I did that heroine generator thing again!

I had so much fun doing this the first time around that I wanted to do it again for my two awesome heroines in my summer dragon story! Much love and many thanks to my awesome CP, Jen, who inspired me to do this in the first place :)

So, first up, we have Priya. There are many things I enjoy about Priya, and her endless amount of snarky nicknames for one of the other characters in the story is definitely one of them! Priya's also a theater geek and might have issues in the "making friends" department, but if she becomes your friend she will protect you at all costs. She has mad mechanical skills, which she hones while maintaining a dragon at the end of a tourist trap's medieval maze. This is Priya when she's not working at her summer job (she totally prefers these clothes).

Look at that smirk.

And then I was really mean and put her in her work uniform.

I kind of enjoy that she's smiling here, but in a "I reaaaaaaally hate you for doing this" kind of way. That is the smile of someone who is quietly plotting revenge...

Next up is Lyris! I can't say too much about Lyris without spoiling lots of things about the story, so for now, here's what she looks like!

I'm not really sure about her outfit, but the red cloak is really the most important part anyway! She is clearly not happy about SOMETHING, and this is probably the expression she maintains through most of the story.  She's pretty awesome, though. Don't let those swirly sleeve things fool you.

So there ya go! DRAGON FAIL's awesome heroines! 

:D

P.S. I'm seriously doing this with every set of characters from now on :P

(Story) Break Updates!

Well hello!

A little while ago, I blogged about taking a (story) break. I'd just finished up edits on my Les Mis in spaaaaaaace novel, and was kind of in a down-ish mood, as I'd listened to that soundtrack for four months and written an equally sad story.

When I made that blog post, I was about 5K into ze new story, lovingly referred to on twitter as the Summer Dragon Story :)

Well. That blog post was on May 13th. I'm now happy to report that on May 25th, I'm about a quarter of the way done, and my awesome Summer Dragon Story is about to reach the 20K mark!!! YAY!

Since this is pretty much my zero pressure story, I'm pantsing this thing like I've never pantsed before, and I'm LOVING it. Seriously, this break was probably one of the better ideas that I've had, and I really do enjoy being able to just sit down and let whatever happens, happen.

The idea for this story had been sitting around in my head since last October, but it lingered at around 1K until I started writing it again this month. It would probably be hovering around 1K still if I hadn't accepted the fact that one of the ideas I had for this story simply wasn't going to work ---and I couldn't be happier that I figured this out and moved on. This story's been a lot of fun to write, and I don't have to listen to mega depressing soundtracks every night, so YAY!

Oh, and remember that ghost story I wrote for NaNo? I figured out what was wrong with that, too! So after I'm done with this story, I'm going to delve back into creepy ghost land and re-work some things. I'm not gonna give away what I have planned, but I think it'll be an awesome blend of spooky and snarky :)

But that's enough babbling for one day! Back to the story!

Have an awesome weekend! Happy writing/reading/resting!!!

So there was that time I got hooded (the picture edition!)...

To give you an idea of how I can't take anything super seriously...

This is my favorite professor trying to show us how to hold our hoods. Methinks he said something snarky here.

He likes to do that whole joke thing.

This is me waiting in line to do the processional...to get into the ceremony.

Right? Right.

This is me ACTUALLY walking into the ceremony (I'm looking at my office staff haha)

This is me waiting to get hooded.

The lovely first years at the podium are reading my bio wherein they discuss all the things I got to do in grad school. This is now my profile picture.

This is what happens after the ceremony, when BFF tells me my poses are boring (they totally were 'till that point).

I look like I'm trying to be Hamlet.

And, just to put an actual serious picture up in here, this is my cohort and our full-time faculty (adjuncts weren't in this picture, sadly).

Awwwwww. Aren't we precious? We're precious :P

Taking a (Story) Break

Hey friends!

So, that whole graduation thing happened (YAY!) and I now have quite a bit of time to write, read, and job search :) While I was trying to figure out what to write next, I had a few options.  I even started to write a story that was just as dark, and sad, and emotionally devastating as my Star Wars/Les Mis mash-up, but then when my roommates would try to ask me anything about my day, I would be all

Sorry, I had to.

Seriously, though. After listening to the Les Mis soundtrack for months, and pouring over the 1,000+ page book for inspiration, I was feeling a little down. Don't get me wrong, I love Les Mis, and will continue to love Les Mis.  But when I got 22,000 words into my new story, I realized I needed a break.

Not a writing break. Just a sad story break.

I decided a change of pace would be nice. I'm about to hit 5,000 words in the new WiP and I love it :) With this story, I get to do everything I couldn't really do in my mash-up. As I've been telling my CPs for the past few days, I'm mostly really excited about this story because I get to be funny. I'm not really a serious person by nature, and my mash-up tackled things like war, unrequited love, fighting destiny, and sticking to who you are when it could have very bad consequences. It's heartbreaking, yes, and there are a few funny moments in there. But overall it's a bit serious.

This new WiP has been amazing because I can pretty much do what I want in it. There's some magic in it, and a lot of random funny moments. I'm not sure that this story will go anywhere beyond my computer (and to my lovely CPs, if they get bored over the summer), but I'm thoroughly enjoying writing this book!

Once I'm done with this story, I think I'll totally be ready to go back into a world that is beautiful and heartbreaking. I'll be ready to be sad enough to write the story I need to.

But first, I'm going to laugh. A lot.

And stare at this all day.

Because, T-Rex.

Have any of you ever had to step away from a world/story and write something else for a while?

That one time I got hooded...

So, if you want to know what happened during my Graduate Hooding Ceremony...

Click on ze video :)

Just go with it. The story is so, so, so worth it hahaha

I don't know if this will show, but oh my gosh, this thumbnail, y'all.

Props to my roommate for randomly curling my hair today :P

Also, I HAVE A MASTERS OF SCIENCE NOW WOOOOOOOO!

In which I post a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I tweeted about making a bunch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies...

I miiiiiiiiiight've gone a little overboard.

ANYWAYS, some lovely Twitter friends asked for the recipe, so instead of emailing everyone, someone suggested I make a blog post out of it.

Game on.

Here's my BFF's recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies! (My BFF is way better at creating random things from scratch than I shall ever be!)

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet

Nonstick cooking spray 

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick Spray. 

Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. 

Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes , or until the cookies are browned around the

edges. 

Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks. Usually with this recipe I have about 3-5 batches of cookies. 

My DiversifYA Interview...

...is up now!

Hop on over and check it out :)

http://www.diversifya.com/diversifya-interview/diversifya-alex-brown/

DiversifYA!

Hey all!

Soooooooooo, as you may know, I'm a co-blogger on DiversifYA and TODAY IS OUR LAUNCH DAY!!!



YAYYYYYYYY!

I'll be on our Twitter account, doing Diversity Trivia all day!  You should check it out, and also head to our site, because we have a giveaway going on and lots of other cool stuff!

Our fist interview goes live on Friday!  We can't wait to share all of these diverse stories and experiences with you all!

<3

OH MY GOODNESS, AND THIS HAPPENED TODAY!

http://diversityinya.tumblr.com/post/49383594944/happy-launch-day-to-diversifya