I suppose I should introduce myself...

I've been lurking for about a year, and recently decided to take the plunge and start posting. I feel like I know you all, but of course you don't know anything about me! I'm newbie author who hates my dayjob (the dogs are great, and so are the owners for the most part, Corperate, not so much) and I've come to the realization that I like writing and telling stories. So why not take the plunge and try to be a proffessional author?

Of course, that means actually finishing the dozen or so stories I've been tinkering with for years. And that's the part I need help with. I'm getting better writing, though. I've found if I stop for a day or two my word count when I start again goes down for a week, so my main goal right now is working on my keeping my daily wordcount up so I can actually finish things. Yesterday I actually wrote over 2,000 words! (silly thing to be proud of, I know, but it was a big improvement over what I have been doing for the last couple months).

Other interests... I like reptiles and birds, a lot. I've got an rescue iguana, a veiled chameleon, two Madagascar Rainbow Rocklizards (a small species of plated lizard...hense my screenname!), four English Budgies, three cockatiels, one Turquosine Parakeet, one black-capped conure, and a hamster. So, a bit of a full house, as you can see! The animals are, more or less, my life.

I like fantasy, mainly, with some romance. I also like manga, anime, and american comics, but I'm not interested in writing for those markets, outside of fanfiction. My main focus for writing is fantasy or fantasy/romance.

You guys are great! I visited this forum on and off for over a year, really (started whenever Atlanta Nights came out). Not sure if I originally came here through a link at Mrs. Giggles' site or if I got the link from FandomWank. Could be either, I guess. I have a bad case of trainwreck syndrome, but managed to branch out to other forums here.

Trust me PeeDee, nothing tops the introduction I got from a coworker a couple years ago ("Hi! I'm J----- and I'm a b*tch!" And she was, too!)

I have a pretty thick skin now, so no worries. Probably a good thing for a writer to have.

Man, I love all the emoticons here!