Your Background

[Inanna]

Hi everyone!

I made this account a long while ago, a Wheel of Time fan that hooked onto the Sanderson Craze, but never got around to posting a polite Hi.  Too many forums, perhaps.

My name is Andrea, I often go by the name "Arie" online (and off). Inanna comes from the Handle I made for the Brandon Sanderson website -www.mistbornempire.com-. I'm a hobbiest writer from a small city in BC, Canada, my background is simple hero-esque humble beginnings (-heh-). I write, sadly, more Roleplay than I do story telling. The bonus to that is that I'm 'really good' at Character juggling (20+) but I fail on plotting out a full sized novel, thus far, anyway. I have multiple worlds that dabble in various genre's and reader ages. Fantasy is the most dominant of the genre's with a little Horror, Childrens, Mystery and Sci Fi. My largest hurdle at the moment is understanding how to get a story form one point to another and be 'interested' in that storyline.

A few authors that I look up to are Sanderson (His humor), Sharon Shinn (She tells a well thought out story over many books without giving it away until she wants it to be known), Laurell K. Hamelton (Her ability to write from First Person and keep things interesting... Especially with the horror/thriller like beginning books),  Robert Jordon (World Building, although I don't actually 'like' his writing style), and Jonathan Stroud (He actually surprised me, with is extremely rare).

Anyway, Over all, I'm just stating to lurk these boards again due to listening to the "Reading Excuses" podcasts, and they are really useful, if at the very least they are kicking me in some area's and confirming a few idea's i've had to be actually good idea's. <3

That makes all this full of Winn.

[Shaggy]

I agree with you about Jonathan Stroud. He's a pretty talented guy and I really enjoyed his books, too.

Haven't seen much about him around the forums, though.

[Chaos]

Anyway, Over all, I'm just stating to lurk these boards again due to listening to the "Reading Excuses" podcasts, and they are really useful, if at the very least they are kicking me in some area's and confirming a few idea's i've had to be actually good idea's. <3

You mean... Writing Excuses?

Glad to have you here!

[Inanna]

Yeah, that. :look


And Thanks!

[ApocRK]

Hey guys

My name is Raphael. I just started writing about a month or two ago, so I have a lot to learn.  I'm also pretty young but I don't think that it will effect what and how I write as people would like to think. My stories are pretty mild and have to do more with character ambition instead of  'save the world' stuff. I kind of have a little motto when I describe what I write, I write about the state of the world not it's fate.

Fav writers are - Jordan, Sanderson, Glen Cook, Scott lynch, Rothfuss, Erikson, Jim Butcher, and lots more ( I have only started reading fantasy a couple years ago, not counting Jordan since I started on him a little longer back, and I have easily gone through 80+ books since then.)

I joined the writing group and i'm trying to read as much as I can and i'll be giving comments soon but I'm just so busy Ill try to free up my time a bit though.

[stridera]

Hello All...
My name is Matthew Jones, but I often go by StriderA online.  I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, joined the Air Force when I was 22, went to Iraq once where I drove convoys, and I am currently a Software Engineer for Microsoft in Silicon Valley, CA.  Main influences to my writing are common fantasy works (since you can't really get around that) and Japanese culture.

I was another one that found his way over to this side of the fence due to the Jordon/Sanderson deal, but actually quite enjoy it.  It's nice to see so many people from my hometown as well.   (Too bad there aren't many from down here in Cali though...) 

Writing Excuses as well as these forums gave me the inspiration to pick up a book I started writing before joining the Air Force and give it another go.  I hope that you guys will help me keep up the momentum and inspiration to finish it so I can truly call myself a writer.  Cheers!

[Recovering_Cynic]

Well...  My name is Sean.  I'm going to try to introduce myself as concisely as possible, but that might be difficult.  Here goes:

Lets start with the present.  I'm an attorney.  I graduated from law school in April '08 from BYU Law.  I currently work for a judge helping him draft the court's legal opinions.  While in law school, I managed to get a scholarly work published dealing with Native American property rights and how they relate to tax exemptions on oil production... boring, but it got me the job with the judge I'm pretty sure.  Yeah.  Not too keen on my current job track.

Before law school I was  an English major, with a creative writing emphasis.  I managed to get a personal essay published in BYU's Inscape, but The Leading Edge rejected the one science fiction submission I sent to them.  As yet, I have failed to break into the one type of writing I'd really like to work in: science fiction and fantasy, but then I haven't tried too terribly hard.  I was too busy thinking I wanted to be a lawyer.

I've written various short stories and essays that have won prizes or contests, but nothing major, certainly not enough to pay the bills.  My dream is to make enough money that I can quit my day job and write full time.  Unfortunately, it took working full time as an attorney to realize how much I really wanted to be a writer.  I hadn't pursued it before because I didn't think it was a practical way to earn a living.  I don't care so much about practical anymore, but I have a family to feed, so I'm going to have to do writing on the side.

As to why I want to write, well, I love stories.  My favorite kinds of video games have strong story lines.  I can't sleep if the tv is on because I want to see the story through, even if already know how it will end.  If I start reading a book and get involved enough in the story line, I won't put it down, because I have to see how it all ends.  I especially love stories that have an original idea.  I love it when a book surprises me, gives me something novel to chew on.  That is what I want to write, short stories (and then books) that have at their core, an original idea.

A short list of my favorite authors before I end: Sanderson, Pratchett, Gould, Jordan, McAffery, Steakly, Poe, Card, L'amour, Harry Harrison, and hundreds more.  I can't even begin to give you a list of favorite books.   I used to down books like candy, but that slowed down a lot when I started college.

Anyway, that is the long and short about me.  I look forward to working with you all.

[sortitus]

Welcome to you both. I read most of the submissions but always forget to critique.

[Chaos]

Welcome indeed! Glad to see you both here

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Hey! I can suddenly see this forum now!!! (Thanks to Spriggan?)

I'll have to look through it once I have net access at home...

[Frog]

Ah!!! He sneaked in! Security!

J/K. Have fun exploring.

[sortitus]

Err... He's on the brute squad.

[Shi]

Hi guys! (including girls!)

My names Shannon, though feel free to call me Shi, cause it's, like, four letters shorter and a lot faster to write. I've been a here and there poster on Timewaster, where I've managed to waste much time, for a couple of years. When you guys started up Reading Excuses I was horribly afraid, and terribly intrigued. So I've decided to try and get over my fear and join up

I'm a 20 year old aspiring illustrator/author. I've been spending the last few weeks smiling on the outside and screaming on the inside as I try to put together a portfolio to get into art school and figure out how to pay for it if I actually do.

I've loved coming up with stories for as long as I can remember. When I was little I would make thing up with my sister (she did all the actual writing, I hated stuff like that), and I would help draw the stick people. When I was got older I dabbled a little in writing, but never got past page 6 of any story. It was about three years ago that I decided to really sit down and write something, and I fell in love with it unconditionally. I've managed to write one book, a MG fantasy adventure that as much as I want to love, has every cliche known to boy-kind, and also a short story, along with many a first chapters.

I write fantasy, though the flavor depends on the week. I'm very fickle, you see. Epic, dark, punk, sci-fi flare, or lighthearted, it's usually the polar opposite in tone from whatever I had just written previously. At the moment I have some stewing novels, and a quirky short story about an Atheist that dies and is sent back as an angel to save souls, but he really sucks at it. That whole faith thing keeps screwing him up.

Anyways, I'm excited to jump in!

[Frog]

Yay! Another girl. Not that I have any problem with the boys, but I always get excited for the girls because I write somewhat girly stuff (quirky fairy tale junk).

When I was little I would make thing up with my sister (she did all the actual writing, I hated stuff like that), and I would help draw the stick people.

That sounds like me and my sister, except, you know, I would write and she would draw the stick figures. Good luck with art school!
 

I've managed to write one book, a MG fantasy adventure that as much as I want to love, has every cliche known to boy-kind,

Yes, but did you do it well?

Welcome to the group! I'll look forward to see what you end up submitting.... and ripping it apart.

[Silk]

Welcome, Shannon.