Greetings, and welcome to the wonderful world of Axellia!

11 June 2011 Update: So, rather than make y'all read the whole of the nonsense in my profile, I'm gonna stick the important bits at the top.

As of now (okay, that's a lie, this is actually a good four months too late), my fanfiction days are on indefinite hiatus. I do intend on coming back to it - if nothing else, I owe myself the joy of finishing WTECS and I really want a happy ending for A Place to Belong. But for now, my time is still occupied with two jobs while I stress over trying to get the bills paid, too many television shows (Rescue Special Ops, Rookie Blue and years later, Lost, have now entered the equation). On top of this, it's the gym four times a week (it really is time I have a healthy BMI) and I have recently adopted two cats who cannot bear the thought of me paying attention to anything other than them (which makes typing really hard then they keep climbing all over the laptop).

On a hopefully positive note, I have finished my second non-FF novel and I'm working desperately hard to see if I can get it to a state where it can be published. Rest assured, should that happen, I will be straight on FF to announce it, LOL. So maybe, my name might make it to a book... Somewhere in all of the above, I still find time for day dreaming.

Right, if you want to keep on reading, by all means do so. But otherwise, I hope to be updating one day soon!

Me

Well, my name is Cheryl, I’m 26, and I’m a Sagittarius. I’m originally from a tiny little place called Chapel-en-le-Frith (the kind of place that gets excited about its annual tractor show, I kid you not). I left to go to the University of Hull and I’ve no intention of ever going back unless it’s to visit my parents.

I did a degree in American Studies, and although I loved every part of the four year degree, I still have yet to work out what job I can do with it! In the third year I went to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. They say home is where your heart is, and I can say without a single hesitation that mine is there. I’ve been trying for years to get back there, and hopefully, one day soon, I will. In the meantime, I shall satisfy myself with vacations. That being said, in two years time, if everything goes according to plan, I'm moving to Australia. ROFL. Seriously.

After spending three and a bit years temping, I have finally gotten myself a full time, permenant job. For all of you in the UK, you will be aware of the supermarket Morrisons. No, I don't work for them, but I do work for the photographers who take the pictures that go on Morrisons' food products. It sounds a lot more interesting that it really is - I spend the day working in a place where it smells like you're waiting for your dinner cook from walking in there at 9am to leaving at 5.30pm.

The second job was something I fell into. I am a DJ for the biggest student night in Hull – Tower at Asylum. And it’s something I’m damn proud of! I’ve DJ’d with several Radio 1 DJs, and I can now honestly say that on my biggest night, I have had Chipmunk, Biffy Clyro and Radio 1’s Greg James as my warm up act!

When it comes to music, I will honestly listen to anything. I kinda have to anyway – Tower means I have to play the current chart hits and classic student anthems, and in the summer I am also the wedding DJ. No, I have lied. I hate Christmas songs. All of them. Ugh. Right now, my iPhone is dominated by Jason Walker, Christina Aguilera, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, The Ironweed Project, Howie Day, Chipmunk, Owl City, Eminem, Britney, Lady Gaga, The Lonely Island (if you have no idea who they are, go find their youtube channel)… there’s a lot.

I also love to read, but that’s happening less than the writing. I adore the Dark Desires series by Kresley Cole. My ex-housemates refer to it as vampire porn. It’s not that bad, but if you’re in to smutty supernatural stories, I would definitely recommend them. I also love Jackie Collins and own every single book by her. Despite this, I actually prefer reading teen fiction – either the supernatural or fantasy genre. My favorite books include the House of Night Series by PC and Kirsten Cast, the Twilight series (although I’m not sure why, because let’s face it, Bella is a HUGE Mary Sue and it’s not actually that well written… and yet I continue to re-read it!), the Harry Potter Series (again, whilst it has an exceptionally well put together plot, that’s not that well written either). I love the Artemis Fowl series. Oh, and the Chronicles of Narnia. And finally, not a series, but I love Companions of the Night by Vivien Vande Velde.

I am also a gamer girl, specifically the Final Fantasy Series. There isn’t a single one of those games where I haven’t got a gameplay time that isn’t in triple figures. Right now I’m working towards getting the platinum cup in FFXIII.

On top of this, I don’t get very much sleep. I only have blinds in my bedroom, so when the sun comes up, so do I. Which sadly, combined with the DJing, leaves me tired all the time. The only thing I can focus on is the TV. I watch loads! My favourite is Rescue, followed closely by Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Smallville and CSI:NY. Now if we could get Andrew Lees, Eddie Cahill, Jensen Ackles, Justin Hartley and Ian Somerhalder in the same show, I would die happy. I think a lot of fan girls would, to be honest! I also love 24, Bones, One Tree Hill, Criminal Minds, Dexter,Veronica Mars, numb3rs, Sons of Anarchy, 90210, New Melrose Place, Doctor Who… the list is endless.

I figure that people fall into one of three categories. You’re either a dog person, a cat person, or a rodent person. I am most definitely the latter. I have two rabbits that live outside - Jack and Luna. Jack is a brown Netherlands Dwarf. He looks like a wild rabbit, really. And he’s really affectionate. And I don’t care what people say, he is actually really intelligent, knows when he’s being told off and when he escapes from the garden, not only will he not stray further than either next door’s garden or my front garden (despite the lack of walls/fences in the front, he will also come back when called! Luna is supposed to be a Dwarf Lop, and she's about as dwarf as Flack is. She's black and ma-hu-sive! The Tuesday after Easter, I went into the pet shop to buy some rabbit food, and fell in love with another dwarf lop baby – she was in the adoption centre as ‘an unwanted Easter present.’ Yes. Two days after Easter! So I took her home and named her Phoebe. She lives in my kitchen and when she’s hungry, she’ll move her food bowl into the middle of the floor. If I walk in and ignore her, she bangs it on the floor, and if that doesn’t work, she will sit on my feet. The other day, she electrocuted herself (the vet said she should be dead!) and then she tried to drown herself in the pond. I can’t work out if she’s really clever, or really stupid!

The English Language.

aka Cheryl's pet hates:

The word "Yeah" (summed up nicely by Aurilia)

'Yea' is pronounced the same as 'yay' (as in OMG!YAY I'm so glad that happened!) and the only real use I've ever seen of 'yea' is at the beginning of whatever that bible quote is that keeps worming its way into my horror movies ('yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil'). The spelling you want to use when someone's saying the shorthand of yes in your stories is 'yeah'. Freaky English spelling rules dictate the 'ea' vowel combination is a long-A sound, while adding an 'h' on the end makes it a short-A sound.

"Text" (1)

"Text" should never be made into a verb. It's lazy enough to start using weird acronyms to spell whole sentences (LMAO). Let's not start removing words and changing the make up of others just because it's quicker to say. Rather than "They just texted me back," I'd say "They just sent me a text message." Yeah, it takes longer, but I think it sounds better.

"Text" (2)

Unless you're writing a text message in your story, DO NOT WRITE YOUR STORY IN TEXT LANGUAGE! LOL is not an acceptable way of writing, s/he laughed loudly.

Speech Marks and Full Stops/Periods

"Hi!" she shouted. NOT "Hi!" She shouted.

"It's a flying pig." she muttered. NOT "It's a flying pig." She muttered.

1) There is no such word as "alot."

2) One does not go to the store "everyday." It's "every day." "Everyday" is an adjective, meaning that something is used or fit for every day, common - "an everyday occurrence."

3) Don't put quotation marks around everyday words.

4) An apostrophe is never used with a personal pronoun; therefore you shouldn't write "The movie bored it's audience," but "its." It's true! (In that little sentence, the apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter "i"). Similarly, it's incorrect to write "Who's book is this?" Or "The fault was their's."

5) "Pick-up" and "check-out" are not verbs. You "pick up" a sailor or "check out" a library book. No hyphen. "Pickup" without the hyphen is a noun. It's the jolt you get from a bracing cup of Earl Grey. "Checkout" is the time at which a lodger must vacate a room, or a counter or area in a store where goods are checked out.

6) "Thank you" is not one word!

I beta for seven authors, and I think all of them will tell you that I am dreadful at replying to emails. A large part of this is simply because I work so much. Monday to Friday day, and then Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings. I’m also really pants at replying to text messages, but that’s another story! The point is, I would love to beta more work, but at the moment, I really don’t think I can, so please don’t be offended if you ask and I say no. I really want to help a person grow as a writer, and I will put lots of time into the betaing, if needed and wanted, and I don’t want to do half a job.

Ten Facts about Axellia

1) I hate wearing shoes. Given the choice they always get kicked off - even at work, and yes, I wander around nightclubs in bare feet.

2) I am allergic to onions. Seriously, a raw one can kill me. Garlic and spring onion - not a problem.

3) Because of fact #2, I have never had an onion bahji or onion rings. Also, the only curry I can have is a korma.

4) I secretly dream that I will enter something like X-Factor and win.

5) Despite fact #4 I cannot carry a tune to save my life.

6) I am addicted to Diet Pepsi. I'm trying desperately hard to break this habit.

7) My name is Cheryl. Whenever anyone talks to me, they call me Cheryl. Despite this, everyone I've seen either has Chez, Chezza or Chezno in their phones as my contact name.

8) I don't like kids, I don't want kids.

9) If I could go see anybody in concert my first choice would be Queen. Despite the fact he's dead and was gay, I've always had a small crush on Freddy Mercury.

10) Apparently I leave the most amusing voicemails ever. Once, I was given the advice to treat the machine as though it was a person. So I have a conversation with the machine, which rambles like I do, and usually I forget why I'm calling at least twice during the message.

Righto, final note. I may have gotten a little carried, but I have created a website for What The Eyes Can't See: www.whattheeyescantsee.weebly.com. I figure that this profile is more about me than the story, and I know some of you simply don't read it. Well, if you do read WTECS and you would like to know more of what's going on in my head - characters, an overview of the plot, songs then head there. My next mission is to create trailers... I just need patience... (it's a skill I want to learn more than anything)