Redheaded Bandit

So, I just did a pretty big friends cut. Basically, I see LJ as essentially a place to bare my soul and also a place to connect with people. I had a lot of people listed as friends (therefore giving you access) who I haven't had a conversation of any kind with in at least a year. Whether by them commenting on my entries or replying to my comments on their entries.

While I don't always have the focus to read and comment on entries, I do read every entry and I guess I would just rather not clog up people's friends lists if they have no interest in reading my entries and interacting with me.

Now, if I've removed you in error, please let me know. I'm happy to add you back.

These removals aren't personal in any way. Sometimes people do grow apart. It happens, and it's not something to have hard feelings over. But if you're interested in reconnecting, by all means leave a comment to this post :)

Also, if you've been wanting to leave my friends list and haven't felt comfortable doing so, by all means go ahead. Again, no hard feelings.

And for those that I've kept around-you have nothing to worry about in regards to this silly pingbacks business. I have no desire to link to anyone's personal journal entries, ever. I wish the LJ powers that be would realize that LJ is NOT social networking or blogging. It's a JOURNAL where you share your thoughts with your close personal friends. Period. End of story.

Anyway, hope you are all well.

This post is completely self-indulgent as it's for me to remember some of the lovely lovely comments I received on my Smallville fic, and me waxing philosophical on what writing means to me and what I want to do with my life.


"The rest of the chapter reinforces this point, your writing is solid and good. You manage to keep the characters consistent and give them that nice spark of life which makes me want to read more. So cheers on your excellent work, please keep writing as I think you will only improve."

And then another one:

"And I agree with the commenter upthread about the nice spark of life you give the characters. There really is something particularly vivid about your writing. I read many excellent stories by talented writers, but there's something difficult to define that makes the style in which this fic is written stand out."


Wow... that's some extremely nice praise there. They think my characters have a spark of life!!

Also feeding my ego this week is hearing from the two people who read my novel recently a lot. They both have said that they can't get the characters out of their heads, which is awesome.

One actually told me that it was inspiring her and making her want to do art to represent the characters, and she doesn't do art!

Now, obviously this is only a small handful of people who knew and got along with me so they were pre-disposed to like my story, but to hear that something I wrote is capturing someone's imagination and inspiring them to want to do something creative?

I can not even put into words how magical that feeling is.


And I can't stop thinking about the fact that when she fired me yesterday, my former manager encouraged me to go out and find something that I love. To pursue my dream instead of "trying to be... this." in her words.

I know it's a longshot. I don't even like to think about the odds, especially given this economy. I know if I beat the odds, it will take years before I start earning enough to not have a day job. But it all feels like life is trying to send me a message. I've known for awhile that this is what I want to do. Maybe there's a reason why I was let go. Maybe there's a reason why she said something like that to me. And maybe there's a reason why I feel like I'm closer than ever to having a novel I feel comfortable trying to shop around.

Maybe now is the time.


Or maybe not. Either way, reading the above comments (and other very generous comments!) made my day.

Just in case anyone is interested, I'm now co-modding a forum with a focus on Clark Kent and Lois Lane. There's a focus on the Smallville versions, but there's discussion for everything from comics to movies to TV.

And there's a section devoted to cons and costuming as well as a section for other couples.

*cough cough* Dick/Babs* (I'm looking at you, fictionalknight

So, yeah, you should all head over there and sign up because it is fun :)

The forum is here: http://cluforum.proboards.com

The second and third installments of music for Smallville's Clark and Lois.

Again, a compilation of selections from my fellow Cloisers over at kryptonsite.

( Destiny Interrupted and Moondance )

There's a Volume 4, and if anyone's interested, I think I'll put together a soundtrack based off what I use for when I'm writing Scorcher as well.

Awww, I was tagged by fictionalknight in this.

So...

Pick 10 people and give them the "you make my day" award. If you're picked, you are charged with picking 10 of your own.

( The You Make My Day Awards )

So, over at kryptonsite.com, we've put together a list of songs that make us think of Clark and Lois on Smallville.

It got quite huge. Like, 4 volumes huge. So, here's the first of the four. I organized each into a thematic volume and did up some prettified cover art for em :)

( Volume One: Memories of Us )

I made these for my Clark and Lois fans over at kryptonsite.com, but figured I would share if anyone was interested. Just a random assortment of comics and animated versions of the pairing.

( Icons! )

The chairman of the Sacramento GOP decided to put up pretty offensive images on their website. These included an image of Barack Obama in a turban, next to Osama Bin Laden. The caption? "The only difference between Osama and Obama is a little B.S." and "Waterboard Barack Obama."

WATERBOARD him? A public official (also a lawyer) is calling for TORTURE of a presidential candidate?

This is beyond ugly and should be unacceptable. At the urging of the state republican party, they took the images down, but have yet to apologize.

Can all of you on my FL who think something like this is completely unacceptable and deserving of a public apology please head over and sign this petition?

I want to get to a significant number of signatures and then I'm going to call the bastards and demand they issue a public apology. If you could also spread this, that would be great.

Whoever you're voting for, this is disgusting behavior and has no place in American society, especially on the official website for a local branch of a political party!

If you want to read one of the many articles about this, here's a good one.

Thanks guys. Sorry for the shameless petition plug, but I really want to show these guys that this sort of behavior will NOT be tolerated.