I'm sure he is and will be a recurring subject for the near future. I didn't know him at all, but I've been reflecting on him, FA, and my own life as a furry since hearing news of his passing, this morning. I don't have any conclusions, because I don't think death leads us to proper conclusions. It gives us questions and makes us think and feel things, and then we sit with them for a while and they either stop or don't.

I've been on FA for literally half my life. I'm 32, and I joined when I was 16. Even as I've stopped posting and don't interact to the same degree I used to, this site is still a recurring "location" in my life. It's shaped me, helped me understand who I am, allowed me to explore myself with little to no inhibition. In the back of my mind, I was always aware that Dragoneer was in large part responsible for that. He owned the site, and in many ways, I'm sure, was responsible for the curation of its culture. I wonder if he realized just how many little, yet completely essential and important, moments in my life he indirectly facilitated. It's a strange feeling, being made aware of how a single person can impact you so greatly, yet you know nothing about them--and they, certainly, know nothing about you. Not even your name.

This site helped me feel so much more comfortable in my skin, and helped me sort out so many questions about my identity. It was also pretty important in my development as a musician and writer, even if only to give me a place to display what I was working on. I was looking through some of my old journals before typing this one up. It's kind of mind-boggling to see one from 2011 where I talked about finishing my first original novel and all the feelings I had about it. I've been re-writing and revising that book for nearly 13-14 years, now, and it's just about ready for querying. How nice to be able to look back at where it started and how I felt. How incredible that I trusted this site to serve as a time capsule for those thoughts and feelings.

All of this is to say, I'm grateful for Dragoneer and this site. Probably more grateful than I can actually express.

I'm also hoping to become a little more active on it, again. I went through a period of several years where I thought it might be better to try moving on from being a furry. I don't really feel that way, anymore. I'm much more at peace with who I am, and I'd like to continue being that way. Which is, of course, something else Dragoneer is indirectly responsible for.

I haven't posted a journal in 4 years. Jesus Christmas.

Anyway, I'm 30 now. Have been for, oh, seven months.

Hope everyone is doing just dandy. It's been a wild ride.

The old-ocity is upon me. Ew!

So, first and foremost, I'm pretty much done with grad school, which means I'm done with school. Period, forever. I finished and submitted my thesis this wee (which was the first 150 pages of a novel). I won't know if I passed until October, but I have a very good feeling that I will. It's really awesome to be through with it after spending the last few months writing and revising over and over again.

Also, I was recently contacted by a literary agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd. He's interested in my work and wants to stay in touch with me. No official deals/offers yet, but the fact that a literary agent contacted me without my having even queried him was pretty shocking. I have to thank Columbia's Writing Anthology for that. Back in October I, along with all the other second year students, submitting a selection of writing, about 3-5 pages, to the anthology. It's primarily meant as a kind of "year book" for us to look back on, but it's also sent to agents incase they want to look at it. And, lo and behold, an agent really dug my writing. Hopefully something materializes out of our contact. We seem to have some similar tastes, so things are looking pretty good right now.

Jesus Christmas I've been on this site since I was in my mid-teens. What a weenie I am. Anyhoo, not much of an eventful birthday except that I had my last grad school classes ever. That was nice and very satisfying. Couldn't have really asked for a better last class, very confidence boosting and inspiring but in a way that wasn't too sentimental (not that that's a bad thing; it's just that this was useful in a practical way). Celebrated the b-day with fam over the weekend. Celebrating with grad school friends tomorrow. Things are going nicely.

Eight years? Ew.

I don't know what to put here because I'm so used to making belated anniversary journals. I suppose some kind of celebration is necessary? Yay? Woohoo? Get jiggy with it?

I guess I can do a general life update since I like never do those.

So, I'm in my last year of grad school. I'm working on the third draft of a novel. I'm feeling pretty good, all in all. I worked over the summer and really loved the job, though it stole much time from my writing. Trying to start writing another novel, soon. Probably spending too much time on prep work. I just kinda need to jump into it.

Yup, and this one was a big one. 222k words. 817 pages. 48 chapters.

This is a story that's extremely close to my heart, so writing those last words on the first draft was... something else. I finished it less than fifteen minutes ago, to boot, so I'm still feeling the ripples. I don't know if I have my thoughts totally organized, but I just know that I'm very emotional right now.

Just wanted to update this because whatevs. Wanted to talk about what I'm doing, I guess.

Working on a book right now. Breaking my personal speed records again, which is encouraging. If I'm going to have to work a real job while writing, being able to churn out first drafts in an efficient manner seems like an essential skill. I've been writing this thing for 13 days and have currently written 72,444 words. That about 36k per week, and thus far I've only been working 6 days a week (gave myself new years off, and spent last Tuesday in Manhattan to see an interview with a MacArthur winning writer).

So yeah, this has been a really enjoyable book to write. It is, again, a rewrite of the very first original novel I completed. This is easily the best version, bar none. This is the one I both finish and keep.

Good start to the new year, I'd say. :P

So back in late May I heard about a writer's workshop that piqued my interest. I found out about it like five days before the deadline and had to scrape my portfolio together, but I got in, and now I'm on UCLA's campus. It starts tomorrow. Only 16 people got in. I feel like the awesomeness still hasn't even hit me, yet.

So, this novel ended up being 107,097 words, 389 pages, and I wanna say... 23 chapters plus an epilogue? And all written in a month--really one day shy of a month :P.

So, yeah. I'm very proud of this. I really enjoyed writing it. There's a lot of messy stuff in it that needs editing, but there's also a lot of really good stuff in it. It's also the first book I've written in the first person, and the first book in a while where I didn't break it down into Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 etc. So this was a new experience for me in a lot of ways. And I'm feeling very happy right now.

I also I think I could use a bit of a break. Phew!

Aether Blade: 151,161 words, 559 pages, 30 chapters + epilogue

This thing took me almost nine months to write. Hot damn! Feels good to finally be done with it. But, alas, this is only the first in a series of books. I really need to start working on stand-alones. Sheesh!

Oh, and it's also the longest original novel I've ever written. Woo!

Earlier today I got a call from Columbia University saying that they wanted me in their creative writing program. :D So that's quite awesome!

http://freezeframefiction.com/read/.....david-bradley/

Woo it's very short.

Another short story of mine is on the way to publication. It'll be appearing in the January issue of Freeze Frame Fiction, and then it'll be published in an e-book in April. Yay!

But I wasn't as bad as last year. Only a few days late this time!

So yeah, been on this site for 6 years. Yeesh. I'm getting old.

The first draft, at least.

378 pages. 102,519 words. Written in just over a month.

Phew.

Can't write "the end" yet, though, since this is book one in a series of five.

Now onto planning the next project while I let this one sit.

http://thecornerclubpress.weebly.co.....sue13final.pdf

There ya go. My story is "Vile". You can find it in the table of contents, click the title, and it'll take you to the page where it starts.

So I graduated from college today. Yay!

Haha, so I can officially call myself a published author, now. :D My story "Vile" was accepted for publication by a non-profit e-magazine called The Corner Club Press. Much excitement ensues!

Where has the time gone?

I might not have forgotten this were I not so busy with school. I've got a 60+ page senior project I'm working on, regular classes, a social life to keep up with, plus I'm applying to grad school, which not only has an application process, but, since I'm hopefully going for creative writing, a portfolio, too. The portfolio is a bit stressful, but on the other hand, I'm being forced to edit my work a lot, so that's good. I'm usually a bit lazy when it comes to editing. lol

Hopefully they'll be in publishing shape when I'm done, too.

Got $200 for it. Very, very, very ecstatic at the moment.

Oh, and this might be late--quite late--but thanks for the b-day wishes. :D Been enjoying my new legal privileges.

Hurray!

It was three days ago; I forgot it again. Oh well. :P That's not really what I'm writing about, anyway.

So, I just finished book 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire--Dance with Dragons. I like it about 100x more than Feast for Crows, which I couldn't even finish. Lots of great development between characters and plot in this one. However, I still skipped over a lot of the minor character chapters, with the exception of Theon's, Arya's, and Ser Barristan's. I just can't get into Victarion and Asha and whoever the hell else he wrote about (as far as minors go). That said, I loved Jon, Tyrion, and Dany, no surprise. That said, again, I felt that, despite their strong character arcs, many plot arcs that needed resolution were not settled. I don't know why Stannis's battle is taking so damn long, and same goes for Meereen. Also, it's a bit unlike Martin to give a character a possible death and not provide the resolution (whether he/she died or not) by the end of the book.

Here's to hoping the next book arrives speedily.

It was September 25th :P Woo! Go me!

It's done for real this time, I promise. lol

So, about an hour ago I finished up the epilogue for my book, which, since yesterday, is titled Bringer of Storms: Brotherhood.

I managed to churn out two long-ish chapters yesterday, and did the very short epilogue just this night. So, now that the first draft (or draft 1.5, really) is complete, I have to go back and edit a bunch of crap. Hopefully I can get most of that done before September comes around and I start getting lot work from school. It's a bit of a stretch, but I managed to edit the first 3/4's of the book in less than a month, so maybe it won't be so bad?

Anyway, this marks my first original project that is not only complete, but satisfactory. I had like, three or four ideas that I tried to write, and they all sucked because I didn't think them through, and in one instance really tried too hard to be something I'm not. And then there's my four fan-fics, and my nanowrimo novel from last year, which was only kinda half-completed. :P I'm hoping that this can really turn into something good, something publishable, even.

I don't think I've ever really been this into a story before. Like, I'm really proud that I've been able to make these characters work so well, and that I've been able to think more when writing this story, and that I'm actually interested in going back and editing things to make sure that they're perfect.