Not sure if any of you have been keeping up with the new changes in the lit gallery. $Moonbeam13 just got finished redoing the galleries in a big way. Now you can browse based for what you're looking for in each genre: flash fic (shorts of about 1000 words), short stories, and chapter works. All your older works haven't been affected by this change, so you might want to go back and stake your claim now, while these little sub-galleries are empty. It's a good way to get noticed!

I was checking them out just a minute ago. My jaw hit the floor when I saw this one -> [link] Third of all time! Still sad it falls behind an expansion fic. What is it with those being so popular, anyway?

And ~Leonca reminded me the other day that I just passed my two year dA b-day.



My first lit dev, submitted 1/13/08.

Wow, does time really fly.

Y'all take care!

The winner for #TheWritersMeow’s Christmas Wish contest was announced today, and I’m thrilled that *catnipkitty won with this piece...



Congrats! She’s an amazing writer, faithful reader and critic, and just a really sweet gal. You guys need to check out her gallery for more gems.






What is it with the 80’s coming back? I’ve seen it in the fashions--big shirts, leggings, acid washed pants. God, why?

As if that’s not bad enough, the movie makers gotta get in on it too. This year, we’ll see remakes of Karate Kid (sorry... Jackie Chan is not Pat Morita. “Wax on... wax off...” ), Robin Hood (Might be good. Crowe is far less sappier than Costner, though Rickman and his ‘spoon’ was pretty awesome), The A-Team (WTF?), Footloose (I don’t see how anyone can be better than Bacon at this one), Nightmare on Elm Street (as if we didn’t have enough slasher flick remakes, we need to resurrect one more), Clash of the Titans (this one actually looks good. Liam gets to use his jedi powers on an entire planet), Red Dawn (no Swayze and no Cold War? ), Tron (Curious on this one. It was such a cool concept back then, but now that VR is so common, this might suck... or not. Depends on what they do with the plot).

They must give out shovels and baseball bats at directors school so they can dig up old horses and beat them.

But some the sequels look pretty good. Toy Story 3 (how much more trouble could a bunch of toys get in a third time?), Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Caspian alone’s reason for this one ), HP and the Deathly Hallows Part One (even sequels have sequels), Saw VII (can we say overkill?), Little Fockers (one they need to let go), Shrek Forever After (and another), Twilight: Eclipse ( ), Iron Man 2 ( )...

What movie are you guys waiting for?




Somewhere along the line, the habit of thanking folks for faves has faded for me. I don’t know why or how. Part of it probably has to do with lack of time. The other part being that I think you guys are worth so much more than a canned comment. I mean, they usually are, right? I still thank my new watchers but with the older, faithful ones, it shames me to admit I’ve fallen away.

This morning I decided to thank everyone while I was downloading the Avatar soundtrack (it’s awesome BTW). I realized as I did... I rarely go to anyone’s profile page anymore. I let their devs/journals come to me in the inbox. One deviant featured me in a journal I somehow missed. Another one had a baby. A baby! His life was changed and I didn’t even know about it. I feel like the crud on the bottom of a shoe. Worse than that. Crud stuck to the crud on the bottom of a shoe.

I’m so, so sorry if I’ve been lacking. I try to read everyone, but it’s just too much sometimes. And with all that reading, I’ve missed the little, or in some cases big, things going on you guys. So... I’ve cut back on many of the folks I watch. Over one hundred and fifty. Most were AtLA artists who moved onto fandoms I don’t care for, or folks who just left dA period. One hundred and fifty. Geesh. None of them have ever commented/faved on my stuff or talked to me. I don’t even think they know I exist, much less stopped watching their stuff. But I had to. Their art and journals flooded my box, drowning out the folks who really count--you guys.

Maybe this is a resolution, of sorts: I can’t promise I’ll comment on everything, but I promise I’ll try.

Love you guys.

*tells violin player to take a hike*

I hate it when they stalk me like that.

The kids asked me to play Star Wars Battlefront with them today. The second one. Being a badass wookie and blowing stormtroopers sky-high with a grenade launcher appealed after a few days of writing. Someone (no one fessed up to it, so it must be the house ghost) had turned on my DVRed final episode of Avatar, so we watched that instead.

It got me thinking about fan art. It was the reason I got into writing, as did a lot of you. =paintedbluerose, =Leona629, =myah5000, *MrJensen... and many more (I'm just listing the die-hard AtLA fanfic-ers I watch). I was going through my watch list the other day, trying to clean it up. It amazed me how many artists, who I originally watched for their AtLA art, have quit dA. They didn't move on to another fandom like some. Or original work like others. They just... quit. Were they so disappointed in the end ship that they left? Threw in the towel over a silly ship? Or was the fandom just not worth it for them? It saddened me, but I've put much into the fandom, so maybe I'm just being too sensitive.

Though it's just another day, the new year seems to have brought us much closer to the movie release. This summer, we get to relive it all. Okay, a third of it all. But it makes me wonder... will all those deviants who abandoned the fandom return? Will there be a new wave of AtLA fanart? Another shipping war? I'm hoping so (well maybe not for the wars), since I plan to milk my fanfics for a bit longer. Bato and Iri still need their turns.

Until then, we have some awesome artists on dA who regularly kick out AtLA art. Besides the ff-ers I mentioned above, *Caranth and her nummy shirtless Ozai pics and incredible plushies; =watergal28 and her amazing AtLA line art manips; =PonDeReplay with her wallpapers; and, of course, ~Booter-Freak's hilarious comics. `spacecoyote is doing some comics for the movie as well, but I'm not how much she'll be posting here.

AtLA collections to get you going (some aren't tame):
Avatar
Sexy AtLA
Best of Ozai
Best of Hakoda

Anyone want to feed the fandom? I'm flat out of artists and hungry.

I really don’t get the whole new year thing.

Not that I don’t like it. We certainly celebrate it. We watch the pretty ball drop in NY City every December 31st (even if we live in Chi-Town and have to wait an hour for the real deal to go down. It’s like foreplay, except for with thousands of drunkards wearing silly hats and swearing loudly). Then we watch those thousands of drunkards eat eachother’s faces (where did the kissing thing start anyway? Personally I think it’s another excuse for men to get some, like mistletoe and Mardi Gras. Hmmm... something to Google after the caffeine kicks in). We watch the has-been bands and reminisce. We wonder if Dick Clark’s going to be around for next year’s ball drop, or if they’ll be wheeling him out in a cryo unit (geez, the man is 80 this year. I swear he’s a zombie. Or a vamp. God, that’s creepy.)

But what really confuddles me: why the need to brush away all the bad and start anew each year? Does the human mind’s cache of bullshit suddenly reach its limit every December 31st, that we have to take an Ex-Lax, purge it all, and turn over a new leaf? A new tree? “This year I’m going to lose those extra baby pounds... Quit smoking... Cut back on caffeine... Stop talking to the invisible people...”

Maybe... maybe at the beginning of every month, we should wipe the slate clean. Or even... every day. Most of us break our resolutions by the end of January anyway.

So I guess just I don’t understand the allure quite as much as those thousands of saliva-trading drunkards. New Year’s is more of a pain in my eyes. I can’t drink much because of my meds, so scratch the whole wasted shenanigans dealio off the list. I’ll have to buy a new calendar. No Playgirl or Chippendale ones, either. Then I'll have to keep reminding myself that it’s ‘10 instead of ‘09 every time I write the date somewhere. And keep reminding myself about those baby pounds, too. The invisible people can stay.

But at least 2010 has a cool theme movie -> [link] and [link] . Still an awesome flick.

Happy New Year, all! So... what’s your resolution?

Well, the doggie didn't make it. We ended up having to put her down on Christmas eve night. It looked like she broke her hip. She was a sweet little troublemaker...



We'll miss her. Thanks for everyone's support. We got her cremated and are going to bury her ashes beneath a new tree, like we did our kitties. The house seems so empty without her.



So, how was everyone's Christmas? Get what you wanted?

I did... not that flash drive , but I did get a cool smart phone. A smart phone for an idiot. I can't figure it out, but it can do everything. I guess. Still working on that part.

Tricked the hubby, who asked for boring camera stuff, and got him a Wii instead. Talk about addicting. Nice to play something and stay active at the same time. Anyone have some cool games to recommend (that don't have blood and guts flying)?



Way behind on the crits. I'll be working on those this week, as well as... something to post. The muse is still on Xmas break so who knows what it'll be.



Y'all take care.
KM