Some stuff about me (since putting in lots of info seems to be the thing now):

Me: I'm 5'6" (probably more like 5'5" and a few centimeters, but 5'6" sounds taller so I'm sticking with it). I've been going grey since I was 15 so my hair is whatever color I feel like. Currently black but I'm thinking of royal blue highlights soon. It's long enough that it routinely gets caught under me when I sit. My nails are currently long and dried-blood-red. With winter here, I've pulled out the velvet skirts, funky knee socks, and long-sleeved goth tops/hoodies.

Pierced but not tattooed.

Yeah, I'm goth (with punk influences), but old enough to be so over that emo vampire crap so many goths are into. (Not that I don't like vampires or like writing about them, but you hit a certain age and you just look at them differently.) For me, it's more about the cool clothes, awesome makeup, funky hair colors, and great piercings. And the hats. Can't get enough of the lolita hats (thank you, Japanese fashion).

History: I entered fandom - well, stumbled over it, really, while I was looking for semi-naked Peter Wingfield pics - back in very early 1998. I was barely legal then but I'm sure not saying exactly how old I was. I feel old enough without everyone doing the math.

I've been a writer since I was eleven. Went through my Mary Sue, romance novel, uprle prose (no, that's not a misspelling), wangst period in my early to mid teens, thankfully before I got onto the internet. By the time I hit fandom, while I wasn't the best writer, at least I knew better than to write like that anymore. Better to make your mistakes privately than online for the whole of fandom/the world to see (and point and laugh).

Fandom: I mainly do slash (yaoi, for you anime/manga gals), but I dabble in het and gen, too.

I wrote for the Hercules-Xena fandom for a most of my fandom career, did a bit in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer one, too, but that was short lived. I've also read and participated (read: reviewed like a demented fangirl) in way too many fandoms to bother naming. But recently, for the first time ever (and I clearly recall stating once that this would never ever happen with me) I've become obsessed with an anime/manga fandom. Bleach now holds my heart and all my interest (and possibly my soul). Any new fic idea I have are in that world. Every new story I've started features Ichigo and/or Grimmjow. I'm devouring Bleach fanfic like a starving woman. Good fic, badfic, who cares? I'm reading it all. (Check my favorites for authors to read.)

Despite a writer's block of nearly a year, I've actually managed to finish a few stories, all Bleach of course. The tame to mildly hot ones will be here while the spicy stuff will be up on AFF.net. All can be found on my site: Paradox.

Feedback/concrit: I love feedback. However, you won't ever find me demanding it. I really like constructive criticism but I detest flames. The difference between the two? Constructive criticism is where someone points out typos, bad grammar, plot holes, etc., in a polite and well thought out manner. Flaming is where someone does nothing but talk about how much they hate the author and the story and why both suck and should die a painful death. While I gratefully welcome the former, authors of the latter may apply their lips firmly to my posterior.

Explicit fanfic: Looking for the extreme hot stuff? Due to ff.net's rules, you won't find it here. I refuse to censor my work in order to post it here, so either check out my website, or you can also head over to my page on AFF.net: Bleach fic.

Grammar and Writing Advice

I really hate profiles that go on for twenty pages with this and that, so I'll just touch on the things that drive me crazy the most.

General writing advice:

There is no excuse for bad grammar. Seriously. In this day and age of the internet, there's no excuse for posting something that commits massive crimes against the English language (or any other language, for that matter). You don't have a spell check program? Well, you obviously have access to the internet since you're posting; do a Google search for online spell check programs. You're not a native English speaker (or native speaker of other languages)? It's a big, wide internet and there are people willing to help you out with that. There's even a community on LiveJournal specifically for that. You're all excited about your story and you're in a hurry to share it? Good for you. Now take a deep breath, relax, and realize that the continuation of the universe doesn't depend on you posting your story this very second. Go spell check it and give it a good read through; let it sit for a couple days and do another read through, then consider handing it over to a beta/proofreader for an unbiased read through. You know you have problems with homonyms/punctuation/etc.? Then don't post the story until you've had someone else look it over for you.

The bottom line is, if you don't care enough to present your story in as polished a manner as possible, then why should anyone else care enough to read it?

Grammar Advice

The Apostrophe: This is used to 1) make a word into a contraction ("should not" becomes "shouldn't"), 2) form a possessive with a noun ("The book is Mary's." "Those are the building's steps."), 3) to form internal quotation marks, quotes within quotes ("He told me to 'hang on to her and stay close,' but I didn't.").

Apostrophes are never ever used to form plurals. Ever! To make a plural, you rarely need to do anything but slap an "S" on the end of a word. There are exceptions to that, of course (usually borrowed French words), but none of those will ever require an apostrophe.

"Yeah" vs. "Yea": Yes, there is a difference between the two. "Yea" rhymes with "nay" and "way" and is an archaic way of verbalizing formal agreement, now only used, for the most part, when taking verbal votes in a formal (mostly govermental) setting. Unless your characters are casting a vote or something else official like that, "Yeah" is likely the word you're looking for.

Attention het (m/f) writers! I love reading het in different fandoms, but if there's one thing that pisses me off, it's when the author doesn't know anatomy. Especially when the author is female and doesn't know female anatomy. This will probably come as a shock to those who rely on romance novels as anatomy guides but the hymen/maidenhead/whatever you want to call it, is not located three inches up inside a woman; it's right there at the very front. In fact, if she's an active person she might not have one at all. Make that pretty darn likely if she uses tampons and likes to "get in touch with herself" on occasion. Some women are even born without them, and some still have them even after sex; it's no guarantee of virginity. Check this article for more details: Article.

More to come as they piss me off.