough of.

Disclaimer: Be happy. That is all. 

One of our very own campers, bloodlust aka Shamarra, is getting married tomorrow!!!

Pop on in, congratulate her, share some advice, stories from your own wedding, etc!

I'm so excited for you, bb!!! <3

Hello Campers!

Many great films have been adapted from books, such as "Twilight" and "Lord of the Rings."  

Do you have a favorite book(s) that is now a movie? 

How do you think the movie portrays the book? 

Is there a book that you would love to see as a movie?

Look forward to your answers. :)

so, DFW is hosting the Super Bowl this year. great. 

i live in fort worth, approx 7 minutes from where the steelers are staying and approx 2 minutes from where they've been practicing.

i've already heard some crazy stories about both the players and the celebrities that have been in town from my friends.

my favorites thus far:

1. ben roethlisberger took some teammates out to dinner at a freaking nice restaurant and then they dropped a $1000 tab at Pete's Piano Bar downtown, where ben sang "piano man" by billy joel.

2. my friend helped unnamed steelers arrange a certain type of deal involving greenery on tuesday night.

aside from that, the traffic has been horrible, AND, on top of that, the roads here have been frozen solid for the past 4 days. (and yes, i mean frozen. this wasn't a snow storm like our northern friends got -- it was frozen rain up until last night. my street is still under about 2 inches of ice right now.)

so, to make this interactive, here's the question:

has your city ever hosted the super bowl? who was playing? run into any celebs? help them with drug deals? did you hide in your house until all the out-of-towners left? have you ever been to the super bowl? share your NFL stories!

that's the steeler's practice field at TCU

FUN FACT: It's estimated that more people will attend this year's Super Bowl than there are residents of Green Bay.

Do you lend people clothing?  yes? no? why? 

situation inside**

geez I really need a shrink so I can stop unloading my problems on the forest...

So I have a confession...  

  I like LLAMMA's.  Well thats not the real issue here.

I hardly read.  

I know~I know, don't shoot me.  If it wasn't for my ex coming home with the first Twilight book I would never have known about this wonderful fantasy world.  I just started reading the first book after the first movie had already been out.  Now mind you I like to read I just have issues picking which books to read.  

I can actually count on my fingers the books I've only read:

* Twilight Series

* The Mortal Instrument Series

* Lemony Snicket Series

* Kindred

* The Power of One

* Hush, Hush

* Encyclopedia of Hell

* Calvin and Hobbs Comics (That counts right?)

So my fine and beautiful ladies, could you please expand my mind.  What book should I read next.  I really want to read more!  I want selling points.  Faves?  Or maybe books to be careful of?

Loss4words and I are hosting The Never Ever Happily Ever After Contest. Deets below:

Link to FFN profile: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2733868/

Link to Blog: http://nohappyeverafters.blogspot.com/

Not everything in life ends with a happily ever after. People leave, they die, they cheat, they get sick, they are murdered or take their own lives. Life can’t always have a happily ever after, and neither can fics. That’s what we want. We want a FREE-STANDING one-shot that does NOT end with a happily ever after. That’s right, we want your MAJOR heartfail.

Your one-shot can start off happy, there can be lemons (please let there be some lemons) but it MUST end SADLY! We want your one-shots to make our chests ache and for tears to pour from our eyes? Can you do it? Can you rise to our contest challenge? Please, please do!

We are open to such scenarios as:

illness

death

cheating

suicide

These are only suggestions, and if you have something you are unsure of, feel free to email us! Please, think outside of the box!

Any POV, or pairings and categories accepted. No entry limit, collabs are cool. This is an anonymous contest.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Submissions will be accepted from 2/4/2011-3/15/2011

Public Voting will take place from 3/17/2011- 3/24/2011

Winners of Judges Selections and Public Vote will be announced 3/31/2011

Contest entries must be received no later than midnight (EST) Thursday, March 15th, 2011

Public vote will be started on Thursday, March 17th, 2011, ending midnight (EST) Thursday, March 24th.

Judges:

We have quite the kick-ass list for The Never Ever Happily Ever After Contest. We love them hard and we’re thrilled that they were willing to judge.

BellaFlan

CereuleanBlue

nitareality

Agoodwitch

Questions, comments, concerns? Email us at: nevereverhappy(at)gmail(dot)com

Also, follow us on Twitter @loss4words81 & @nitareality

Please say you’ll enter! We really want your heartfail. If you have questions, it’s best to find us on Twitter!

This week I pressed the Complete button on my first multi-chapter story. It took me 17 months, but it's finished. In between chapters, I wrote a bunch of other stuff, but nothing else felt like quite as much of an accomplishment. I think parts of the story are some of the best things I've written, though they're far from perfect.

But more than anything else, this time it was as much about the process as it was the outcome. Cliche or not, this really was more about the journey than the endpoint.

I learned:
? That I have ADD. This was never a big issue until I started trying to write fiction, and discovered a creative impulse so strong that I hyper-focus on it, losing all realistic sense of time. This affected my relationships with my husband, my kids, and my volunteer work. (Apparently my RL friends just accepted me for what I was -- a chronically late mess -- and loved me anyway!)
? That a good therapist can help you-- and your husband-- understand why you're chronically late to everything,and cannot seem to juggle the basic tasks of running a big household.
? That the friends I've made writing fanfiction "get" all this better than anyone else.
? That writing fluffy smut in present tense about unrealistically perfect men will get you many more reviews than the stuff you really sweat over. ;) And there's really nothing wrong with any of that, once you accept it and mtfo.
? That I want to be better, and that means taking some classes and finding a writing group and/or workshop. Once I finish my two commitments for Fandom Gives Back, I'm scaling back to only reading and reviewing fanfic.
 

So tell me what writing has taught you about yourself, about life, or you know…about whatever. :)

For your time,  a favorite picture of Tom Welling (aka my Emmett) doing what makes him happy-- and looking damn sexy doing it.

And another one, just cuz he's so adorable. Don't you want to smooth that crease between his brow?

FF - ADF

My lovely friend, AccioBourbon, just recently hit complete on a gorgeous, heartfelt AH story about Emmet & Rosalie.  Please take a moment to pop in, congratulate her, leave your reactions to this lovely, moving story, or share your own stories about how this topic touched your life. <3

I am writing non-canon.

I know, you're shocked. Astonished and gasping at your keyboards.  LJ? Writing NON-CANON? Surely, you jest!

Anyway.

I am and I am writing it in the Pride and Prejudice fandom.  I am...ready...pairing Jane Bennet with Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Unexpected Perfection at FFn.

Why, you wonder?  I have no idea, except that the idea tickled me. I've been a fan of P&P for more than 30 years, but I do like playing with convention.

I know. This is unbelievable but true. Cue melodramatic music...!

I am operating without a net at present, meaning I have no formal outline (!!!) but I will likely remedy that shortly.  

Just wanted to invite anyone interested to come peruse. :)  

I will make it work.  It's what I do. :D

I also have a post-P&P fic called The Last Miss Bennet, if you're more inclined to more, er, normal relationships. :)

TELL ME:

What non-canon pairings in other fandoms do you wish you'd see in fics that you either read voraciously or wish were out there?