The Introduction Thread

New member introductions, suggestions for the Forums, questions about posting, and important announcements.
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aspiring_x
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by aspiring_x » March 25th, 2010, 9:19 am

Kaylabirdy wrote:Nathan Bransford attempted to keep spammers and bots of his website by having visual checks for identity (they're called 'captchas' in the computer world). Most little boxes filled with fuzzy numbers and letters were quite easy for our girl, Kayla, to understand. However, little did she know that Nathan's little boxes contained miniature ninjas that would prevent her from being able to read. It took her SEVEN TIMES before she could enter the numbers and letters correctly.

As I'm sure you all know though, practice makes perfect. Just as she stuck to writing her book, so too did she stick to filling in the captcha correctly. Though she was met with failure time and again, she kept at it until finally she beat the little ninjas back. She stands before you today as a strong example that hard work and perseverance can make a success of the most incapable of people!

*you may now laugh at my stupidity and general blindness! :D*
That was awesome! Seriously, I can't ever see those words right either.

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Matthew MacNish
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Matthew MacNish » March 25th, 2010, 4:30 pm

craig wrote:miahayson --

If it helps, I'll make my posts sound more Canadian -- you know, throw in some "eh"s and some "no doot aboot it"s and stuff like that.
Kind of like eh, yous wanna go watch some haakee and drink some Labatt's eh? If ya don that'd be fer sucks eh.

I grew up in Minnesota and they speak similarly.

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Matthew MacNish
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Matthew MacNish » March 25th, 2010, 4:52 pm

Ink wrote:Thirty was easy.

Thirty one and thirty two, however...
Thirty three and a third is the word.

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Matthew MacNish
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Matthew MacNish » March 25th, 2010, 5:37 pm

mmcdonald64 wrote:Hey everyone. My name's Mary. I've read the blog here many times, but for some reason, never noticed the forum link. Probably because I usually got to the blog by clicking a link someone would post. Anyway, I'm here now. I live just a bit north of Chicago, and work behind the cheddar curtain that separates Illinois from Wisconsin. It's bad enough I live with three Packer fans, but I have to work in Packer territory too. Go Bears!

I have three kids, two of whom are grown but are still home. Damn recession. lol. My baby is nine and she's my little shadow. I work full time as a respiratory therapist, write when I can and somewhere in there, try to get some time at the gym.
Damn. Just when we were getting along so well Mary, now we can't be friends. I went to High School in Saint Paul and am a die hard Vikings fan. Winning, losing and with or without Brett Favre.

Just kidding we don't even live in the Midwest anymore and now I care about writing a little bit more than football. Plus I was born in Seattle, and live in Atlanta so I have three teams to choose from. All NFC though and glad to see a world champ from my conference again after years of drought.

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Matthew MacNish
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Matthew MacNish » March 25th, 2010, 5:42 pm

aspiring_x wrote:
Kaylabirdy wrote:Nathan Bransford attempted to keep spammers and bots of his website by having visual checks for identity (they're called 'captchas' in the computer world). Most little boxes filled with fuzzy numbers and letters were quite easy for our girl, Kayla, to understand. However, little did she know that Nathan's little boxes contained miniature ninjas that would prevent her from being able to read. It took her SEVEN TIMES before she could enter the numbers and letters correctly.

As I'm sure you all know though, practice makes perfect. Just as she stuck to writing her book, so too did she stick to filling in the captcha correctly. Though she was met with failure time and again, she kept at it until finally she beat the little ninjas back. She stands before you today as a strong example that hard work and perseverance can make a success of the most incapable of people!

*you may now laugh at my stupidity and general blindness! :D*
That was awesome! Seriously, I can't ever see those words right either.
That really cheered me up too. It's been a long time since I struggled with captchas but admittedly some are harder than others.

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Matthew MacNish
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Matthew MacNish » March 25th, 2010, 6:08 pm

Okay. Sorry about the four posts in a row in this thread but I thought I would do everyone the courtesy of reading all their introductions and responding to some before posting my own self centered version. As writers we all know what it's like to be a little introverted.

Now that we've gotten past all that...

My name is Matt. Matthew at work. I'm 33. I live outside Atlanta. I have 2 daughters, 1 girlfriend who is also their mom, 3 cats and 1 dog. I have a corporate day job that I sometimes hate and sometimes secretly spend reading Nathan's blog and posting in his forums. I am a novice writer. I've written one novel that is definitely still ... in progress. I would call it YA paranormal fantasy but I was told (angrily) by a prominent NY agent that YA encompasses all other genres by definition, so I stopped calling it that.

I loved to write way back when but gave up on it after some tragedies in my youth after which I started using drugs and getting arrested for most of my early twenties. When my first daughter was born I was 18 and my girlfriend was 16. We broke up and got back together several times since.

I don't say this to garner sympathy, hell the decisions were all mine, just to remind myself not be hard on myself for not writing all those years. Now that I've finally started writing for real I will never stop. I will also never give up on getting published. You should all make the same promise to yourselves.

For more details about my writing and querying woes please visit my blog below.

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Quill
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Quill » March 25th, 2010, 7:58 pm

Matthew, I admire your grit regarding writing. With gumption like that I don't doubt you will be published.
Matthew Rush wrote:I would call it YA paranormal fantasy but I was told (angrily) by a prominent NY agent that YA encompasses all other genres by definition, so I stopped calling it that.
I wouldn't take that as universal gospel. I recently had a freelance editor tell me in no uncertain terms that YA alone is not enough designation, that I need to know what genre within YA my story is, so that I can better pitch it.

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Matthew MacNish
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Matthew MacNish » March 26th, 2010, 6:42 am

Quill wrote:Matthew, I admire your grit regarding writing. With gumption like that I don't doubt you will be published.
Matthew Rush wrote:I would call it YA paranormal fantasy but I was told (angrily) by a prominent NY agent that YA encompasses all other genres by definition, so I stopped calling it that.
I wouldn't take that as universal gospel. I recently had a freelance editor tell me in no uncertain terms that YA alone is not enough designation, that I need to know what genre within YA my story is, so that I can better pitch it.
Personally I would have to agree with both you and that freelance editor and I will certainly consider calling my MS YA paranormal or something along those lines when I'm ready to begin querying again. If you want to read an interesting post on my blog regarding my correspondence with said agent follow this url:

http://theqqqe.blogspot.com/2010/03/first-worst.html

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Slushpile Slut
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Slushpile Slut » March 28th, 2010, 1:55 pm

Hello Everyone!!

Absolutely LOVE this blog and I'm sure the forum is going to be just as helpful so here I am!

My name is Angela or Slushpile Slut, whichever you prefer to call me. I'm from the Rustbelt of Pennsylvania and I don't know what the Hell I was thinking when I decided I should try my hand at writing a book So for the last 4 years, I've been writing a YA Historical Fantasy that I keep foolishly thinking I'm finished.... but then I spot something else that needs added, altered or murdered. I'm too far in to even attempt to shove it into a drawer so I keep typing, editing and learning. And maybe one day....

Anyhoo! I look forward to riding this steep learning curve with all of you.

May your fingers fly across the keyboard with inspiration everyday!

Petronella
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Petronella » March 30th, 2010, 8:48 pm

Hello All,

I started out as a Netherlander, but at the age of ten I followed my parents to Canada - no choice about that - and we settled in Alberta where we have lived ever since. I've recently reached the official age of retirement.

I have three books... no, four in progress.

Thistledown: Genesis. Mix of scifi and erotica. The MC and first person narrator is a synth, a synthetic organism made up out of nanomachines. Jay, the Mc's name - and it wasn't supposed to be that at all. Jay was just a placeholder until I though of something more suitable. However the character likes the name he has and to tell the truth so do I.

Anyway, the story begins with Jay's birth and he relates his experiences with the world he lives in, and his problems finding a human female to turn into a synth as ordered by the head honcho.

Nella and Cicero. I have this posted at Authonomy. Dark stuff. Set some 300 years in the future. Mainly a very long character study.

Nel and the Guardian. An early iteration of Thistledown.

Nice to meet everyone :-)

PS. Forgot book 4 which is a thriller involving cloning and is in the very early stages of the first draft.
Last edited by Petronella on March 31st, 2010, 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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dahosek
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by dahosek » March 31st, 2010, 3:15 am

I suppose I should get around to introducing myself. You'll see (rarely) my comments on the blog as "Don" and my occasional comments here to try and create a bit of street cred as I prepare to get feedback on my query and synopsis for The Archbishop's Son, which is nearing completion (draft 7 is with beta readers right now, and draft 8 may just be the One).

I grew up in Chicago, but have lived about a third of my life here in the greater Los Angeles area (currently Santa Monica). Not sure what else I'd add to that.

Emily J
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Emily J » April 5th, 2010, 2:06 pm

Hello all!

I have been lurking around for awhile now and just started posting so I suppose I should introduce myself. I live in Providence (which until recently resembled Atlantis, what with being underwater and all...) and work and write. Write more than I work, definitely. Been writing for 13 years and I have several completed manuscripts hiding beneath my bed and too many unfinished manuscripts making me feel guilty. I tend to have a million ideas all at once and wear myself out. Currently I have four WIP. I write Sci-fi and Fantasy mostly. I have finally decided to fight my insecurities and actually attempt to get published and am just starting to query. I have revised my query letter at least 8 times and have posted it here. Still not entirely happy with it! I am generally nice, albeit neurotic and I am happy to give/receive criticism.

Nice meeting everyone!

Emily J

BethC
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by BethC » April 6th, 2010, 1:02 am

Hi all,
I'm Beth Cossey, hope you will allow me to join in. I found this thread and decided it was time to stop lurking too. I've debated if I should just state the obvious...my age...or just go with "about me" but since I consider age no more than a number, I'll follow the second option. I'm from Arkansas (yes, I wear shoes...no, I haven't been pregnant my whole life! and are you ready? Yes, I still have my own teeth!) I know. I'm amazed myself! I've taught in public school for 36 years. The first 18 years as a speech pathologist and the last 18 as a special education resource teacher. I've been married for 38 years...3 children, 5 grandchildren, and a new puppy. In January, after losing our 9 year old English mastiff, I discovered the soft-coated wheaten terrier...if you're a dog lover and don't know this breed...check them out. I've loved reading since I cut my teeth (literally) on my first Golden book. This past July I decided if I was ever going to write the book that had been hanging around for 40 years!!! I'd better get going. YA romantic/suspense novel with working title...I WOULD HAVE LOVED YOU ANYWAY. (two main characters have psychic abilities...so not sure if I should use paranormal romance/suspense...that just sounds toooooooo long!) I'm working on the query...will post it before long.

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Colonel Travis
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by Colonel Travis » April 6th, 2010, 10:40 pm

Been writing most my life, been fortunate enough to make a living at it for about two decades. Never written a book, though, so one day I said - hey, why don't you write a damn book? That's what I'm doing now.

helenm
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Re: The Introduction Thread

Post by helenm » April 7th, 2010, 8:02 pm

Another longtime lurker over on the blog here. I worked in trade publishing for many years before fleeing to the world of technical writing; it suits me better. I write because my brain makes me (blogs, stories, software documentation -- all satisfy the same chemical need), but I know that getting published is a whole nother kettle of fish. It'll be a while before I let myself entertain that dream seriously.

I'm currently channelling all the enthusiasm I had going into the publishing biz combined with everything I learned about making books into starting a new science fiction magazine with some friends. Here's more about me and my magazine project.

We're also running a contest! I'll be posting about that soon, but I wanted to make that post as short and pithy as possible and didn't want to just post-and-run without saying hello.

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