About Me:

As one might notice, I am very, very bad at finishing what I start, and I have not published here in quite some time. Fortunately, my professors have figured out the first part, and are thus quite good at lighting a fire under my butt when the need arises. Let's see... I am a student (obviously), and my current field of study is Middle Eastern History, specifically prior to 1500. I haven't studied any history after 1500 in over a year, and to be honest, that class was a chaotic mess that resulted in my need to refer to my old AP Euro notes in order to figure out what in the world my professor was trying to accomplish. So if anyone wants to discuss the Middle East, the Roman Republic, Charlemagne, or Anglo-Saxon England, please feel free to PM me, as I live and breathe the stuff at the moment.

What else? I'm female, I suppose that's important (and also quite obvious), and most definitely from the United States, though I've not spent my vacations there in years. Also, I am NOT, I repeat, NOT an English major, no matter what my professors and friends would like to suggest, which means that I have absolutely no qualms about using cliches and other taboos in my writing. What I am, however, is a minor in German and Music, and a former major in International Studies, which absolutely influences my writing... not that it is very important given that I haven't published lately...

You know what? None of this is really necessary unless I plan on publishing, although I suppose it is good information for the select group whose stories I might have reviewed in the past couple of years. If you have questions, I am an honest, open, and talkative person, so do not hesitate to PM me about whatever you feel like, whether it's a review I left, one you left for me, Islamic merchants in Nigeria in the 8th century, or the genetics of the Anglo-Saxons (quite fascinating, actually).

Now I sound like one of my professors, begging for students to come to my office hours, and it is one a.m. and I have Arabic at eight (last semester it was Hieratic Egyptian, so I'm not sure which is worse), and I really should turn off the Lord Nelson Mass, my computer, and the lights, so without further ado, I bid you to read the rest of my odd ramblings (this was the worst part, I promise).

Favorite Books:

Fallen by Erin McCarthy (you know that shivery feeling you get when you've just read an absolutely delicious book? Mmmm...)

The Thief(?) Series by Shana Abe (I have to admit they don't totally hit the spot, but all the same... and the second book is beyond words)

The Game Series by Christine Feehan (can't stand her vampires, but I do love her Ghost Walkers!)

The Study Series by Maria Snyder (read it, love it!)

The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini (read it, love it; it's absolutely riveting)

The Naming by Allison Croggon (a.k.a The Gift, in Australia, and possibly the best-written thing on this list)

Pope Joan by... uh, look it up on Amazon or something...

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

The Dark Queen by Susan Carrol (and its two sequels)

Antonio's Wife by Jacqueline DeJohn (return of the shivery feeling and absolutely amazing, trust me)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

White Magic by Laurie Stolarz (prepare yourself for the first-person present tense, though)

The Sabriel Series, by Garth Nix

The Mediator Series by Meg Cabot

Crown Duel and Court Duel by Sherwood Smith!

The Wicked Series by Nancy Holder (a Buffy writer, and you have to get this from Barnes and Noble, because it is actually out of print, but the shivery feeling strikes back)

Anything by Stephanie Laurens or Katie MacAlister (note that they write romance novels; for excellent regency romances, I would read Laurens' Cynster Series, and for excellent contemporary or supernatural romances, I'd read the latter, most specifically her Aisling Grey Series, but all of them are steamy, hilarious reads)

And what list would be complete without The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas? You'd have to be an idiot not to appreciate the romance, revenge, action, adventure, and intellectual discourse, not to mention the French Revolution!

07/03/06

Haha, I did it! What I said that I would do, that is. As soon as I came up with the idea of rewriting Trinity Pebble Beach, I decided just to go ahead and do it, and look, I already have three chapters up! They're also all more than five pages, though in order to get them out quickly, I haven't been able to make them much longer than that. Thank you to all of you who have read so far, and I would really appreciate just a little more feedback, since right now, I only know that two readers like the story as it is now. Something, though, aside from the lack of information I have on who is reading, and who is not, has been really bothering me.

Recently, I have been checking out Sailor Moon stories again, more specifically fics with Rini as the main character, and I have been a bit shocked by the lack of proofreading, real plot development, etcetera... I'd say, if you want to read good Rini fanfiction, check some of my favorite authors and stories, like SailorPerfect, Lady M Harris, Mangaka-chan, or Bill K. The latter, at least, has a very long series about Rini AND Helios, and he's always pretty good at updating once a week. All of those authors put out long, almost completely grammatically correct stories, with excellent plot and character development, and their own scintillating writing style. I'm probably missing a few authors on that list, so if you're thinking "Why isn't X on that list? X is published now!", I'm admitting right here that my list is very likely incomplete. Anyway, checkthem out if you haven't already... right now, because you'll be absolutely blown away. I know that I don't exactly put out very long chapters myself, but some of these new stories have chapters so short that they are hard to follow, and do not really reveal the author's strengths as a writer. And I beseech you all, please, to use a spellchecker, and to possibly read the stories aloud to yourselves before posting, as reading aloud helps you to catch a lot more mistakes. I usually do it if I have the chance, and it is an absolutely life-saving method for proofreading, which I STRONGLY encourage every single author to do, on account of the fact that nobody ever gets published who doesn't proofread and rewrite at least three times!

Now, I realize that is probably going to make me sound extremely stuck-up, but I wouldn't have said anything if I hadn't seen a real problem in comparison to some of the other categories I read in. For the most part, for example, everything in the Mediator section is very, very good, and just as well-written as any of the aforementioned writers' work, most notably the works of bblfl--whois an absolutely AMAZING writer, so what the flip is she doing writing fanfiction?--LollyPop Ali, and Sunshine418. I don't really expect any changes on my behalf, because I'm not exactly the best example of good writing, and I don't have a real following anymore, like I did a few years ago, but if even one of you decided to take a little more time writing you next story because of me, then I would feel a little better about wasting ten minutes to write this little blurb!

08/25/08

Wow... I'm really bad at keeping up with fanfiction nowadays. It has been that way for something like four or five years now, but especially the last two have seen me completely disappearing from this scene. I suppose you can thank college for that! Anyway, I thought I'd post a little update here (not that I'm sure anyone reads this), and say that over the next month, I will be making the attempt to write another chapter of Trinity: Pebble Beach. No guarantees, but at least it's an attempt! It's just so hard with a double major and several other original stories to focus on (they're coming along well, thank you, but spending three years on a plot will have that effect)! So keep an eye on your email, because I think I might finally be able to finish the next chapter of Trinity!

04/30/09

I should really stop giving you guys false hope about updating stuff, although I actually did write more of TPB before I got a great new idea for another of my original stories from it. TPB presents a very unique challenge to me in that it is very similar in setting to one of my very beloved original works. In reality, the similarities are quite limited because I have been exceptionally careful not to allow the two to intersect in any way, but the case remains that I have a hard time writing TPB without wanting to thrash myself for giving everything away for my other story.

On a side-note, I would like to thank all the random people who read, review, favorite, etc. my stories from time to time. Most of them were written in my early teens, and while I consider them terrible at this point, I really appreciate those of you who still like them. In particular, "All I Want for Christmas is You" seems to still be quite popular, which is probably because I actually finished it, unlike so many of the others. It also might have to do with the fact that I was a little older when I published it here, and thus had that much more experience as a writer. Anyway, my point is that I am absolutely touched that my stories still have meaning for some people, and that if I really could will myself to do so, I would rewrite and finish them all for you. As it is, I have enough trouble finishing my new stories, never mind the old ones!

04/30/09

I just realized I misspelled "Awful" in one of the chapter titles in Treachery: Thy Name is Selenity, not to mention the horrendous formatting!

I obviously need to go to bed.

All my love,

Arianna Sunrise