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