magicmau5

@Tahylor: I keep almost spelling your username wrong and it bugs me! I've typed it out so many times but I still have to double check it! Guys are SO sensitive and competitive over their dick size. It's funny to me but a serious thing for them. Fico will defo be getting some Luke action at some point in this story so don't you worry . Yeah I'm not sure how I'm going to go forward with the love lie. We'll see how the next chapter pans out. I keep thinking about different resolutions to the night, and all of them involve a little betrayal. Well, maybe a lot of betrayal in the characters' minds, emotionally speaking. I'm just not sure how far to push the betrayal envelope. I'm really excited about this next chapter. At this point I just have notes but I hope to flesh it out over this week and maybe get it out sometime on the weekend. I found some really good music on the Hype Machine to accompany the cheating bits. There will be some violence involved, but nothing really bad will happen so don't worry. I don't want this story to turn into a violence/torture emo-fest. I'd like to keep it lighthearted.

NOOOOO don't the end the story so soon! :( so sad.... I hear ya on the busy life schedule. Sometimes a whole week will pass by where I can't get to writing. I have free time, but lots of other things to do that are probably more important. But writing is so fun I can't stop. Oh, and just in case you're interested, I am going to finish the Invasion of Ian. I can't write more than one AFF story at a time, I'm deficient in multitasking skills. I get obsessed with one story at a time. When I get serious writer's block for the current one I'm working on, Off the Wall, I will return to IofI. So hopefully I'll finish OTW by the end of the year, then I'll work on IofI again. I don't want to shortchange one story. OTW is so happy-fluffy and soon I think the cheese will kill me. You thought IofI was cheesy? OTW is worse, way too romantic for my taste.

I needs a new chapter!!!

@Lisa: You know I was thinking about that cheese bit and I thought, God, no one's going to laugh at that. So it feels pretty damn good hearing you say that's funny! I have trouble accepting compliments about lots of things (well, most everything!) but I do love to hear when something I say/write is funny! It makes me feel all warm and gooey inside, like, "at least I did one thing right today!" I know, I want to give Luke a besito for being such a stand up guy. Lala...wouldn't it be funny if I referred to AFF? But that might be un-kosher. I don't want to break the rules!

@Misakixusagi: Argh it sucks that readers have a hard time with the Spanish. I keep trying to explain the words in context but I'm not always successful! JD Salinger said something like, write the story that you want to read. And since I speak "Spanglish", and have experienced racism/bigotry (which is featured later in the story), I've always wanted to read a story like this. But I know not everyone shares the same sentiment. Awww don't feel sad for those guys, they're freaky-deaky hot and their parents can afford to send them to private school! Plus they are extra well endowed, like in the 1% range of average dick size. [For the male readers: the average dick size is 5" hard in length. So don't feel bad compared to the MCs!]

Yeah, I have to drive west over the Cascades, which extend from British Columbia down to Mexico. So no can do the whole avoid the mountain thing! The roads are very nice though, lots of passing lanes when driving up the steep grades, so as to avoid the nasty slow semis. The fun part is going down the hill, taking the sharp corners fast even though its so dangerous . Crater Lake is so beautiful, it's a national park. It's actually quite cold in summer, there's still snow because the elevation is so high. They've put some fish in there for ppl to catch but I've always thought there are those prehistoric sharks or something down in the depths. I'm not sure how deep it is - I should google it. But I'm too lazy. I think your grammar is pretty amazing seeing how its probably not your first language. The only things I see are the occasional use of words we might not (in America) use commonly. I think you're most likely using a literal translation of a word, or a way of speaking in Farsi that doesn't translate well into English. For instance, my cousin always says I only left a "muela" for her in the ice cream pint. That translates literally to a "tooth", but what she means is that its only enough for a little bite, or a few bites. I wouldn't worry about the grammar at all! Let's see...if I can find a mistake in your last post it would be: the use of "hours" instead of "hour"; the spelling of "tunel" which should be "tunnel"; the use of "climactic" instead of "climate"; and maybe some semi-colon usage that would best be left as two sentences. But your use of "its" vs "it's" is good; lots of native English speakers are horrible at that! Let's see....also, we would probably say "undiscovered" vs "undetected" because discovery implies geography/terrain/foreign land, while detection implies a mystery/crime/problem to be solved. See, I was thinking maybe in Farsi you'd say something closer to "undetected" rather than "undiscovered". If you're grading me, you'll see in regular chat-ese I hardly ever bother to really use "it's" correctly. I just can't be bothered to type the contraction. Wow, I'm so lazy! I do prefer a happy ending as well, but life so rarely gives us one. In "Crave" I left it as a happy ending, but readers can probably detect that the MC will probably relapse later and lose his one true love (which is what happened in my life). ---- Actually what I said about the mountains is not quite correct, the range is broken up by the Columbia river, which is followed by I-84. I could take the northern route that goes through Wasco and west along I-84, then down I-5 to see my sister in Eugene. But that would take like for f**king ever. Sometimes i take the I-84 route in winter when Mt Bachelor and Mt Hood are covered in 12 inches of snow with ice underneath.

@kellankyle: OMFG I'm so happy you're still reading. I was such an ass. It always happens when I'm manic, I make a decision w/o thinking it out clearly, then really regret it later. Case in point: changing my college major because the dean said I was "too emotional". What a bitch. Anyways... I can't say I'm sorry enough. But I appreciate that you still are either brave or nice enough to keep reading this silly story. And I'm glad you liked this chapter, I think it sucked. Like, really sucked balls. Which is why I'm trying to be more careful with this next chapter. I know, right? That stupid, stupid dog. At some point, I had to stop reading a section of Neko (I'm such a hypocrite) b/c it was too hardcore. I picked up at the romantic bit later when he's saved. Same thing with Bloodraven. I skipped the torture scene (really, PL Nunn, did you have to use birds to pick @ his body?? And then I was pissed that the MC had sex w/ another dude. Like, wtf? But he was a little out of his gourd so I can forgive him.) To hear you say I do "great work" is nice...but I don't believe you. I think all my stories suck. They're just not...perfect enough. Like, they could alway be better. ARGH. I guess it's like Fico with his level of attractiveness. We're very similar in many ways. The family thing, the being raised Catholic thing, the episode where your parents don't talk to you 'cuz you violated their sociosexual mores, the school bit (although I took calc and physics in college). Actually, I've also had guys say I was pretty/cute and totally refused to believe them. And I dated a guy who basically convinced me to date him even though I wasn't that into him. That ended horribly - I gave up and told him he was crap in bed (the honest to god truth!!) and that offended his sense of masculinity. Whatever. Dude, you can take you pathetic c**k and use it on some other unsuspecting girl who is charmed by your exotic accent and large amount of $$$. I've been told to write what you know, and baby do I know about heartbreak, useless bfs, and dubious consent. --- Wait, make that two dudes that convinced me to date them. One from Bahrain, another from India. They both thought I was cute because a) I'm American, b) the girls where they live have darker skin, and their culture values light skin in terms of beauty, and c) I dance well. Also, I have this inner desire to "please" a man, to cook him things and "take care" of him. I'm trying to work on that. I haven't dated in several years b/c of my tendency to be a doormat. I guess that's in Fico's character too. Latinos value lighter skin as a mark of beauty. Case in point: all the chicks on Telemundo. If you look closely, the ones with the hot dude, the MCs, look European/Spanish. The maids look like indios, that is, darker skin.

lol NOOO betrayal, then sappy happiness I gots to have mein mean nature stuffed in there somewherez. 10 effing hours???? 10 hrs????? For crying out loud, that defeats the purpose of a vacation. Well, I guess my life is not so very bad. Except for the fact that I had to get up today at 6am to water that nasty lawn. I HATE watering the lawn. I wish I had automatic sprinklers... I hate long car rides if I'm not the one driving. It takes 4 hours to get to a beach here - over the river and through the woods, so to speak. Except you have to get over a mountain pass of 4000 feet. It's a nice drive, some lovely waterfalls. It's bad during forest fire season (August). Then you can't see anything on the "dry side", that is, my side. The only other near-ish water is Crater Lake, an old glacier, which you can't actually step inside of as its down a steep grade, and is so deep I think there's dinosaurs down there. Other than that, a electricity dam - made artificial lake made from the confluence of 3 rivers. It's pretty, lots of palisade lava cliffs. It's awesome if you have a boat. My friend has a sailboat that she took me on last summer, it was so much fun. That's only like...45 or 30 min away.

Yeah. Warning, rant about to start: Not so much today...I drove 3 hrs over the mountain (the equivalent of $30 USD in gas roundtrip) to see my primo (cousin) graduate from high school and he was like, meh. He wouldn't even smile in a pic I took with him. He was looking the other way. Man, I wanted to smack the little shit. I even gave myself a pedicure, put on heels and wore a dress for godssake. Which is not something I do every day. Tia, this is what you get for sending your kids to private Catholic school: they feel entitled. Spoiled little brat. At least my tia gave me some rings, lol. I was about to drive home today and she ran out of her bedroom with this gift for me - three silver rings: one jade, one amethyst, another opal I think (they own a rock shop). She's so sweet. Well, back to OTW. I got that frawesome, amazing idea just when I was going to sleep. It has a lot to do with the story ending, some major heartbreak, betrayal, lies, etc. I'm almost done with the Troubadour chapter - I have the beginning and ending done, now I need to fill in the middle. I'm introducing a couple new characters and I have to figure out how they fit into the plot. One is this awesome bouncer and another is the lead singer of the band. I'm not sure if I'm going to introduce an old friend of Luke's. We'll see!

@FD: Actually LOL. muahahahaha *diabolical laughter* Yes, I am an evil, evil author, aren't I? *rubs hands in glee* I have a reason for that chapter, it sets up a crucial scene later in the story that will blow your effing socks off. I cooked it up last night during another insomnia episode. I'm soooooo excited about it that I'm grinning from ear to ear. There's so much about Joaco that is effing awesome, in a not-so-healthy way. What do you think Fico will find under his bed? hahahahahahahahaha so excited... Man, I am so effing glad I introduced Joaco's character. Much better than Luke. Although, Luke has some pretty interesting clandestine activities himself. So excited. Did I mention I'm excited? :D

Sigh. More melodrama from magicmau5? So I just added the following to my A/N on OTW: 6-4-13: I was previously planning on deleting my stories and AFF profile, but who am I kidding? I'm so obsessed with this story and addicted to writing this kind of stuff. I have a tendency to make split-second decisions when I'm manic (I'm bipolar). I had to analyze myself today and I realized that I've been manic for the past week (my mood swings are so unpredictable it's literally crazy). If I delete these stories, I'll be disappointing some lovely folks out there, and I don't want to let you down. I'll try to manage my time better, so I can get everything done that needs to be done, without sacrificing all my sleep... I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to give me feedback. It's all been extremely helpful. I get a bit insane in the membrane when I'm manic, but it's also when I'm most creative and get the most writing done. I'm going to try and set a time schedule for myself so that I don't spend entire nights filled with research, writing, and editing. It's hard, because once I get into a groove, I don't want to stop. What if the ideas dry up, or I forget that perfect phrase? Sometimes at night when I'm desperately trying to sleep, I have to turn the light on and write down a couple words just to make sure I won't forget. And that goes on throughout the night, until I give up and just go sit in front of my laptop, listen to music and write. I always seem to get that perfect idea just as I'm about to fall asleep. I was thinking, maybe if I stopped writing AFF stories, I'd get more sleep. But in all honesty, I'd just be doing one of the following: at the 24-hour gym, pedalling madly in place like a lunatic; in front of a lamp, crocheting a doily or a miniature stuffed chihuahua for one of my countless neices and nephews; worrying about something irrelevant; staring into the mirror, trying to figure out who I am and why the person in the mirror doesn't seem to make any visual sense; watching the Colbert Report; or reading some kind of mindless scifi/fantasy novel. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update OTW. I've been rushing to finish each chapter, but I'm going to try and slow it down in order to get a higher quality product.

Hi all you lovely readers, I have been seriously considering deleting my author profile on AFF and removing myself from the AFF forum indefinitely. I feel like I'm spending too much time on AFF writing. I have other obligations that I need to work on, including some writing where I actually get paid and therapy-related work for my bipolar/bulimia issues. So if you have been enjoying this story, maybe you can archive it by saving it as an html file (which is what I'm going to do) or saving the text as a Word (or other wordprocessing program) file. Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews and encouragement. Sincerely, magicmau5

@Lisa: You're the bomb. I'm probably too old to be using this term, but you're also awesomesauce. :D You're so right about Inez/Inés! I mean, I should effing know, that's the name of my grand-aunt. I've been having issues throughout the story with diacritical marks. I re-read the whole story last night while being OCD about editing, and I found several mistakes of that nature. So kudos to you on your close reading! Yeah, I love the star-crossed love cliche. It's both funny and touching at the same time, am I right? I have a slightly different ending for the story than what I think you're anticipating, so hopefully you'll enjoy that too. Do you remember the kids books Choose Your Own Adventure? I wish I could write one of those. ---- I should add that there are a few different ways of spelling Inez/Inés...my grand-aunt spelled it with the z (but she's from Mexico). Also, the Basque region of Spain is completely different ethnically and linguistically from Spain and Latin America. It has its own dialect and they are always trying to become their own nation, a bit like Scotland vs Britain. But I'm going to go with Inés like you suggest just cuz you're cool in the gang (and the characters in question aren't Mexican!)

@kellankyle: I've had two long nights of insomnia (in which I get my best writing done, ironically) and I think I agree with you on the texts. They are pretty cryptic for those who don't text that way. I'm the kind of person that enjoys puzzles (actually I get obsessed with one once I start it) but I can't expect every person to be that way. I took a lit class in college that praised authors like Gloria Anzaldua for "challenging" the reader to read in both Spanish and English without explanation, as a way to challenge the norm of monolingualism in America. But this is just a fun story, not meant for college-level analysis, and I think I understand where you're coming from. So, I've decided not to get rid of the texts but to cut down the SMS acronyms and textese to a minimum. I'm so thankful for your feedback; it really caused me to think, and that is the best kind of review. Your review is in my #2 spot after one I got writing the Invasion of Ian.

Hi kellankyle, I'm really sorry if you took that post as offensive. What I should have said, is that the texts often contain information vital to the story line, and if you skip them, you miss out on a significant portion of the story itself. Also, I don't understand why someone would read only portions of a story. That would get boring or annoying pretty fast. But like I said, I really do appreciate the concrit, and I apologize! xoxo, mm

Don't worry about it Fire Demon, I can get it at the library I'm pretty sure. This chapter is going to be at least 11 pages long though. The last chapter was 11 pages with the margins and font I was using.

Ah man yeah I just ran out of Netflix, I had a gift subscription. I hardly used it at all . In other news, I've written about two and a half pages of Ch 9. Every time I start a chapter it feels awkward, and I can't quite find the right words. Then the rest all comes pouring out like...well I'm not going to say that metaphor. Just thought I'd give you impatient types an update as to my progress. I've done all the research I need, now I just need to sit down and write.

I admit I do watch So You Think You Can Dance, The Voice, La Voz Kids (in Spanish on Telemundo), Mr. Selfridge (On PBS) and sometimes Elementary (a Sherlock Holmes with Holmes as a chick, Lucy Liu). The Voice is my guilty pleasure. I think I can get Sherlock on PBS here...

Lol I don't even know who Benedict Cumberbatch is. I don't watch a lot of TV, I know I'm really lame. My free time is spent reading and writing! But Cumberbitch is really the best thing I've learned in a while. ....Ok I googled Cumberbatch and I don't think he's that hot...he's a little pale isn't he?

@Fire_Demon: Good luck on your exam! Cumberbitch? Now I'm going to have to look that up... It sucks that we have that kind of bigotry running around on the net. People like to hide behind their keyboards and say vicious things to each other because they're cowards. I tried to post something on a blog a while back, and identified myself as a Chicana, and I got a ton of responses saying I was an idiot, easy, and all sort of nasty stuff.

@Tahylor: I'm excited about the pics too, I mean, who could pass up an easy $1000? I really want one to be Fico and Joaco making out in the nude . I like your idea about Luke seeing the pics...maybe they pass the magazine around at school? But that's in chapter 10. Yeah it's a public blog...I've been toying with the idea of Joaco discovering the blog as a bookmark on Fico's computer. Wait till Luke finds out about it! hehehe .

I knew it! I went to bed thinking, the only two languages I can think off the top of my head that start with F are Finnish and Farsi... But I thought you meant Asia as in East Asia. No I'm not judgemental that way! I'm just about the most liberal American you could talk to.