This Writer's Life

What if everything you see is more than what you see—the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things. (Shigeru Miyamoto)

The Basics:

Real Name: Dee Birthdate: June 15 Sign: Gemini//Sun, Aquarius//Moon, Earth Ram//Chinese Location: Mesa, AZ Relationship Status: Single Favorite Color: Purple Favorite Food: Watermelon, Cherries, Grapes, Japanese Curry Rice, Sushi, Spaghetti, Clam Chowder Favorite Music: Just about anything (except Country, Opera, and Blues)--particular favorites include: Loreena McKennitt, Adam Lambert, Nickelback, Nightwish...(and a ton more) Favorite Movies: The Princess Bride, Ocean's Eleven, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lilo & Stitch Favorite TV: Ghost Hunters, Xena, Hercules, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Bizarre Foods Favorite Books/Authors: The Wheel of Time, the Adept (by Katherine Kurtz & Deborah Turner Harris), Elantris, The Belgariad/Mallorean, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson Other Favorite Things: Sunsets, the scent of orange blossoms, the ocean, rain, writing long and involved rp-ish stories with my best friend Pets: D'Artagnan Loki (Long-Haired Tuxedo Cat) Hobbies: Writing, Photography, Reading, Playing with Dolls (of the Asian Ball-Jointed Variety), Anime/Manga, Swimming D. M. Oswood has been an avid reader since sometime in elementary school and starting writing stories when she was ten years old. At the age of twelve, she decided that she was going to be a "world-famous author". The "world-famous author" hasn't come around yet, but she'll be happy just have to have publishing credits to her name some day and a loyal (if small) fan base--some day. At present, she is a full-time college student looking towards a major in Creative Writing (failing that English Literature) and plans to continue to get her Masters in Creative Writing. She works part time and resides in Mesa, Arizona with two roommates and three cats. She is also on the Committee for KimeraCon and is looking forward to its first year in 2012 and watching it grow from there. In her spare time (if she ever has any) she loves hanging out (or going out) with friends, traveling (when finances allow), and taking pictures. Currently obsessed with: Getting through this semester @.@ Latest news: Three Weeks 'til Spring Semester ends...bring on the summer. I intend to get a lot of writing done this summer if I can.

( The Five W's )

When I last posted on this account it was nearly three years ago (April 29th O.O) and it's been languishing as I went through so many different things. Falling outs with roommates, moving back in with my parents, continuing my education, moving out with a new set of roommates (so far so good), and so many more things. I won't go into it all, but I will say I'm hoping that things are going to calm down now--changing residences, rooms, fighting with friends, and all that isn't very conducive to a good mental state to write in.

One of the other changes is that I am actually cross-posting this from Dreamwidth nowadays because with the way things have been going with Livejournal lately, it's probably a good idea to have a back up ^_^

As for the writing, a friend of mine from a Creative Writing course I took back in Fall 2009 started up a "Writer's Co-op" here and I decided to join it. We don't have a fancy alliterative name (yet *laughs*), but now that we've settled on what we want to do with it, it's starting to get my brain rolling. I have submitted pieces of two of my current projects to the group, one of them being a story entitled "Methuselah" that is a sort of spin-off from the massive story I've been writing with my best friend for about two and a half years--I have huge plans for what I want to do with that story that I am looking forward to seeing if I can do. The other piece I've submitted to the writer's group is a newer version of "Foreign Sky", the first book in my Crystal Dream series that I've mentioned at some point (on LJ).

"Foreign Sky" has been languishing on my hard drive for about two or three years as well as other projects (and school) have consumed my soul. I submitted it to the Writer's Group as another option to peruse besides "Methuselah" and while the reception was initially kind of lukewarm, once I started explaining all of the stuff that has gone into that particular series it started generating a lot more interest. After a long discussion (I was the only one that had much of anything to submit last week though we discussed the other two people who were attending the meetings' current projects--both of which are really interesting and I am looking forward to seeing them as they start submitting them), through which I got my first real feedback on it that I have gotten almost ever, they started my brain churning over it and for the first time in ages I hauled up all my notes and the story and started working on it.

This has been a rough semester (it's the first time I've taken two English classes and Japanese) and I've been kind of down for a almost a week and one of my roommates suggested that I'd hit my burn out point for the semester (there's only three weeks left and I am sure anyone who's done any kind of college stuff probably can relate) and I am not sure I can dispute it.

Since Tuesday night (with a brief exception of hauling myself to Japanese class on Wednesday morning), I've been doing practically nothing but working with "The Crystal Dream" series and "Foreign Sky" in particular. From the time I got home on Wednesday until late last night, I have been going through my notes, tirelessly revamping things, going through characters and deciding if I can cut any of them (I feel like I have a lot, but I was reminded w/ 3-4 books you can get away with more than a couple main characters), and I went through and actually outlined all of the major events that happen in each book. I am not entirely satisfied with my outlines for Books 3 and 4 ("City of Lost Souls" and "Gateway to Daybreak" respectively)--Book Four in particular, but I am very happy to at least have a general idea of what I want to cover in it. There are a few things I want to do in the stories, but I haven't found the right place to do it and I am hoping when I go to the meeting on Monday maybe I can get some awesome ideas.

I'm working at 6 AM tomorrow morning, but I am hoping to start utilizing this a whole lot more than I have in the past as my brain turns more and more to writing. I am hoping this summer really is the summer I start getting my goals accomplished :)

Take care everyone!

For those who would like to get a hold of me, you'll find my contact information in my LJ profile, but I'll post it here as well ^_^

( Contact Information )