Hey all!

I'm a Junior in college right now. I really love writing, and my dream is to write a few awesome books (and get them published of course)!

Age: 20

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue/hazel in the middle. Eyes are important.

Name: Let's go with Dinah. It's a good name.

School/Occupation: College/Student (and writer, of course)

Favorite color: hmm. I love blue as of late but I really don't have the commitment to stick with a 'favorite color' per say...

Music: Alexi Murdoch, Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco, Linkin Park, Muse, Glen Hansard, Anouk, Ellie Lawson, Incubus, TONS of Musical soundtracks, Regina Spektor, Gavin DeGraw, ABBA, Tool, Neurosonic, Enya, Amanda Palmer, Shiny Toy Guns... the list goes on and on.

Movies: Well, I'm just giving my top five in no particular order at all...

1) A Good Year

2) Love Actually

3) Stranger Than Fiction

4) Once

5) Definitely, Maybe (This position changes frequently, but the other four are pretty permanent)

Books: Harry Potter (of course), Sabriel, Lireal, Abhorson, Twilight (and all following books in said series), The Host, EatPrayLove, The Alchemist, Macbeth, Anita Blake series (minus the smutty recent crap), The Hanged Man, The Celestine Prophecy, Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, Till We Have Faces, Blood and Chocolate, Wuthering Heights, Vampire Academy, Shadow Kiss, Frost Bite, Marked, Othello, Life of Pi, The Lovely Bones, Women Who Run With the Wolves...

Television shows I actually follow: Heroes, Supernatural, True Blood, Lie To Me, Desperate Housewives...

Tips on writing from people I admire; I'm not a professional. But these people are.

Here's a link to my most valuable resource. He's a professor from Canada who was generous enough to post many articles on novel writing advice and instruction. It's not a cheat sheet, and writing is still quite hard in my opinion, but this is great for those with great ideas who need a few tips to get their thoughts on papers in a fluent and constructive way:

http://www.steampunk.com/sfch/writing/ckilian/

Ursula Le Guin, a fantasy writer, has many notes to aspiring writers. I'm posting here my favorite note from her where she posted one of the many rejection letters she recieved early on in her writing career. It's comical to me, considering she's now written and published many successful books. It makes me think of Stephanie Meyer and JK Rowling, and all of the publishers who must be kicking themselves for sending them rejection letters...

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Reject.html

And now, Favorite Quotes!!

"Nothing makes my soul sing more than writing."
-Isabel Allende

"Good fiction is not only the thrill of a plot, at its best it is an invitation to explore beyond the appearance of things, it challenges the reader's safety, it questions reality. Yes, it can be disturbing. But there may be a reward at the end. With some luck, the author and the reader, hand in hand, may stumble upon some particles of truth. Usually, however, that is not the intention of the author in the first place. The writer merely suffers from an uncontrollable need to tell the story. There is nothing more to it, believe me."
-Isabel Allende

"There comes a time in life when you have to decide whether you're a Tigger or an Eeyore."
-Randy Pausch

"Don't bail; the best of gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap."
-Randy Pausch

“As is a tale, so is life. Not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

"Remember labrats, winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."
- A good Year

"It is better to fail at individuality than to succeed in conformity."

"Life grows or shrinks in proportion to one's courage."

"If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice, if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless, if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to transform our world; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better."
-JK Rowling on Imagination at the Harvard 2008 commencement

“What we achieve inwardly will change outward reality”

"Failure is something it is impossible to avoid unless you live so cautiously that you fail by default"
-JK Rowling

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."

-Ghandi

"Well behaved women seldom make history."

-Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

On Reviews: I really love reviews, so any comments/questions/theories/ideas would be much appreciated. Basically I consider reviews a chance for the reader to help shape the story. So it's good for all of us when you leave me reviews :D

NOTE: Since I'm in college, worrying about classes, writing an actual book, trying to hold up a job AND balance a social life on top of that, I won't be able to update as much as any of us would like me to. I'm sorry in advance for any fics that I neglect, and beg for your patience and forgiveness.