My friend was talking about this fic she read recently about how Edward and Bella sorta hate each other but they're in high school and she sits infront of  him in a class and she always puts on lotion before class, which turns him on? So finally he steals it and wacks off in the bathroom; UST and banter ensues. My friend forgets what it's called but aparently it has amazing banter. I WANT TO READ IT.

Any ideas? Much love for all.

I can pay you all in goldfish and sexual favors...or the goldfish can perform sexual favors.

My first campfire! I'm hoping to get at least one comment so I don't feel completely lame :)

I'm a girl. As such, sometimes I just need to have a cry. I find it's an emotional release that's much healthier than, oh I don't know, flying into a homicidal rage. When I need a cry, I have a few "go-to" things that always get the waterworks going:

1. Life As A House - this movie kills me every time. If you haven't seen it yet - do it now. Run!
2. The scene from Love Actually when Emma Thompson finds the necklace (that's not for her).
3. The episode of Grey's Anatomy when Denny dies. I can't stand Katherine Heigl, but I've got to give her props for this performance.
4. The video of Bette Middler performing "Wind Beneath My Wings" at Yankee Stadium, just after 9/11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NXYNvqp_pM

How about you? Do you ever need a good old cathartic cry? What's your go-to?
 

So, erm, what happened to em?

I keep searching for the reason to no avail.  Any idea why Manyafandom took it down? Or did she hide it somewhere else in cyberspace?  And if it's really gone... any of you fellow smutheads have a copy?

And to make this campfire more open to discussion - which smutty one shots are your favorites?

For your sweet, sweet time:

I came home on Monday to find about $3K worth of things missing from my house.  Most of the stuff I didn't feel so bad about but they took my laptop, which has all my pictures and several stories that I had started to write in the past year.  I think the worse feeling is that they were in my house.  I now have a little anxiety about leaving my home, and I have had a migraine for 4 days now due to the stress.  I haven't even been able to find a fic that has made me feel all warm and fuzzy like some of my old school favorites (Mr. Horrible, BSK, Poughkeepsie, you know the oldies but goodies).  I need a good cheer up

SOOOOOOOOOOO I'd like some recs for  rare funny completed fics (they have to make since though I don't take to crack fic well)

OR Karaoke   of happy songs

or  Pics of Hot Men not named Rob (he's not my cup of tea people) with their shirts off or fighting or something, I might enjoy violent pics. I Like Pretty REALLLY REALLY PRETTY.  Here was my object of lust as a teenager:

 And I would still hit that.  Also I still love this too:

This man makes me swoon:

Or just advice on how to deal....

I do have a beta, but she is going through some personal difficulties right now. So I guess what I'm looking for is a temporary/permanent beta. I'm not disagreeable to having two, but I don't want to drop my other one either.

What will you be beta'ing.?

 An X-flies/ twilight crossover.  I currently only have two chapters published here and here.  The story just updated today on twilighted. You will get to beta chapter 3. If you want to continue to beta the rest of the story, you're more than welcome to, but isn't necessary. Chapter 4 might not get done until the end of November.

Let me know here and I'll PM you to exchange email addresses. I'm usually pretty patient and won't get worked up if I don't get a beta'd copy back in two days. A week would be great, any longer than that and I'll worry.

Thanks.

Edit: You don't really need to know about the X-Files. I just need someone to look over it for typos and major grammatical errors. I'll even accept a typo spotting pre-reader.

Oh and I promise this is not a corny unbelievable crossover.  If that helps any.

I have two questions for you all:

First: Does anyone out there in the Forest read West Wing fanfic? Cause I really need some good recs, I am on a Josh and Donna kick, but anything west wing would be fabulous. After these elections... let's just say I need the happy. 

Second: Gilmore Girls. For those of you who watched... let's talk men.

For Rory: Dean? Jess? Marty? Logan?

For Lorelai: Max? Christopher? Jason? Luke? 

Come Chat!

In my graphic design class we were told to create a series of ads for a fake event. I have finished 2 of my 4 layout ideas and I was wondering if the wonderful campers would mind giving me your opinions on them. Tell me if they're too crowded, have odd spacing or anything else that comes to mind when you see them. Thanks :)

I totally forgot what day it was until I heard some... suspect noises coming from the kitchen (or, y'know, that general direction). So I freaked out, and I was like "What the hell is going on in there?" Got myself all paranoid and expected to find someone in there or it on fire. Before realising it was fireworks I could hear. So glad I'm home alone right now and that my Fiancee did not witness that meltdown of mine.

So it's bonfire night. Cool. I forgot. I don't like bonfire night because it always rains. And it's cold. And all the cretins come out to play and start fights. But, I know I'm in the minority. So do you guys have any plans for tonight? Family party? Local firework display? Have you made a guy?

Come in and we'll talk fireworks.

I think part of my dislike towards fireworks is to do with childhood teasing: "Hahaha, CATHERINE, you've got a firework. HAHA  you're a CATHERINE WHEEL." :'(

A penny for the guy?

I know, I know read the FAQs. I did that but I'm still not getting it as far as fanfiction is concerned. I think it's a great writing idea and seems fun. I couldn't do it because I'd go blank under pressure of a month like that.

But from what I've seen and read it's a rigorous..err fun writing thing where you write a 50,000 word novel in a month. BUT here's what I don't get.

HOW are people writing their currently in progress fan fictions?

I get writing a 50,000 novel on Edward and Bella and that's a good idea but I swear I've seen people's actual fan fictions as their 50,000 novel. Isn't that well cheating in fun/spontanious way it works since it's technically already written? How is that competing and writing and participating in a "writing" challenge when it's already "written" as in past tense. Technically that's an editing challenge isn't it? I thought it was going to be like a plot bunny in your head that you're now putting to type at 50k in one month.

I think it is a great idea but like I said I thought it was more like the WitFit, write what comes everyday then I see fan fictions just being edited and it doens't seem that great anymore. I thought it was similar to the WitFit thing where you write something off the top of your head. Not entering your AH/AU fic that was published n August and is just 15 chapters in and editing it down to 50,000. How does that work when the rules say write not edit what has been written? The cool thing about it to me is the fast pace off the top of your head in a month thing. But the editing seems not right in a way.

Am I seeing this wrong and it does work? Are people just using their fic titles for this off the top of their heads challenge novel? I figure if they're using the fic title then they're editing the already written in progress fic.

Nano in a nutshell says: What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time. And they say you'll be writing crap and that's part of the fun process to see what you come up with but if it's your already in progress fan fiction it's not crap because it's been betaed and stuff righ? Now you're just downsizing.

So how is it possible to do this with something not from scratch?

The Elena/Damon scene from last night's episode of the Vampire Diaries just broke my heart.  Damon finally declares his love for Elena but he loves her and his brother too much to let her remember so he erases her memory.  Oh my gawd my heart just broke for him.  Particularly, when he compells her and the camera focuses on that tear that falls from his beautiful blue eyes.  (My husband actually asked me if Ian was wearing contacts and I had to tell him no, Ian is really THAT pretty.)

Campers, come in here and declare your love for this bad boy vampire.  If you're not a Damon fan, what other "bad boy" characters do you love and why.  I find that the bad characters are usually so much more complex and interesting than the good ones.  What do you think?

(ETA:  ok, sorry for peeps who haven't seen the episode yet.  I've made the text white so it's not so visible.)

taken today in Brazil.  source

This is my first campfire.....

In reviewing the many individuals, sites and fictional Twitter personas (!) celebrated through the Fandom People Awards, I noticed The Lazy Yet Discerning Ficster was mentioned more than once.

This group blog announced on May 28 that they were expanding and moving from Blogspot to Wordpress and would be back in a few short weeks.  In the thirty-two weeks since then there have been a handful of posts, but not the steady stream of interesting features we had come to know and love.

My questions for you are:

1) What's the deal?  Is it ever coming back?  I know some TLYDF folks are active on these boards so perhaps I can get a status update.

2) If you read it, how and when did you find out about it?

In my case, my beta told me about it in April 2009.  At first I had a hard time remembering the name.

3) If you read it, what were your favorites posts or features?

In my opinion, TLYDF is awesome, and I don't intend to change that to the past tense regardless of the answer to question 1, because all the content is still there.

It has beautiful design, and it is chock full of great information, advice and laughs for writers and readers.  Here are some of the posts that stick in my memory:

I really like the Character Exploration pieces.  I found some good fics through those.  If you are not familiar with these, definitely check them out.  For each major & minor character there is an essay discussing the various ways writers have portrayed him or her, with fic examples for each.  In the Leah piece, for instance, Romantic Leah, Independent Leah and Human Leah were compared and contrasted.

It was my burning ambition to be mentioned in TLYDF and my dream came true in March 2010 with gisellelx's two-part essay on canon stories! OK, I wasn't actually mentioned in part 2, but (she said bravely) I'm dealing with my feelings about that and I'm going to be just fine.  Plus one of my recommendations was published in a Quickie Fickie that same month. 

There was a fascinating essay in April 2009 on what factors lead to a story receiving 1,000 reviews.  Back then we thought that was a lot.  Now there are stories that are waaaay past that and still racking them up, but in my book it's still quite a healthy amount of (mostly positive) feedback.  I'd love to hit 1,000 reviews on a story but the closest I've come is 702.  Granted the story is finished with only 16 chapters so that's a pretty respectable rate and I'm not complaining.  But if 298 people want to throw me a review or if a mere 19 more people review every chapter (please note: a smiley face or "Luv it!" is perfectly fine), I'd be ecstatic.  Just saying.

I have also repeatedly read and recommended Minisinoo's excellent article on POV.  Really, there are so many great essays on the craft of writing.  Click on one of the labels such as Craft, Newbie Power, Riting Skool, Style Series, Tutorials or Writing and prepare to be drenched in a wave of knowledge.  Another great piece was Angstgoddess003 on Photo Manipulation.  That is not something I do.  Luckily I have an awesome friend/beta who likes to make banners and will make corrections and alternate versions as if I'm paying her.  But it was really interesting to learn how it's done. 

I could go on and on, but I've said enough.  What did you learn, what do you love, what fics or authors did you find in TLYDF? 

Show me what you love!

I said, SHOW...not tell... I want Pictures because I'm a photographer and I like them.

Here's my LOVE LIST:

and again because I love himn a lot.....

(a few of these pics I even shot myself!)

Now...your turn...SHOW me one thing you love...or many.. but

NO WORDS!

***

and a quick housekeeping note:

It's currently FFFA, for the newbies this means you can post whatever the heck you want, PG-13ish on the front page.  Just remember to keep things friendly okay?  We like the Forest to remain happy and I don't want anyone to piss off Jennyfly.  Capice?  FFFA will run until 5pm EST Saturday.  Thx.

What do you think?

Oh snap! The grand dame of vampire literature, Anne Rice, had some not-so-nice things to say about Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight Saga" universe in a recent interview with New Jersey's The Star-Ledger while promoting her new novel "Of Love and Evil." We're wondering if this will spark a verbal smack-down in the bloodsucking book world!
 

"['Twilight']’s based on a really silly premise: that immortals would go to high school. It's a failure of imagination, but at the same time, that silly premise has provided Stephenie Meyer with huge success," Anne said. "The idea that if you are immortal you would go to high school instead of Katmandu or Paris or Venice, it’s the vampire dumbed down for kids. But it's worked. It's successful. It makes kids really happy."
It's not too surprising that Anne had less-than-sweet nothings to whisper about the series that has made vampires the hottest supernatural property around and virtually diluted a genre that had been a sophisticated cultural metaphor. Still, wow, those are some pretty harsh words towards Stephenie! Anne did add that "it's almost like a stroke of genius to put vampires in high school," but that still sounds a bit derogatory to us.

Copied from lovingtruebloodindallas

I personally have never read the books. Not because I think they are stupid but I have read so much ff that I think I know everything from them. Just don't start a fight please. I actually like reading ff that doesn't have the cullens in high school.

Anyone out there want to give the first two and a half chapters of my very first fic a go? I'm SO lucky to have the lovely miss Quothme for a beta, but I'm thinking I might need some further help with plot development. I haven't dared to post what I've got so far, seeing as the last time I tried that I ended up being unable to finish the story, but I'd love some additional feedback.

Any takers? Here's a teaser, to see if you're interested, 'cause why not?

'Hung on the gray wall near the open kitchen door, the telephone rang.

Once. 

Twice.

Three times.

Just before the fourth ring sounded, a very pale hand reached from the doorway and seized the phone, quickly lifting it from its cradle and drawing it into the kitchen. The receiver rounded the corner and disappeared, its white, spiraled cord straightening to stretch the distance.

“Cullen & Sons,” drawled a soothing, gentle voice.'

FYT:

I saw this article on Yahoo and thought it'd be a nice heads up for everyone.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/148/minnesota-mom-hit-with-15-million-fine-for-downloading-24-songs/

Basically, a mom was hit from the courts to pay 1.5 million for downloading 24 songs...illegally rather than paying for it.

What's your take on what she did?  Was she within her rights to do so or should she pay the piper for her crime??

This was something that came to me yesterday, so I was desperately waiting for Friday to show up to post this

Let's play a game

We all know that there are tons of us here, and we're all from different places, and everyone will have their own little sayings and such

So post sayings that are local to you, or words that you say, and then someone has to guess what they actually mean 

I'll go first, mine will be in the comments :)

Oh and lets spell phonetically, so we can say it out loud :D

hopefully other will find this as interesting as I do =P

LMAO, somehow...not sure how but I blame Jazzy and bloodlust =P this has become a campfire for the aussies....so if you are from down under feel free to come in here and talk about your national anthem...as they appear to be =P LOL.

The winners have been announced for the Fandom People Awards:

http://fandompeopleawards.blogspot.com/2010/11/results-revealed.html\

At the request of Ranger Jennyfly I am going to post some of the highlights (ie those listed as 'top' winners').  If I did all the winners it would take forever because there are tons of them.  So be sure to go check them out because I saw lots of familiar names there. (ADF won a few)

*yes they did more than one winner for many of the categories

Most Responsive Author On Twitter:

llyinperth,      AngstGoddess003,      carenl/nerac,      DanielGale/AnnettesKitty,     EBalways,      EmilyBowden,      grownasswoman20,      Hmonster04, Hunterhunting,      JandMsMommy/AndyMCope,      JMCullen09,      Katinki01, KiyaRaven,      Lalina2005,      LambCullen,      LolaShoes,      m81170, Mac214,      MissBettySmith,      MrsTheKing, MsKathy,      Nolebucgrl, QuietRuby,      RochelleAllison,      SnowqueensIcedragon,      Sophiejax/Jaxon22,      Suzie55, SweetLolaPop,      teamsmella23,      TwistedCoincidence,      Wytchwmn75

Author Who Replies To Reviews:    

Annetteskitty/Danielgaleh00rs,     AwesomeSauce76,      brkfastatbellas,     Chicklette,     Coldplaywhore,     EBalways, edwardandbellabelong2gether,     FL95,     GoldenMeadow, Gondolier,     isakassees,     JandMsMommy/AndyMCope,     Katinki, 
KitsuShel ,Lalina,     LJSummers,     Mac214, MissBettySmith,     MrsTheKing,     MsAmbrosia,     MsKathy, Nolebucgrl,     QuietRuby,     RochelleAllison, SavannahVee,     TallulahBelle,     Theladyingrey42,     todream3

Author With Most Consistent Updates:

Antiaol,      belladonna1472,      BrattyVamp,      camoozle, CescaMarie,      Coldplaywhore,    Danieller123,    EBalways,      edwardandbellabelong2gether,     Hmonster4,   Hunterhunting,      InsantKarmaGirl,      Isakassess,      itzmegan73,      Jaxon22,      Jonnyboy7, katinki,     KitsuShel,     LadyExcalibur2010,   Lalina, lambiexx/lambcullen,   Mac214,    MissBettySmith,      MorganLocklear,
nolebucgrl,      QuietRuby,      RochelleAlison, SebastienRoubichaud,      SnowqueensIcedragon,      SnowWhiteHeart,      spanglemaker9,      SydneyAlice,       tarasueme, Teambella23,      Twistedcoincidence     

Author Who Uses Their Popularity To Spread The Word On Great Fic:

AngryBadgerGirl,     angstgoddess003,     Antiaol,     carenl/nerac, Chicklette,     Coldplaywhore,     Cosmogirl7481,     EdwardsBloodType,     feathersmmmm,   greeneyedgirl17,    Hmonster4,     Hunterhunting,     JandMsMommy/AndyMCope,     Kassiah,     Lambcullen/lambiexx, LolaShoes,     Mac214,     MrsTheKing,     MsKathy,     Ninapolitan,     SebastienRobichaud,  SnowqueensIcedragon, spanglemaker9,     TallulahBelle,     Teambella23,     WriteonTime123    

I'm going to put the rest of the categories in the comments because otherwise this post would get REALLY long.  If you see names of people in here you don't like please don't bash.  This is supposed to be a celebration.  Play nice and congrats to all the winners.
    

November 5th is Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, and Sunday, November 7th will mark the new year under the Indian calendar.  So to all my fellow campers who celebrate, and even those who don't, here's wishing you: