%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  A place to talk about myself, my writing, and any upcoming projects. |
|
Hello! I'm not really sure who is ever going to read this because I don't actually know anyone on this site and I highly doubt this is the sort of thing anyone would be interested in reading anyway. I'm writing it for two reasons. The first is for myself, so I have a place to sort of keep track of my progress on various projects and everything. The second reason is because I just got my upgraded membership today, and I want to try and make the most of it, which means finally getting around to using all of the features. On the off-chance that someone is actually reading this though, I'm going to do a little introduction here where I talk about myself and my writing and the sorts of things you can expect to read if you check this out. My name is Cat Voleur, I'm currently 21 years old, and I'm a professional writer. I got my first writing job a few months before I graduated high school. After that I spent about a month taking writing commissions while I looked for steadier work, and I was eventually employed as a ghost writer, where I spent about 3 years. I've quit ghost-writing very recently (and am consequently broke) to pursue my own dreams and perhaps establish a small following. I really enjoyed ghost writing because it gave me the freedom to travel and sort of choose my own schedule, but now I'm looking for something that I can take credit for. It's pretty sad to have steady writing work for 3+ years and wake up one day and realize all of the pieces in your portfolio are things you wrote as an angst-filled teenager. I'm going to take some time, edit some of my old pieces, write some new things, and try to see if anyone is interested in reading the things that I write under my own name. My commission and portfolio sites are, as of this moment, down for some maintenance work, but hopefully I'll be getting it back up soon with links to some of my work on this site. I also have a couple theme blogs run through tumblr and am currently the head writer of Toxic Bubblegum which is a zine published monthly put out by myself and my very talented friend, Alan Johnson. As for what I'd like to do in the future - I guess it just depends on what sort of opportunities I run into. I'm a big believer in just seizing the moment and going with the flow. The one thing I am sure of is that I'd like a career in writing. I sort of lucked into my first job, but now that I have a taste of being a writer I can't imagine being anything else. Ideally I would like to eventually have something published under my own name and become an author, but I'm willing to see where life takes me. I prefer writing in the horror genre, because that's where my real passion is. I look up to a lot of horror writers and if I could do anything, that would be it. I have the most experience writing in romance because that, unfortunately, is where the money is and that's what a lot of my paying gigs have been up to this point. I've been told that my strength is in fantasy. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's what most people tell me. I first got my account here a few years ago, around the time I started writing professionally, and I haven't done a lot since then other than upload a piece here and there. That's something I'm going to try really hard to get better about. I'd like to upload more stuff, get more active in the community, maybe see about meeting some fellow writers. Today is a very exciting day for me because I just purchased my upgraded membership. It was on sale or I might not have done it because I am, as I previously stated, broke. I've really wanted a membership here for awhile and I'm so glad that I finally did it because so far it really has been motivating me to get some stuff done. The first thing I plan on doing is uploading the most recent draft of Silence of the Lamps, which was the first thing I ever put up on the site, and it's undergone a lot of editing since then. After that I'm going to work on getting some more rough drafts up on here, and then maybe attempt to socialize, which is hard for me because even online I get really nervous reaching out to people. Anyway, if anyone read this, I'm sorry I babbled so long and thank you for your interest! Feel free to message me at any time if you want to chat or would like to have me read something or collaborate or anything. I don't bite, I promise. -Cat |
| Hey guys, I've been busy today, getting lots of stuff done. First thing, I finished my templates.I still don't have the signature art for them, which sucks (and I haven't spoken to my art guy in a couple days so I don't quite know where I stand in terms of it actually being finished, but at least now I'll have a place to put them when they get done. Am going to be doing a lot of reviews with my normal templates in the mean time. Second - I took a couple placeholder photos for my folders. Again, I don't know how far along the real art is but now they don't have to be blank in the meantime. I'm going to go put those in soon. I also submitted two contest entries today - one for SCREAMS!!! and one for Weird Tales. Not really expecting to win either one, but it was cool to get some writing done that wasn't a submission for a magazine. (Speaking of which, I made it to like 6k words in my submission entry today - am cutting the deadline super close, assuming I make it at all.) And I'm celebrating all of my hard work with popcorn, soda, and my all time favorite movie; Cabin in the Woods. Made a lot of horror movies references in my SCREAMS!!! entry today and it made me really want to see it again. So that's pretty much what I'm up to. Hope things are going well for everyone. -Cat |
| School is kicking my ass today. I found out a couple weeks ago that there's a minimum course requirement if I want to keep/convert my post-secondary credits (I don't quite understand how it works, but that's the gist of a one hour meeting I had with my class advisor.) Now, I don't really care, honestly whether I lose those credits or not. They're for a field I don't care about, I never took the time to even pretend to declare a major, and I have no idea when I'm going to be able to afford to go back to college (or what I would study even because both my current and dream occupations don't require a degree and keep me busy full-time, which is why I never accepted my scholarship - I was already working as a writer before my high school graduation.) The only reason I'm taking a course now is to get my certificate because I find the field interesting, I've been following the work of one of the guest-lecturers, and I thought it would look really good for a crowd-funding project I really want to launch next summer. My advisor made it sound like I'd be an idiot not to take more classes. It wouldn't cost me any extra to fill out my schedule, I could still work at my own pace (within reason) and it would be enough to transfer my post-secondary. So I was like, what the hell? I like learning things - it wouldn't hurt. Because of my late enrollment the choices were fairly limited and I didn't want to overwork myself so I signed up mostly for things that I thought would be easy or things I have some basic knowledge of. I'm caught up and doing well in everything except for my language courses....which I just can't seem to get on top of. I've always had a passion for linguistics and I thought these were going to be my easiest classes but I was way off base. I'm in 2 foreign language classes right now and I can't get the hang of either one of them. I have the basics down and all my vocabulary terms memorized, but I can't construct sentences - and the pronunciation is killing me. My teachers are basically no help. I'm doing okay on the quizzes because they're mostly vocabulary terms but I've got to start making up my tests soon if I want to catch up and I did really bad on the last one because my verb conjugation is all over the place and I can't seem to get the hang of tenses. I don't understand why I'm having such a tough time with this. I think part of it is that the courses aren't done very well...you memorize entire phrases without really learning the basics. I've started going off book and sort of trying to teach myself and I feel like I'm learning better this way but it's also taking a really, really long time and at this rate I won't be able to start making up tests for a few years yet. If you haven't noticed - this has very little to do with writing other than I'm not getting any writing done because I'm spending all my time struggling through what should be a very, very easy course and it's leaving me a little frazzled. It's just very frustrating - especially since this isn't my first time learning a new language. I guess there are some things it's easier to learn in person than online. If I could afford a tutor maybe that would help - but the whole reason I'm in these classes are because I was under the impression I wouldn't have to spend any more money than I already have to learn all this stuff. So anyway, that's my rant for the day. At least my other courses are going as smoothly as planned. Thanks for reading, and if any of you happen to be fluent in French or German and looking for someone to tutor, let me know. Thanks for reading. -Cat |
| Hey guys, So I've had some good luck this last week or so and I thought I would share because you know, that's what this blog is for. First, I had one of my items featured in the horror/scary newletter: "Silence of the Lamps"  was featured in "Horror/Scary Newsletter (May 18, 2016)" .Then I won two of the SCREAMS!!! contests consecutively which was beyond awesome. I never expected to win even one so that was just one of the coolest things ever. "Invalid Entry" won here: "Winner and new prompt" "Invalid Entry" won here: "Winner! New prompt! Bonuses!" That was so neat, especially since one of those wins was for flash fiction day, which we all know I'm not the best at. But I tried something new, and it went over fairly well (which was surprisingly honestly because the other entries were all excellent as well in both instances.) I've also started getting formal review requests, which has been great. It's earned me some extra GP (which until I finish saving for my account upgrade is always greatly appreciated) but more importantly it's given me a chance to read some really, really neat items by some very talented writers on here. I'm really enjoying that. Today I'm taking some time off from reviewing (and from contest entries) to work a little bit on my portfolio. I obviously am not going to finish it all in one day or anything but, you know. I can start organizing and make a little bit of progress. I can make the folders at least, if nothing else. I have some art coming in for item covers, folders and some custom signatures for my theme templates as well. I'm not sure when that will all be ready but I'm very, very excited about it. So that's pretty much what's going on with me. It's been pretty cool and I thought it was probably worth mentioning. If anyone wants to chat or anything, I'll be on for a bit. Thanks for reading! -Cat |
| Hey guys, Just to let everyone know I'm really in the mood to review stuff today so I'm going to be doing a bit of a review kick. I'm going to finish up some templates and start testing them, so if anyone has anything specific they'd like reviewed - let me know. I'm currently looking for stuff to review. In the meantime I'm just going to be choosing things from the Review Request Thread. Am also going to try getting around to uploading more stuff soon. We'll see how it goes I guess. -Cat *EDIT* I forgot, I have art pending for the new templates - so I can't actually use them yet. Still, let me know if you want something reviewed and I can at least do the text portion, it just won't get posted right away (or I'll use my standard template, depending.) |
| Hey guys, I'm going to start working a little bit harder on things. It's not that I haven't been trying to work hard, but my focus has been sort of split. I've been sort of picking stuff at random and now I (sort of) have a plan. It's still going to be a little bit trial and error, but hopefully it will work. The gist of things is I'm going to start actually working on publication. It still scares me - a lot, but it's time to face up to that fear. It's past time. I have my big scary binder of submission information and one by one I'm going to go through my giant pile of unread short stories, choose the best ones, do my final edits and start sending them out. It's going to mean a lot of rejection and I feel ready to handle that. The stories that continually get rejected (either by me or by publishers) are still going to get polished and worked on, and I'll start using them to build up my online portfolio - here and then eventually on my personal portfolio site which I'm going to re-launch with all new graphics as soon as I graduate from my web design program. I'm not going to worry about the job situation (well, I'm going to worry about it, but it won't be a priority) until after I'm through my classes. When I get this semester out of the way I can see how well I've done in regards to publication potential and reputation building and I'll decide where to go from there. If it means getting another ghost-writing job to support myself, that's fine (and I know already that might very well be what it means.) I can worry about that when I get there. In the meantime in addition to posting stories and getting more of my work out there I'm also going to finally catch up to the times and join the social media game. I don't really like social media, but it can be a valuable asset for a writer starting out and I'm ready to jump in with both feet. The theme blogs won't be running the way I'd like for awhile sadly because my choice to be a full-time unpublished writer probably means that I won't be able to afford a real computer for some time, but I'll deal with it. I can however sort out the Twitter situation once and for all, and then decide what to do with my Facebook. (I used it literally once for work and then never signed back in. Probably time to either delete it once and for all or bite the bullet and set up a page for myself.) Also, depending on how my partner feels, I came up with some pretty ambitious plans for the zine - which would also help with all of this self promotion thing. In the meantime I have some other projects that I'm going to be working on here - and this is where I can let you guys know what you can expect to see from me in the next week or so:  Folders:I'm going to be making an obnoxious amount of folders - for which I apologize. Considering I only have a few portfolio items, I don't really need that many folders. However, folder creation takes longer than I thought it would (I learned this recently) and when I start sorting through my portfolio stuff to upload I would like to have the folders already set up. New Templates:I have finally (sort of) got the hang of templates. I just did my first review using a theme template (which you can see here: Review of "Precious Lost"  it's a review of a really wonderful LotR inspired poem which you can find here: "Invalid Item" by Hannah ♫♥♫   . ) So far the feedback on the template has been good, and it's given me the motivation to finish the rest of my theme templates, along with a new one that I'm creating specifically for review requests.On a related note - if you feel like being one of my guinea pigs and letting me test new templates on some of your items, that would be amazing. I have a list of ones I'm currently ironing kinks out of. They are as follows: Horror Fantasy Science Fiction Cat Writing Music And of course there's the Alice in Wonderland one, which I'm still sort of playing with and field testing. You guys can submit a review request formally through my profile for an item you'd like reviewed (be sure to include in the request what template theme you think would be appropriate or would like to see) along with any other information you'd have for me. Alternatively you can send me all that information through email - or get in contact with me however you wish should you have any questions. I appreciate you guys letting me test stuff on you as always. (I'm also working on some Game of Thrones ones...but they're sort of a long way from being done. It was mostly just because I got bored during my graphics lecture - oops.) Fanfiction: No one seems to care whether I post fanfiction or not, but I've decided that I am going to post some. It's not even really about whether people see it or not, I just think it would be neat to have some of my nostalgic pieces with my other pieces - and I figured here would be a great place for that. Art -Maybe?I might try to upload some art things, maybe? I'm not the best at art, but I do have illustrations and stuff - and for as tiny as the cover slots here are, I doubt my art is going to be getting critiqued or even really noticed. It's just something that would maybe look my static items look a bit more professional. Comic Stuff - Maybe?I don't know if I've mentioned this once or twice or all the time, but I used to have a comic. I don't anymore - the zine sort of replaced that, but I do still have literally thousands of pages of comic material including 3 of NaNoWriMo books, character backstories, outlines, side projects, cross-over material, promotional holiday shorts - all sorts of stuff really. I've asked the artist about it and when I hear back it's possible some of that stuff might find it's way up onto my portfolio. So this was it, another long rant by me. I'm probably going to be pretty active on here the next few days and well, hopefully after as well. Hope to hear from some of you guys soon and as always, thanks for reading. -Cat |
| Okay, so - I know I shouldn't be procrastinating. I'm running out of time to polish up the stories I'm supposed to be sending out to publishers and I know that it's what I should be working on. What can I say though, I'm a big coward. It's been a really rough week for me so far, injuring myself not once, not twice, but three times in profoundly stupid ways. Then I got two of my friends, both of my parents and my boyfriend mad at me - AND I'm still technically supposed to be resting. I feel like, in the grand scheme of things - even though I should be working, it will be alright if I put off the scary stuff until next Monday. It won't give me as much time to get stuff done as I had hoped for, but I feel like it's okay for me to say I don't want that stress weighing on me right now. So, this is where I'm asking you guys for suggestions on how to best spend my time in bed until I feel ready to tackle the big stuff. The things that are solidly on my to-do list include: -Finishing Rockin' Review Academy Assignments -Cleaning My Office -Reading Not a very long list (though I guess I could probably spend the whole time reading to be honest, there are so many books I'd like to finish.) Anyone else have any ideas on projects that I can undertake that will keep me out of trouble for the week? I'm looking for things that will help potentially help me learn something or promote my future career or build status, but that aren't as terrifying as submitting things to publishers. Also, neat projects on here are cool. For instance if there's something I've spoken about uploading that you'd be interested in seeing or a piece currently on my portfolio you think is in dire need of an edit or expansion - that would be good. If you guys want to see some of my older stuff or some of my intentionally terrible stuff or my fanfiction or would like to see me put up more than one chapter of a book item or some nonfiction shorts or like...I don't know, anything really, just let me know. Alternatively, if you guys would like me to help you with stuff, now would be the best time to ask. If you want someone to review everything in your portfolio, or are having trouble getting feedback on something you've written that's super long or you need help judging a contest or really anything, let me know. I'm pretty likely to say yes because at this point I'm just going to be grateful to have things to do that keep my mind off the things I'm putting off. In the meantime I'm going to be finishing the last couple reviews I have started, trying out my new theme template and you know...trying not to sulk too much. Thanks again for reading and thanks in advance for your input and suggestions. |
| Hey guys, I got some comments and emails about the newsfeed thing I posted yesterday about the incident with the bug-bomb and everyone has been really nice, asking how I am and making sure I'm okay, telling me to feel better and take good care of myself. I don't know when I'll get around to writing everyone individually to thank everybody but I wanted to let you guys know that I'm getting your messages and they're all very appreciated. I'm going to be completely fine and there isn't anything to worry about. I got sick initially from inhaling all that stuff, but it wasn't lethal or anything, and everyone says I'm going to be feeling fine as soon as it's all out of my system. In the meantime it's just a matter of resting lots and drinking plenty of fluids which is stuff I'm supposed to be doing anyway because of the last dumb thing I did to myself. So all in all, the bug spray wasn't even the most dangerous thing I brought upon myself this week. Thanks again for you concerns and I'll be getting back to stuff on here really soon! -Cat |
| Hey guys, I'm being productive which is good, but I'm only doing it so that I can avoid working on more important things, which is not the best. At least I'm getting something done though, right? I got the zine stuff sent out today and hosted and everything, and now I'm getting a lot of studying done (both on here and in my actual classes.) Of course, all of this is so that I can avoid thinking about a) my boyfriend and b) submitting to that stupid anthology... Yeah, in part of my work thing I found a whole bunch of really cool projects I want to submit to (like, I'll never get anywhere if I don't start taking chances, I know it) and even though I had a lot of really cool ideas at the beginning now that it's time to start writing (okay, long past that time) I don't want to do it. I always feel like I'm not going to be good enough. I know I'll get rejected. There will be probably be a hundred rejections for every one small thing I have published. Writing is competitive and making it takes a lot of strength and courage. I don't feel like I have those things...but I feel like after all these years I owe it to myself to try. Only I don't know where to start. I hate dealing with things sometimes. I'm going to get some of my stuff done on here and try to work up the courage to actually start writing my new submission piece. I'm really, really nervous about it and this is typically the easy part. This is going to be terrible. Cheerily, Cat |
| Not having the best time today. I had really cool plans for last night but I injured myself, so of course they fell through. Since I ended up not being able to go to a really awesome, once in a lifetime event (well I went, technically, but had to come home early because you know, injury) and had to stay home anyway I thought I could get some neat stuff done. I started setting up my SCREAMS!!! book and then I wrote an entry that I was actually pretty proud of for yesterday's prompt. I fell asleep at my desk while I was editing. I woke up today after the deadline (so I basically worked all night on a contest I didn't even get to enter) and my back is killing me from sleeping at my desk so long. I went to my friend's to see if he's got my laptop working any better now (he doesn't) and while I was out my zine partner text me that the file I sent over for the pages (which he needed today) were corrupt. Then I got into a fight with my other friend about my stupid car which he promised me was going to be ready like a month ago (and it was brought to my attention for like the millionth time I still haven't gotten my license renewed - which is largely because I live nowhere close to a DMV and my car has been completely dangerous for like the last year.) Then my boyfriend and I got in this really nasty fight which has gotten me all messed up and the person I normally work that sort of stuff out with is probably really agitated because I didn't submit my pages until about an hour ago. So now I'm injured and I still have no car and no laptop and I feel like everybody hates me, and the most productive thing I've done all weekend is write a piece I couldn't use and now have no idea where to put. It's just been really rough. I'm sure it will probably all work itself out but tonight is going to be really bad, probably tomorrow too. This also ruins the mood for the super productive all writing weekend I was going to have - although sometimes emotional turmoil helps my creative process. Who knows? Maybe this will be my most productive weekend ever, still. The more likely alternative is that I'll, you know, wallow for the rest of tonight, binge-watch a show or movie series and then beat myself up over it come Monday when I have to go back to studying and I didn't get any work stuff done at all. Anyway, this was my rant. Hope things are going better for everyone else than they are for me today. Regards, Cat |
| Hey guys! So, I've fallen a little bit behind on stuff, but I'm going to be trying to catch up some today. I've been doing some research and there are some really exciting career opportunities for me if I can really stay focused. I also want to keep up with my stuff here because the community is so great, and I've been getting so much wonderful feedback and a ton of support from everyone -you guys are seriously the best. I have a couple WdC things to do today (which I'm going to outline here) and then I have a new submission plan that will go a long way toward filling out my portfolio and potentially get me closer to being published (which will be vaguely outlined here.) It's going to be a lot of really hard work, but I think it will really pay off, and I'm excited. It's so wonderful to work on projects I believe in for a change, it's been a really nice break for me even if it has been a financial strain. So first up, WdC things to work on today: Fixing my templates: Standard template (for coding structure) PDG template (for story/chapter reviews) AiW template (Theme) Simply Positive template (for poetry) Setting up my Book item for Screams entries: Writing foreword Writing Review Request Notes Creating a 1-line review disclaimer Linking previously existing entries Deciding on format (have it narrowed down between 2 ideas) Finishing Contest Entries: Today's Screams entry This month's Weird Tales entryNow work things to work on today: Finish my dark fiction market research: Finish submission notes Organize submission binder by deadline Sort outline for submission pieces accordingly Get zine ready for next week: Edit my short story for the month Check podcast audio Finish podcast promotion Finish outlining graphic specs for new site layout Do monthly write up for newsletterIf I can get all that stuff out of the way (I know, that's a ton of stuff) before tomorrow, then that leaves me the whole weekend to really crack down and get some writing stuff done. (I should also probably get some studying done because I haven't practiced my languages all week and my parapsychology paper is going to be due at the end of the month - but I'll feel better if I catch up on writing first. I said that I was going to make writing a priority this year, and I meant it.) So, that's what I'll be up to today if anyone was wondering. As you could probably tell, I plan on having some things added to my portfolio soon.  Thanks for reading, and if there's anything specific you'd like me to focus on getting added, I always take comments under close consideration. -Cat |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
That said, it's all about the journey Cat. So you get rejection letters. You could be like me - I never get them. Of course, I never submit anything but ... 
If you want to be published, keep trying and you will get there. Don't you dare give up!