Well, if I'm going to be Cheriking to my heart's content, I guess you guys should know a little about writer-me:

A Comment on Intent:
I'm here to improve my writing, to keep in practice, and to entertain, equal parts all three. This means that not only do I appreciate reviews, I consider both giving them and getting them essential and respectful. I'll never read something and not review it, and I'm also no stranger to harsh criticism; if you don't like something, TELL ME! That's how we all get better. : )

Favorite movies, shows/ships:
-X:Men: First Class. Cherik, as one of my favorite lj writers mentioned, "is the only ship that changes lives," but I also really like Erik/Raven.

-Yu Yu Hakusho. Hiei/Kurama, Yusuke/Kurama, erm, Kurama and everyone really, but this was my fanfiction passion when I was younger. You can read my '05 stuff if you want...but mostly its up still as a monument to my babywriter self...and is total rubbish.

-The Lost Boys. Michael/David. Not sure if the 80's were just gay in general or what, but yeah. That movie...those two...undeniable. Fics in Progress:Tipping Point: The point of which being "at what juncture does Charles just totally lose his shit and becoem dark!Charles. Still I might end this one due to lack of interest from reviewers and because of a new idea I have...so if you want me to continue, let me know! :P

-The New Idea: Gonna be a spy Cherik romance. All I know so far.

Writing Strengths:

- I have a voice, and its mine. At least, that's what people tell me. I can't really describe my own voice on the spot. So let me know when you read my stuff, ay? ; P

- I understand people, and emotions. My characters (or borrowed characters), are fleshed out, complicated, and are the impetus to keep reading.

- I pay attention to the actual craft of writing. My prose is smooth, visceral, rhythmic, and my poetry has meaning.

- Dialogue. You feel like you're in the room.

Writing Weaknesses:

- My voice is both my blessing and my curse. Especially when writing fiction, I want to give my characters their own voices, but sometimes I just end up projecting myself, particularly in first drafts. A related problem: I'm a bit too fond of the First Person POV. It's intimate, but dangerous for a diva. Trying to discipline myself.

- Plotting is difficult for me. I know my characters, what they want, who they are...but giving them a journey takes a lot of thought, and giving them a compelling journey is downright * impossible sometimes. This is the main thing I would like to improve in my writing; marrying intent with direction.

- Sometimes, I concentrate too much, resulting in flowery or contrived prose/poetry. Do not hesitate to let me know if this is how a piece/section feels to you!

Five Favorite Words off the Top of my Head: Cerulean, ambush, placate, lurid, intent

Five Worst Words off the Top of my Head: Stuff, good, docent, kibbitz, absatively

Authorial Influences:

Akaaaa people I fangirl way too hard about, and emulate in my own writing. Top three currently:

Stan Lee: The creator of X-Men. After I saw the most recent movie, I started in on the cartoon and comics, and this man has a profound understanding of character development as well as socio-political issues. Furthermore, his use of fantasy, (i.e., making the problem a "mutant" problem, rather than only a race/class/gender/ wtf ever problem) makes the lessons he's trying to teach, the questions he's trying to get us to grapple with, timeless and relevant to all ages. Add this to the fact that he demands children understand and/or learn big words, and he's basically my literary hero.

Anne Rice: Stephanie Meyer, eat your heart out. No really, please do that, kthanxxx. Seriously though, this is exactly the kind of writer I want to be. In all of her fiction, but particularly in the Mayfair Witch Chronicles and the Vampire Chronicles, she steeps the reader in vivid, mystical settings and imagery. Her characters are real and relatable...even the ones who do fantastical and fantastically evil things. (See: Lestat, eating babies. But you don't care that he eats babies...because he's Lestat!) She will do weeks and sometimes months of historical or cultural research to get a single scene just right, or add another layer to a lost soul, and her plotting is some of the best. *Pompoms* k I'm done.

Mary Renault: Basically Anne Rice if she took her bi-polar medication, reigned in the surrealism a bit, and focused on historical fiction. "The Persian Boy," the story of Alexander the Great as told through the eyes of his eunuch lover and advisor Bagoas, is my all-time favorite novel, and her trilogy on Alexander is internationally regarded as the best antiquity fiction in english. Check. It. Out.

Writers I Love But Would/Could Never Write Like:

Richard Wright: Because if the chick in the furnace and her communist boyfriend couldn't understand Bigger Thomas, what makes me think I can?

E. L. Doctorow: He's just so good...there's no way...also he's very experimental, sometimes to the piece's detriment...but he's just so gooooooddddddd.

Elie Wiesel: His stark, bare, Hemingway-like prose is effective, but like a different language for me. But man, is it compelling. Wildly compelling.

Guilty Pleasures

Laurel K. Hamilton: Because every Anne Rice needs an annoying little sister who was dropped on her head as a baby. (For real though, her prose sucks, her characters are eh, she churns out novels like a prairie girl churns butter, but plot=crack).

Fanfiction in General: Yeah...I'll give almost anything with an M rating in my subgenre of choice a try. What of it?! At least I don't smoke crack! ....^^

Writers I Hate Unambiguously With a Passion

Dan Brown: Because he chose the wrong genre, and tries to pass off historical FICTION as possibly not-fiction. STICK TO SCREENPLAYS PLEASE, and take your head out of your ass.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Because when your an outcast, letter-bearing self sees your baby-daddy for the first time in three years, alone in the woods, after he's been a coward and a no-show and yet still is the love of your life, the logical, human reaction is NOT: to sit there for five * minutes and have a stiff British conversation about the weather or some *. MAKE OUT. PUNCH HIM. TALK ABOUT PEARL. HAWTHORNE WERE YOU AUTISTIC? A VIRGIN? WHAT THE *?!

Snooki: Because you can't be * serious.