We have been hard at work most of the weekend getting things back online at the archive. However, as we will need to test areas before making them available to all, the queue is closed and will likely remain so for the next few days.

Please do not send messages/IM/PM/trouble tickets to the staff regarding the issue. If we spend out time answering those things, it will take even longer to get everything back up and running again. We will no longer be responding to these requests (especially those asking "when will my chapter be validated?") so that we can concentrate on getting everything back online. We will, of course, keep you updated at the forum and at the HPFF blog.

Hi Friends. It's been a while. I have been a busy little bee, and mostly due to real life. Currently i am in between homes right now, moving 1/3 of the way across the country last week, staying at my parents for a week before I take a trip to my new place of residence 4 hours south of here! I know...everyone yawn from exhaustion with me.

When you're moving, it makes it highly difficult to focus and come coherently to the queue to work, but I actually find it highly rewarding to sit down and get through a block of stories. It makes me sad that I can't be here as much as I was this summer. Silly real life getting in the way.

And don't get me started on my stories that people want updates for! Every time I sit down and decide I'm going to write a chapter, I think about the queue and everything that I have to do in there! It's a vicious cycle.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that for all of you getting ready to start school or for all of you who will start soon, good luck! I always loved starting school...until school actually started...hehe. I loved going back the first day with new clothes and new pens and paper, ready for doodling. So I envy all of you and hope you have a great year!

First post on my own!

Anyway, so I suppose I'll let you in on what's going on right now (or why I went from validating 50 chapters a day to 7 if I'm lucky). It's a magical black hole into which time disappears called a job!

...waiting tables. Okay, so it's not anything glamorous. But, hey, I'm in college and it's money. And free pizza. Free pizza is a perk.

Besides that I try to spend at least a little time with my boyfriend, seeing as he works in the morning and I work at night. Also, I spent quite a bit of time helping him to pick out and adopt two cats for his new apartment. Please go to a shelter if you need a pet. There are so many amazing adult cats that need homes and everyone just wants kittens. Unfortunately the shelter in my area is not a no-kill, so I felt absolutely terrible that I couldn't take them all home.

And now my boyfriend has made the mistake of giving me a camcorder for my birthday that I will now waste countless hours playing with. I mean, dude - it shoots in High Definition! Like 1080p! *hearts bf* Now I need a professional editing program. Well, first I need a proper laptop that will run the editing program (my hard drive cries every day). Then I can get the expensive one that can burn Blu-Ray. *squee*

Just picked up two books from the bookstore a few days ago. First is Close Range by Annie Proulx, the short story collection that contains "Brokeback Mountain." Yes, it was a short story first. Love it. Love the movie. Cry every time (the most beautiful movie ever!). Second, Monster Island: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington. This one excites me because it's about zombies (yay!) and also written by a man who has a Masters in English, meaning he must understand what makes good literature, thank goodness. I have yet to read the next issue of The Walking Dead, a graphic novel by Robert Kirkman, but I love the series.

At some point I have to drive down to my college and pick up my textbooks. I found out the other day that I won some sort of contest I didn't know about (something about people who applied early) and now have a $200 gift certificate toward my books! Yay!

I want to start now. I heard my Creative Writing professor is brilliant. Only two more weeks!

So between work, school, social life, personal hygiene, and the occasional nap, I have much less time than I am used to having for validating. And beyond that, I am left with the insane idea that someday I might have time to brush up a story to send to Glimmer Train. Or Cemetery Dance. Depending on whether I do Literary Fiction or Horror. Glimmer Train pays better.

*sigh* I need to write a novel at some point… I’m thinking zombies.

timeturner: I think Alex is being waaay too tough. I mean, HP has the whole adventure/magic/teen angst thing down but Twilight? Vampires, love stories, and Cedric finally getting the air time he deserves without being killed off by a boop like Pettigrew? There's just no comparison here.

LogicalRaven: I was highly disappointed with the Twilight series. I've never been one for mushy romance but I did enjoy the writing in general. I've went back and re-read the first three books after Breaking Dawn was released and I've since discovered New Moon was my favorite. I'm a sucker for an unhappy ending. My problem is that nothing was earned. There was no sacrifice or price to pay for happiness. I also feel like their was tons of plot holes that are unexplained.

LovlyRita: I actually did like Twilight, at least until the middle of the last book. I don't know if it's the 17 year old girl inside me, but I just loved Edward even though he is a total Gary-Stu. Now Bella...there's a subject that makes me bang my head against a wall. Ugh...I was so annoyed with her throughout the books that it just made me very sad. For some reason, even through all the annoying things, the books still struck a chord with me. Now compared to HP- no WAY! not even close. The intracacies of the HP storyline are far more superb than anything dreamed up in Twilight!

timeturner: *secretly thinks Logical can't forgive Robert for the whole Harry/Cho thing*

Arithmancy_wiz: I'm in a love-hate relationship with Twilight right now. I devoured the first one in two days...got really annoyed with New Moon...had to try three times to get into Eclipse only to decide in the end it was my favorite...and now I'm about 100 pages into Breaking Dawn and relatively under-impressed. I'm withholding further judgment until I actually finish the series (*cough* Alex *cough*).

AlexG2490: Hey now! I didn't mince words about it; I was very clear about not having read the books. I just don't like what I see enough to really feel motivated to jump in. Let me put it this way: Most of us, as kids, were told that you've got to try new foods at least once, and if you don't like it then it's OK not to have anymore. But now imagine someone serves you a big bowl of ice cream, right? Only instead of chocolate sauce they put motor oil on top of it. That's sort of what I see when I look at the description for the twilight series - a big crappy automotive-surprise-sundae.

AndrinaBlack: I have to admit that I haven't read more than the first book, and of that too about less than half and then I skimmed through the rest. No I didn't dislike it that much, I just didn't have the time to read it at the time... and well I kind of started reading "Wicked" (by Gregory Maguire) instead at some point. And I just haven't gotten back to it. But I did get caught up in the book when I started to read. I kind of liked it. But, but, but... why does Bella fall for this pale guy who doesn't like her and who can read everyone's thoughts (except hers) and not with that really nice and cute guy Mike? That Jessica knows what's best for her though! And I was so disappointed that I had heard all this talk about Jacob and then he comes in and basically says hi and that's it. Well I guess I have to read the rest of the books to know about the werewolf things. But I think she could have wrapped it all up in one book as I can't see how there would be so much to talk about the love story in the rest of the books. But eww I'm not sure I want to eat a big crappy automotive-surprise-sundae.

Flissy: I haven't read it. simply because the concept of emo girl meets dazzlingly beautiful vampire boy at an american high school and keeps talking about how beautiful and dazzling he is, is enough to turn me off. I know that might sound completely exaggerated to some, but it's the truth. Why in the world does a (how old is he?) hundred-something year old go to high school btw? Do they explain that somewhere in the book? And because I am not one to have an opinion and refuse to change it I asked several of my friends about this book and most of them said things like "I liked the plot but not the writing for the first three and loved the writing but hated the plot for the last one" and for me it needs to be both or the book will be thrown into a corner with a frustrated growl. Or they say "I read it because everyone does" and sometimes I had this thing about on purpose not doing whate everyone else does. And I have been told how it ends and I laughed and decided if that is how she wraps it up it's not worth it.

LovlyRita: I love it that you haven't read even read the book, Flissy, and you used the word "Dazzling" to describe Edward. Blah blah blah. I was super annoyed by that word. And also...I wouldn't exactly call Twilight a motor oil sundae, although there is a fantastic representation of vehicles in the books. I would say it's more like...learning to ride a bike. And not because you never forget to ride it, and all that, but because when you learn to ride a bike, sometimes you fall and skin your knees and it hurts, and you say "aww that sucks!" But other times you're great, riding with the wind whipping behind you, and you're happy. That's what twilight was like for me: I'd been riding great and then Stephenie Meyer made a literary decision I didn't agree with (The entiritey of New Moon, for example) and I kept falling off my "bike." But then, during Eclipse I got back on and tried again, and I was sailing good again.

timeturner: Hm...perhaps I'm just a sucker for the bad boys. Lord Voldemort and Edward - now those are the two I'd like to see go at each other. Much fairer competition than Harry/Edward. *ponders what motor oil tastes like on Haagen Daaz*

slytheringinny: To be honest, I think Voldemort would win in that battle. I still haven't read Breaking Dawn, and that's perfectly oki-doki with me. I'm not freaking out, and I'm certainly not that excited to even see the movie in December. (I only know the date it comes out thanks to obsessive friends). I agree with Wiz. I fell off my bike a few times reading New Moon, and Eclipse made me come to hate Jacob's guts and put a strange perspective on werewolves. Decent, but nothing compared to HP. . . *glances at ice cream warily to see if Alex snuck motor-oil on it*

AlexG2490: The idea behind a motor oil sundae, I guess, is that it's something so gross and disgusting sounding that you don't even want to give the thing a fair shot. Then again, Flissy, that bit about emo people and high school... well, it reminds me of a lot of fan fiction. On a completely different note, why are people so enamored with vampires anyway? I guess it's ever since Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on TV. It used to be that vampires were feared and loathed. Now people think they're cool. What's up with that?

Flissy: well, LovlyRita, everyone always uses the word "dazzling" when talking about edward, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and use it too! yay for me! and Alex, maybe that is exactly why I don't want to read it. Because there is so much of it in fanfiction. That was also the problem with the epilogue of Deathly Hallows. We've seen just that scenario so often in fanfiction that it just wasn't... a surprise, you could say? and Edward is a bad guy? Come on, he's like an undead Harry Potter if you ask me! Voldemort does not hesitate to try and kill a baby (although he failed at it) and Edward is like ZOMG I don't want to want to kill her!!! If he's a bad guy I then I don't know what. I used to watch Buffy! and later angel but I didn't like that very much. And there is this other show now, called Moonlight. yay for vampires with souls, right? XD

LovlyRita: Everyone is enamored with Vampires because, the way Stephenie Meyer writes them, besides the whole "blood sucking" thing, they are the most beautiful, gorgeous, nice, fun, amazing, dazzling people E.V.E.R. All other humans pale in comparison. So why wouldn't people want to love Vampires? And Flissy, I agree with you about the whole "Edward couldn't seal the killing deal" thing, but it's different for him. I mean, Voldemort was an evil killing machine. Edward has one layer- one very dazzling layer. He is a vampire who ZOMGLUVS Bella and he will stop at nothing to try to protect her. After he almost kills her, of course. Harry Potter the character is unbelievably layered. It all goes back to writing style, and in my opinion, J.K. Rowling knocks the literary socks off of Stephenie Meyer.

TO BE CONTINUED….

Back again for your amusement... don't ya'll have any suggestions for us???



Tequila Sunrise - The Eagles, Jay
Run-Around - Blues Traveler, timeturner
It's five o'clock somewhere - Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, Harry_Potter_Mom
Good Man - Josh Ritter, Arithmancy_wiz
Broken - Lifehouse, JLHufflepuff
Lost - Michael Bublé, AndrinaBlack
One Fine Wine - Colbie Caillat, LisaMacKay
Higher Ground - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hermione006
Piano Man - Billy Joel, Almost_witch
Pork and Beans- Weezer, LovlyRita
Viva La Vida - Coldplay, Girldetective85

OK. So, recently, I heard about this series called "Twilight." It's drawn a lot of fans and a lot of criticism, and I'm not sure what to think about it. The two biggest camps that I've run into so far are the "These are a great series of books that fit in with the fantasy/coming of age genre that are similar to Harry Potter, which we all know and love" camp, and the "This person is trying to get onto the Harry Potter bandwagon with a cheap knockoff" camp.

The fact that I have gotten all of my information from Harry Potter Fan Fiction's forums so far may have something to do with this fact. Anyway, I haven't actually read anything in the series, but I have looked pretty extensively at the Wikipedia articles about it and so that makes me a complete expert, at least so far as the internet is concerned. Plus I'm from the good old United States of America, and if there's anything that we in the US know how to do, it's make comments about the negative value of something without any actual knowledge about the subject [citation needed].

So, without further ado, here's my list of the reasons, off the top of my head, to dislike the Twilight series.

1. The Series takes place in Forks, Washington

Nothing exciting could possibly happen in Forks, Washington. I mean, think of places that fantasy novels take place. Narnia. Hogwarts. Other, parallel worlds to our own. Far back in the mists of ancient time. Forks, Washington. One of these just doesn't fit. According to Wikipedia, "The population was 3,120 at the 2000 census." 3,120 people? It's officially a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Seriously. Sounds like the kind of place that would host the World's Largest Ball of Twine or something. They also apparently have a Timber Museum. Wow. Sounds like seconds of fun. I cannot wait to tell my friends I visited the Timber Museum.

2. The plot itself is just plain zany

I mean, it starts innocently enough but... wow. Let me try to sum up as much of this as I can before I lose it (might be spoilers below. Not sure how much of this is on the back of the books already. IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS, SKIP AHEAD TO POINT 3).


...REALLY. POINT 3. SPOILERS BELOW.


...


...NOT KIDDING! POINT 3!

Right, then. Presuming that everyone who's here now wants to be here:

This girl named Bella Swan moves to Forks, Washington, the Boredom Capital of the World, so that her mother and new husband can travel around a lot. There she meets and befriends a boy vampire named Edward Cullen who only sucks animal blood. They form a romantic relationship but then other vampires show up and want to drink Bella's blood. Bella escapes but then it tricked into an encounter with other vampires who will drink her blood, but Ed saves her then runs away from her so she can become friends with a werewolf. Then she's freed with the condition that she'll be turned into a vampire but realizes that Edward has knocked her up and so OH GOD I CAN'T GO ON! The plot's about as twisted as a malformed pretzel.

3. Each book in the series has a playlist to go with it.

OK, there are a couple of problems here. A) if you read at a faster or slower rate, you're going to have a hard time reading with the soundtrack on, and B) Come on. A story with appropriate music cues already decided on for key points in the book? Why didn't she just title it, "Twilight: Seriously, give me the movie deal already"?

4. Robert Pattinson, better known to us all as Cedric Diggory from the Goblet of Fire movie adaptation, has been stolen to play Edward in the upcoming film of the first book.

Seriously. She took him. From us. Not cool.

5. Edward Cullen is physically 17 forever, and is in High School.

"So, Edward. I can't help but notice that you've been a student at this school for the past 20 years and you haven't aged a day. That's rather interesting, isn't it?" If you had forever to live, would you really be spending it in High School? Really?

Anyway, that's all I have for you. I am taken to understand that others may jump in the debate at some point. But what do you all think? Comment below with... well, comments.

Let me say, first thing, I am not of the myspace generation. I’m lucky I can manage to post on the HPFF blog…I’m just not computer literate in the whole journaling type of way. So, imagine my consternation when I woke up this morning to an email requesting that I have myspace pages for characters in a story I’m working on.

My first question was why. Why would I ever need to do such a thing? The answer was simple really: if I don’t claim my characters someone else will. I’ll buy that theory. They are mine (see my clutching them desperately to my chest? It’s very visual). Second reason? So people can get a sense of my characters before ever reading the story…know their background and such. That I wasn’t going to buy. I don’t outline stories, I don’t do those insane hundred page characterizations where you have to list out your characters fifth cousin twice removed. I just don’t write that way. I wouldn’t know half the answers to the most basic questions. I don’t even know their birth year for goodness sakes! I don’t mean birthday but the year…it’s never even crossed my mind. I’ve got a vague idea as to their age but to pin it down? Waaaay to outlinish for me.

Alas, I was outvoted. Or ordered or unceremoniously told to do the cursed pages or they wouldn’t talk to me for several months. Okay. I’ll get right on that.

Now for the big question-how. This was much tougher and took many many hours. In my crash course of internet savvy I learned about font sizes and colors, backgrounds, music playlists, music players… and all other sorts of crazy things involving letters like HTML and CSS. I never want to go back there again. One day I will be rich enough to pay someone to do this mess for me. *crosses fingers*

So, three of the four got posted up. Or semi-posted. There are obviously tons of tweaks and changes to be made as I get less frightened of all the shiny buttons in the account. And…it was fun! I actually had fun. I admit I just kind of picked random birthdates but getting to pick their soundtracks, find photos of my characters, and pull out quotes from my favorite scenes for each character was a blast. I learned a bit about my characters, I suppose. Actually, I probably made up more solid characters with real backgrounds and such because they didn’t exist before. But, I suppose it’s all in a days work. Now...all you myspace savvies can start rolling in the floor at my old fart adventure. I won't mind, I swear. Tomorrow I may be laughing with you.

Happy Writing!

Today is just one of those days where it seems like my brain (and my will) are split into so many different directions. Here is my personal queue for the day/week:

1) Being the procrastinator (and HPFF addict) that I am, I have one day until my final exam is due to be turned in for an online class that I'm taking. I don't think it will be exceptionally hard, but I would like to get it done as soon as I can because ...

2) My copy of Breaking Dawn is supposed to arrive today. I bought it online, thinking that it would oh-so-conveniently arrive on the release date just like Deathly Hallows did. Um, as others of you probably know, that was not the case. So I'm awaiting its arrival and trying to avoid anything that will give anything away for me (hint: please don't spoil it for me). I'm hoping I can sit on my duff and read it straight through, but the problem is that ...

3) My house is kind of a mess at the moment. My husband and I were really busy with other obligations last week, so the house kind of fell to the wayside. I have piles and piles of laundry to do as well as dealing with all the pieces of doggie chew-toys that my lovely dog, Rusty, has left around the house as little presents to me. I would normally probably just put off doing laundry, but ....

4) We are going out of town at the end of this week, and you know how it is with that. I don't want to come back to a house that makes me instantly stress out, now do I? However, I'm still not as motivated as I should be to clean since

5) It's waaay more interesting to look over the list of all the Dobby nominations and secretly content myself that I know who all the finalists are! MWAHAHA! Last year I joined HPFF right in the middle of the Dobbys and didn't participate because I had no clue as to what they actually were, so these are technically my first Dobbys ever .... I'm so excited about them that, well, I can't contain myself!!!! *Jumps up and down like a five year old at Christmas.*

6) And, last but of course not least (though the length of the queue at the moment might make it seem that way), I am going to try to get some validation in today to ward off the mass of murderous writers who have been waiting for endless years to see their story at the top of the Recently Added List.. (Okay, no one has been waiting that long, but if I tell myself that, it's easier to bump the queue up higher in my queue.)