I quite like Sherlock. Not only is Benedict Cumberbatch a great choice for the role, but the individual cases are usually interesting, if not quite as complicated as I'd like at times. Then again, I've only made it through the first and second seasons, so I may be missing some of the best.

Back on point, the series has a lot of great elements, but one of the ones I've found most attractive is the concept of the Mind Palace. I loved the concept from the show, and after doing some (very superficial) research into the ins and outs of its purpose and the method of using such, I decided I should have one of my own.

When I was around a year old my aunt Paula moved in with my mom to help take care of me. My sperm donor was never much of a parent, even then, and between me, her job, and a little sister on the way, she needed the help. To this day, my aunt has been a huge influence on me, both in the things I like and the way I see the world.

Part 2 of 3 of Phoenix Soars is complete! That's 2/3 of the story done!

Except for editing.

And the gaming session stuff I was supposed to write almost a decade ago.

ANYWAY.

Yes. Progress!

Melanie E.

The March 2016 "On An Adventure" contest is officially closed!

Entries are short, and the deadline is near.

I was going to ask if people wanted an extension, but eh, I'll just go ahead and do it. The March "On An Adventure!" contest deadline is being moved to the 19th, giving interested authors who have uncompleted stories an extra week to finish them, with votes likely being tabulated the 24th.

Please, more entries! Everything's been great so far, but a contest without competition isn't a contest at all!

Melanie E.

Thanks to how successful my last contest was, Miss Erin has given me permission to run another one of these things! As such, it is my pleasure to announce the BCTS contest for March 2016:

I keep the BCTS main page, as well as my own tracking page, open at all times, and routinely refresh them throughout the day to check for content. I keep the site's scaling slightly smaller than my monitor, though, so along each edge of the screen there's about an inch of the site's default background color.

Imagine my surprise today when I refreshed, and that went from a very very soft, creamy pink to a much darker maroon with dots!

After recovering from the surprise, I think I like this better though. It mellows the site's appearance a little bit. Good choice, elves!

So, if you've got a story for the competition and haven't posted it yet, I'm trusting y'all to get 'em in by Midnight (February 5th 2016) your local time zone. With the response we've had I don't see any reason to prolong the due date, especially after the idea being submitted garnered minimal concern.

Also, just a reminder: as of right now the prizes are:

Everyone who's interested in submitting a story to my mini-contest "The Crush" and hasn't already, fair warning: Friday is the final day to submit!

On the other hand...

Warning: word play ahead.

That is how many pieces of fiction I've posted to the site.

Of course, this is a bit selective. I skipped title pages, obviously, but I'm also not including things like the lyrics to the "Hollywood!" theme song (a story I still plan to write, one of these days,) the BC Chat Gaming posts (don't remember those? not surprising, nobody read them :P ) and similarly not-really-stories-but-in-the-stories-list-anyway bits. Likewise, it ALSO doesn't include blog entries or forum topics, both of which have seen short bits of fiction shared as well.

I had a user of the site (who I hope to see more stories from soon!) contact me about my last list of Rules for Non-Suck Writing and ask my advice about a couple of things. While I was talking to them I made an observation that stuck me as something that could be really useful to share with everyone else too, so I thought I'd add it here:

Rule 11: Every Character is Don Quixote

For those participating in the role-playing game tonight...

If you aren't already aware, the chat server for BC has changed to http://chat.bigclosetr.us/c/ . It DOESN'T auto-reroute you to a room, though, so you'll have to manually direct to the dungeon via the [/JOIN dungeon] command.

I'm heading there now, and I hope to see everyone for the game tonight!

Melanie E.

For many of us who've grown up primarily over the last 25 years, Satoru Iwata was an important figure in our lives. As a member of the team at Nintendo, and CEO, he's influenced a lot of us more than we may care to admit, and for many of us -- such as myself -- the products he's helped bring to the market have been one of the few things in life at times that helped us deal with the pain of transgenderism, adolescence, and just life in general.

I'm not sure what Satoru's stance on trans issues or LGBT stuff in general was, but it really doesn't matter at the moment.

On the one hand (and the more important one at that,) it's GREAT to have a job again, and I'm making more per hour than I've ever made before, with semi-stable hours to boot.

On the other....

I'm completely, utterly thrashed at the moment. As mentally ready as I was to get back to work, my body is definitely feeling it, especially after two six-day-in-a-row sessions virtually back to back. I'm sore, and I'm exhausted to the point that writing has been the last thing on my mind: heck, some days I've barely gotten out of my bed until time to go to work.