I'm a 47 yr young mom and a huge Twilight fan!! I recently discovered fanfics and love to beta good stories. I used to work as a proofreader and typist many moons ago, as well as lots of secretarial and clerical work. I have several degrees and love to read and am learning that I love to write fan fiction as well! I have written lots of poetry and lyrics, but Blue Monday is my first totally original fanfic to write. All poetry and song lyrics in my stories are original works of mine unless noted and may not be used without my expressed consent. All copyrights are reserved by dollybigmomma.

All in the Family:

Mr. Anderson (looks like Chace Crawford) http://www.pynkcelebrity.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/chace-crawford-gq-june000x0432x545.jpeg

The music to Bella's song for the Adoption Center is based on this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAhzLVfgmXU

If you're interested in seeing the clothes and cake that inspired me for the wedding in Blue Monday/ Through the Closet Door/A Silent Voice from the Garden:

Bella's wedding dress can be found at http://www.lerctr.org/~ctr/gown.jpg

Edward's suit and hair: http://www.lerctr.org/~ctr/suit.jpg

Their wedding cake: http://www.dianescakesandmore.com/wedding-cakes/roses-cascade.php it's the square one called pink rose cascades.

Some of you have requested a diagram of the final family tree for Blue Monday/Silent Voice/Through the Closet. You can find it at www.lerctr.org/~ctr/familytree.doc

My biggest writing pet peeves:

Nasty reviews by people who aren't writing as well. If you don't like my stories, that's fine - move on. If you have something constructive to offer about plot or style, I'm all ears - pm me. Otherwise, keep it to yourself. My writing is something I spend lots of time on that I could be doing something else for my family, so unless you're writing as well, I don't feel you have room to be issuing non-constructive criticism about other's efforts. And no one has the right to be rude or malicious. Ever.

That. That. That. It's a highly overused word in MANY fanfics, and lots of books in general. It's very easy to overuse, and sometimes hard to catch yourself doing it. If you use the word "that" in a sentence, please make sure to check the flow of your sentence without it first. IF IT STILL MAKES SENSE WITH OUT IT, PLEASE LEAVE IT OUT!! A few other words that vex me regularly: led/lead, chose/choose, lose/loose, breath/breathe, slid/slide, there/their/they're, and definitely/defiantly just for scorpio11! These drive me crazy!!

Punctuation around quotation marks. It's a pain, I know. I did online research trying to figure this out, and finally went to Half Priced books and picked up several texts on writing to help me because I was doing it so badly, plus I wanted to be a beta and wanted to do it right for you all as well. Here's a quick tutorial on what I learned:

If the words after a quotation mark cannot stand alone as a complete sentence in themselves, place a comma (or question/exclamation mark) inside the quotation marks, then finish the sentence without capitalizing the first word after the closing quotation mark.

"I thought I told you not to come here," she said as she held the door.

If the words following the quotation mark make a complete sentence themselves, place a period (or question/exclamaiton mark) inside the quotation mark, then start the sentence following with capitalizaiton:

"I thought I told you not to come here." She closed the door and never spoke to me again.

Spelling and grammar: What can I say? If you don't have a spelling and grammar check feature, please please PLEASE, get a good Beta! It's so hard to enjoy a story when you spend half your time trying to figure out what the author was trying to say.

The main reason all this means anything to me is because there are lots of young readers who come to this site, and everything we put on here is what they learn from, be it the content of our stories, or they way they're written. If you care about the future writers of the world, do your best to make sure they learn the highest quality lessons they can from you. I know I still screw up, but I'm trying to do the best I can. Please join me!

This was one of the most helpful sites I found if you need help with grammar rules: http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp

Ok, favorite quotes:

Youth is a fleetingly whispered promise that time feels no obligation to honor, and vanity is a prize only cherished by those who don't realize what a liar and theif time can be.

Fear has the potential of being a hammer or a crutch. You can use it to build something better and stronger, or let it cripple you into inaction.

Never make someone a priority in your life when all you are to them in an option...

He who laughs last...obviously lacks knowledge in performing the Heimlick maneuver

If my body is a temple...the Rabbi should sue the architect who designed my ass

People who live in glass houses...shouldn't wonder why they suffer from paranoia about peeping Toms

The world is my oyster...which could explain why I'm always ill with shellfish allergies

The truth may set you free...but it never hurts to have a rich daddy and a damn good lawyer