Happy Birthday

to
lady_vanhelsing!

The Cliffs of Insanitweets

( random mutterings of the mentally unstable )

Attention All Writers

There's a new person on LJ by the name of covermyscript. She's a script writer in Hollywood and is also an avid crafter. You guys should friend her and make her feel all welcome and shite. Skadoodle now! :)

In other news, I'm focusing my attentions on The Blood Crown today, but may have to work on the new...Date story that I shouldn't be writing, but am. I know the lucky girl's name (Ramona), but I'm not sure of her profession yet. It doesn't matter, since J meets her in a bar. Cadmus and Orphaeus will be given explicit instructions as to their journey to unearth the Apostate. Kelat's through with playing games. And so am I. I've spent all my time and energy on spreading the Joker Blogs around like warm butter to the detriment of my own projects. I think my job there is done, at least for a while. Time to get back to my own thang.

Happy Sunday, freaks! May the Dark Side of the Force be with you!

FAIL is my middle name.

It was brought to my attention that my link to dferguson's review of The Joker Blogs wasn't working. Actually, it was non-existent here. So I fixed that. In the meantime, you can read the review here: http://newyork.broowaha.com/article.php?id=4918 and then you can go watch The Joker Blogs because it would make Tin happy. And a happy Tin is a Tin that won't stab you with a spork.

If you need a chronology so you can watch the series in order and you're not keen on figuring it out at Blog Boy's You Tube channel, here's a handy-dandy episode guide.

1. Therapy Beings


2. Arkham Bound


3. Meet Steve


4. The Dark Night before Christmas


5. A Dream Come True


6. My Funny Valentine


7. Hypnotized


8. April Fooled


9. An Apple a Day


10. The Easter Charade


11. Artistic Merit

Now that I've made it all easy for you, I'm going back to writing. And scowling.

Old Family Pictures

I finally got my scanner to working, so I scanned some old pictures. Boy, is my family a motley bunch!

( old pictures.. )

It's now obvious to anyone why it is this place is called The Cliffs of Insanity.

Tin's Rules of Writing

I'm taking a break from writing because the words are starting to bleed into one another. Some of these are rules I adopted from other writers. Some are my own. They apply to any kind of writing, whether it be original fiction, fanfiction, or plain ole blogging. As far as I'm concerned, they're words to live by. These are in no particular order except for the first five. They're the most important. And that first one is actually a rule from Stephen King. You take his advice to heart.

If you have any more rules of writing, pass them on. I'm always open to new rules, even when I'm breaking them.

• Write what you know.


• Write from the heart.


• Be true to yourself.


• Take advice and give credit.


• Take nothing personally.


• Take nothing seriously, especially yourself.


• Let the characters inhabit you. It's dangerous, but necessary.


• Engage in dialogue with your characters.


• Act things out.


• Share with anyone who's willing to listen or read.


• Be humble, but take pride in what you do.


• Take pride in your work, but don't be an egotistical bastard.


• Don't go outside your comfort zone. Once you do, what you'll lose your ability to convince.


• Take breaks.


• If you can't write what you want to write, write what you can until you're able to write what you want.


• Read other people's stuff. Their stuff is just as good, if not better than your stuff, and writers have to stick together. It's a dog-eat-writer world out there. Learn from one another.


• Never dismiss a form of writing. Once you limit yourself, you lose much-needed cred.


• Listen to your characters and do as they say. Sometimes they know better than you which way a story needs to go.


• Have no shame and make no apologies. Your work is your confessional. Period.


• Consider every life experience an opportunity for source material. It makes all the bad crap better.


• Thank people.


• Be nice, even if it kills you.


• If you think you're going crazy, sit back and enjoy it. It keeps the writer bone honed.


• Engage people in the madness. Get everyone involved. And thank them for it.


• Always have your favourite beverage and food on tap, if possible.


• Always have a soundtrack. Writing is transcribing the movie in your head. It needs a soundtrack. Be your own Danny Elfman or Jerry Goldsmith or Nino Rota. You get the idea.


• When possible, prepare yourself. Things go quicker that way.


• Always have paper and pen on hand.


• Try to avoid interruptions.


• After letting the world in, once you actually begin writing, shut the world out!

Writer's Block: Set the Scene

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Anything that involves beautful bald men in long black coats.

Rancid Rainbow and the Joker Blogs

Okay, after passing out for about an hour sitting in front of the new Date story I'm writing for rancid_rainbow, I woke up and gazed with two bleary marble eyes at the screen only to find an announcement that the new Joker Crazy site had gone live! While i was sleeping rancid_rainbow was working, and she's done an incredible job of outdoing herself.

Check it out: RANCID RAINBOW.

Not only that, but she says I "wore her down" about The Joker Blogs and now lists them under 'The Loco Friends and Family' on the site, even making a page to call their very own. It can be found here: Joker Blogs ~ Loco Friends and Family at last! This just tickles me pink, and that's hard to do to a Sith, as we aren't very fond of pink. Anyway, everything having to do with the Joker Blogs will be filtered through that page now, so everything will be collected and treasured with a nice purple and green bow on top. That said, I'll be referring to the Rancid Rainbow site more often than not from now own, now that they have a home away from You Tube home.

So that gave me a major wake-up call and I'm back to writing. Thanks againrancid_rainbow! And, remember, I didn't wear you down. It was pure damned talent that did that. ;)

The Interview pt. 1

Okay, then, this story has been in the works for a while. It's a collaborative fic between myself and dandyxrandy. All the Jessica Striker bits are her, and all the Joker bits are me because dandyxrandy believes I am just *cracked* enough to convincingly "play" J. The narrative in between the dialogue is something we tried our best to merge our two styles into a seamless kind of stream of thought. Considering there's a considerable amount of years, miles, and chinks of sanity that separate us, I think we did pretty well. You be the judge.

Part two of this interview will consist of questions posed by a variety of Joker fans here on LJ and elsewhere. All questions will be credited to the persons who asked them. That'll be a load of fun, trust me. In the meantime, here's hoping you have fun with this one. dandyxrandy and I most certainly did.

( The Interview pt. 1 )

The Clown's Date

I swore I wouldn't do it. I swore up one wall and down the other. But I'm doing it. It's all rancid_rainbow's fault. I'm doing my level best to separate the various Joker's in my head. The Date Joker was always my fun Joker, so he was a little susceptible to the fun-lovingness aspect of Blog Boy, which didn't work on the J-erotica front. So I had to retire the Date Night series. But here I am writing another. I think I've successfully found a way to pull out my old J-ness without bringing the "little brother" aspect into it, so here's to more dreadfully delightful Date Nights, or at least one more.

Here's what I have so far. Inspired in part by all my J-fandom homies, but dedicated particularly to rancid_rainbow. It's been hella fun so far, as has almost all the Date Nights, "The Nun's Date" notwithstanding. Thanks to baxaphobia for lodging "My Sharona" in my head, thus the name of the clown ~ Ramona. You see where this is going and what J will be singing at one point in the tale. And thanks to lindsaybits, who sent me the song, which I'd lost when my last computer died. Love you peoples in a dedicated Sithly way!

( a sneak peek )