Okay, so I've been dealing with massive writer's block for my main story. I've started a little drabble/ficlet letter based thing that I'm hoping will get me back in the writer's mood. I'm not giving up on To Be Alone, but also won't post the craptacular stuff I've tossed so far. Also, you may want to blame my yearly re-read of Harry Potter, some of the associated fanfiction, and the fact that TWO of the epic fantasy series I've been reading for years are both publishing new books this fall for my epic!fail at updating.

Check out the bottom of my profile for some information on Project Team Beta!

Let's see - should anyone ask, my "real" name is Amber, but that really isn't all that important since my screen name says a lot more about me and my world view. I am twenty three years old, and recently moved to the desert of California at the same time my husband has been deployed overseas. Not fun. Only bright side is that since we left around the same time we get to come home (Colorado) at around the same time. crosses fingers From there, we'll see!

Up until recently I was a psychiatric nurse, but the Army Reserves decided they didn't need me as a reservist, but as an active duty soldier, so now I'm learning to be a nurse on a mother/baby floor. Read labor and delivery. Gah! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't hurt any wee little ones. It's a completely different nursing style from what I normally do-residential psych-but ah well. On the plus side, I've kind of become a benefit to my new floor because of my prior experience and now I get to be super helpful with the anxiety and depression that often show up on the floor. Not too mention super duper huge mood swings...

My favorite authors in no particular order are: J.R.R Tolkien, Terry Brooks, J.K. Rowling, Diana Gabaldon, Stephanie Meyer, Piers Anthony, Christopher Paolini, Kathleen O'Neal and Michael Gear, Robert Jordan, Neil Gaiman, Bill Willingham, Hiromu Arakawa, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and many others that I cannot think of right now.

My favorite music would most definitely be rock closely followed by any good movie soundtrack. Favorites include Silversun Pickups, Apocalyptica, Rise Against, Flobots, Linkin' Park, 30 Seconds To Mars, Barenaked Ladies, Breaking Benjamin, All American-Rejects, Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows, Something Corporate/Jack's Mannequin (Same lead singer/lead piano), Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Claus Bedalt, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Karen Marie Garrett, Nicholas Hooper, Ludovico Einaudi, and again, many more that I cannot think of.

I recently got the urge to start writing fanfiction after reading the Twilight series. As I was reading, I realized that the different characters were itching to have their side of the story told. I have been a ghost amongst the fanfiction sites for a while now and have decided two things. The first is that I absolutely love the stories full of drama and angst (well written ones of course) but that I have to read something a little light hearted after a while to keep my poor brain from bursting, and number two is that I have finally decided to try my own hand at this whole fanfic thing. Please let me know how I am doing. Thank you!

And last, but not least, I've recently joined a group called Project Team Beta (PTB) as an actual beta. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this author/reader has decided to try her hand at helping other writers. I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants, but it's fun. That being said, we are still accepting new stories and desperately seeking new betas. If you want, you can do several things to contact the awesome JMeyer (the woman who came up with the great idea) or the other mods:

Go to our main hub, the LiveJournal website at http://community.livejournal.com/ptb_twilight/

You can email our moderators (We're getting too big for just one person to run the show!) directly at projectteambeta@gmail.com

Or go to the Twilighted forum where it first started at http://twilighted.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=3155