The writing process continues.  It's going well.  Check it out and give me feedback!

Dark Wings and LMB are both being rewritten from the ground up.  While reading through some of it to get refreshed on events in both stories, I realized how obvious it is that I started writing them in middle school.  So, to remedy some oh-so-silly mistakes and poor choice of plot lines, I am giving them both a face lift.  The same basic story lines you all know and love are still underlying the now more important points that I wish to emphasize to make them truly great.  Don't worry, Levi is still smexy and Kaid is still naive and optimistic as ever.  But, I think you'll find the new style in which they are written to be much more publication worthy   Hopefully they will soon be up on Lulu.com for your purchasing pleasure.

Also, I have -- for the time being -- finally rid myself of playing World of Warcraft.  As it stands, I'm kicking ass and taking names in my classes (going to be on the Dean's List again this quarter) and I'm going to use the time I'm not spending on classes to get my drawing skills back, 'cause let's face it: if you don't use it, you lose it.  So hopefully, I will be doing more digital painting and more writing.  Any helpful critiques that you may have are certainly welcome on any piece.

Hope to see this place more often!
<3
Alawna

<-- The New Versions are HERE!

I've officially started working on Dark Wings again.  I don't know why it took me so long to get back into (other than the obvious answer of college), but I had some inspiration.  When the published version comes out, be expecting a better story than you have been reading here.  I had some thoughts about charaters and realized I needed to change a lot of the relations to make them more clear.  I had a friend comment on the dialouge, said he loved the style of it, so I have not changed that part anyway.  However, certain aspects of the story will be changed so that hidden secrets are not so blatantly obvious, and that the twists you have not yet read will be more powerful.

I hope you all will continue to read.  <3 to everyone who has ever hoped to own this story in book format ^_^  With your continued support I hope to have this available for purchase by the end of his year.

P.S. Also, if you read the story and feel so inspired, I am in need of some scenes from the book in picture format.  If I get enough for a special edition of the book, I will provide those who contributed with a free copy of the special edition, signed and personalized!  Send me an email at Krysten_Beal@yahoo.com with the title "Special Edition Dark Wings" for more information or a selection of scenes that need worked out.

SO yeah...

I found out today how insanely low on money I really am...
To remedy that, I am going to start doing comissions!  YAY!

So here's the breakdown:

Sketches: $15
Inked: $20
Colored pencil: $30
Painter IX or Photoshop: $40
(prices are 1 character, simple background...ask me about more complex options in a note)

-WILL DOS-
Fanart (most)
Original Characters
SOME animals

-WILL NOT DOS-
Anything like Drangonball Z...sorry i just refuse to because it's obnoxious...(let's face it...there's no way a guy with 6 pecks, 92 abs, 46 biceps, 12 quads, and 30 calfs would be able to move the way those characters do...)
Hentai
SOME animals


What you want not listed in either category?  Ask in a note.


Note me with what you want or email me at kab1516@stu.aii.edu
Preferred payment is through PayPal
All commissions will include a print of the final product (digitally produced pictures) or the original (hand-drawn) for no extra cost (if you want more than one, then prints are as listed below).  All works will be signed and dated.  Standard size will be 8.5 x 11 or something close to that.  Talk to me for a different size.



SLOTS
1 - NONE
2 - Aaron Klok - Mara Jade sketched, approved, rendering in progress
3 - Aaron Klok - WoW fanart research in progress

FINISHED
AnimeLea - OC art sketched, approved, colored, waiting on payment - [link]

Holy frick on a stick!!

I never really looked at my page views until today!  18,108?!  How on earth did THAT happen?  I've not posted anything in forever, and certainly have not posted anything decent in that time...

n any case, THANKS EVERYONE SO MUCH!!!  That's a whole lot of pageviews as far as I'm concerned...




OH!
And to update those of you who do not know, I was accepted to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and I just finished my first quarter.  I LOVE IT THERE.  It's an amazing environment and most of the professors are great (I especially love Karl Huber and Kate Talerico, who taught my Color Theory and ENG1010 classes respectively.)  ANYway, if anyone out there happens to also attend AiP and I just didn't know about it, please drop me a line!!

stealthily pilfered from


Step 1.

Make a post in your dA journal. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

If you wish for real-life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

Step 2.

Surf around your friends list (or friends friends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

Step 3.

THE LIST

1. Stardust!!  It's been out all this time and I have yet to see it T_T

2. A laptop that DOESN'T have missing keys...and can stand up to my eternal abuse...

3. Enough snow to go boarding before I have to come back to Pittsburgh (okay, so this one can't really be granted by anyone except God, but hey...it said you could wish anything...)

4. World of Warcraft game cards!!  The more I have, the less I have to bum money for it off of Jon and Mike!

5. A ps3 with Assassin's Creed -- or just a full day of letting me borrow your PS3/XBOX 360 and play Assassin's Creed would be almost as awesome... *hint, hint to Jakerz or Ian*

6. The Maximum Ride book series in hardback (or in paper back...but I prefer hardback 'cause they can take more abuse and I abuse things...)

7. The Ruins by Scott Smith (I think that's his name anyway...)

8. Umm...running thin here....well pretty much anything from Hot Topic or a similar store...I wear smalls in everything except hoodies--those are mediums--and between a size 3 and 5 in jeans...and any accessories they sell are fine, especially the stuff with wings and whatnot.

9. GAS CARDS!!  I have like $0 for gas and it's going up really high in my area soon...so gas cards are always welcome....just like wal-mart gift cards, so i can buy food...

10. Umm...just money in general...being a broke college student isn't really all that fun...

E-mail:
Krysten_beal@yahoo.com

AIM:
krystenebal

Or, you know, you can always PM me on here...if I know you well, I might give you a way to contact me over the holidays!

Have a Facebook account?

Join the Dark Wings group!!
[link]
[link]
[link]

...everything...

...I know

My lover and I had a huge fight last night.  It was the first time he'd really really made me mad, and I let him know it.  I honestly don't even feel bad for yelling or saying certain things because it was all true.  I love him so much...but after what he did--or didn't do--I was just too mad.  I was shaking I was so angry.  At first, I punched the wall, then I called my friend Sarah (~JordynLevi) and she told me to come over.  While I was on my way, she called Brandon to find out what was wrong with me, and apparently he didn't think he'd done anything wrong.  Well, after talking to her, he called me back and asked what was wrong...so I told him.

Here's what happened:
Friday he was originally supposed to come over to my house, but as it turned out, he couldn't because my family got some horrible news about my grandfather.  So I called him and told him to ask if he could come over on Saturday instead.  Well...Friday passed as officially the worst day of my life so far.  My grandfather pretty much has no idea that they're sending him home to die, and everyone else in the room knew.  So after visiting hours at the hospital were over, we all went back with my grandmother to their house to "discuss things".  Right away, I knew that it wasn't going to be good, but I wasn't prepared.  Everyone was talking about my papa in the past tense, like he was already dead.  They told me and my little brother to write something about him for the pastor to read, and asked me what I wanted to put in his coffin.  I was so depressed, but I knew if I started crying, then everyone else would, so I held it in.
I woke up Saturday already depressed, because I woke up thinking about the previous night.  But I told myself it would get better because I would get to see Brandon.  So around noon or a little later, I call him to ask if/when he can come over.  His response is this: "Probably not because I have to babysit."  At first I was mad at his mother for not letting him come over...but then it sunk in what exactly he had said.  "Probbly not" was what gave him away.  He hadn't even asked if he could or not.  So, there I sat, the morning after the worst night of my life, alone and upset because the asshole I'm dating doesn't even bother to ask if he can see me.  Am I wrong to want to spend time with someone I love so deeply during a time of tragedy?

Yeah...we had a party at our house last night.  It was a great time.  I had a bunch of my best friends over, and we had a cookout/camp fire thing going on.  It was a lot of fun, expecially when the adults decided to break out the alcohol.  My dad didn't drink too much, but my stepmom and most of the guests there were quite tipsy by the end of the night.  My brother, our friend Cody, Brandon, and I were all in the living room watch the tele and had the rare opportunity to see my cousin Matt trying to be a ballerina.  He danced his way through the kitchen to get another beer, and it was all I could do not to fall off of the couch from laughing.  We also got to hear him go on his "Reasons not to eat at a buffet" rant, which is always a good time.

Happiness is a finite resource.  I've used up mine again.  I was too happy for too long.  I knew this would happen.  The red ribbons hve come back to me again.

So yeah...I'm officially wooooorn oooouut!!

Yesterday I went laser tagging for two games, and my legs were killing me from all the ninja/secret agent-eqsue moves I was pulling.  It payed off though, because first game, I took first place out of 8, second game I took third out of 25.  Fun times.  I hadn't been to a laser tag place in aaaages.

Then tonight, I went over to my youth leader's house for a youth group party-cookout-type-thing.  We ate hot dogs and s'mores cooked over the campfire, and played "Man on the Moon," the "Crossed Sticks" game, Freeze Tag, and Capture the Flag.  Capture the flag got kind boring because no one would crss over sides and make a move, so ~arathemage (a.k.a. Emily) and I went on a suicide recon mission and ended up in jail where we sang to pass the time away until the next game started (for, you see, our team was not the greatest when it came to freeing the prisoners).

Good time, though.  Good times.  Ian missed Capture the Flag, the party-pooper!  Oh well...his loss.  But yeah...despite the fact that I almost puked because of running so hard after eating, it was a great time!

Taggage, once more by the ever lovely !nomski.  She rocks socks hardcore with her writing...go see her 'cause I say so.

1. When it comes to volumes or quantities, everything has to be in multiples of 5.

2. I hold full-length conversations with my cat in Spanish.

3. Every time I go to the mall, I HAVE to buy something from Hot Topic.

4. I can--a lot of the time, anyway--know what someone is going to say before they say it.

5. I give all of my younger friends nicknames (i.e. Fabio, Jakey-Poo (He is also my Princess), Yoder)

6. When I get bored, I do theatrical makeup experiments on myself.

NOW for those who i tag:

~kisekiko
~allsope <-he won't do this, I know it
~JordynLevi
~bill

(I'm not sure how many I had to tag, and this is all i can think of 'cause my other people have been tagged already ^_^; )

bleh...I'm sick...I hate it...especially when being sick means passing out in a chair and not having anyone wake you up so you can go to bed...and then you wake up in the morning and are all sore from having slept weird all night...


Okay, I'm done ranting now...

not sure how they turned out...but i made brownies with worms and eyeballs in them...and sarah made her with chocolate frosting and blood dribbles...

Can't wait to try them!!! ^.^  Mine will probably suck...

v-day's coming up!!  It's going to be fun, I have a feeling!  Going to be sending out LOTS of carnations this year...since this is the first year I've ever had money to buy them with...LOL
Good times, though, good times.

Love-hate relationships, lovey-dovey relationships, flirty-all-hugs-almost-kisses not-quite-yet-relationships...gotta love this holiday!!

So yeah...I'm 18 now...stressful stuff
So much responsibility with this coming-of-age.  I need to get a job, need to get my bank account all fixed, as well as a crapload of other things.  But that's okay.  I guess it's good for me.

But yeah...so my party Friday wasn't too bad.  My da took me shopping and I got two new dresses (I'll post pics soon, 'cause the dresses rock socks that much).  When I was coming out of the mall, I happened to catch sight of my grandmother and grandfather, and I immediately became suspicious...and needless to say, there was a surprise waiting for me outside.  There was a limo with my two best friends in it as well as my brother and our friend Cody.  My cousin was there, too, and she joined us.  It was a big surprise that apparently everyone at my school knew about but me.  We went out to a fancy dinner, then to the bowling alley for a couple of games and then to a movie (we saw Epic Movie...which was about the dumbest thing I've ever spent money on, ever)  It was all great...except that Brandon had to miss it because of wrestling practice.  I was actually pretty bummed all night because I really wanted him to be there to share my 18th birthday with me.

But worry not, it all turned out well.  I went to his wrestling match the next night (he didn't make weight, and his mother and father were majorly ticked off with him...and according to his mother, he was lucky I was there, or she'd have REALLY given him a piece of her mind...) where he took one forfeit and had someone else wrestle his weight class for him in the other match.  The kid lost, but then so did the whole team, pretty much.  Practice tomorrow for them is going to SUCK.  Kinda makes ma laugh, but yeah...I'm mean like that, I know ^_^;

ANYwho, back to the story.  I went over to his house after the match.  Since his parents like me (I think and hope), I was allowed even though he was in some major trouble.  So yeah, I was there until about midnight, which was fun.  His parents knew it had been my birhday the day before and they both wished me a happy one, which was quite nice of them (even IF Brandon thinks it was "weird"...but then, he thinks everything to do with his parents is weird...).  But it was kinda cool, because his mother chased all of his siblings upstairs so we had the whole basement to ourselves, and could watch the tele uninterrupted by Matt and Jordin (his little brothers).  It was pleasant to just hang out with Brandon and watch the tele...well, that and try to sneak onto his comp to get a look at a pic that his sister and cousin made, which was entitled "Brandon in a sexy bikini".  Yeah, he embarasses easily, and so used every ounce of energy he had to keep me from viewing the file.  There was faaaar too much laughing on my end, especially when he tried to literally drag me away from the comp.  It was a good time, though, even if I didn't get to see the pic.  We watched Men In Black II and Wild Wild West (there was a Will Smith marithon on TBS, I think)...*ahem* well, parts of both anyway...XD

But yeah, today I went back over and his mother challenged me to Guitar Hero, and I found out exactly how out-of-practice I am in that game...I have 2 weeks to improve majorly and then go back over there and beat her again.  Haha, we're both so competitive.

So yeah...the weekend went from being utterly crappy because of Friday to being quite amazing, because Brandon's so amazing.  I love that boy.  He bought me a beautiful boquet of dark red carnations (which is in a vase on my desk so I see it right away in the mornings), and a gorgeous necklace that bears a gold and silver cross with a pale rose in the center of it.  SO beautiful.  And he was so worried I wouldn't like it...I spent a long time having to tell him that I loved it before he actually believed me.  He didn't think I'd like jewelry, since I'm somewhat of a tomboy.  But I adore it, and he knows that now.  It goes perfect, in fact, with one of the dresses I bought on Friday, and I wore both to his house today.  He seemed happy about it. ^_^  OH!  And he also got me a card...which is completely perfect.  It reads: "Tonight, my wish for you is a perfect evening sky...the classic one-third moon that is every storybook's illustration of nighttime -- enough stars for you to hand one out to everyone you love, with enough left over to give you pinhole peeks into heaven," after which he has penned "I love you"

I don't think he realizes how perfect that card was for me.  It's in the shape of a moon and everything.  He just turned this weekend into...hmm...I can't even think of a word to describe how perfect he turned this otherwise crappy weekend into.  The best part is that he didn't even mean to...he just did.  Like I said before: he's amazing.  He has no idea how amazing he is, either, and that just adds more to it.


Sorry for sounding all mushy, but I'm really happy with him, and I'm going to share it with all for you as long as I can.  Good things never last, so I'm going to soak up all the good I can right now, and share with all of you.  I'm not going to let one happy moment slip away, because they are finite in this world, as sad as that sounds, and we don't get chances at happiness back after they've passed us by.

So yes, the moral of this journal is:
Never let the blissful moments slip by without recognition, because they will be gone before you know it, and you'll regret having missed them.

FInally have gotten around to writing more.
I've been so lazy, and I'm sorry!! *cries*
Well, not lazy, per-se, but haven't been focusing on my novel-ing.  There are other...things...that have had me sort of preoccupied...*ahem* *wink, wink*
Expect more soon...
I was working on it today during a chemistry class, since I don't so anything in there about 90% of the time.
Going to be needing proof-readers soon...entering the final stages (so exciting)


















P.S. Blame Brandon for my lack of accomplishments here lately ~_^