Cuzosu

I am stuffed; it IS Thanksgiving, after all.

Also, another reason not to draw those lines we're talking about: some people write about these things so they don't end up actually doing them.

Super Muffins Attack Saddam Hussein. (Don't ask me where that came from! It was the first thing that came to mind!) P I Z Z A Z Z

Guilty indeed. Massively. Everyone except my best friend seems to be under a misconception that I'm nicer than I really am. She, however, knows at least the gist of comments I don't tend to make out loud unless I'm really tired or really bitchy. Even my man has that misconception, though, for example, I've told him (and proven it with different people involved) that, were it me instead of him who deals with his older sister when she gets bossy/pissy, I would have no qualms about either walking out (and decking her if she followed me) or hanging up the damn phone. He thinks it's just that I draw and hold lines better than he does. I think it's just that I'm not nice enough to care how messed up someone is when they're pushing me towards fighting mad. Ever recommended a book to someone that had them laughing so hard they snorted? I did that to my man, though I was reading it to him, since he's dyslexic and has a hard time reading without getting headaches. I had to stop and wait for him to calm down again! Of course, it was Terry Pratchett's Discworld series....

"It Sure Is Monday" in my pants. *shakes head* How Mark Chesnutt stuffed a Monday into my pants, I'll never know.

I'm a winter-loving winter child. Born in January to a hunting family, my father tried to take me with him on the mountain the very next hunting season and my mother was livid. "She's not even a year old yet! NO!!" So either it's just in my blood to love the snow and the mountains, or I really am a product of my childhood. Proof of that is that I've been known to return from an outhouse trip during dawn, stomping snow off my boots and with my jackets all undone, and inform anyone listening that, "It's a little nippy out there," with a grin. Of course, I also have the family symptoms of being a humanoid heater. So cooler weather is a blessing. Fall is wonderful, don't get me wrong, and spring is okay, but summer is too hot and frankly, I'm the kind of crazy person who likes to freeze periodically. Winter is the only season I always look forward to--except for hunting season, but we were talking weather, so that doesn't count.

Ehh? I have access, too. Who knew? Apart from the admins.

Would it be Loathe Thy Neighbor? I can't think of any others off the top of my head.

"Honey Bee" Blake Shelton

Pen Name: Cuzosu Story Link: http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600105875&chapter=4 Prompt Used: Word Prompt, "Abandoned" Type of Fic: Chapter of ongoing story Fandom: Original Pairing: N/A No warnings, just some swearing. Pen Name: Cuzosu Story Link: http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600106179&chapter=2 Prompt Used: Elements Prompt, "a digital camera, shoes, and a bus" Type of Fic: Chapter of ongoing story Fandom: Original Pairing: N/A No real warnings for this one, either.

It would depend on a number of things, really. True, humans are paranoid, mistrustful creatures, but situations can affect our reactions, too. If, say, aliens appeared any time around a war or natural disaster, humans would be extremely wary and prone to lashing out at the slightest provocation...not that we don't do these kinds of things anyway. Essentially, the more negative the situation surrounding the alien arrival, the more negatively humans would view them. The reverse is true, to a degree, but humans aren't very good at looking on the positive side, so the number of alien-positive humans would be relatively low even in a good situation. I'm tired and hungry, so I'm not going to delve any further into the psychology at the moment, but I hope this helps.

Pen name: Cuzosu Story link: http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600106095&chapter=2 Type of fic: Flash Fic Rating: Adult Fandom: Original, Cuzo's TWKH series snippet Pairing: None Warnings: None this chapter

Guilty. Ever felt that most of the world's problems could be solved by removing the warning stickers from common sense things?

No, not guilty. I'm not much of a crier. When I cry, either something really bad has happened or I'm so mad that all that extra emotion has to go somewhere. Or, on rare occasions, I'm thinking of really bad moments that have already happened and get...maudlin. But there's always a reason when I cry. Ever had to chain a vehicle...in sandals? I feel dumb for doing it, of course, but I had no other footwear accessible until yesterday.

I regret that so few authors are willing to attempt to write new or unusual pairings in ANY of the fandoms I follow. It's so rare to find the couples/groups I like best, let alone well-written.

It could be quite interesting, depending on how you handle it. If you're not sure a scene or situation is working out the way you want it to, just ask someone--or a few people--for help. Reveal as much or as little as you choose, but realize that the help you get could be affected by how much you say. *thinks a bit more* Also, try to ask people who are open-minded, but (if they don't bring it up first or cover it in their response) see if they can/will look at the positive and negative possibilities and how to avoid the worst outcomes.

A very good point. Or rather, a few excellent points. Reader interest. Every story, long or short, has its own particular target group of readers. An author may not realize it, but most of these groups are relatively small, and so the feedback and quota of readers may not be as numerous as we all like to hope they might be. This is especially true in fanfiction with unusual pairings, for example. Flow is a big deal, I agree. It can also be hard to pin down in a way that benefits the story, and I think that most authors will readily admit that stories--especially those which consume the author's mind with plot and scenes!--are quite capable of and often trend towards overdoing things. How often do we write something that grabs us by the throat and demands to have its own way? There are ways to deal with such stories and muses, of course: a good beta is a blessing, particularly with unruly stories. And stubbornness can go a long way, too. However, for me, I find that distraction is the best tactic. Here, I can't give you that. What do you think about this, instead? Or, Ooh, look at that! What a neat idea! Why don't you steal it away before these other muses get close? I'll let you pounce on So-and-So later as a reward. Yes, I occasionally have to bribe my muses. Surely I am not the only one?

Prompt-wise, I have a friend I could ask to help, if you'd like. Just tell her the kind of prompts you're looking for, if there's a theme you want to use, and she's usually quick to think of some, or look them up. She also occasionally throws in quotes. Personally, when I try to find prompts or inspiration for myself, I look up quotes on random topics. Or you could ask around and see if anyone has found good lines in a story they're reading. Just have people include a theme that has to do with the quote, perhaps? I seem to stumble across a number that are both dark and amusing.... Forgive me, please, if I misquote them; I'm typing off the top of my head. They say that the prospect of being hanged in morning concentrates a man's mind wonderfully. Unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged. --from Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. "Defenestrated. It means getting thrown out of a window--a high one, usually. It doesn't really accomplish much to throw somebody out of a ground floor window." --from David Eddings' Tamuli series, though I can't recall just which book, at the moment. "I will kill him flatter than dead." --from one of Anne Bishop's Dark Jewels series. There are more, of course, or you could browse the quotes that we have posted on a different thread here, if you decide to include quotes in the prompts. And no, of course I'm not excited to see a resurrection of the monthly challenge.... I have so much time for the weekly ones right now, y'know.... Seriously, though, it will be nice to have a longer deadline for posting something.

The best betas are willing to work with you as an author and as a person. Me, I love playing sounding board to authors I like and respect, regardless of whether or not I'm editing their works. Giving ideas and plot twists to a writer, for me, is fun. I get too many of them for just one person to use, anyway, and sometimes it's a blast to have two writers take the same idea and write their own stories. As for long chapters, well, one lady I beta for (when I have time, which, lately, I don't...) has been known to send me 10,000-20,000 word chapters. When I had daily internet access, my turnaround time for her was astonishing. I've been an avid reader since I first learned how to read...and have been known to read 800-1,000+ page books in 24 hours or less, without skimming anything. Out loud, of course, I'm not so quick, but I don't miss as much, either, and so when I'm editing anything, be it my own work or another's, I do a once-over silent and a once-over aloud. And when it's posted, I reread it again a time or three, and if it's another's work, I will add in my review that, "I missed this when I edited it. I'm sorry." Really, beta work is give-and-take, and the best author-beta relationships are friendships with equality--and forgiveness and acceptance when things go wrong. After all, Murphy is everywhere.... As an author, there are a number of things I look for in people who help me with my stories. For example, Raymy will tell me if my editing needs work, but she also tells me what is and isn't having an impact on her and what she's looking forward to seeing in the future. Fei tells me what gets to her, what she's looking forward to, and, even though she's not good at editing English, lets me know if I've confused her with a lack of explanation or sudden missing characters that were there just a moment ago. Clara and Snow tell me how well I'm doing with characterization and world building (futuristic Musketeer-ish Gundam Wing AU is challenging, and I love it, though it takes so long to get through the scenes because it's all stuck in my head and still rather jumbled together), as well as what they're looking forward to seeing. All of these wonderful ladies have also played sounding board for me in one way or another, and when I needed help through rough patches or a handy stick of dynamite for an obstreperous wall or three, they have been there and offered ideas and support, and occasionally some literary nitroglycerin. Ain't friends wonderful? .... Kindly ignore that last bit of atrocious grammar. Or laugh at it, if you'd prefer, I suppose. Sometimes my accent bleeds through, thankfully not as bad as my dad's. His would be completely incomprehensible to those who weren't either fluent in southern drawl or familiar with our family. *sigh* It's a wonder I don't need a beta for the accent alone....

"All Right Now" in my pants. Um, okay. I'd sure like to think so, anyway!

*catches the gold but gets flattened in the process* ... Heeeellllp.... *chucks the goose's golden egg*