Name: Presently Undisclosed

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Physical Location: The United States of America

Mental Location: Toiling away with the Quechua people high up in the Peruvian cloud forests, breathing in the ancient air and tending to the llamas and the crops.

11.9.2009: After taking a long break from writing, I've returned to publish a few things. If you've read my most recent story, The Lances Unlifted, and happen to gloss over some of my older stuff, please bear in mind that most of my previous stories were written and published at least a year ago. I've gotten more practice in writing since then, and have gone through more writing classes, so my earlier work, as usual, is not as well-composed as my most recent work. Thank you!

Also, I've updated my profile information to be a bit more relevant and more friendly. (:

9.24.2007: I recently deleted all of my InuYasha fanfics, because not only did they suck beyond belief, but I've sort of gotten past my anime crisis. I'm sorry to anyone who liked those fics, but they were all complete and had been sitting there for eons, so I don't think anybody will miss them.

Hi.

My name is Cricket.

As of September, 2009, I am both a Senior in high school and a Sophomore in college.

I am majoring in anthropology.

I write more poetry than research, more research than fan-fiction, more fan-fiction than short fiction, more short fiction than novellas, more novellas than novels, and more novels than plays. In short? I prefer writing poetry, research papers, and fan fictions.

I easily become obsessed with things. I think that I'd probably be a really good stalker - that's my Plan D, in case all other career plans fall through.

If you read and review my work, I always promise to leave a review for one of your stories in return.

My level of tolerance for suicide/mutilation-related fanfics has become increasingly low, due to its apparent frequency of use as a plot device among teenage writers and the fact that few of them seem to understand the complexities of the issues, and fewer still seem to have the good sense to leave the issue alone if they can't properly compose a story from it. I'm therefore issuing a fair warning - if I stumble into it, there might be some flaming. It will probably be constructive, mind you, but insensitive writers just produce disgruntled readers. There's nothing I can do about that.

I don't read or write AU fanfics (and I mean the really AU ones, where the entire plot deviates from anything that the original writers produced, like ER fanfics where all the characters are in Highschool! together, because apparently that's just so-much-fun! for teenage authors to write about). I just don't see the point. If you're going to create your own setting, your own plot, your own timeframe, and your own characters, simply giving them the familiar names of copyrighted characters, then you might as well be writing original fiction. Fictionpress is good for that.

(If you can't tell, the two previous paragraphs were written when I was exceedingly bitter about certain fics I'd read.)

I'm a sponsor for World Vision and a volunteer for The Humane Society. I really like people. Just, you know, in general. Human nature is a fascinating subject for me, and though it's admittedly a bit blind to believe this, I really do think that most people are good. I'm a philanthropist.

I've only been outside the USA once - and during this stint in Canada, I was involved in a car wreck only minutes after crossing the border. I was six years old then, and I haven't left the United States since. I do, however, plan to do a lot of traveling starting this summer. I'm going to be in Ecuador with the International Student Volunteers. My list of places to see include: Denmark, Cairo, Giza, Jerusalem, Scotland, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Tonga, Ghana, Ethiopia, Germany, Russia, London, Montreal (I'll give it a second shot, and maybe this time it won't try to hurt me), the Galapagos, and South Africa. And this list is entirely open. I would basically like to go everywhere but Asia.

I believe that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people and there's usually nobody to blame.

I believe in God.

I identify myself as a conservative, but my more conservative peers (and the liberal ones) tell me that I lean just a bit towards libertarianism.

I kind of hate politics. I concede to its relevance, but I really just think it's a pretty boring topic.

I speak some Spanish. Not a lot, but I can carry a decent conversation most the time.

My high school has a 50 percent drop-out rate. It's one of the worst schools this side of the Rocky Mountains. Thankfully, though, my time is entirely focused on college these days, and I only have to visit the high school every few months to make sure that my credits are transferring properly.

I love to read and write about American life in the 1930's. I think that the depression-era is fascinating.

I like trains and tea kettles and rain storms and pre-modernism and hour glasses and sheepdogs and black-faced sheep and quaint life and the Quechua and making clay dolls and big dogs and clever cats and hiking boots and cloud forests and wells and chess and goblins.

I don't have many friends these days. Go figure.

I'm a complete Carol/Doug, Jater, Carby, Kataang, Hodgela, Jam, InuKag, Paire, BB, Bangel, WilOz, WoJo, Literati, JavaJunkie, NC, Hameron

maniac.

You dig?

I'm still mourning the cancellation of Joan of Arcadia. Four years after the fact. However, I was recently overcome with a shiny new obsession (revolving primarily around one Ms. Cote de Pablo, but that's beside the point), and CBS and I are finally on speaking terms again. Hurrah!

Negative feelings still apply to FOX for what it did to Wonderfalls...and I don't even want to get started on my falling out with ABC over Pushing Daisies...it's just too soon. Too soon.

Has anyone else noticed a significant lack of Doug/Carol ER fanfics on the Internet?

Somebody should really do something about that.

The Unimportant Facts:

- I side largely with conservative causes.

- I speak some Spanish.

- I am a third-generation Danish American.

- I assign names to nearly all of my belongings.

- I hate writing plays.

- I honestly think that Grease is overrated.

- I like the smells of bug spray, freshly mowed grass, the surf during high tide, the forest, wet soil, gasoline, cigarettes, matches just after you pull them across the strike-pad, peaches, apple pies, pumpkin spice, the smoke from a snuffed candle, sandalwood, patchouli, the air when it rains, old books, and new cars.

- I hate it when classic books are translated into digital form. I don't mind reading fanfictions and other strictly-electronic based literature, but the classics are the classics not only for their content but because they look and smell and feel like classics. And digitalization is far too cold and flat for that.

- I think a person leaves behind a piece of their own spirit everywhere they go, when the place and the feeling are important. Part of me is still in East Glacier, Montana; part of me will always be in the Puget Sound; part of me is shuffling tentatively out onto the ice-covered pond at midnight with my brother, during the ice storm, when my hair literally froze to my head and I could not feel my legs but the snow was like glitter and our footsteps wouldn't fade from it; part of me is standing cold on the dock at the Delta; part of me is sitting numb in ER-chairs, more than one; part of me is drinking bad coffee in the ICU at 1am, after sneaking out of the house because I had to know that Dad would be alright; part of me is sipping Toadstool tea in an empty room and thinking how stupid I must be; part of me is padding up the dark campus parking lot with Alli; part of me is shaking seawater from my boots and clambering up the bluff to avoid the rising tide, following signs and laughing about free will with my brother; part of me is letting go; part of me is struggling to hold on.

- I own a non-electric percolating coffee machine. I make coffee with it every morning over a low flame. It's a long process. I get up early.

- Whenever I get writer's block or have a hard time remembering something, I literally hear this sound like an engine turning over in my head.

- I'm part robot.

- I'm a compulsive liar.

- But not really.

- Aliens and volcanoes and elevators scare the hell out of me.

- I used to be the look-out when the other kids were misbehaving.

- I'm the voice of reason.

- I'm a recovering hypocrite.

- My hair is too long.

- I work at the Humane Society.

- I love to take evening classes.

I'm O-Positive.

- I'm the youngest of three.

- I can't see very well out of my left eye, but I don't wear glasses.

- I used to cry whenever my brothers were fighting. I also cried when they burned spiders and crushed snails by smashing them against the concrete.

- I got lost in a blueberry thicket when I was five years old. I ditched my basket of berries and squirmed into a little cove of blackberry vines to keep safe, but when I decided that I needed to get out again, all the exits were blocked by spiders and I was trapped. I sat there for a long time.

- I'm an exceptionally calm, reserved person.

Neopets : Anthropologist; Anthropologically; Nanerpuss; PhantomTouch; DejaDead; FailureFace (frozen); Reapingly (frozen); Electricave (frozen); PushingxDaisies (frozen); I_is_Neanderthal (frozen); ISeenTheRain (frozen); AshesAndBones (frozen); LadyGuillotine (frozen); _calling_for_hope_ (frozen) ; Puppydog_loverh (frozen) ; Slaughter_insomniac (frozen) ; LostMyralee (frozen) ; TheAnthropologist (frozen)

Deviant Art: MyaShadow

Favorite characters

Kate, Vincent, Daniel (Lost), Jordan (Crossing Jordan), Sara, Greg (CSI), Willow, Cordy, Drusilla, Angelus, Oz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel), Piper (Charmed), Brennan, Zack, Angela (Bones), Carol, Jeanie, Abby, Susan, Carter (ER), Chuck, Digby (Pushing Daisies), George, Mason (Dead Like Me), Jaye (Wonderfalls), Claire (Heroes), Cameron, Wilson (House), Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Pam, Toby, Holly, Jim (The Office), Joan, Grace, Lilly (Joan of Arcadia), Ziva David (NCIS)

Literature

"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard

"Lord of the Flies" by William Golding

"Bare Bones" and "Deja Dead" by Kathy Reichs

"Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls

"The Time Machine" and "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells

"The Odyssey" and "The Iliad" by Homer

"The Divine Comedy" by Dante

"Of Mice and Men," "The Grapes of Wrath," "Burning Bright," and "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

"Among the Cannibals: on the Trail of Man's Darkest Ritual" by Paul Raffaele

Music/Artists

Folk

Bluegrass

Classical

World Music

Classic Rock

John Hartford

Paul Simon

Paul McCartney

Blake Shelton

Nickel Creek

Five for Fighting

Jim Croce

The Soggy Bottom Boys

Well, I'm sure no one is reading this, and those who are are probably seeking a swift getaway.

Carry on, read, review, and write.

Love and Peace,

Cricket Songs