POTO Reader's Choice Phanphiction Awards

There is so much talent in the realm of phanphiction. A campaign has been started up so that writers can earn their due credit.

Go to: http://www.freewebs.com/phanphicawards for more information.

and/or join my group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phanphicawards/
in which updates and other information is posted.

I guess I should explain the screen name. I am involved in theater. It has virtually become my life and I try to intertwine myself in it as much as possible. A Piece of My Heart is a play that my school put on. I was prop manager for it. It is honestly one of the most heart-wrenching productions that I have ever seen. It pays tribute to the women who served in the Vietnam war. Over 12,000 women volunteered for the war though the army never keep an official record. They kept a record of how many enemy weapons they captured and how many innocent civilians were massacred. Many nurses were tricked into joining or sent over against their will and forced to deal with the horrors of war. The play spared no little detail. It also reminds one of what the men had to endure both there...and when they came back. The play served as a reminder for me of our current situation for Iraq and what our boys and girls, men and women, people's children, syblings, and friends, are going through. A piece of my heart is with them of the battle fields. May God watch over them and make sure their sacrifice is not in vain.

Okay. looks around and smiles weakly Now that I have gotten off my soap box, I guess I shall continue.

As for my interests, they span over many different series. I have been a die hard Lord of the Rings fan and Star Wars fan for a long time. I also love anime (espeicially my favorite, Rurouni Kenshin).My recent love, and one I have a feeling is not going in anywhere, is Phantom of the Opera. It was inevitable seeing as how I have loved the music from childhood and am so obsessed with theater. It is so haunting and intense, it refuses to leave your mind for days. I'll admit that I have only seen the production of Phantom once in LA at the Almansen theater where Brad Little was playing the phantom. I am hoping that once I get to college, I'll be able to see it many more times and hopefully go to some phanphests.

There's nothing much else to say. If you wish to read stories that I have written, look here at my old penname: Naomi. This is also my fictionpress account.

Also, feel free to IM me at: moonlitdreams20

Piece out and God bless,

Mirea

Quotes:

"In the establishment preaching anti-establishment. That's me, the tight-rope walker. It may not be politically correct honestly, but honest which is never politically correct." -Martha, A Piece of My Heart(Act II)

"A piece of my heart goes with every G.I.. A piece of my heart!" -Martha, A Piece of My Heart(Act I)

"Her hands are shaking for a long time...They've been in a death choke around a boy who looks like my sister's son...Oh God, I've been taught to be a loving person...Love your brother as yourself...I took a vow to help all man kind...regardless of race color or skin...We are defiling something. Something holy is being transgressed here. Jesus, can you hear us...Murder is in my kin." -Leeann, Martha, andSissy, A Piece of My Heart(Act I)

"Sit in your room at night, drinking alone, and they think your a mistress for a married doctor or a lesbian for another Red Cross girl... I don't care anymore. My business is my affair." -Whitney, A Piece of My Heart(Act I)

"I was anti-war. I hated Nixon. Knew he was a liar. What can I say, we were hippies. You know, Woodstock, the long hair, the bell bottom jeans, the headbands...the pot. Then one day an army nurse came to my nursing school and showed us this video about the glamor of being an army nurse and all these gorgeous hospitals all over the world with all this modern equipment. We had zip at my nursing school. I asked, "Do women have to go to Vietnam?" She said, "no, women volunteer for Vietnam." My friends are mostly thinking I am crazy, but I'm thinking of joining. There's two others that will join up with me at any moment and I am thinking this is perfect for you Leeann. Not only will it help pay for my last year of nursing school, because money for me is very tight. I can protest the war by caring for the soldiers when when they get back from Vietnam, maybe Hawaii or something. You see, I grew up in New York half-Italien half-Chinese and had to deal with a lot of prejudice. I wanted to go to Hawai, where everyone looked like me." (Act I)

(Act II)"I see the hostages from Iran on tv and this is pissing me off. I mean they are getting into limos for a parade with this big yellow ribbon welcome and what the hell did they do? Sat around four-hundred and sixty days reading comics while I was out there risking my life! I never even volunteered for the stinking hell hole! I wanted to go to Hawaii, where they all looked like me. Well, they certainly looked like me!" -Leeann, A Piece of My Heart, VA Rap Group after coming back from Vietnam(Act II)

"...I start going out with Pete, but we never really talk about what he went through. We never really talk about what I went through. We never really talk about the Nam at all...Then one day, pete decideds to go back to Vietnam, just like that. And why are all these men deserting me?...I don't want to be around men anymore, I don't even want to talk to a man. All they do is leave...Men wanted that war. Men made that war. Women never made a war like that in their lives!...All my friends are women now" -Whitney, A Piece of My Heart(Act II)

"They knew I had the truth. Why wouldn't they listen? Was it because I called the enemy by an unacceptable name in the dang report! They are Chinese, aren't they? Or have I got all the wrong names? Enlisted specialists instead of luetendent? Woman instead of man? Black instead of white? Black women specialist says the Chinese are going to clobber the begeezers out of us in thirty days. Oh, Tet happened on the nose. The turning point of the war. And Tet is history.Hundreds, thousands lost, wasted lives." Steele, A Piece of My Heart(Act I)

"We were never married but it sure felt like we got divorced." Mary Jo, A Piece of My Heart(Act II)

"All of you, who sent me over there who made me do all those terrible things. Made me waste lives and money and resources. You will never be accountable for your actions. You are hiding behind so many people that the truth will never be known. I want your day of reckoning to be at hand! I want you to burn forever in the hell of Vietnam!" Martha, A Piece of My Heart(Act II)

"Getting a little crazy. Wanting to get out. Not wanting to get out...Best year of my life. Worst year of my life...Such a sisterhood. Such a brotherhood. Such a comradeship. Like no other time, no other place on earth." Sissy, Mary Jo, and Steele, A Piece of My Heart (Act I)

"D-Rose Day. I don't care how you get my out, but someone please, get me out. If I smell another piece of dried fish on the wall or have to pour another class of coolade, I am going to start screaming and never stop." -Whittney, A Piece of My Heart(Act I)

"I was an army brat, Martha O'Neil. Dad a career man. Mom an army nurse. I was born at Fort Benning and grew up at Fort Bragg. I remember one day, a girlfriend came to school crying. Her dad had been sent to Vietnam. Just crying and crying. It was about 1963, so I knew about the war early on. Americans going there. Americans being killed there. Something very wrong there. Back of my mind is, I want go go there. Be a navy nurse and serve my country." -Martha, A Piece of My Heart (Act I)

"I don't fit in with people like him anymore...Or my family...Or my old friends...Inside of me, I have so many feelings I don't understand...I have feelings I don't understand...I thought things would be different when I got back...I am the only thing that is different since I got back." -All six girls, A Piece of My Heart(Act 2)

(Please forgive me if some of these quotes have mistakes in them. I am doing this from memory so it is probably slightly scewed. Ack..and most of them are monologues.)

There is something ultimately haunting and sorrowful. I guess the thing that makes it this way is knowing that it is no fictious story. The six lives portrayed on stage are real women who lived and the events that were staged trully took place. May we one day learn from our mistakes.