Count the stars...

ABOUT ME AND THIS JOURNAL
I love to read and enjoy writing but wish I was better at it. In 2005 I created this journal for my writing and reviews of books I read. Then I started joining communities, so this is also my "community journal".

In 2006 I implemented a system I'd been thinking about for a while, where various types of entries are sorted into friends groups. So if, say, you want to read my book reviews and Book Lover's Updates, but not my fiction, you can leave me a comment and I'll friend you under that category. Just leave a comment here and I'll add you.

This change also allowed me to expand the journal to cover a few other intrests, so in 2009 I added a category for Doctor Who related posts, and one for the occasional knitting project. I became a Whovian in 2008, my favorite Doctors at the moment are Ten(nant), Two (Troughton), and Five (Davison). I've been a sporadic knitter since my early teens.

Since I have a (rant-laden, poorly written) personal journal, I try to make this one correctly spelled and punctuated, and put some effort into the writing and reviews.

My writing varies but I lean towards sci-fi/fantasy type short stories. Most of the writing I post here revolves around my fantasy universe Corb. For a while I did an irregular serial set in that world called Dragons in Broc, but right now the stories are more scattered in setting, characters, and time period. I also occasionally post poems and non-fiction.

As far as reading, I'm all over the place but some common themes are speculative fiction, non-fiction books about religion, retold tales, and classics whenever I have time.

My education, job, and family always come first, and I don't always have regular internet access which can lead to long delays in replies or new postings. When real life gets hectic this journal is the first thing to get dropped, so be prepared for sporadic postings.

As a new friend, you may want to check my memories and tags out. Most of my public book reviews can be found in the memories.
~book_maven

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You also can find me at:
DreamWidth At the moment just replicating some stuff from this journal. Same filters/interests/etc. apply.
NaNoWriMo Okay I never "win" it but I try every year. And yes I wrote more, just didn't update my word count.
NaNoEdMo Although I don't yet have a novel to edit, I joined to support friends & sometimes read the forums.
Ravelry Knitting! Log in to view my haphazard updates and occasional photos.
Amazon.com This is pretty much just a selection of wish lists, I don't do much else here.
ImageShack Any pictures I take for livejournal or elsewhere will be hosted at my account here.
Piperka This cool site is for keeping track of e-comics if you can't regularily check them.
Twitter: @bookmavenwrites At the moment hopefully for very short stories and poems. We'll see.
43 Things An intriguing site that I don't use nearly enough.
Instructables See above. One day I'll have to sit down and make an instructable for this site.
Everything2.com I forget why I joined this site but I did.
I probably have a few other places I joined and forgot about.

Outside of this journal, my writing can be found at musemuggers, including poetry, DiB and corb stories, the Lexicographer's Life series, and more.
And I'm doing the 100originalfics challenge with corb stories.

--I'm also on LibraryThing, although only a portion of my personal library is currently online. You can read more about my experiences with LibraryThing at the LibraryThing experiment.

This LJ is my primary home on the internet, and the place where I'll reply soonest.
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Check out my links suite.
See individual pages for the most recent update.
Individual Pages:
Introduction
The Main Page
Speculative Fiction Links
Religious Links
Pure Fun Links
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Oddments which may be of interest:
List of Retold Tale Books I've Read
The LibraryThing Experiment
Doctor Who 50 Review Challenge: 2009
Receive Your Corb Birthdate (Friends Only)
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Fun happy friending and legal info: all writing and other content posted through this journal, unless otherwise stated, is the property of the creator of this livejournal and may not be used in any way without her permission. ©2005-2009.

This journal is Friends Only because I post writing here, and don't want it publicly available.
But not everything is Friends Only!

Potential LJ Friends- Just comment (preferrably here)!
I friend openly and filter to request, but cannot promise regular reading or commenting.
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LiveJournal Trading Cards Free Account Edition book_maven User Number: 5869813 Date Created:2005-01-23 Number of Posts: 74&countin Book_maven srang into life as a fully formed bibliophile. Others may claim she had a brief life before learning to read, but she knows better. Book_maven is also an aspiring author, and those who enter here get to see her bare her soul! Luckily, book_maven's soul consists mostly of fantasy stories in a world she's able to populate with dragons and girls who have strangely colored eyes. Book_maven does not bite. Unless you purposely break the spines of innocent books. Then you may find that she does have fangs. PROUD MEMBER OF "SAVE THE SPINES" Strengths: Reading, perhaps writing. Knowledge of useless facts garnered through reading. Ability to guess intelligently about books from first meeting. Some would say she's a superb editor as well, but Miss Maven is too humble for such extravagent praise. Weaknesses: Pretty covers, magical fires, dollar discount bins wherever books are sold. Comments on livejournal. Metal. People who like her writing. And the Dream God or any of his denizens. Special Skills: Endlessly rearranging bookshelves. Sleep deprivation. Organization of anything other than her personal space. Ability to live for days on cereal and water. Time control (one direction only). Meditation, knitting, and air conditioner installation. Weapons: Knowledge. Pointy elbows. Really heavy books. Puppy dog eyes. The death glare. "Fury Attack" (may only be used on spine-breakers or comparable offenders). Red pen (special editor/Grammar Nazi attack). Current Favorite Authors: Lucy Maud Montgomery, Ursula K. LeGuin, Dianna Wynne Jones. C.S. Lewis, Ray Bradbury. And many YA/children's authors.

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Communities
WRITING
--musemuggers Weekly writing prompts for anyone and encouragement and discussions for members. Moderated membership.
--100originalfics Specific writing challenge with very open limits. Also, read some of their stories because there are some talented people over there too!
--little_details Community for writers to ask questions on particular details they need for a story. Has enough members that there's always someone who can help you out.

READING
--50bookchallenge A very large open community. Most people there are trying to read 50 books in a year (any type they want to count). Interests are varied so this is the community to help you find new books to read, whoever you are!
--15000pages Like 50bookchallenge (which members are encouraged to join also), but for counting pages. Many people do both challenges concurrently.
--books As the name implies, anything book-related.
--365shortstories A community for discussing short stories. The moderator has a goal of reading one every day all year, members are welcome to join in that goal, set their own, or merely post reviews of stories they read.

DOCTOR WHO
--doctorwho A huge Doctor Who community with a little bit of everything, old school, new episodes, fanfic, vids, and community discussions.
--crafty_tardis All manner of handmade Doctor Who fangoods, from costumes to quilts to stained glass to cakes to snow Daleks! There are some other fancraft communities for more specific things as well (see below for one example).
--who_knits Doctor Who knitting and crocheting. Lots of focus on the Tom Baker scarf, of course, but there's many other interesting projects here for the dedicated fan knitter, including celery and attempts to recreate every knitted item worn onscreen in the new series. (Rose's Boomtown scarf, anyone?)

OTHER
--embodiment Large community for daily paper journal users. Members are expected to commit to a year of journaling (text, art, or any combination).
--lm_montgomery Community for fans of the author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Best known for her Anne of Green Gables series, she wrote many other novels as well as short stories, poetry, letters, essays, and journals.
--academicfantasy This community is for discussion of fantasy literature, folklore, and mythology. Lately it has been getting active again and I encourage anyone who's interested to join.
--told_tales Discussion of fairy tales, mythology, and other enduring tales. Mainly centered on retold tales, whatever the format, but also includes discussions of individual tales.
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This page is frequently updated, so check back for the latest info!
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