Hello, fellow mortals. I, Shade Sunrider, do solemnly swear and promise not to use my profile as a vehicle to express my social, religious, and political beliefs unless they somehow pertain to my stories. And since I don't think I'll be writing any dramatic oneshots where somebody runs for political office, gets ordained as a priest, or attends a gay marriage rally, my social, religious, and political beliefs will not be making an appearance.

Ten Facts About Me

1. I have been told that, depending on the time of day, I resemble Severus Snape, Mai (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Azula (also from Avatar: The Last Airbender). Sources close to me advise me not to use images of any of the three above characters as my profile picture.

2. I am not a Twilight fan. Bella, in my opinion, is an incredibly generic OC with amoeba-level intelligence and a lot of angst to make up for her lack of brainpower. Also, I do not think that vampires sparkle.

3. Once, I was accused of being a vampire by a bunch of fifth graders. I was doing absolutely nothing at the time. I was sitting on the floor and ruminating about various and sundry subjects when one particularly impertinent little child marched over and asked me if I was a vampire. She took my lack of answer as an assent, and she and her cronies referred to me as "vampire lady" from then on.

4. The Hunger Games is an example of a good idea gone wrong. I knew something was up the minute Peeta revealed his everlasting love for Katniss on national television.(Note added 6/27/12: So I've decided to write an AU Hunger Games story with a very different main character...check out Outlanders if you're up for a little mutant fun!)

5. On the subject of the upcoming Hunger Games movie: Katniss should not be played by a blond chick. I may refuse to see the movie in protest of this travesty. (I gave in and saw it.)

6. I am what might be called a Harry Potter nerd.

7. I despise Mary Sues. They are the bane of my existence. If you catch a hint of Mary Sue in my stories, please alert me to it so I may stamp it out.

8. I also despise plagiarism - the rape and pillage of somebody else's idea. No matter how bad your writer's block is, kidnapping storylines, characters, and events from another story is inexcuseable. If anyone catches me doing it, again, please tell me.

9. I have no compunctions about ripping out large portions of my stories when they don't go the way I want them to.

10. I always like to hear what people think of my writing.

Also, while I can understand the vehement hatred some people bear for OCs, I do not think it's fair to condemn all OCs based purely on the large number of Mary Sues out there.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my profile, and should you feel the urge, check out my story.

Oops, stories. Plural. There are several of them now.

A note on Outlanders: The titles of several chapters come from songs or lyrics of songs. The songs in question are:

- Chapter 7: Dirty Little Secret by All-American Rejects

- Chapter 8: All the Right Moves by Onerepublic

- Chapter 9: Morning Light by Palaye Royale

- Chapter 13: Bad Moon Rising by ...somebody. I'm not sure who wrote it originally, and I don't want to name somebody who just covered it.

- Chapter 14: The Ghost Inside by Broken Bells

- Chapter 16: People Say by Portugal the Man

- Chapter 17: Making Promises by Indigo Girls

Also, I have two characters in 24-author collaborations for Hunger Games:

- The Hunters and the Hunted: The 10th Hunger Games. My tribute is Ronan Aronson, the boy from District Seven, and while the story is on a temporary hiatus, I encourage you to go check it out and review.

- Fourteen. My tribute is Loken Farris from District Twelve. His reaping has not been posted yet, but I suggest you review the chapters that are already there!

I came across someone's "please-please-don't-flame-me (insert profanity wherever you like)" rant, and I found it simply appalling. Let me point out: To put your work out into the world is to risk criticism. As a writer, you have to be ready for this - and not put the blame on other people for what you may perceive as the weaknesses in your work. Massive rants against flames are a sign of insecurity. If you're so terrified of being flamed, I suggest disabling the anonymous reviews feature. People seem to be less willing to flame if they know the author can send them a polite PM asking why they felt that way.

That being said, I've had my share of flames, and yes, they were painful to deal with. But the only way to show the trolls that you're not paying the bridge toll is to continue posting and pretend that they never opened their nasty, fang-filled mouths to begin with. Write on.

Shade