I am currently a student in America (I won't say specifically where...). I (probably) won't be there for much longer. I have recently discovered that I have two semesters left in my major, English (yeah!!). Although if I change it to English teaching, it will only add another semester on, and I'll still graduate early. How incredible. Especially given the fact that my study abroad this semester would be setting me back a bit.

My writing here will usually be about Phantom of the Opera. Unless, for some reason, I decide to write something else. Who knows? It might happen! One day, I might leave Erik... -pauses- -hugs Phantom with renewed fervor- I used to believe that I was a mediocre writer, but (dare I say it??) recently I feel like I've improved some. I still have to edit my current story, Love Lies Bleeding, in order to prove this recent discovery, but until then, you'd have to suffer through my mediocre writing in order to get to the good stuff. Or perhaps I just need to finish this thing so I can post the good stuff.

I am a fan of the original Leroux novel, and my Eriks will be primarily based on that. Although I appreciate any well-written Erik, you probably will only see a Leroux with me.

For the next three months, I will be in France and most likely unavailable to write. Which is a shame. I had planned on finishing Love Lies Bleeding this summer, but it looks like that will be on hiatus for the next three months. I will TRY to update it, but it won't be likely. (Now that I've said that, the writing bug will come and bite me and I won't be able to do anything but write... and then my grades will suffer because of it.)

Current Projects:

Love Lies Bleeding: (Please don't be turned off by the title.) Christine is freed from the monster, but when she returns to bury him, he turns out to be very much alive. With her in his possession again, he finds that he doesn't have the strength to let her go. Christine must adjust and adapt in order to live her life with any degree of happiness, but in the process, it turns out that she cares very much for him and - dare she say it? - love him.

Distorted Glass: Heavily based on my two favorite stories, Phantom of the Opera (of course) and The Painted Veil. Set in 1910, England, Christine Daae will marry bacteriologist Erik Fane as she becomes more and more desperate to have a husband. He takes her to Hong Kong, where she has an affair with the charismatic Raoul de Chagny. Erik threatens to divorce her if she would not come with him into the middle of a cholera epidemic, where Christine has to rediscover herself, and she even grows fond of Erik, but unfortunately, it seems that Erik's love of her has grown cold and he refuses to open up to her. When she discovers that she is pregnant and she has no idea who the father is, things prove to be a bigger mess than they were in the first place. Won't be posted until Love Lies Bleeding is finished.

Drabbles - stuff that you probably don't care to know about:

Erik and Christine forever!

I play the viola

I used to sing, but then I quit private lessons, and now I am a disappointment at the art.

I love to dance in the rain.

I'm a poor, starving student

My favorite books are (in no particular order)...
-The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (it belongs and will always stay at the top of my list)
-The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
-Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffery
-The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
-The Host by Stephenie Meyer
-anything written by Shakespeare (especially Othello, the Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and sonnet 73... Although Romeo and Juliet really isn't that great. It's just a story of two really hormonal teenagers who knew each other for five minutes, and they were already making out. Knew each other for three days, and they couldn't live without each other. I think that West Side Story is a much better version of Shakespeare's original one.)
-Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion by Jane Austen
-Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
-Don Juan by Lord Byron (and not just because Erik was writing an opera about it. Lord Byron is a genius with satire. If you want Erik's depressing opera, watch Don Giovanni by Mozart.)
-Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
-Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (I'm serious. I didn't at first, but it sorta grows on you, ya know?)

I also read Phantom by Susan Kay. It's a good book, but I think it's a little overrated.

My favorite fairytales are "Beauty and the Beast" and "King Thrushbeard" (it is not as well known as some others, but I love it just the same!)

I'm a die-hard oldies fan. (Like Supertramp, Elton John, Beatles, Kansas, the Eagles...) Recently, I've been immersing myself in classical and contemporary orchestras (Vivaldi is wonderful. My favorite composer, so far). It's easy to write when there aren't any words being sung.

I am learning French. It's a great language--learn it!

I'm originally from Texas--we're our own country!

This is fluff Erik. He is young and charismatic, who looks like Apollo on one side of his face and is a total sex god. Everybody loves him, and he is so nice and sweet and proper when Christine runs back from the drunken Raoul... This Erik does not exist.

This is dark Erik. He hates everybody. He wants Christine, but doesn't know how to win love. Don't mess with him, or he'll kill you.

This is true Erik. He's topsy and turvy and you never know which way he's going to turn...