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  • cuddles5427cuddles5427 Posts: 101 Member
    @lisabee2 Your style of writing evokes so much emotion. I don't quite know how to describe it. It's a fun read because of this. The wording is never forced and it really reads as genuine. Was this coincidence (you just happen to always write this way) or is it intentional?
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  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    edited July 2016
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    My question for you who did you like and what can I do to improve my simlit skills?

    The challenge sound like loads of fun whether tweaked or original. I think I did have a soft spot for Giovanni. I find him to be a real colorful character. The things he did and the way you'd describe his actions and motives are just hilarious. Although that can be said about every character in the challenge as soon as they had the stage :)

    When you ask me how to improve your simlit skills, I do not know. I'm still learning myself about all things simlit and tend to shy away from rules on how it should be done since I feel that this can stand in the way of exploring where your creativity can take you. The first person ever writing simlit didn't have those rules, so why should anyone after that follow rules o set guidelines? There are some guides though on the forum, like @Julyvee94 's Quick Guide to Simlit among others.
    I guess there is no right or wrong way to portray simlit and when it comes to improving writing skills in general: I'm very intuitive and don't know much about the actual rules. Besides, I'm not an English writer by nature so I do not have any pointers for you there. Since I've been writing simlit I have been looking up things on grammar and such more than I ever did before. Though in conclusion, the want to improve, I guess, is the first step to the actual improvement itself.

    edit: added link
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    edited July 2016
    Twiggy wrote: »
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    My question for you who did you like and what can I do to improve my simlit skills?

    The challenge sound like loads of fun whether tweaked or original. I think I did have a soft spot for Giovanni. I find him to be a real colorful character. The things he did and the way you'd describe his actions and motives are just hilarious. Although that can be said about every character in the challenge as soon as they had the stage :)

    When you ask me how to improve your simlit skills, I do not know. I'm still learning myself about all things simlit and tend to shy away from rules on how it should be done since I feel that this can stand in the way of exploring where your creativity can take you. The first person ever writing simlit didn't have those rules, so why should anyone after that follow rules o set guidelines? There are some guides though on the forum, like @Julyvee94 's Quick Guide to Simlit among others.
    I guess there is no right or wrong way to portray simlit and when it comes to improving writing skills in general: I'm very intuitive and don't know much about the actual rules. Besides, I'm not an English writer by nature so I do not have any pointers for you there. Since I've been writing simlit I have been looking up things on grammar and such more than I ever did before. Though in conclusion, the want to improve, I guess, is the first step to the actual improvement itself.

    edit: added link

    AWW @Twiggy you made my heart glad when you pick Giovanni .. I always felt I did not give him enough attention but his LTW basically revolved around his work. <3

    Your point on "the rules of simlit" are very well made ... that is quite true :) I do love Julyvee94's Guide to Simlit
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  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    edited July 2016
    @cuddles5427 .. Quite honestly I think that is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said! I attribute my weirdness and lame sense of humor to having hung around Junior High and High school kids all of my adult life LOL (I am a youth Director - 27 years) They make you strange and if you are not quick they will have you for lunch :) After they "had me for lunch" a time or twelve I got smart and got quick.

    Just curious who did you like and pointers for improvement?
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  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    edited July 2016
    You're very welcome @lisabee2 I always like to bring a smile to one's heart

    How's everyone's reading going? In the roundabout coffee corner, this coming weekend, we'll handle the first 15 chapters of The Cat Chronicles by @mastressalita proceed with caution, two-leggers, for mighty Shadow's claws are sharpened :smiley: I'm looking forward to it!

    edit: oopsie, forgot to add the WP link
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    Twiggy wrote: »
    You're very welcome @lisabee2 I always like to bring a smile to one's heart

    How's everyone's reading going? In the roundabout coffee corner, this coming weekend, we'll handle the first 15 chapters of The Cat Chronicles by @mastressalita proceed with caution, two-leggers, for mighty Shadow's claws are sharpened :smiley: I'm looking forward to it!

    edit: oopsie, forgot to add the WP link

    I am ready .. I adore that kitty!
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  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    I was just stopping by to celebrate and share .. got my short story done for this month's short story contest. I hit a few road blocks so it is a minor miracle that it is finished! Fingers crossed!

    https://lisabeesims.wordpress.com/2016/07/29/grandmas-house/

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  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    edited July 2016
    Ah, well done! @lisabee2 Looks awesome but not reading yet. Am just about finished with mine and I try not to read other entries before I put mine in (when I do that is lol). Always exciting binge reading the entries afterward, though hehe

    Speaking of this month's challenge, though... Open with a close (a home makeover) :)

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  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    Hi, there! How are you all doing? I hope you are enjoying a simtastic weekend. The weather isn't as nice here as I would wish my twins but they sound like they're having fun nonetheless. Giving me time to check on you all here <3

    @mastressalita I've just reread the first chapters and can only say I adore Shadow and his Chronicles. I love the sarcastic undertone and the timing you use to create humor in the story. For instance on day 13 where Shadow shows off his new climbing skills and the little one unwittingly beats him at it and him then taking it out on that unsuspecting boy by pouncing him. And there is more I would like to share with you; as listed below :)
    • Reading your story I find it unique you write from an animal's point of view. This must appeal to every pet owner, simmer or not. It's clear to me where you find the inspiration being an obvious cat/animal lover but how did the idea to write a story from a cat's pov come to you?
    • It must be more difficult to introduce new people to the story. I love how you do this using Shadow's character. Over the chapters, the familial bond between the human characters is very obvious and even their emotional state is clear. Do you put much thought in how you introduce and portray these two-leggers?
    • Seeing the big family tree of the wrinkly one (Rose) I ask myself whether this is a family you played prior to creating the chronicles or did you create this family with the sole purpose of bringing us Shadow's story?
  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    Sorry for being so late on this, the migraine-beast is real... *just got up from a post-migraine catnap*
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    I kind of know who you liked best from our WP banter ... but I would ask you the same question, who did you like best and what can I do to improve?

    I love quirky characters, so I loved how each character had their own particular quirks. Ya, I'm pretty sure my comments made it clear I was quite a fan of Santa and Abe (and I think Sol probably would have also made my top three... oddly enough, I can imagine her easily getting along with my insane romantic murderess teen Cora Samaras, who is in my story Yandere Diaries).

    I have not been reading anything for the group ahead of schedule, so I can't really say anything concerning future works (and I know from re-reading mine how so many things have changed over time). For the Insane Asylum Challenge, I really loved the cast, but felt I didn't get to know as much about those characters as I would've liked. I'm wondering if there would've been little ways to reveal a bit more along the way, perhaps through dialogue/interactions between them. I know I at least would love to know exactly what was (presumably) said during that heated argument with the bookcase, or what went down during some of those fisticuff fights, etc. The hard part about this, of course, is then you have to determine voice and tone for eight different people... this is a problem I'm facing myself in my Yandere Diaries story, which is currently written first-person through one character's PoV, but I want to change it up and add dialogue to flesh out the rest of the cast so reader's will feel more attached to the other characters (as a horror story, I feel there isn't enough emotional impact when the characters get killed off otherwise). So that is going to be a huge challenge and undertaking for myself as well.
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    edited July 2016
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    Hey! Hey you! Have you read my story yet? You really should. It has my fine self in it, after all!

    🐸🐸🐸🐸 Shadow, stop showboating!

    I'm a cat, it's my job...

    Ya, ya, ya... You and every other cat are the center of the world. The scientists got it so wrong when they said the core of the Earth is molten. Clearly it is composed of cute kittens.

    I actually re-read Cat Chronicles Ch. 1-15 this week as well! Could've had a week off, but... I wrote this over a year ago, I figured it was probably time to revisit it. I'm surprised I didn't want to edit it to pieces, since that is how I feel about my other work, Yandere Diaries, I only made some small textual edits (typo corrections, a few kitty terminologies that slipped me by the first time, rewording a few lines that didn't sound quite right on the re-read, nothing major).

    What did really kill me were those eye-bleeding screencaps. D*MN. I will say this. a) I know they are horrendous and b) Over my last year of Simming, I have learned how to take screencaps that aren't so eyebleeding... sadly I don't think they are going to show up in Cat Chronicles until very late into the series, so you have a while more of enduring the cr*pshots, I'm so sorry. There isn't really anything I can do about the old, cr*ppy ones since Cat Chronicles is very much a game-play oriented story, not a staged story, so I can't just go back and "stage" replacement images that are nicer... it really bugs me! I worry a lot about it turning off new readers. -_-;;

    When I first started writing, I wasn't just new to SimLit, but also very new to The Sims (TS3 being my first game) and I wasn't really aware of many of the things I could do with it. I actually had a large slew of chapters written for Cat Chronicles and Yandere Diaries, over on Livejournal, with no readers, before I ever went looking for a community to share these stories with and try to get readers, so sadly so much of the story was already written before I found other SimLit writers and even discovered it was a "thing" so I could learn more about how to do a lot of these most basic things. Once I did find these forums last August (I'm almost at my year mark here now... I think it's next month on the 23rd will be my anniversary on these forums?) I found the Sims and Friends: Share Your Stories!! thread and I've learned so much there (@ValoisFulcanelli in particular was really nice about teaching a total newb like me how to do ridiculously basic camera things in the game... and continues to! I feel like I'm always learning new things I didn't know about!) Back then I never knew things like the command to hide plumbobs, that there were keyboard commands to control the camera (I have TERRIBLE mouse control trying to position the camera!), how to use pose mods, how to use moveobjects on to create "impossible" shots, and many other things. Not to mention just to be hyper aware about remembering to turn my walls up! Also, the very beginning of Cat Chronicles was written in-between me replacing my PC to one that can actually properly run TS3. The first chapter was on this oooooooooooold terrible video card, and it shows! (I have to laugh looking at it... I played TS3 on that thing? Dear lord, no wonder I got Save Error 12 constantly!) Several chapters after that were after the PC was replaced, but after I'd reloaded the game and all my backups (as I keep meticulous backups), I'd forgotten that I could actually change my graphic settings to something nicer and not lose game playability because of my new video card! I think it wasn't until Chapter 5 or so that I figured out my new video settings and the quality reflected the new card. OH MAN. Newb fails! Hahaha!

    @Twiggy : I'm glad that you enjoy Shadow! He is really full of himself, thinks the world should revolve around him, and has this really sardonic tone, but then... I think I was just trying to encapsulate what, to me, is a "typical cat." Cute on the outside but all about themselves on the inside. ^_^;; I'm obviously a big cat lover. I don't own one now (my apartment lease doesn't allow them) but I grew up with an outdoor cat named Tabby (many of the things referenced in my short story For the Love of Furbabies was based off of that cat) and I now have an orange tabby fur-nephew that I see whenever I visit my sister, named Meekus. (He really loves his auntie... just sayin'!)
    Reading your story I find it unique you write from an animal's point of view. This must appeal to every pet owner, simmer or not. It's clear to me where you find the inspiration being an obvious cat/animal lover but how did the idea to write a story from a cat's pov come to you?

    I'm hoping that it would have a more general appeal, though I find my non-Simmer friends (even my cat-owner/lover friends) are still hesitant to give it a look. However one of my followers on Wordpress is one of those Cat Photo blogs, so who knows! Maybe it'll get out there eventually. It's mostly Simmers that "get the word" about it, though.

    I can't remember exactly when or why I wanted to write a story from the cat's PoV. When I first got TS3, it was the a Base Game + Pets bundle, and as I was just trying to learn the game, I played a file that was my Simself living with an adopted gray tabby named Casanova (he always appears next to her whenever I use her for a holiday card, event, or short story... they just have to come in a pair in my mind, heh). I really loved playing the Sim+Sim Cat household. The thought of stories didn't come to me until later. At the time, my introduction to Sim stories was actually Let's Plays... I really enjoyed the stories about the Sims that I'd see play out watching LPs on YouTube. But I knew that wasn't something I could ever do (I don't have the equipment or personality for it). But I really wanted to share stories about my Sims that way. One day searching information about the Runaway Teen Challenge, I found a Wordpress blog for a story called Alice and Kev, which was your typical "screencaps plus text" SimLit style. That was my introduction to SimLit, and I realized that I could do that. I was pretty far in on the current challenge/household I was playing at that time and wanted to do something fresh, and I just knew I wanted to do the story of a cat living with an old widowed catlady, from the cat's PoV. Probably something about "cats and the Internet... it just makes sense!"

    If I think about it a bit further, I think that the Dear Kitten commercials were probably a big influence, though I didn't think about it or realize it at the time. Also in retrospect, when I think about Shadow's personality and tone, I think a lot of that comes from the fact that as a young child growing up in America in the 80s, I watched a lot of the animated "Garfield and Friends" television show, where Garfield was voiced by famous voice actor Lorenzo Music, where he really nailed that smarmy, sardonic tone perfectly. If you aren't familiar with it, here is a short clip on YouTube to see what I mean. He had a very unique voice that really got across that particular personality perfectly.
    It must be more difficult to introduce new people to the story. I love how you do this using Shadow's character. Over the chapters, the familial bond between the human characters is very obvious and even their emotional state is clear. Do you put much thought in how you introduce and portray these two-leggers?

    Unlike Yandere Diaries, which is sort of a blend of game/story-driven elements, Cat Chronicles is very much game-driven. I tend to just go into game and play and see what happens, so if Rose's family invites her over, I'll head on over. Or after Story Progression informed me that Senna had adopted a kitten, of course I had to go visit to see her new cat! (I mean, Rose wouldn't pass up the opportunity to play with another kitten). But it is difficult, because I am very dedicated to staying in the cat PoV, and Shadow is not going to be privy to any special information. I've read another story from a dog's PoV but honestly... it could be written from one of the human's PoV's, because this dog knows everything. He knows all about his humans going to work, and getting promoted, and moving house, and their love life, and their new babies, and their names... how would a dog know all this stuff? If you want to tell that much detail about your Sims, why use the dog character as your narrator? I do feel bad that I can't explore details about the Hatcher's lives and wonder how hard/easy it is to follow what is going on in the two-legger's lives through Shadow's eyes (this is why I often include the game information/story progression popups on a picture of Rose on the phone or reading a newspaper in the screencap image), but I try to stay very dedicated to the cat PoV in the writing and never make him privy to information he shouldn't know (names, things, places, events, etc). I guess in that regard, the life of the Hatcher's is happening much like picture-only "interlude" chapters where the reader is going to have to piece it together based on the images. (Though there are a few short stories later, Remembering Earl and Edgar Evans Award which are from Rose's perspective, which may help a few of you out if you are struggling to understand much about the Hatchers). Sometimes I wonder if I should add some text-only chapters from the two-legger's PoVs interspersed throughout but... ultimately I've always decided not to. After all, it is the cat chronicles, and thus, Shadow's view of the world.
    Seeing the big family tree of the wrinkly one (Rose) I ask myself whether this is a family you played prior to creating the chronicles or did you create this family with the sole purpose of bringing us Shadow's story?

    I created the whole family for the story! When I got the idea for the story in my head, that I wanted to write a story from a cat's PoV, and have him live with a catlady, I knew right away I wanted that catlady to be an elder. I feel like elder Sims are rarely represented in SimLit (it seems these characters only ever appear when younger Sims "age up" into them, but Sims "made as" elders don't get much representation, and I LOVE elder Sims!) When I knew I wanted an elder, then the idea immediately came to me that she could be getting the cat to deal with the loss of her husband. So then I started building the family, straight from CAS, all around that idea. I created Rose and Earl Hatcher as elders (and actually never knew how they looked young until I went back and made my Remembering Earl short story!) and then I made their children, Ashton (as an adult) and Senna (a young adult). I wanted Rose to be a grandmother, so I created a wife for Ashton, Melody, and a toddler daughter for them, Ivy. I split them all into separate households and just let them live their lives. I gave Earl three lovely days before I had to let him pass for the story to go as planned. Shadow was adopted in-game and thus was auto-generated by the game, and for the most part, didn't receive any editing from me. The only things I did was add a tail (in the adoption window you only see the cat's face so I had no way of knowing I was getting a bobtail or not, and I prefer long tails myself) and also in the preview he looked a lot more gray but turned out to be more of a ruddy Siamese brown color, so I just slid the color sliders more into the gray tones for his coat (admittedly, gray is my favorite color). The patterns and shading, face shape, his unique heterochromatic eyes, fur length... all of that was created by the game! (And I must say, he didn't turn out too bad. He's a sharp-looking cat). The reason I had picked Shadow in the adoption screen over Cayln (the other kitten available) was, oddly enough, the fact he had the Aggressive trait! I believe he was Aggressive, Hunter, and Adventurous as his default traits (he's since gained several others, like Neat and Playful). I felt like his starting traits really gave him a very distinct personality, and also screamed, "This is the kind of cat no one would ever adopt. Rose should give him a home." Cayln on the other hand was Friendly and Playful I believe, so my brain went, "It will be easier for her to get a home." (And she did... Rose's daughter adopted her a few Sim days later via Story Progression! I couldn't have planned that better myself).
    Post edited by mastressalita on
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  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    edited July 2016
    Sorry for being so late on this, the migraine-beast is real... *just got up from a post-migraine catnap*
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    I kind of know who you liked best from our WP banter ... but I would ask you the same question, who did you like best and what can I do to improve?

    I love quirky characters, so I loved how each character had their own particular quirks. Ya, I'm pretty sure my comments made it clear I was quite a fan of Santa and Abe (and I think Sol probably would have also made my top three... oddly enough, I can imagine her easily getting along with my insane romantic murderess teen Cora Samaras, who is in my story Yandere Diaries).

    I have not been reading anything for the group ahead of schedule, so I can't really say anything concerning future works (and I know from re-reading mine how so many things have changed over time). For the Insane Asylum Challenge, I really loved the cast, but felt I didn't get to know as much about those characters as I would've liked. I'm wondering if there would've been little ways to reveal a bit more along the way, perhaps through dialogue/interactions between them. I know I at least would love to know exactly what was (presumably) said during that heated argument with the bookcase, or what went down during some of those fisticuff fights, etc. The hard part about this, of course, is then you have to determine voice and tone for eight different people... this is a problem I'm facing myself in my Yandere Diaries story, which is currently written first-person through one character's PoV, but I want to change it up and add dialogue to flesh out the rest of the cast so reader's will feel more attached to the other characters (as a horror story, I feel there isn't enough emotional impact when the characters get killed off otherwise). So that is going to be a huge challenge and undertaking for myself as well.

    @mastressalita Yes I wanted to run a quick back story (it had happened months before I posted) .. bit I felt I need to give Snow a small spring board. Looking back into the story and trying hard to give each their moment was difficult .. esp since I knew some of them would never move on.

    I find dialog a challenge .. and I keep trying to branch out that direction as well. I also have trouble at times staying in the correct tense .. present ,,, past .. present .. past .. I slip around like a puppy on ice.
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  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    @mastressalita most of my comments shall be commentary .. I will try hard to think of questions. I love exploring the oft neglected elder sim. Although we see thru the eyes of Shadow (I roll when reading his assessments of situations ... OH MY) Your story is a very touching look at growing old and loneliness! You know I am a FAN of Rose! How a simple add of a furry friend added quality to her life is so charming! I absolutely love it when we view the world thru his little egocentric eyes ... we laugh be perhaps we recognize some reflections of our own selves in his word.

    I guess my only question would be .. do you know a RL Rose?
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    @lisabee2 : Aww, I'm glad you like Rose! I always feel like so much about her doesn't really get to come across since her story really is just images and not textual. Shadow is the narrator, and he really doesn't know about the struggles Rose has to face dealing with getting old, facing an impending end of life, knowing she'll be leaving her family behind, having dementia, missing her late husband, etc. He only knows she is a fabulous wrinkly woman who puts food in his dish and gives the bestest pets.
    I guess my only question would be .. do you know a RL Rose?

    She wasn't based on anyone in particular, though a lot of events in her life are based on events around my grandparents (though I never really realized it until thinking about it now!) My grandmother was widowed back in 2006, and I don't think she's ever been quite the same from it. She isn't really a fan of animals and never got a pet or anything... I sometimes wonder if things would be different for her if she did. My other grandmother, also widowed, got a little lapdog of a dachsund that I think has been really good for her as she's had to deal with kidney failure and constant dialysis... she's mostly immobile and I think it's a great comfort for her to have that cuddly little guy buried under the blankets on her lap while she reads or watches television.

    I know it doesn't happen in this set of chapters, but later Rose's granddaughter spends a weekend over, and that is based on my fond memories as a child of staying over at my grandparent's house. Before my family moved out of state, we lived in a house just around the corner, and I was always dropping in on my grandparents, and they never minded! I think that is why I placed Rose and Ashton Hatcher's family house pretty much across the street from each other.

    Thankfully none of my grandparents have ever had to deal with dementia or alzheimers, and I'm so greatful for that. I know Rose's dementia isn't too apparent from Shadow's eyes; it is reflected by her absent-minded trait (she often simply "forgets" actions I've asked her to do in the middle of doing them, and makes derpy faces a lot, heh). I think the only reason she hasn't burned the house down by "forgetting" she is cooking is because she is a Natural Cook but she forgets a lot of other things (like feeding Ginko, the goldfish...) My late grandfather's best friend, part of a couple that always came and played pinochle with my grandparents once a week so I knew them well, had very severe alzheimers. He passed away shortly before my grandfather. I don't remember ever seeing him after the onset, but heard a lot of stories from my grandparents about how the condition had been affecting him. He was no longer able to play pinocle with them anymore, because he couldn't remember what suit was trump or just keep up with the game. But they remained close friends to the end. My grandma and his widow are still close friends and meet for dinner weekly.

    I do deal with a lot of elderly patrons at my job as a librarian, and I really enjoy them. They are so sweet, they tend to come to the library pretty much every day, they have such stories to tell, and it's so hard when a patron you've known for years ends up in the obituaries one day.
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  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    edited August 2016
    @mastressalita It's wonderful reading your answers to last weekend's questions. Very insightful and relatable at the same time... That commercial is to die for, so cute and snappy. I totally understand how you got the idea now haha I haven't read your short story for July yet or that of @lisabee2 to be honest. Am planning to anyways. I want to get my votes in on time ofc

    I hope you enjoyed a great week, to u 2 @cuddles5427 @sweetnightingale and @writtenfae

    For any of you that do not know of the Monthly Short Story Challenges I just referred to, I recommend to check it out. There are a number of great short stories there to read up on and if you like it and/or the theme speaks to you, it would be great if you'll join in on the fun. This month's theme's just up on the thread and don't forget to vote if reading this month's entries ;)

    The second post is updated to inform every one of the selection of chapters to read (if you haven't already) so we all know what to discuss over the weekend in our Roundabout :)

  • sweetnightingalesweetnightingale Posts: 2,084 Member
    @Twiggy - Having a pretty good week so far, although mine started off at the dentist for my routine appointment. I hate going to the dentist but at least it's over for a while, and I have a light week so I can actually participate in the thread. I'll try to get some questions in for the discussions I missed and will get caught up as soon as I can. Right now, I'm reading the short stories selections so I can get my vote in.

    Speaking of the Short Story Challenge, I've got an entry for July if anyone is interested in reading it. It's on my Forever in Time blog and is called Daddy's Little Girl. You can also find it in the listing for July on the above thread that @Twiggy linked.

    Have a great week, everyone. :)
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    Since I entered Short Story Challenges "for fun" this month, that means I'm going to get way less reads this month... but c'est la vie. A lot of people will only read if you are in it "for the voting" sadly enough. I do really appreciate those folks that decided to check it out regardless! It was fun to get to write from Rose's perspective again, since I don't really get the opportunity to do that often and I really love her as a character.

    And yes @Twiggy , any time you are having a bad day, just binge-watch all the Dear Kitten commercials, they are great!
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  • cuddles5427cuddles5427 Posts: 101 Member
    @mastressalita You're story shows how it was influenced by Garfield. You found a very nice balance of being able to pull off a sassy/snarky cat without completely copying Garfield. This is a bit of an odd question, but since you brought up Lorenzo Music, who do you think would voice Shadow on his own show? I know it must've crossed your mind before.

    @Twiggy My week has been going pretty well. I'm currently organizing a Japanese workshop to try and get little kids from the community interested in different cultures and languages. I've also received part of thr award money I won for university. This means I can finally get a new laptop, the current one is around 6 years old. I'm mainly just trying to get everything together before university starts this month.
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  • sweetnightingalesweetnightingale Posts: 2,084 Member
    @mastressalita - I got through all the stories, yours included, but still need to get my votes in. I loved the creative way you did the acceptance of the award. Rose is such a sweetheart. :) I really do adore her and she and Shadow are a perfect match. I'm more of a dog person than a cat person, but I always get such a kick out of Shadow. LOL!

    I left a comment on your blog about possibly fitting one of both of Shadow's kittens in my story(ies). As I do Sims 3 stories, I'd be happy to take one or both and write them in wherever. If they're already spoken for, no worries. If not, here is where I think they could fit.

    Aurora in "Forever in Time" already has a dog. But in my other stories, there are no pets as of yet.

    For "As Tears Go By," Debbie will soon be moving house and is looking forward to getting into a bigger place. Nathaniel is about to age up into a child. Her relationship witb Terrill is going well, and life is treating her pretty good. She lives in Aurora Skies. She could adopt one of them, and Nathaniel would have a nice furry friend. As you know, Debbie's been through a lot emotionally, so a furbaby would bring her a lot of comfort.

    There's also Robin and Alina in "Another World." I don't believe you've read their story, so I'll give you a little background. Alina is Mathilda's daughter (you remember Mathilda from "Forever in Time."), who was thrown from Medieval times into present-day time by Mathilda, who needed to save her daughter's life. I won't give too much away because I don't want to spoil it. Anyway, she and Robin are looking forward to starting a family but it won't happen for a while. Since they are alone right now, a furry friend would be good for them. They live in Dragon Valley

    There is also Laban and Ileah, who are my founders for my story "Colors of Loving." I've just started their story with their wedding (you remember her as Lenora's fairy friend who had her own bachelorette challenge), and they live in a nice house in Sunlit Tides. They'd love an addition of a furkid to their household.

    I've also got "Marooned," with Lynette, but being as she's on a deserted island, she can't exactly get a cat mailed to her. LOL!

    If any of these sound good and you want to talk further, let me know. :)
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    @sweetnightingale : I'd actually never considered putting them in another game at first (figured I'd just plunk a donated Sim or a created Sim if a TS4er was interested into the world and move the kitten/kittens to those households) but I'm now actually quite liking the idea of them getting adopted outside of Appaloosa Plains! Any household you think would be brightened by a kitten is welcome.

    I am fine with cc, but not pre-packaged with a Sim. I typically take Sims as a .sim file (if they are .sim3pack, I will convert them to get just the .sim file and filter off any pre-packaged cc). If you have a list of cc they use, I will go through it and install it to the particular package files I use for hair, clothing, etc. I like going through the items, cataloging it, and knowing where it is coming from and where I installed it when I use it (I'm a librarian... I'm very particular about my cc organization). At the moment I don't have every EP/SP installed, and sadly, Supernatural is one of them. I know that's a problem since so many of your characters are fairies/other Supernatural races (I only have Late Night vampires at the moment).

    Also note since it is written from Shadow's PoV, he doesn't ever have special information about people, events, etc. He isn't going to know the names of these people. He will probably grasp to an extent what it going on, but omission of details kinda comes with his limited kitty view (I mean, he doesn't know the names of his own two-leggers, either). There would, of course, be that information provided and a link to your works in my author's notes, though!

    The two kittens were born just before Spooky Day in-game (I believe it was the day before) so they were given "spooky" name: Trixie and Boo (but they can be renamed using MC/CAS if you wish). Trixie is female and Boo is male. Trixie is the "more cute" of the two, to be honest, because her face takes after Shadow's in shape. Boo on the other hand is very much a momma's boy and has more of her unique squashed features (she's definitely a pound mutt that has some Sphynx in her facial features). I like to say it's "a face only a mother could love" and find him oddly endearing for that reason. (Makes me think of those ugly little dogs that are adorable for it). I can't remember which traits were on which kitten. I didn't alter them at all, it's just what they were born with... I believe one was born with Noisy and Playful and one with Friendly and Hyper? I'd have to double-check. They look so alike I still get them confused sometimes! (Shadow refers to them as two-paw and three-paw, since one has two black paws and one has three black-paws, hahahaha!)
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  • sweetnightingalesweetnightingale Posts: 2,084 Member
    @mastressalita - I'm so glad you're liking the idea. :) I just assumed you were looking for homes for them and since I'm a Sims 3'er, it would be easy for me to take one or both. :)

    Hmmm...unfortunately, I don't know where every single piece of CC came from (I go on download sprees sometimes and forget what came from where, haha), so I could just send you the Sims3pack and you can filter as you see fit. Since you don't have Supernatural, I can go into CAS and de-magic Alina and Ileah for you and even put them in base game or Late Night stuff if that will make it easier.

    Oh yes. :) I'm very familiar with MC so would know how to change names and such if needed.

    Right. Yeah, I see how the scope of certain things is limited since its from Shadow's POV. Sometimes it's easy to forget they're limited when describing things and that the storytelling would be very different when writing it from an animal's POV.

    I love your description of their looks. Have you ever seen one of the augliest dog contest? You're right about them being so ugly that they're kinda cute. Hehe.

    I was thinking that one can go to Robin and Alina and one can go to Laban and Ileah. I can try to get into game this evening and redo the Sim(s) you might need.
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    @sweetnightingale : I didn't know ugly dog contests were a thing! Oh man, I need to look into that. I had a coworker who sadly has left the library who was the biggest catlady I knew (she had like... 4 and somehow always kept ending up with more cause she had this huge heart and could never say no when a stray or homeless kitten ended up her way?) but she also had one really ugly dog. I think she was at the shelter one day and just felt so sorry for it because he was so ugly, she had to take him. Then we were all like, "We have to see pictures of this dog" and once you get over the first fit of giggles, it's like... he was just so charmingly adorable. He would've been a strong contender in such a contest, heh.

    The current EPs I have installed are WA, Amb, LN, Gen, Pets, Sns, UL, IP (I don't have any SPs). I have pretty much all store hair and clothes. I honestly have a feeling if I tried to stick a supernatural sim into my game without having that EP that the game would turn them into a human by default... though I've never tried it.

    I do have Boo and Trixie already saved as .sim files, as kittens (not sure how "old" they were at the time as kittens, and my game is on some pretty odd long lifespan settings, but nothing MC can't toggle around to a certain liking). After losing Shadow as a kitten because back then I didn't know about the "Save Sim to Bin" option, and not having the ability to "age down" a pet in CAS like you can with human sims, I had to go through heck and back to get a kitten Shadow again for my short story last month, so I learned the hard way to always back up my pets in the kitten/puppy/foal lifestate, hahahaha!
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    @cuddles5427 :
    You're story shows how it was influenced by Garfield. You found a very nice balance of being able to pull off a sassy/snarky cat without completely copying Garfield. This is a bit of an odd question, but since you brought up Lorenzo Music, who do you think would voice Shadow on his own show? I know it must've crossed your mind before.

    The funny thing is it was never intentionally meant to be inspired by it... I actually haven't read the comics much, and I wouldn't really equate a lot of the humor much to Davis' style of humor from what memory I do have of the comics, but yes, when I thought back in retrospect about Shadow's tone and style of voice, I kept thinking about Lorenzo Music from the "Garfield and Friends" television show I watched every Saturday morning when I was a young child! So I know I must have been influenced by that performance, at least subconsciously! I guess it just left this great impression in my young mind. (To be fair, it was an amazing performance and it seems every iteration of Garfield since then has tried to mimick it and never quite gotten it the same as the late Lorenzo Music).

    I do hear a very distinct voice in my head when I'm writing Shadow, though I've never really pegged it to any particular person... It just always sounds very flat and deadpan actually, hahaha! Like he'd be the tsukkomi in an Osaka two-man comedy act. I guess I'd have to really think about it to try to think of an actor that could pull of that particular tone just right... I'd say something like the late Alan Rickman but without the British accent, perhaps. That sort of gets across that flat, deadpan, but at the same time smarmy and sardonic tone to me.

    Oddly enough, I always joked that my childhood cat, Tabby, was the "James Earl Jones of cats" because unlike every other cat I've ever heard, which always has this cute little high-pitched mew, he just had this low, deep, bellow of a meow! I can still mimick it perfectly. It was the strangest meow I've ever heard, and I still to this day have never heard another cat that sounded like he did.
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  • sweetnightingalesweetnightingale Posts: 2,084 Member
    @mastressalita - Oh, yes, there are ugly dog contests, believe it or not. Hehe. I always end up cracking up when I see one because there are some REALLY ugly dogs competing. You just have to smile and say, "So ugly but cute," and then wonder which one will win. I think you'd get a kick out of seeing one.

    That ex coworker of yours sounds like she has a heart of gold, and it sounds like you really miss seeing her at the library.

    Well, I can try sending you the original Sim and see how your game takes it. I'd think that if they're wearing something you may not have, the game will replace it with some sort of default. What I'll do is PM you with some pictures of how they look in my game and then you can go from there. I can try to get started on it tonight, tomorrow for sure, and see how it goes. I'll send you the Sims3pack and then you can filter as you need to. :)

    Awwww yeah, it's a pain when you need to age them down. I've not had to do that yet but I'm constantly using the Save to Bin feature and backing up like crazy. I don't want to find myself in a box with no way out. LOL.

    Let me know when you're ready for me to download the kittens to my game. :)

    BTW, I know you like to color. Do you have a favorite coloring book? I picked up some of the stained glass ones recently and am looking forward to doing some pictures in them.
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    edited August 2016
    @sweetnightingale : I'm sadly a bit behind in chapters on that story (*cough* migraines *cough* ) but seeing has a have a HUGE NOTE written to myself on the NoteTab where I type up my Cat Chronicles that says "KITTENS AGE UP IN SIX DAYS!" I'm just trying to milk as many screencaps as I can in that time (I already checked off one kitten-centric chapter idea since when I showed up to the Great Cat Roundup it appeared none of the other townies -- nor their cats -- felt like braving the snow to attend, hahaha! So funny how sometimes I'll expect one thing out of a chapter, and end up with something totally different, but that's part of what I love about the flexibiity and openness of the Sims, and why it will always be my coauthor; I just see what it does (or doesn't) give me and go from there!) Basically once I catch the screencaps up to milk a few more ideas with the kittens in the house I'll adopt them out. With only 6 in-game days left, that's "right around the corner" (granted, with my head as it is, I don't get to play as often as I'd like!)

    As far as coloring, right now I have an odd assortment of coloring books! I grabbed two sort of generic books just starting out that have animal, paisley, and mandala patterns in them, and lately have been working on mandalas in the back of one of them (I find an odd zen fascination in laying down all the color for the main pattern, then going through and finding all the matching patterns to fill in the same colors). I also have two coloring books that are geared right to my interests! One is pictures of Cats on Quilts and another my friend from my anime IRC channel (not my BFF, but another chatter there) actually self-published of his own mermaid artwork! I actually collect mermaids so I was a big supporter of the project when he said he was going to go for it, so of course I had to buy a copy. A have dozens of others saved to my Amazon wishlist as I browse and see ones that look fun and I often print out sheets from the Internet whenever something catches my eye. I really wish I could figure out the proper Japanese term for coloring books so I could searching amazon.jp as well, since I'd like some anime art ones and there are hardly any like that on regular Amazon.com. If I were you I'd play on Amazon searching for some of your favorite things... for example, if you like stained glass ones, here is a Dogs Stained Glass and they have other dog-themed books as well. Or perhaps I Dream of Yarn: A Knit and Crochet Coloring Book. I find the hunt part of the charm, hahaha! (Maybe that's part of the librarian in me?)

    So I am off today to head up to Boise to see my sister... we are going to the show of Drag Queen Latrice Royale and I'm so excited! Last December for the Short Story Challenges thread I wrote a short story, Resolutions Resolved, based in part about my own personal experiences, about a young girl overcoming her body issues by seeing the beautiful "large and in charge, chunky yet funky" Latrice Royale on television, who is gorgeous in her plus-size skin and has just as beautiful of a personality to match. This person really changed my life for the better, so I'm still in kinda a state of shock I'm going to get to meet her tonight! And I might just be fangirling just a bit. ^_^;;
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