The Stats: Click around in this section to learn more
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NAME: Melissa BIRTHDAY: September 21, 1982 LOCATION: Buffalo, NY BLOG: Half the Sugar, Twice the Spice... TWITTER: Melissa921 FACEBOOK: Melissa Ann Byrd PHOTOS: Photo Album WORTH: $2,425,486 EDUCATION: Regents Diploma (2000) from Lancaster High School B.A. in Sociology (2004) from the State University of New York at Buffalo A.As. in Criminal Justice (2006) from the State University of New York at Erie RECKLESS ABANDON: Version 24.1 ONLINE SINCE: August 1999 HITS: READING NOW: great fan |
The Random Questions: as of 01.27.11
LASTS...
LAST KISS: New Year's kiss from Jeremy. Not excited, since we have the same taste in men...
LAST MOVIE SEEN (DVD): X-Men First Class
IN THE THEATRE: Breaking Dawn
LAST PLAY/MUSICAL: Wicked, Rent, Mamma Mia
LAST FOOD CONSUMED: This pretty awesome zucchini and pasta salad
LAST PHONE CALL: I never really talk on the phone
LAST TEXT MESSAGE: "Doing a sound chec tonite. Aaaannndddd... installing this large update so we have have to wait for it all night on Saturday." - Joe
LAST CD PLAYED: The Black Keys
LAST CONCERT ATTENDED: Kings of Leon
CURIOUS...?
HAVE A CRUSH: Good ol' Ben?
WANT TO GET MARRIED: Not a major concern
ARE YOU A HEALTH FREAK: Yeah right
GET ALONG WITH YOUR PARENTS: Always
MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY: Mom & Dad (30th anniversary next), 2 older half-brothers, one younger brother, 2 sisters-in-law, 2 nephews, 3 nieces
LIKE THUNDERSTORMS: They make me... yeah
CURRENT HAIR COLOR: natural brunette with serious reddish highlights
EYE COLOR: Dark brown
BIRTHPLACE: In the hospital.
FAVORITES...
NUMBER: 37, 51, 44
COLOR: PURPLE
DAY: Any one that I'm off
MONTH: Not sure
BAND: At the moment, the Black Keys
SEASON: Paprika
DRINK: Kiwi Strawberry Propel. Amaretto Sours. Watermelon Pucker. Jones Soda - Berry Lemonade, Cherry Vodka & Coke. Watermelon Vodka & 7Up
SPORT: To play - soccer. To watch - football
SPORTS TEAM: Buffalo Bills
RESTAURANT: The Thai House, Chili's, Applebee's.
FAST FOOD PLACE: That would be a tie between Tim Horton's & Burger King
BAR: Macaroon's. SkyBar. Buckin Buffalo... To quote Big & Rich "And Chippewa's where we go, when we're up in Buffalo, don't you know those yankees drink enough to drown." ... even though I am starting to get a little annoyed with that whole crowd.
MOVIE: Hmm...I can't pick one right now.
BOOK: Again, I can't choose one. You're killing me. Jane Eyre. The Gossip Girl series. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. Little Women. Dirty Girls Social Club. Anything by Joyce Carol Oates, Jennifer Weiner, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Terri McMillan, Marian Keyes, Mary Higgins Clark
TV SHOW: Here's where you learn that I watch waaaay too much TV (luckily some of these run during the winter and summer breaks of the others):
Sunday: Walking Dead, Against the Wall, Drop Dead Diva, Army Wives, Desperate Housewives, Leverage
Monday: Gossip Girl, 2 Broke Girls, How I Met Your Mother, Mike & Molly
Tuesday: Rookie Blue, Melissa & Joey, State of Georgia, Parenthood
Wednesday: Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, Psych, The Tudors, Awkward.
Thursday: Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Whitney, Suits
Friday: Degrassi, Supernatural
Shows that are no longer on but I own and do still watch: Gilmore Girls, Prison Break, Lost, My Boys
The History Lesson: Yes, there will be a test
Despite the fact that I keep getting nominated for Best New Author, I’ve been at this thing for awhile, as evidenced by the “since August 1999” above. Freshman year, I came across some Han-fic online. I don’t even remember how. Since I’ve been writing as long as I can remember, I decided to give it a try. I started a much different version of Love & Tears, and I shared it, chapter by chapter, with the Buffalo Scream Squad, our local Hanson Fan Club. I then started an Nsync story, which I believe I shared with five friendss.
Then in my senior year, in Computer Apps 4, I learned HTML. Forget that AOL Hometown drag-n-drop homepage, now I could actually DO stuff. I created a meager little page on Angelfire, which consisted of nothing but image links (that I created) to all my favorite sites, namely, the official sites of Hanson, Nsync, FuManSkeeto, the NY Mets, the Buffalo Sabres, UB, and links to the two sites I had also created with my stories: Together Again and the new version of Love & Tears.
Time passed. I started another story (it came to be called Dream Girl), which meant another Angelfire page. I added more pages to my main site, one being the story index page (“Mel-icious. On the web since August 1999”), which would link you to the three story pages. The index actually hasn’t changed since I first created it, with the exception of me adding a new story or changing the images.
By now, I’ve stumbled upon who would become my biggest influence, and my favorite fanfic author of all time, to this day. She was known as FictionLyn. All life as I knew it ceased to exist when I found her. I spent about two weeks trying to read the 3 epic novels she’d already finished, and then I hung on every week while she updated the next one. And the one after that. Considering she gave us a new chapter every 10 days, and each story was over 50 chapters, I lost over 2 years during her reign. She wrote these long, involved chapters, and you may notice that I do the same, which is why my updates aren’t as frequent as others.
I started another story, Then Came You. Along with it came another Angelfire site. In the meantime, my personal site was rapidly expanding. After JC’s debut solo album came out, I listened to “Build My World” over and over, eventually convincing myself that it would be a much better title than Then Came You. Yet another Angelfire page.
Then I hit the proverbial wall. I was working 45+ hours a week, going to school full-time, in my higher-level sociology and law courses, and I had no time for myself, let alone my writing and my site, and every time I tried to sit down and write something, I’d get one sentence and be frustrated because I didn’t know where to go with it. I’d lost the flow, I’d forgotten where a particular scene was headed, I hated what I was doing. The next blow: FictionLyn quit. She was tired. She felt like this was no longer fun; it was work. And while I cried for like an hour about it, I understood her completely. I’d been bombarded with requests for an update, to know what the hell was going on, and you can only repeat that life is too hectic so many times. I almost followed in her footsteps.
Twice.
By mid 2005, after having had all these different pages, some for 6 years, I decided I needed to get more organized, hoping maybe that would motivate me to get back in the game. I moved all my stories to my main account, jazzed up a nice (basic) layout to the fiction area, and I combined a lot of chapters, making 3-5 short ones into one long one. This made me feel productive, even if I wasn’t really doing anything.
Enter the Inspiration Awards and the Absolute Understatement Awards. One night I got bored, went through my favorites, found a story I’d bookmarked years ago, and saw nominations at some now defunct awards. From there I got to another defunct awards site, and then I eventually got to AU. I nominated myself, not expecting to win anything, just trying to get my name out there, maybe attract more readers. By now, I was sure even my oldest & most loyal ones had abandoned ship, and I couldn’t blame them. As it turned out, I either succeeded in earning new fans, or the old readers were still there. I swept Season 6 at Inspiration. I only got 3-11 at AU, but hey, it was my first time. I was elated, and now I was further motivated, especially after seeing what I was up against.
I bailed on Angelfire, set up shop at the Host Department (then moved to Bravent due to technical difficulties with Host Department), and started playing around with some cuter layouts. Now that I’m all settled in with my little fanfic community (yeah, that’s you ladies on that affiliates page), I’m inspired to write more, to update more often. I’ve never had a little colony of support like this, and it has made a huge difference in the way I view what I do. It’s not work; it’s fun again.