Hello everyone. My name is Elizabeth, but I also go by Liz. Written words have always been easier to express myself than spoken, and I've found comfort in writing stories. It's been very therapeutic for me, and I hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoy writing them. If my writing has made you feel something, then I have done my job.

My belief as a writer is that pretty much every plot has been done before. However, if you can make good, believable characters, they can drive the story, and you can end up writing anything!

As you can probably tell, I am a HUGE fan of the Harvest Moon series, and I am especially interested in the world of Mineral Town. The characters are fascinating and very fun to expand on. Hopefully, throughout my different stories, you will be able to get a feel for the culture of Mineral Town that I have created; you may see some elements from other games, and I hope that helps create the idea that Mineral Town is just a small village in a large farming community.

My Mineral Town is decidedly more Japanese than most people write it. I took a look at the game and noticed how heavy of a Japanese influence there is in (M)FoMT. In my mind, Mineral Town doesn't exist on any map we know of; I like to think that it is in a country that is an eclectic blend of America, Europe, and Japan, and I try to keep that in mind as I write.

A lot of my characters are a blend of the different versions of them in the games I've played. For example, Gray is a blacksmith's apprentice, but I added a love of horses, as he was a rancher back in HM64 - just little things like that. Hopefully you will find that my characters are a unique twist on what others have written.

I have put a ridiculous amount of research into my stories including Japanese Culture and customs, medicine, botany, animal husbandry, winemaking, religion, blacksmithing, actual farming, and falconry, just to name a few. I have really enjoyed learning new things to add to my writing, and if you have any questions about anything in my stories, or if you want to talk about your own works, feel free to send me a PM - I don't bite.

My goal with my writing is to create deep characters that feel like real people. Thank you for taking the time to look at my profile and read my stories.

I'm hoping to delve more into original works, and as I take this time to focus on my writing career, my goal is to get a manuscript going for a novel that I'd like to publish. I currently have a writing blog that I'm hoping to get updated more frequently. You can check it out at:

http :// scrapsscribblesandhalfformedthoughts . blogspot . com

I also have a Deviant Art account! Check it out for my original works, poetry, and fan fiction!

deviantart. com / durotos

Random Facts About Me:

I'm a lefty, but like many growing up in a right-handed world, I have a strange preference of which hand I use to do different things and can't use left-handed tools half the time. I want to become ambidextrous!

I love experimenting with cooking of all kinds of ethnicities, and a lot of the cooking segments in my story are based on real-life experiences and experiments (Chocolate Curry, anyone? Really, it's kind of good!)

I have extremely vivid dreams. I can recall textures and patterns on fabrics, smells, sounds. This is both a blessing and a curse, as I am prone to nightmares.

I live in a very woodsy area and I've done a bit of research of what I can eat in my backyard. I'm hoping to take better advantage of it once winter's over. I get strange looks from coworkers when I bring Queen Anne's lace on the top of my salad. With a little warming up,

I can mimic a near-perfect falcon screech. Just don't ask me to do it; I get too giggly and can't do it.

Favorite Games include the Harvest Moon Series, Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Rune Factory, Earthbound/Mother series, Kirby, Katamari Damacy, E.V.O., Tenchu, Guilty Gear Series, Odin Sphere, pretty much any Mario game (especially Mario RPG!!!), JRPGS (Mana Series, Breath of Fire, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy (Especially 4, 5, and 6!), Tales of, Chrono Trigger, etc.) among a million others. I like to think the golden age of gaming was the late SNES era, but I have consoles up to the Gamecube/PS2 era. Yeah, I'm a little behind the times, but I'm cool with that. I do have a 3DS, but I don't play it nearly as often as I used to. Been too busy writing!

I'm a total scaredy cat when it comes to horror stories, movies, and games. Seriously, they give me nightmares. ... But I am an avid player of the board games Elder Sign and Arkham Horror. Go figure. And now I'm planning on writing a story about it, haha.

In school, I was a complete band nerd and played several musical instruments. After the pressure of being in so many competitions and performances, I have almost completely stopped playing, but I still miss it sometimes.

I enjoy writing song lyric parodies and spend waaaay too much time thinking about them. I think I was weird Al's moustache in a previous life.

Maybe I'll add to this list if I think of something else that's interesting, but hopefully that gives you a better idea of what I'm like.

~Avatar from forums, garnet_goodie

IN PROGRESS:

The Case of the Phantom Thief: I'm finally busting out my secret project of a noir crime drama, haha! Featuring a retired private eye who is looking for an escape, only to have a new case come to him. Femme fatales, rain, incompetent cops, crime, lots of drama! Whoo, I'm pretty dang excited about this one!

The Shy Newcomer: My main story, and likely the reason you found my profile in the first place. I've dusted off this little number to get back into writing, but it has done so much more for me than I could have ever hoped for. MFoMT Long Fic with references to other games. A story of Claire learning for the first time what it means to be part of a community. She finds herself, a few new friends, a love of farming, and the love of a particular young man. Sprinkled with humor, serious moments, and dorky references. You may notice I update it like crazy; I've been working on it before quite a while before gaining the courage to post it on here. Most of my Harvest Moon one shots take place at the same time as this story. In a way, this story sets the tone for my own little Harvest Moon Universe.

It Wasn't Just Chance: This story follows Ann and her relationship with their newest tenant at the Inn, Cliff. It takes place during the events of The Shy Newcomer. This story will be updated as The Shy Newcomer is updated, as similar events take place during both stories. This story will be significantly shorter than TSN and I've already got most of it drafted. It can be read on its own just fine. My goal is to have it completely finished by the end of winter.

The Roommates: Companion to "The Shy Newcomer"; takes place during the same events. The reason why I didn't completely delete and repost this story was because I didn't want to ditch anyone who was following it. I have quite a bit of material written for it already. It will be posted a bit more slowly than my other stories, as it focuses on Cliff's and Gray's backstories and their inner struggles. I'd like all major plot points to be revealed in "The Shy Newcomer". I have to keep myself from eagerly posting new chapters of it, but I promise it will be worth the wait! Another story that can also be read as a standalone, even though it has similar events in "The Shy Newcomer".

Doug's Boys: And now for something completely different, kiddos! I tried to stop it, but it just wanted to happen! I'm not going to fight it anymore! Mineral Town/Forget-Me-Not Greaser AU. There will be crooked politicians, greasers, yankees, trouble with the cops, sunglasses worn indoors, lots of leather, denim, and pomade, and, of course, rumbles and turf battles. I'm a little too excited about this one, guys.

An Udder Mess: And, because I like biting off more than I can chew, I've been wanting to write about A New Beginning. This story isn't going to be terribly long - just a few short stories in a parody style about how insufferable Neil can be in the game.

A Single Day:

Heaven's Gate and Shortcake: This story is written on a collab account (KyaaaaCollab) with one of my best friends. She's writing the parts for Karen, and I'm writing Elli. The story will be a series of journal entries that focus on the two women battling their inner demons, learning how their own minds work, and finding their place in Flowerbud Village.

UPCOMING PROJECTS: Collection of one-shots describing the daily life of the lesser-showcased villagers of Mineral Town. I've got a few of them started.

Aftermath (Title Pending): Not sure if this will be considered a crossover or AU depending on how much research I do. Harvest Moon (MFoMT and HM64)/Lovecraft. Welcome to 1926 Mineral Town. Ominous things are happening in town due to the influence of a Deep One and it is up for the villagers to take things into their own hands and protect their village. Suspense/Horror/Action. Will focus on the older adults of Mineral Town/Flowerbud Village (Jeff, Duke, Carter, Saibara, etc.) and marriage candidates are in their early to mid teens during the time of this story. Will be rated M for violence, psychological intensity, and character deaths. Will be dark! This is pretty much my ode to Harvest Moon and the Elder Sign and Arkaham Horror board games. It will probably be quite a while before any real work is done on this one, but I feel that there is real potential in it, and I welcome the challenge. Still in the brainstorming stages.

A Pete-Central longfic of his life in Forget-Me-Not Valley: Still in the brainstorming phases; I'm hoping it will have a sort of yin-yang relationship to The Shy Newcomer.

Five-Shot Mineral Town fic, each focusing on a different pairing.

Honestly, most of my new projects come to me at the most random moments and I jot them down as soon as I can. Who knows what's to come in the future? I sure don't! Haha! :D

Meeting people on here has been a bit of a mixed bag, as I have met some amazing people on here and been very deeply hurt by others. If there's one thing I have learned throughout all of it, it's that you can only control your own behavior and how you react to situations. That being said, I still like to think that it's overall been a positive experience, so feel free to drop a line if you have a question or even just want to chat.

Happy reading, and thanks for checking out my profile!