Call me Skylara, if you like, or you can call me by my real name, Rachel. I have two little boys and a baby girl, a wonderful husband of 5 years, and a lab mix. We all live in one big happy house in New England.

As much as I like writing, my main focus at this point in my life is my children. I believe in attachment parenting, gentle discipline, and respecting your children as people. I also believe that children inherently need guidance. I believe in living life as simply and naturally as possible and strive daily towards that. I would love to someday have a homestead and live sustainably. We homeschool our children as that's what's best for our family, but we know that we were public-schooled and turned out alright. We want better for our children. I'm addicted to birth--I would love to be a doula someday when my children are older and more self-sufficient. I had two hospital births with epidurals, I'm a total wimp when it comes to pain, but yet for my third child, I had an amazing, all natural homebirth. It ended up being unassisted as well, though my midwife showed up about five minutes after the birth. It was the most incredible, empowering, thrilling thing I'll probably ever do.

I love to read when I have the time.. my favorite authors are Bill Bryson, David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, Dan Simmons, David Feintuch, and JK Rowling. I usually end up rereading books rather than starting new ones, since my free time is at a premium and most of the time, I'm reading while also caring for my children (which means I tend to miss crucial plot points in new books, since I'm always distracted).

I starting writing a lot during high school, while my husband and I were in a long distance relationship (we met on Prodigy in 1996 and only got to see each other once every other month, if we were lucky). It was easy to write then since I was an angsty teen in love with a boy who lived far, far away. Oh, the angst.. it makes me blush to think of it now.

So, 12 years later, things are quite different in my life, and while I still love to write, I have a difficult time coming up with ideas. Part of it is lack of time to properly flesh things out, but it's also in part because my life revolves around my children, so it's hard to get out of that frame of mind. Enter my favorite TV show: Bones. The characters are all set and ready to go, and it's easier to come up with scenarios to put them in. When I write, the most important thing to me is characterization. The characters are the most important part of the TV show--it's all about their interactions and relationships. What's the point of fanfic if the story isn't true to the show? The best compliment you can give me is to say that I've been true to the characters. Beyond that, I like to be pretty vivid with descriptions, though that's not always easy when writing lab scenes. I also try to vary my word choice and sentence structure as much as I possibly can because repetition drives me nuts. And I'm telling you all this because I find it fascinating to know what other writers' goals are when they write, and I think I can provide much more meaningful criticism if I know what they're trying for.

Out of all the stories I've written, I have to say that my favorites are Jeffersonian Tales and Earthgrazers. Drink Deeply was my first case file, and while I like a lot of the middle chapters, I kind of loathe the first few and wish I had the drive to rewrite them. Running Up That Hill was the first M-rated thing I've written since, oh.. 2000. It was fun. And Fiona holds a special place in my heart, of course, since my lovely daughter was the inspiration.

Constructive criticism is always welcome, as are requests, prompts, or challenges. I love it when someone takes care of the 'inspiration' for me.

Masque:

Booth's Outfit: http:///5gwoaa

Brennan's Outfit: http:///6kfb3a