So I have this sentence and it's driving me crazy because I'm pretty sure any use of --, is generally frowned upon by the grammar gods.  Maybe not, but I'd thought I would pick my f-list's brains to see if you guys think this is grammatically correct:

Despite his turmoil of emotions --something that should have never affected him while he was behind enemy lines --, John was relieved at the silence.

I'm pretty sure it should be something like:

Despite his turmoil of emotions, something that should have never affected him while he was behind enemy lines, John was relieved at the silence.

But, ugh, it doesn't have the impact that I'm looking for.  Nothing is better than the use of -- to show the narrator's interjected explanatory (yes, I stole that wording from dictionary.com) on a particular subject.  And despite my love for them when I am making a post here, parentheses are not an option here.

So, what do y'all think?

When reading a flashback in the middle of a chapter, do you prefer the scene to be written in italics or in the past perfect tense?

...for those on my f-list who are familiar with the Halo fandom.

If John's helmet was knocked off, what would happen to Cortana's chip? It's in his neural lace, yes? Which would mean she would still be in there, right?

This story, it's gonna kill me.

I've given myself a deadline of June 4th to have the first draft done (before E3).  Right now, it looks a little like this:

Finally finished the rough draft of entry #1 for fivetimesbb .  It's for the ST:TNG fandom.  It's been so long since I've written in that fandom.  I'm still trying to decide if the reunion was like meeting with your favorite relative after a few years or the awkward feeling when you see someone from high school who used to be your friend, but has nothing in common with you now.

I'll take my feelings with a grain of salt.  Right now, I think everything I'm writing is rubbish so I might be biased.

I do need your help.  Can you give me any fantasy/sci-fi fandoms that have started/gotten popular over the past year or so?  I know we're adding Once Upon a Time and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  My co-mod and I know nothing of Hunger Games so we're not sure if that fits in the "fantasy" realm so any help there would be appreciated.

Yes, I'm still on my self-imposed vacation until I get some major writing done, but I thought I would turn to my trusty f-list for help.

OK, so Taming the Rider is the story of Rapunzel's birthday told from Eugene's POV.  Here's my issue.  I don't know where to stop it.  I don't want anything to do with the angst of the ending.  This is a total fluff story here.  (I know...me? Fluff? LOL)  So, when do you think is a good place to stop?

[Poll #1773272]
I always knew the ending was going to be the hardest because I want it to have a sense of closure even though everyone knows big, epic plotty things happen after the end.  So, any advice is epic! :D

OK, so remember, I don't own the Burton AiW DVD (I know! Terrible!) but I am inspired to write something for the Maniness Challenge.

Anyway, before Alice goes and looks at the Oraculm (when she first gets to Underland), is it implied that the others knew the Alice was going to save Underland? Or were they as surprised as her when they saw it roll out?

Thanks! :D :D

It's official...Tangled joins an elite club of movies that Jess can watch a million times.

I've got to wrangle my muse to write my story for scifibigbang in the Tangled fandom. Because Rapunzel and Flynn really are that awesome.  (If anyone has some epic!idea for a fic, TOSS THEM MY WAY.  Right now, I'm only coming up with angsty stories...which is NOT really the feeling that I'm going for.)

OK, so I'm trying to make a textbox of the author sign-ups for the scifbigbang and this is what happens:

User Name: <br />Author Name (if different): <br />Fandom: <br />Email addie: <br />Do you need a beta? <br />Do you have a AO3 (Archive of Our Own) account?

Can anyone help me with telling me how to get rid of the annoying <br /> tag?

THIS is why I hate coding.

ETAL I fixed it! Woot! Disable Auto-Formatting FTW!!!

So, I think part of my struggle with this fic is that is has major flashbacks.  (I would say that the word count for the three flashbacks is going to be around the same number of words as the main plot.)  I'm trying to decide if I should scrap the idea of the flashbacking and just write it in a linear way (which I think takes away from the fic a bit but may be more cohesive...) or cut back the flashback scenes.  *headdesk*[Poll #1665570]

So I'm 99.9% committed to writing a Tangled fic for my scifibigbang story (and a Halo one *surprise surprise*) but I'm torn between two ideas, so which is better?

1. Five Times Rapunzel Declined Flynn's Proposal and the One Time She Didn't

Er, I think the plot should be pretty self-explanitory. LOL

2. Rapunzel and Flynn's Excellent Adventure (No...that's not the title.  Though the more I think about it, the more awesome it sounds...LOL)

Basically, it would be about a newly married Rapunzel and Flynn go on an journey where they meet dragons, mermaids and pirates (elves? wizards? dwarfs? hobbits? LOL) and learn a few things about themselves.

Dude, I am so torn.

Comment below with your answer.

Most handsome/cutest TV Male Chef is...

ETA: The more I see the icons/gifs of Tangled, the more I wanna see it. It looks so cute...And how can you deny the smolder? LOL  (by jackdawsonsgrl )jackdawsongrl

So, er, I know I swore off any new fandom related projects until next year.

None of you really thought I would keep that promise, did you?

Well, techincally, I won't break my own rules because anything that I'm making for the comm will be done by December 1 and I will just have play the role of the Mighty Mod (which should be easy).

So, I present to you aiw_advent

*plays fanfare*

It's an advent calendar for Alice/Tarrant goodness. That's right 25 days in a row of Alice/Tarrant!

But, I am gonna need some shippers to make this a success so go! Check it out!

The Questions

The Signups

So, really, what do you do with it?

Keep it? Print it out and make wallpaper for your room? Delete it?  Have a word processing file with all your feedback it in? Do nothing with it and just go visit your fic with the comments anytime you need an ego boost?

As you know, I'm migrating off my yahoo email addie to hotmail and I'm trying to figure out what to do with my feedback.  (Forwarding over 2300 emails is *not* how I want to spend the next month, but I don't want to lose them because feedback is love.)

So I'm working on my latest batch of icons (hopefully they'll be done sometime next week) and I'm looking for out favorite geeks.  Real life people (like Mythbusters) or characters are all game.  I can't promise I'll do them all, but I'd like to do a good size batch of them.  If you have a picture you think that would work with them, feel free to include them. :D

So, is there anyone out there willing to beta a Halo story for me? Chief/Cortana friendship...about 1.5k or so words (I haven't finished it yet)...you don't *have* to know First Stike (though, it would give you a little bit of background)...just looking for someone to point out obvious grammar mistakes and point out when I use the same word over and over (which I have a tendency to do, LOL)