Ah, who doesn't love the obligatory 'introducing yourself to people on a forum' post...
The name at the side says Shivertongue, but I also respond to Shiver, Knifey and Will - the former two are actual nicknames with stories behind them, only one of which is appropriate for younger audiences. 'Shivertongue' comes from my self-created Discordian pope name - Shivertongue Von Slamdance VI - which, obviously and cleverly, combines 'Shiver' with 'tongue'. The PG version of the explanation to which is simply that I have a considerably long tongue that I take great pride in. Make of that what you will...
I am currently starting school again, attending MATC in Madison, WI in the Graphic Design program (since this school does not offer a creative writing major, although there are classes I hope to take at some point in the future). Before this, I spent two and a half years at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, majoring in Animation, before the culmination of a series of events and circumstances led to my dropping out/being kicked out during my junior year. The easiest explanation as to why is to blame my ex girlfriend.
I've been writing as long as I can remember - and, oddly enough, I recently found notebooks filled with stories from elementary school. I'm currently trying to find one from middle school, in an effort to discover when I started incorporating actual dialogue (Somehow, my third-grade story 'Windows of Time' went thirty pages with not one character saying a thing.) Regardless, as one might be able to imagine, getting kicked out of art school has the effect of killing the artistic drive for a while, but not the desire for creative outlet. I thus began writing again, returning to stories I'd started in high school as well as taking up, um, fanfiction.. *coughs*. I soon discovered that, whereas before , my writing supplemented my art, my art soon began to supplement my writing - which, for me, made for much better stories.
I write fantasy, for the most part - Epic Fantasy, Modern Fantasy, etc - with occasional touches of mystery, steampunk, humour and horror, and the odd sci-fi. Basically whatever seeds are planted from the innumerable daydreams that bombard me throughout the day. I have yet to finish a book, although several short stories have actually been finished (most of these, however, have since begun to grow in to larger, more complex novels..). I have yet to submit to a publisher or magazine or, um, anything, mostly due to time and the whole 'needing to finish something' thing... You know, trivial matters.
I enjoy critiquing and being critiqued, though, which is one of the primary things that has brought me to this little corner of the interwebnet. Fun fact: art school critiques have had the dual effect of allowing me to sit through the most brutal of criticism without taking offense, and given me the ability to tear something to shreds whilst simultaneously letting the target know exactly what works and what doesn't. So, when I get around to submitting something, be as brutal as you like. None of you can match Mr. Yi; he made people cry. (He also made them better artists at the same time; I'd still like to punch him, though..)
And it appears that, similar to my novels, I'm having trouble coming up with an ending for this post. (Even worse, I'm rewriting parts of it... ) Hmmm... "LOOK! A monkey!" *clicks 'post' and runs off*
~Shivertongue