dena.gray

yeah...so, I've updated the info above to more accurately reflect what I'm looking for...

lisbet, you read my mind! I love that vid! Firefall, you may like the soundtracks to "Breach" and "Taken" as well. They fill the soft spots nicely where TF leaves off without getting too classical and outdated from what I see of your music list. Rob Zombie is a MUST, especially Dragula, and Rammstein is always hot. Have you ever listened to Lordy? I think it would be along those lines, but it is a little campy, so listen with tongue in cheek Chainsaw Buffet is particularly hilarious and really great to write vamps to. On a softer note, but not too soft, I'd like to also mention writing to Warpaint and Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. Then again, I'll write to Elton John if the mood suits me... >.>

Ooh, wrote something yummy yesterday with some Armenian Duduk music in the background.

it's not that I'm shooting for 10k on a chapter. I just write what's needed. I view them as episodes in a soap opera, without the time constraint and commercials As for the formula writers...*cringe* I came from the romance writing genre and was behind the scenes for a handful of new authors you see on the shelves right now. We ALL shuddered at the Danielle Steele label. And then there are writing TEAMS like with Nora Roberts. She cranks out the same book (they have sex on page 239) with different names, and at one time she was shoveling out 4 and 5 a year. Can you imagine? But consumers eat it up, especially in romance. I see authors like Patterson, Clancy (now) and Grisham (insert distressed lawyer *here*) very much like Roberts and Steele. Give me something original and meaty so I can nom on it for a few days instead of breezing through the plot in an hour or two Like I said, I don't shoot to make it long, I just happen to write it that way because the story I'm writing at the moment needs it. My favorite story that I've read to date is actually a novella: "Shopgirl" written by Steve Martin. The whole thing's only 130 pages.

*nods*

that's quickly becoming a chapter benchmark for me... about 10k. i think i've read too much LKH and Lackey, lol

Hmm. I shall have to think on this. It is intriguing me.

regardless of whether this went up in a previous post, thank you CloverReef for posting this question now I admit, I'm a little frustrated with reading things that are unfinished, so I try to restrain myself from posting something until it's done, but...I'm too much of a review-monger. They're like Pokemon. *eyeroll* Since I haven't posted any stories here, yet, this was a good question for me to see asked

As a reader, I hate being jarred out of a particularly hot scene by tekky terms. However, I understand the want of using them in some instances. "For the Potion Master's Amusement" by Snape_Submiss uses slightly technical terms (pubis, penis, labia, etc.) and comes off as extremely hot, BUT! it fits within the context of the style. It's fetish, and fetish requires one to know exactly where and what is going on, with crazy amounts of control. So, that was appropriate in a modern piece. Regardless of that argument, if I'm reading fluffy, and I see words like "uterus" or "prepuce", I've lost the rhythm--and I'm all about rhythm and cadence in stories. Just to throw in a devil's advocate, I tend to loosen up the yoke on words like "labia" and "perineum". As a writer? All those arguments become applied and become an ouroboros of struggle. *shrugs*

Music is my crack. I make playlists for each chapter based upon the moods I'm trying to portray, and sometimes I'll hear a piece of music that will inspire an entire story. The Killer's "Goodnight, Travel Well" and Plain White T's "Welcome to Mystery" inspired my current WIP, Lioness Loricatus (working on moving that over here from ffnet). As for sexy? Muse "Undisclosed Desires", and oddly enough, The Mortal Coil "Dreams Made Flesh" I've also been recently inspired by Philip Glass's "Afternoon Waltz" and Metamorphosis Suite, along with Barrington Pheloung's "Shopgirl" soundtrack. Lisbet? I'm in love the Florence + the Machine. I sing it all day

Snape is deliciously nasty in this one, he is not some tormented soul that seeks redemption. Hermione is not some little milkish miss that lets him do whatever he wants, either. I've got some raggedy edges that I like, and some that I don't. I like how this fic just kind of runs rough-shod over morality without being another BDSM/torture-smut venture. I need someone to do a quick read over and give me some good honest feed back on what feels lacking or what might be rushed. You can get into mechanics, but I can easily take care of that in a print out. When I first wrote this, it was over two weeks and I was in and out of the hospital with a respiratory problem, so I know there are mechanical flaws, but I also know there are pacing flaws and I'd like to focus on the pacing flaws. I'm working on learning to handle my pace, switching POV, scene usage, etc, so that's the kind of crit I need for this. I really don't care if you're a listed or published beta, but I do care if you know what you're talking about. Prove that to me any which way you can. Thank you for taking the time to read! Dena