I've decided to go friends only for most of my journal, because I tend to share personal stuff here.  Anyone is welcome to friend me.  I love making new friends and the more the better, but if you wish for me to friend you back, please leave a comment to this post, so I will know that you are interested in more than just my stories or artwork.

About me: I am a James Marsters fan. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel the Series. I write fan fiction, Original fiction & Poetry. I love punk, alternative, & new wave music. Current shows I'm watching are Bones, Torchwood, and Doctor Who, Supernatural, Castle and Dollhouse.

My fan fiction, fic banners, manips, icons, and a few other posts will still be public. You can find links to my collection of artwork on the right sidebar and links to my fan fiction on the left sidebar.

Mercilessly snagged from mitashade


Dear Mitch,
I don't really know how to tell you this, but I'm in love with your cat. I think I realized it last year when you peed your pants at the mental hospital and I saw you sit on the elephant in the corner. I'm sure you're ashamed enough to understand that I get turned on only by garbage men. I'm returning your love letters to me to you, but I'll keep the oil tank from your car as a memory. You should also know that I want your brother instead of you and I will haunt you when I’m reincarnated as an Eskimo.
Go drown yourself,
Dawn

( Make Your Own )

Snagged from dreamsofspike
Pick 12 characters you like, and then answer the questions below the cut about them. Obviously first choose your characters before you see the questions.


1. Spike (BtVS)
2. Castiel (Supernatural)
3. Rick Castle (Castle)
4. Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars)
5. Alpha (Dollhouse)
6. Tru Davies (Tru Calling)
7. Jayne Cobb (Firefly)
8. Ten (Doctor Who)
9. Captain John Hart (Torchwood)
10. Zack Morris (Saved by the Bell)
11. Mike Seavers (Growing Pains)
12. Sami Brady (Days of our Lives)

( Questions and answers in the cut... )

I have a real desire to hang out at the beach, but the thought of sharing the sand with so many people there for 4th of July weekend just makes my skin crawl.  I don't do well with crowds.

Chapter 7 of Anticipation is now posted at 2writers4spike.  I made a new banner for the end of the chapter.  They are easier to make now that I have episodes to get screencaps from.

Just finished reading The Wild Road by Marjorie M. Liu.  It was the third in a series, but she did a good job of making it work as a stand alone and I didn't feel lost at all.  The writing style was good.  Kept me engaged.  But story wise, I had no problem putting the book down and not picking it up for a few days.   I prefer books that make me want to read and do nothing else.  The kind that if I am forced to put it down, I can't stop thinking about the story and can't wait to get back to it.  I will be looking for more of her books though. 

I really thought I was close to being done with writing fan fiction.  But no.  Another plot bunny hit me.  I didn't need it as I am still working on League of Souls, which I will start posting once all of the chapters for Anticipation have been posted.  The new story has a title and two and a half chapters written.  Remember that graphic I made with Spike and Buffy, where I was hoping someone would get inspired to write a fic for it?  Well, I inspired myself.  *shakes head*  I had to change Spike's head, but the graphic is now a fic banner.  The title is One Glorious Summer and I probably won't start posting until after League of Souls in finished posting.  You can view the fic banner in the cut.
( One Glorious Summer Fic Banner )

So what is everyone else working on?

Was in a mushy mood and put this together.  This took six photos, four textures and three filters to put together. 

 
Larger versions in the cuts


( With Frame )

( Without Frame )

If anyone gets inspired to write a fic, I can personalize this with the title and by line.  Oh, and I'm in the mood to do more, so I'm taking requests.  Need a banner for a fic, want a new LJ header?  Just ask.  First come, first served.  All fandoms (Just don't ask me to manip J2 or Wincest.  Please.)  :)

Was bored and decided to play around with photoshop.  Buffy by herself usually does not inspire me, but doing random things, this is what I came up with.  :)

( Buffy is the Chosen but Defiant One )

Anticipation ch.3 is now posted over at 2writers4spike.  After reading the chapter again before we posted, I felt inspired to make a graphic and this is what I came up with.  :)



( I Need You...under the cut. )

I saw a documentary/film last night that I don't think I'll ever forget.  Dear Zachary.  There are so many things that was good about it.  The editing for one.  I was dragged into the story and I don't think I have ever cried so hard over something I was watching in my life.  I watched it late at night after everyone else went to sleep and surprisingly, once I went to go to sleep, I went into a deep sleep and woke up refreshed, like my insides had been cleansed.  And yet, the story still stays with me.  I wish I knew Kate and David Bagby in person. 

While I was at the whole banner making thing, I came across some caps of Dean and Castiel and I couldn't resist making a banner featuring them.  This banner is up for grabs to be used as a fic banner or LJ header.  I can personalize and I can make matching icons.  If you want it just ask.  :)

( Pretty Demon Hunter and Angel )

Before mabel_marsters signed off for the night, she was feeling a little down and grumpy.  Poor, dear, girl.  So I decided that she should wake with something to make her smile.  I've been saving these screencaps for a while now, and I thought it would be perfect to make this for her while she slept.

You are awesome, Mabel!  Don't you forget it.  Patrick Jane thinks so too.  But then again, he's Gone Mental so...

( Simon Baker as Patrick Jane Banner )

I use MS Word 2007.  I could hunt for the how to's for this one thing, but I'm too lazy to do it and I figure, I could ask here, go make dinner and most likely come back to an answer.  (And people wonder how I have time to do it all.)

So here's what I need to do.  I need to get rid of the second space between every period at the end of a sentence and the start of the new sentence.  I am thinking of submitting something I wrote to a publisher who has the requirement of only one space.  And can I ask why the hell there is no industry standard and why is it that these higher ups make us jump through all these hoops.  I'm a rebel by nature so it just sort of makes me cringe.

I know there is this thing called macros?  Would this help me to do that?

Also, I'm working on a tutorial with screencaps that would help someone set up a Word document  as a manuscript.  With the margins, correct heading sizes, correct header settings, ect.  I was thinking of putting in on my author blog, with links to sites that give all the manuscript requirements and possible differences that are still okay to use.  Do you think that would be helpful to anyone, or would I just be wasting my time?

And last.  Can anyone rec some awesome photoshop tutorials?  I would like to make something for a friend who is feeling low at the moment and I'd like it to be different that what I normally do. 

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

I'm hoping this turns out to be a great day.  The Lakers play what should be their last game of the finals.  I'll be away from home for the most of the game but I'm really hoping to catch the very end. 

After concentrating on the newest fanfic this last week (writing 12,000 words for it and passing the chapters back and forth to betas), I finally had time to write more of my Paranormal story.  I was able write the second chapter.  I'm happy with the way it turned out.  Better than what I had in mind, but it needs a little tweaking.  I don't want to get caught up in fixing it as I need to get cracking and get more of the story written, but the editor in me wants to fix, fix, fix.  I know what needs to happen in the third chapter and I want to write it.  Just have to be somewhere in an hour so I can't even get started on it.  Tonight, I'm going to focus on it.  I have a long way to go on this story and I'm impatient and just want it to write itself.  :)  I was up really late last night watching ghost hunting shows.  My husband says he likes this kind of research, so he sits with me to watch.  We have to turn the volume on the TV all the way down and watch with closed captions because my children were trying to sleep and if they could hear the sound, they would be too scared to sleep. 

 

I've been watching the new Knight Rider series.  Loved the first one when I was a kid.  I wanted a K.I.T.T. car very badly.  I'm surprised to find that I don't think this new version is all that bad.  K.I.T.T. no longer has an English accent, which was disappointing.  But the special effects are pretty good for a television show.  Justin Bruening does a good job and I'm even finding that I think he's attractive.  When he was on All My Children I didn't think he was, because he was usually standing next to Jacob Young and that boy would put a shadow on any other man, even if Justin is taller.  :)  I'm not saying I'm going to watch the whole series, but it's something to watch when I get really bored.

A lovely, genuine and awesome internet friend was tricked into sending spam emails to her friends.  I was in turn tricked into signing up, but I did not give the password to my gmail account to them, so I'm hoping that no one on my contact list got the email.  If you do get an email saying that Dawn has sent you private photos on Tagged, please just delete the email.  Do not click on the link. 

I had to cancel "my account" with them.  They had a comment box to explain why I was canceling, so I sent them this message:

You can dump this waste of space from the internet.   Tricking me into signing up by saying that a friend had photos for me to view is EVIL!  I am not happy about this!  Everyone on all my social networks has been warned to avoid Tagged like the plague.

Cradle of Humanity Awards were announced today.  :)  Congrats to the many winners who are on my flist!  I was thrilled to see that Not My Reality won two awards.  Best Romance and Happy Worker.

and as busy as I have been, I forgot to post about the awards Not My Reality won over at the Sunnydale Memorial Awards.  It got runner up in both Best Alternative Universe and Best Unfinished Fic. 

( Award pretties are under the cut. )

I'm sure most of you have seen mabel_marsters post with her Dean and Spike fic.  If you haven't and you are fan of Spike and Dean, you will LOVE this fic.  mabel_marsters writes almost exclusively in the BTVS fandom, but she loves Supernatural and when she told me about her idea for a fic where Spike and Dean meets up, I was really excited about it.  I begged her to write it, recently, and she did!  It exceeded my expectations and I thought her Dean characterization was spot on and brilliant!  Reading it made me want to jump into the fic and beg them to let me be the filling in their sandwich.  It's not a slash fic, but sparks fly anyway.

I created the banner and got to have Spike, Dean, the Impala and the DeSoto altogether.  Fun.  Fun.  Fun.

See the banner and read Crash, Bang, Wallop!  

Author: dawnofme
Title:  Not My Reality
Pairing:  Spike/Buffy
Rating:  NC-17 for later chapters

Summary:  Buffy is a single, twenty-six year old assistant manager at Bloomingdale's department store.  Buffy and her best friend, Willow, love to watch reality TV shows.  When Angel is the runner up on the Bachelorette show and then becomes the next Bachelor, Willow sends in Buffy's photo and details to the casting team.  What's a girl to do when she goes on a reality TV show to get to know a man she'd been attracted to only to fall for one of the camera guys instead?

Betas:  mabel_marsters & xtanitx. 

a/n:  This has been a wonderfully busy week for me.  So many good things happening.  I will answer comments for the previous chapter and this one as soon as I can and try to catch up with my f-list some time tomorrow.  Thank you everyone for reading and leaving encouraging reviews.  You all are the best!  There isjust one more chapter to go.


Previous Chapters Here



 

 

( Let's take a detour from reality together... )</p>

Author: dawnofme
Title:  Not My Reality
Pairing:  Spike/Buffy
Rating:  NC-17 for later chapters

Summary:  Buffy is a single, twenty-six year old assistant manager at Bloomingdale's department store.  Buffy and her best friend, Willow, love to watch reality TV shows.  When Angel is the runner up on the Bachelorette show and then becomes the next Bachelor, Willow sends in Buffy's photo and details to the casting team.  What's a girl to do when she goes on a reality TV show to get to know a man she'd been attracted to only to fall for one of the camera guys instead?

Betas:  mabel_marsters & xtanitx. 

a/n:  Well, I never thought I'd write an All Human Spuffy story, but I did.  Now that I'm posting this final chapter, I'm feeling sad about it ending.  I had so much fun playing with the characters out of canon.  I hope you all had fun right along with me.  Thanks for reading!

Previous Chapters Here



 

 

( Let's take a detour from reality together... )</p>

Author: dawnofme
Title:  Not My Reality
Pairing:  Spike/Buffy
Rating:  NC-17 for later chapters

Summary:  Buffy is a single, twenty-six year old assistant manager at Bloomingdale's department store.  Buffy and her best friend, Willow, love to watch reality TV shows.  When Angel is the runner up on the Bachelorette show and then becomes the next Bachelor, Willow sends in Buffy's photo and details to the casting team.  What's a girl to do when she goes on a reality TV show to get to know a man she'd been attracted to only to fall for one of the camera guys instead?

Betas:  mabel_marsters & xtanitx. 


Previous Chapters Here



 

 

( Let's take a detour from reality together... )</p>

Great! Just Great!  was runner up in this round of the Forbidden Awards in the Best Taboo category.    I love this award site because of the comments that are left with the award.  It's a nice touch.


This is absolutely hilarious! Whether you love or hate the Buffy!Bot this fic is simply priceless. I was rolling around laughing the first time I read it and have gone back time and time again. Great voices, well written, and simply awesome all-round.


Congrats to all the winners, but a special shout out to mabel_marsters for her win for Switched, because of the previous drama that was generated because of that fic.  (And sometimes, drama happens and stupid people get on the internet, but then it's an opportunity for people to shine and show some amazing character and site operators to really prove have cool they are.)