Hi! It's firefly114, author from inkpop and fictionpress and owner of the Fire Me Up website! I'm also Mischief1Managed on fanfiction.net and Amortentia Black on mugglenet. Here's my blog, for rambles and updates. If you have any requests (and I love requests) of things you want me to give my opinion on, or questions to answer, shoot me an email at laurel.firemeup@gmail.com or ask on my formspring widget on the lower right side.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Death in Notebook Form

Currently listening to:
Happy by Fischerspooner


I still have to load my photos from Europe, so here are some newly edited, both old and new photos. 

We grow purple cabbages. 
summer 2011


A column in the Roman Forum, Jerusalem
summer 2010

 Gateway to the West, St. Louis, Missouri.
spring 2009

In the writing world, I'm still toiling away on the outline for Meridian. Between that, taking college classes (which are death in notebook form), and preparing to have jaw surgery in two weeks, I haven't had much time for anything else.  What little free time I have is going into a new interest, fanfiction. (Look at the pretty tab up there!) I've battled with the ups and downs of writing fanfics, but seeing as I'm still outlining Meridian and not writing yet, I wanted to do a little writing, and it's just a creative outlet that doesn't take up too much of my time or energy--I need all of it for class! So I've decided to write a full-length prequel to the Harry Potter books, which will answer a lot of questions and feature our favorite Marauders. It won't be one of those silly who-dates-who and 'prank wars' fics, it's actually going to have a plot. They're in the middle of a war, for goodness sake! And the Marauders aren't going to be the usual self-absorbed inflated-ego pranksters we usually see in fanfics. Well, sometimes it happens, but there's always a reason for everything. The characters are human, after all. The working title is "Brave at Heart" so please, email me or message me if you want to hear more!
I also just finished a short story for a challenge. It's here, and if you're interested, I'd love it if you took a look and left a comment:
Our Heads Could Do With Filling by Mischief1Managed
SUMMARY: In which Harry asks for girl advice and Sirius has just the story from his years at Hogwarts. "Mate, I always thought she rather fancied you but..." he shook his head. "Now I reckon she just likes to make your life difficult!" Who knew that the Marauders had been putting on such a good show? 
(for more info, check the 'fanfic' tab above)




Hautelinks for a Never-Ending Good Time


25 Hilarious Date IdeasI highly suggest numbers 1,3,6,7, and 16. I could see myself doing all of those things. My friends agree.


Best 100 Opening Lines from BooksStuck with your opening? How about taking a leaf out of the book of one of the Greats? (literally)


Rock Stars Who Look Like WizardsJustin Bieber? David Bowie? Lady Gaga... with wands?


Emotional Bag CheckCheck your emotional baggage or carry someone else's! I actually had a lot of fun with this one. 


Why I'm Glad I'm Not A CelebritySo true. I was on a kids' TV show when I was younger. I've always sort of regretted not continuing with it, but I certainly don't anymore. 


Harry Potter Scandals
Favorite headline: 'Daniel Radcliffe's Sex Life.'
Second favorite: 'Harry Becomes a Dwarf.'
Third favorite: 'The Right to Read.' Actually some interesting legal stuff here for authors. 









Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Save Me, San Francisco

Currently listening to:
Save Me San Francisco by Train



Look at those tabs up there! New, shiny tabs! That's right, you can get the latest info on my stories there! Anything from trailers, character pictures, fanart, previews, and sequel info! Go ahead, check it out. And leave me a comment! 


If I could wish upon a star, I would hitch a cable car...
As you may have guessed, this post might have something to do with San Francisco. I have a bunch of friends who live in that area so I go out to visit sometimes. Last time I was there I brought my good camera! I've got a Nikon D-70 which is a right pain to lug around. It's my first photography post, so let me know what I can do to improve!


Bryce Canyon, Utah. The. Coolest.
Place. Ever. 
Yosemite, Californ



Yosemite. How
cool is the sky?


The crazy streets of San Francisco.
The tree is crawling! 








Saturday, July 16, 2011

Harry Potter Gets Drunk on Butterbeer and Pulls and All-Nighter Writing Hundreds of Fanfictions

Currently listening to:
Sons and Daughters by The Decemberists



I promise this is the last Harry Potter post for a while!


The big event of the weekend was, obviously, the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The experience itself was absolutely amazing--my friends and I dressed up, waited outside the theater for hours (we were second in line!) and acted like total dorks, quoting lines from the books and discussing various plots. At random times during the night I started spouting various tiny bits of trivia that is embarrassing that I even know (for instance, that Hermione's original name was Hermione Puckle, and the creature that sits in Lupin's office the first time he meets with Harry is a grindylow.) One of my friends is literally a carbon copy of Tom Felton and he, of course, was dressed up as Draco. I was Hermione because people tell me I do look a bit like Emma Watson (only I just got really tan on vacation so that took away from it), another friend did a very good Bellatrix, and we had a Luna and a Sirius. Hoards of obsessed fangirls wanted pictures with us because our costumes were so good! Here's what I wore: Click here for a link to the polyvore! It took a lot of preparation.


The movie itself needed a bit of work. I had some issues. Here are a few: (SPOILER ALERTS! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW, SKIP THIS UNTIL I SAY IT'S OKAY!)


  • One of my favorite things about the books is the scope of the story. As an author, I love the world Rowling has created. She also pays great attention to the various characters and their stories. In Deathly Hallows, there are so many stories in the book that were missing from the movie, and they all affected Harry in some way. Lupin and Tonks was a nice story, and the fact that they made Harry the godfather was touching. It was a sort of passing-the-torch of responsibility, and now as Harry is going to save the wizarding world, he is the new "protector" of the next generation. Dumbledore's story was alluded to, but not shown. And I wish they would have done more with Snape/Lily. It was such a huge part of the plot of the series. 
  • I think Harry's last fight with Voldemort should have been in front of everyone like it was in the book. In the book, it was a group effort. In the movie, it was just Harry, and frankly, it was less powerful. 
  • I also think they should have shown Voldemort's body dead on the ground. Without his Horcruxes, he was a human just like the rest of them, and was capable of dying. 
There are many more things I think should have been done differently, and I would love to discuss them with anyone! But I do understand that yes, this is a movie, and no, it's not the book, and you can't have everything. I'm just giving my two cents. 

RESUME READING!

I have also recently started writing Harry Potter fanfiction! You can see my profile here: Mischief1Managed and my first story is Love, Hogwarts. I battled with the pros and cons of writing fanfiction, but I decided that it might help me get over my huge obsession by taking the characters into my own hands. Plus, I'm having trouble with Meridian at the moment, and I hate to be at a point where I'm not writing. So if anyone wants to read it and give me feedback in the form of reviews, I really want to hear what you like and what you don't! I would really appreciate it and I'd love you forever.

I think next post will be some photography from Florence, but don't hold me to it!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Harry Potter and the Cursed Pencil of Doom

Currently listening to:
Toy Soldiers by Carbon Leaf



Let's just say that drawing is something I really really want to be good at, but don't think I will ever be. First of all, my attention span doesn't last that long. Second, I'm just... not that good at it.
(Sorry for those of you who don't like Harry Potter, these are my most recent doodles.)


The top part is funny. Harry looks
insane on the bottom. 
Floppy-haired, pointy-chinned Ron





Sirius looking quite a bit like a dog
 
At least he's got some facial structure.
I found some drawings of Malfoy and tried to copy
 to learn how to draw different positions. He looks quite odd here.

Giraffe-Fred and Viktor Krum
Notes on the proper positioning of ears

Ron looks a lot healthier here.





 Sorry about the excessive amount of Harry Potter doodles. Tomorrow I'll post some real stuff. I'm working on the first chapter of my novel, Meridian. If I'm finished that soon, I'll post a preview!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Who Am I?

I thought I'd start off with a bit about myself. Who is that girl behind the keyboard?

Well, I'm just your average girl, armed with a computer. My worst quality is that I'm very ambitious. I see something, and I say "hey, I can do that!" I choose something, and I don't rest until I get good at it. It started with writing, and I've progressed from writing silly short stories to full-out novels. Then, I found a bunch of writing contest sites, so I made my own, with the help of my beta reader! (firemeup.webs.com) After that, it was the graphics sites (mine is desperatehearts.webs.com). But this bad habit of trying so many things stretched outside the realm of the internet. My mother is an artist and I've always wanted to be able to pick up a pencil and just draw anything. In a feeble attempt to make this happen, every day I doodle something in my sketchbook. Most of it is laughable. Right now, I'm an aspiring rockstar--my brother is teaching me to play the electric guitar, and I'm experimenting with song lyrics.

I've experimented with a lot, but I think writing is my true love. I've been writing since I was in sixth grade, I think. The first thing I ever wrote was for a school project. My group was the crew of a boat and had to travel the world, writing diary entries as we went. Mine were so creative that I got extra credit and my teacher told me to make it into a story, so I did! It turned into sort of a journal--anything interesting that happened to me or bugged me turned up in this story. Even guys I liked made an appearance. After finishing two installments, I finally got bored of that story, and let's just say my writing has progressed quite a bit since then. Maybe some day, if you guys want, I'll treat you all to a few excerpts of my early writing. It's pretty funny, actually. My next story came from a dream I had. Two sisters were failing history and were taken to a magical school where, during their lessons, they had to go back in time to ancient civilizations and solve mysteries. That one was pretty funny, too. Finally, after reading Twilight, like most preteen girls, I did something that most didn't. I realized that I could write something better. My next story, Hate Is A Strong Word (available on my fictionpress) shows a few similarities--teen girl goes to live with her dad in a small town and meets a mysterious boy that she just can't figure out. It ended different, with old Native American mythology instead of vampires, but it was still a very early story. Secrets of Andover came next, a boarding school story about the descendents of the witches from the Salem Witch Trials. I wrote a oneshot called Valentine Wars which won the SKoW prompt contest, and a novella All That Glitters, about a family of thieves, which won the A Drop of Romeo contest. Finally, I was able to develop my characters and give the main voice a spunky, funny attitude.
 Now, I'm becoming more ambitious. The current story that I'm working on, Meridian, is a steampunk-era Victorian novel. My goal is for it to be a full novel with many different plots that will tug at your heartstrings. We'll see how that turns out.

Anyway, enough about my writing. I have a big family--I have a younger brother, an older brother, and an older sister. It's hard for everyone to keep track of everyone else, to say the least. When everyone is home, dinner is a crazy affair. My older brother had a band for a while and the loud practices in our garage never did much for my concentration while I was trying to write... especially when I'd get frustrated, go downstairs, and ask if I could join. The answer was always the same: NO!

About the title? Well, my friends tell me I have about the emotional range of a teaspoon. Everyone jokes about the fact that I'm great at keeping a straight face. But I DO have feelings! Don't get me wrong! You'll see on this blog! "Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon..." is a quote from Harry Potter, the series to which I dedicate my love of reading, so I thought it was both funny and fitting. It was the first real book I read--in first grade, while other kids were reading Amelia Bedelia or Berenstain Bears, I picked up the first HP book and loved it. From then on, I progressed to reading the Narnia, His Dark Materials, and Lord of the Rings series all before fourth grade. I was quite an accomplished young reader. I've recently become interested in Shakespeare and all sorts of British Literature, but I have HP to thank!

Well, I'll stop rambling for now. Let me know what you want me to write about, I'd love suggestions!

Ciao!
Laurel