Fairy Workshop

Name: DarkestWriter or Courtney.
Age: 15
Profession: *scoffs* I am a homeschooled teenager taking extra language classes.
Hobbies: Writing, reading everything, knitting, painting, drawing, playing my guitar and playing outside.
Favorite books" I have several, but to name a few: 'The Abhorsen trilogy' by Garth Nix, 'The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf' by Gerald Morris, 'Pride and Prejudice' By Jane Austen. I have a bunch more, but I would have to put a LJ cut on it. Some day soon.
Most influential authors: Holly Black, Gerald Morris, Garth Nix, Ann Rinaldi and T.S White.
What I'm Reading Now: I am going to my library to get 'City of Ashes' by Cassandra Clare and I am reading 'The Mists of Avalon' by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Favorite Subject To Write About: Fantasy, most definately fantasy, and some poetry.

Thats all about me :-)

Name: Amy/Butterfly
Age:  19
Profession: I work for Green Corps. Basically, I get paid to plant trees (or, more likely pull out weeds and build fences).
Hobbies and Interests: music, reading, writing.
Most Influential Authors:  Tamora Peirce, John Marsden, Jacqueline Carey, Juliette Mariller, Douglas Adams, Sarah Douglas.
What I'm Reading Now: Pretty much everything on the above list. Lately I just read a random chapter or two from a random book on my shelf. But I have a book on laybuy that I'm looking foward to reading: Son of the Prophecy by Juliette Mariller. It's the 3rd book in the Seven Waters trilogy and I've been looking for it for ages.
Favorite Subject To Write About:  Romance. Definately Romance. And I usually write fantasy, usually about vampires or princesses or rebels. Or all of the above.

I know I didn't really have much to say. I'm a bit tired. So here's one I prepared earlier:

Name: Amy
Age: 19 (going on 20 :S)
Sex: Female
Eye color: Green
Hair color: "Dark auburn brown" no black, no pink, no brown, no red. Plus I'm thinking of dying it black again.
Favorite color(s): Purple, red, orange, black, & hot pink
6 Favorite bands/singers: Nick Cave; No Doubt; Silverchair; Placebo; Violent Femmes; The Pouges
Celeb crushes: BRUCE WILLIS; Drew Barrymore; Brendan Fraiser; Billy Zane; Brian Molko; Nick Cave; Gwen Stefani; Dylan Lewis; Paul McDermott.
Hobbies and interests: music, reading, writing, designing, photography.
Favorite actors/actresses? Drew Barrymore, Heath Ledger, Bruce Willis, Julia Stiles, Lucy Lui, Leo Di-caprio, Nicholas Cage.
Movies you loved? Crash, Ever After, Pocahontas, Center Stage, 10 Things I Hate About You, Amelie, Donnie Darko, Rocky Horror Picture Show
Books you couldn't put down: In no particular order:
The Sister Hood of the Traveling Pants series by Anne Brasheres
The Tomorrow Series, The Ellie Chronicals and Checkers By John Marsden
The Axis Trilogy and the Wayfarer Redemption Trilogy By Sarah Douglas
The Seven Waters Trilogy by Juliette mariller
The Obernewtyn Series and Green Monkey Dreams by Isobelle Carmody
The Wild Magic Series By Tamora Peirce
The Ferren and The Angel trilogy, The Dark Edge and Taken by Force By Richard Harland
The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galexy trilogy by Douglas Adams
Butterfly Sting and Standing Room Only by Eva Rice
The Vampire Lestat and Blood and Gold By Anne Rice
Firethorn by Sarah Micklem
The Merry Gentry Series by Laurel K. Hamilton
The Kushiel Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey
The Hatchet Series by Gary Paulsen
The Lady and the Unicorn by Isolde Martin
Strong opinions: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with a concience and should act towards one-another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Pets: Queenie (dog), Smokey (cat) and Coke (snake)
Favorite animal(s)? Arctic fox, red panda, and real pandas, diamond pythons. (plus baby animals of almost any animal)
Heroes (and brief why) Drew Barrymore, for being the ultimate role-model for strong, compassionate, quirky, determined women everywhere; John Lennon, for his vision; Calvin and Hobbs, for their never ending innocence and imagination; My gorgeous boyfriend Anthony, for being wonderful and giving me lotza lollies; Bob Geldof, for his vision too; Maralyn Manson, for his intelligence and his ability to rise above other peoples assumptions of him; and Elmo, for his constantly positive outlook on life and the alphabet.
Things you say a lot (perhaps too much) "It'll live" "Damn streight!" "What was I saying?" and "I love jellybeans"
Things you do when your dead bored: Write down lyrics that I like, listen to music, doodle little stick figures and smiley faces
Quotes/lyrics you like: "As soon as your born you start dying so you might as well have a good time"; "Aaerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it just goes on flying anyway"; "You show me a girl who has her feet firmly planted on the ground and I'll show you a girl who can't put her pants on"
Religeon: Humanism - a beleif in no supreme being, simply in the goodness of yourself and humanity
Sport?: Doing - archery. Watching - diving, gymnastics, artistic skating, latin and street dancing
Who would you go on Spicks and Specks with? (music quiz show in Australia) Ok, this is hard, because you can only say 3, otherwise there is no room for you but I want 4... Ok, Dylan Lewis is a given, so is Ross Noble, and then it's a toss up between Tim Minchin and Gatesy or Scod from Tripod (really depends on my mood)
If you could be a guest on any radio program which one? JJJ breakfast with Adam and Will!!!
Who is your role model? DAVO!
Stand-out moments in your life? The first time I kissed Anthony, the first time Anthony slept over in my bed
And finally, tell me something interesting about yourself: I love stationary and shopping for stationary, also I have a personal vendetta against capitals (probably because I think little things are cute and awesome) and finally, I have a hot pink elephant named Pepsi living in my closet (he keeps my invisible 5000 year old teenage friend Ramses company)

Name: Lauraly
Age:  22
Profession: I wouldn't really call it a profession, lol. I'm currently on maternity leave, but next month I'll be heading back to work at Wal-Mart. It's not half bad; I work nights and my coworkers rock. I'm also taking a correspondence course for Medical Transcription.
Hobbies and Interests: archery, music, reading and writing (of course, lol), gardening, singing, dancing, horseback riding (western), gardening, cooking, knitting, gaming, roleplaying/D&D and walking/running. I'm also very interested in herbalism, "natural living", midwifery, farming/homesteading, and I'd love to learn how to sew and CQC.
Most Influential Authors:  Brian Jacques, for sure. I first read Martin the Warrior when I was 11, and I was hooked. I still love him, probably even more with each time I read something he's wrote. Clive Cussler is a huge, huge influence even though he's not a fantasy writer. Read one of his books, preferably a Dirk Pitt one, and you'll see why! Orson Scott Card, between Ender's Game and the unrelated Enchantment, really changed me. Gary Paulsen, again, mostly not a sci-fi/fantasy writer (though he did have one book that dabbled in it), but he is one of my favorites and a BIG influence. Charles de Lint's Into the Green and Eloise McGraw's The Moorchild are books in particular that REALLY made me think. R.A. Salvatore, C.S. Lewis, L.M. Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Bruce Coville, Priscilla Galloway and Kenneth Oppel. I'm quite eclectic, as you can see, but I've gleaned something from each of the writers; some more than others.
What I'm Reading Now: I just finished Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg, and I most recently have Brian Jacques' Rakkety Tam checked out from the library. For school I'm reading a boring "Law and Ethics for Medicine" textbook, lol, and in any spare moments, I'm also reading my way through the entire Bible!
Favorite Subject To Write About:  I don't really HAVE a favorite subject to write about! In the past I've wrote over 60 songs, ranging from country to rock to folk in their genres, probably a dozen unfinished stories, and have probably another half dozen rattling around in my head. I do lean to the fantasy and medieval themes, but I also like modern/current day plots, and I'm trying to better my action and adventure side.

My lead characters are always female, though, with usually a small group of girls making up the other main characters.

I realized that as the self-proclaimed mod, I should probably do this ....

Name: Atalanta_Nyx. Will also answer to Megan.
Age: 20-something
Profession: pffft, I'm a grad student. going to school for professional writing and editing (PW&E). and I'm actually taking a creative writing class this quarter.  [cookies for anyone who can identify the institution I attend just by those last two sentences!]
Erm ....: oh yeah, and I knit. and crochet. 
Most Influential Authors: probably Tamora Pierce (I read a few of her novel young, and rediscovered her about 2 years ago). Definitely Brian Jacques (I think I started reading him in 5th grade ... I still read his new releases). Jane Yolen, of course! C. S. Lewis. Lots of love for Patricia C. Wrede's Dealing With Dragons series. Robin McKinley's Beauty also had a huuuuge impact on me.
What I'm Reading Now: Extras by Scott Westerfeld. Just finished Pendragon Book 6: The Rivers of Zadaa by D. J. MacHale and Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti. 
Favorite Subject To Write About: the kick-ass heroine. As a female reader, I always want to see more strong female main characters. I'd also like to write stories based in a matriarchal world.

So feel free to introduce yourself however you see fit. Or don't. I won't track you down if you prefer to remain Mysterious.

I'm very broad in my definition of the fantasy genre - many books blur the lines between fantasy and sci-fi. Not to mention the many fantasy stories which are also romances, and the few that border on the horror genre. And some stories are another genre, but have strong fantasy elements: you have Dracula where the title character is a fantasy creature, for cryin' out loud. And I have this absolutely trashy romance novel where the main character is a witch who uses her powers to ... well, pretty much what you would expect from an absolutely trashy romance novel.

So, topic for discussion (if anyone is interested): How do we define a "fantasy" story?

Another issue up for discussion is, How do we define a "story"?

Besides the typical multi-page narrative - whether a short story, novella, or novel - poems, songs, and 1-page "sudden fiction" works also tell stories. So do plays and scripts. You could even argue that paintings, pictures, and other images also tell stories (tho I do want to keep this comm a writers' workshop).

And seeing as how this is a writers' workshop, I'm up for other writing-related discussions as well. 

So tawk amongst y'selves. ;-)

This is a story I started about a year ago - it's the first few pages of a novel (if I ever get time to finish it). There's more to come ....

 Welcome to Fairy Workshop!

I started this comm to give fantasy writers a place to share their stories and get feedback. Everyone is encouraged to post their stories - in any state of roughness - to get help, feedback, criticism, reaction ... whatever you need to improve your story. 

EDIT: poetry and songs are certainly welcome alongside all the various forms of fiction (provided there's some element of fantasy in them). So all you poets and bards are most definitely welcome.

As a workshop, this comm relies on comments! So please, tell us what you think about our stories!!

Before we begin, though, some general guidelines:
1. Use cuts! Be mindful of everyone's friend page - put that story behind a cut. 
2. Absolutely no sporking! Yes, there is a difference between constructive criticism and being plain ol' mean. I will kick out abusive members. 
3. No fanfic, please. There's a time and a place for fanfic ... but it's not here, not now. 
4. Give feedback. No one's forcing you to post your stories - though we will all most heartily encourage you to do so - but please, for the love of all fairy godmothers, help out your fellow writers by giving your feedback.
5. Keep it PG-13, please. Or warn us. 
6. More guidelines to come. This is a new community, and as such, I am open to discussing existing guidelines and proposed guidelines. 

At the end of the day, this community should be helping you become a better writer. I want a community where everyone feels safe sharing their stories, and that's what I'll be working to establish in the weeks ahead. 

Now post some fairying stories (or poems or songs!)!!

Your mod,

atalanta_nyx