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  • sweetnightingalesweetnightingale Posts: 2,084 Member
    I realize that @Twiggy hasn't officially opened up the weekly discussion, so I hope it's okay if I go ahead and post my questions and thoughts regarding Shadow Kitty.

    I'm not really a cat person myself but I find it so endearing and cute to see the story through Shadow's eyes. It's not easy to pull of a story in the POV of an animal and not make it sound larger than life. I know if it were me, I'd have a hard time not "humanizing" the animal in a non-realistic way. OK, I realize that this would have to be done to a degree since an animal really can't tell a story. But, I know I'd struggle to keep the animal to their true nature and not make them "magical" for lack of a better word. @mastressalita , as you write Shadow, do you find that you struggle with this element or is it fairy easy to keep Shadow as an "ordinary" cat?

    Shadow's family is growing. :) Did you plan for him to be a father when you started your story?

    Shadow's story is very different from your Yandere Diaries? How do you balance it out between your two stories? Do you have a schedule for writing/uploading or do you work on one of the story when a particular mood strikes you?

    I'll post more questions or thoughts if I think up any more.
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  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    I confess that the story of Shadow and his "wrinkly one" is one of my favs :) I love how @mastressalita "flips the camera" on it. All of a sudden we are seeing from a lower and simpler perspective. Shadow is a wonderful character and precious wrinkly one allows him his idiosyncrasies LOL I too would ask how you keep from over complicating him .. in essence humanizing if you will? I imagine you know cats very well to be able to do this :) I cannot wait t see where parenthood takes him LOL
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  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    @Twiggy I do try to stop in every few days. I keep totally up on my reading (now that I say that I will fall away) but like @sweetnightingale prompted I need to be more proactive in speaking to what I was reading. As for posting I do come in with my stories . but I have been on a bit of a slow down as I flip gears in my story. I did not post my short story because there was some scuttle about me "asking" for votes and I did not want to cause any controversy. BUT I am here to be supportive :)
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    Twiggy wrote: »
    I've noticed messages on WordPress are not getting through on some pages, like yours @writtenfae and @lisabee2 There will be quite some older messages waiting in the spam box to approve, I suppose. Would you be so kind as to check? I naturally don't want you to think I only like your chapters and never comment on the ones I've read :'(

    OH I did not know there was a spam box ... :(

    Here, @lisabee2 , I shall teach you how to check your spam box, so comments from your friends don't get lost there! Sadly, it can happen, because Wordpress isn't perfect with its spam filter. (And I find this is even more likely to happen to those folks with a foreign IP addresses, like our friend @Twiggy who lives in the Netherlands! Poor Twiggy...)

    tut1.jpg

    First, look on your site and see if you can find a link to your Site Admin section on Wordpress. If you can't find it located on the front page of your site, the url https://lisabeesims.wordpress.com/wp-admin/ should get you there, as long as you are currently logged into your Wordpress account.

    tut2.jpg

    Scroll down on the sidebar of the page and look for "Comments" and click on that. This will get you to the area where you can perform maintenance on the comments on your site.

    tut3.jpg

    The two sections you need to check for "hidden" comments are Pending and Spam. I have my Wordpress set so all my comments get immediate approval and don't go into a Pending status, but MOST people use the default setting, where they require approval the first time someone posts, so there may be comments stuck in your Pending section that require your approval. Also, sometimes false positives can get filtered into the spam section, so comments made by friends might be left in there. Looks like I have three items in my spam section; I better check them out!

    tut4.jpg

    Rats... all three of them really are spam! You can click the checkboxes beside a message, and then pick from the drop-down menu an option you want: "Not Spam" or "Delete Permanently". If you have "false positives" in your spam section (comments from your simming friends), then checkmark all of those, mark "Not Spam", and hit the Apply button, and they should get released onto your site. Any messages that are spam, mark the checkboxes, then pick "Delete Permanently" and hit "Apply" and they will be removed out of your spam filter.

    @sweetnightingale : Did you miss out on my post when I read As Tears Go By a few weeks ago?

    I'm still in a post-vacay haze and (slowly) getting caught back up. I got hit with a very severe migraine yesterday that hasn't helped much (if pain levels are supposed to be measured on a 1-10 scale, this one was a 15... there was a moment when I asked myself if I should go to the ER, at about the 12 hour mark into the migraine). Always such a relief once that has lifted! So today I've just been sipping tea and vegging. I'll be getting to @lisabee2 's stuff momentarily as I was out of town last weekend when it popped up in the rotation (I did get the reading done ahead of time, though!) and then moving on to posting cute kitten pictures. ^_~ With probably several tea refills in between. (A person can't have too much tea, right? I'd hate to think I have a problem...)
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  • sweetnightingalesweetnightingale Posts: 2,084 Member
    @mastressalita - You know what? I saw it when it first went up and did my happy dance. :) Then, things got crazy hectic and it totally slipped my mind until yesterday. O_O but I AM going to get that up this evening. I'm so sorry I flaked. I'm so honored, so my sincere apologies that it's taken me so long.

    I'm sorry you had such a severe migraine. I can't even imagine what you go through on a daily basis, and my heart truly goes out to you. I'm glad you didn't have to go to the ER and you deserve all the tea you can drink. :)

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    Simming With Sweet Nightingale.Forever in Time, Short Stories, and much more
  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    @lisabee2 :

    I really liked that Snow's transition into the world outside of the Asylum had a few bumps and wasn't nice and smooth, as I can imagine it would be quite a culture shock coming from being institutionalized for a while to suddenly having this world that isn't so constrained (and is less insane in some ways, and MORE insane in others!) coming at you in all directions. There were little sparks of that insanity still there which I liked (her nude escapades right after leaving the asylum, heh) and then how things which would seem so mundane, like cooking dinner or dating, could present a real challenge (no Snow, not Don Lothario!)
    Twiggy wrote: »
    Just as you think 'this girl will end up all alone' :( Prince shows up, YAY! I like the twist and background story of Prince Charming and Snow White. It really gives their romance so much depth. Besides it is always wonderful to see elder sims enjoying each others company. Was it a deliberate plot choice beforehand to have them meet as elders?

    I enjoyed seeing the ghostly pink love too btw. It reminded me of the Von Haunt Estate's ghost couple. Seeing them in these different stages I had been wondering about the kingdom. What would happen when they die and there is no heir? So fun to see in the end they eat the ambrosia. Now I want to read Redux and see how they fair as YA's :smiley:

    I also really enjoyed the backstory! I'm glad that @VIRTUALEE gave you that nudge because I'll admit that when I read the initial chapter when they met, I thought it was just a bit too fairy tale easy, but once I saw the history behind it, the spells on the beach, that all gave it real meaning. Without that backstory, I really don't think it would've held up the same way... sure, one could write it off as "it's a fairy tale, love at first site!" but it wouldn't have the same impact, and that impact is what made the rest of the romance have the sort of charm that it did, you know? That chapter was absolutely crucial, in my opinion! (and it really had some wonderful visuals, too)

    I talked in great lengths about this in the comments on the blog, but for the sake of everyone else here (and perhaps we can get a wider discussion going about this, for those interested), I'm personally glad that it strayed from the typical "boy meets girl" and had the couple finding true love in their golden years, because I find in my own readings that it seems elder Sims are hardly ever explored (it seems to me that the only time elders ever appear in stories is if they are the YA founders after they have "aged up", etc. but very few people create Sims in the elder state, or specifically write a story that focuses in on the elder characters... they are always just "in the background" while the YAs/As and younger folks do their thing). As a huge fan of elder Sims (I daresay that is my favorite lifestate) I really enjoyed this choice... and weren't they just the cutest? It just goes to show that age doesn't matter when it comes to love! I think sometimes Simmers get a little too focused on the "nooboo" aspects which is one reason why they write elders off, and forget what rich, fulfilling lives they can have.

    One of the things we discussed in the comments, and I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, is how many Simmers under-appreciate elder Sims to the point that they purposefully "cull" off that population, or shove them all in a single household and wait for them to die off, etc. I of course also have a story with an elder main character, so it always disheartens me to find so many players feel this way. I've also heard writers say, "Well, I don't play them because they just aren't relatable." But, as a writer, isn't it always a challenge to try to write varied characters to the best of ones ability, even if it may be out of ones comfort zone? For me, I can't relate to children well at all, but still do my best with children characters (whether I hit the mark or not is another matter!) To avoid a whole age group just because you are a younger writer... I don't know. Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on this or the elder Sim in general they feel like sharing?

    You know, I'm a bit curious what things would've been like if the ghost portion of the love story had gone on longer... I don't think I've seen a love story with two ghost Sims before, only ghost/human! I loved the fact they married again because it was only until "death do us part"... that line really stuck with me! Maybe a Halloween spin-off series of Ghost Snow and Prince? Hahaha! ^_~

    Was there anything that really surprised you when you were playing that portion of Snow's life, @lisabee2 ? Did you know right away that you wanted to do Redux (felt that hankering for a classic legacy), or did that almost feel like more of a choice of giving the readers the "classic boy meets girl" story since so many readers in the comments seemed disappointed they met as elders?
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    edited September 2016
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    Two reasons to read my story this week.

    Geez Shadow, spoilers!

    Who cares? Kittens. Your argument is invalid.

    Daaaaaaw... they are pretty durn cute, aren't they?
    As you write Shadow, do you find that you struggle with this element or is it fairly easy to keep Shadow as an "ordinary" cat?
    I too would ask how you keep from over complicating him .. in essence humanizing if you will?

    I do find that in most children's movies with "talking animals" there is little about them, other than them being an animal, that really makes them an animal rather than a human. The way they talk and refer to things, the kind of knowledge they have, is almost entirely "human" (they know the names of all the humans and other animals in their lives, and pretty much any odd human gizmo you can think of, whether it is something that animal would even use/have contact with or not). Understandably I get these films are for kids and the idea is to "write down" and not "overcomplicate" such things, so I guess it never really seemed strange... until I started writing this story, where I really tried to get into the mind of a cat, and tried to wrap my head around what kind of knowledge of the world might a cat have.

    The hardest part is trying to keep vocabularly down to basic terms that (at least to me) don't sound too "foreign" or "human." Shadow thinks of things as "high places" or "comfy spots" not as chairs, couches, tables (or, he may just think of that table as a scratching post, if that happens to be its use to him. ^_~ ) Likewise, I don't have him privy to any proper nouns, rather, he has his own specific names that he knows particular people and animals by. His owner Rose is the Wrinkly One, her granddaughter Ivy is the Little One, his mate Cayln is his spotted queen, his kittens Trixie and Boo are two-paw and three-paw (after the number of black booties they have, hahaha), the Miller's cat Mozart is the tuxedo, the dog that lives with Rose's son Ashton's family is the Scotty, and Ralston Schmidt, the poor abused German Shepherd next door is usually "that d*mn mutt" or something to that effect, hahaha. It can be challenging to keep things to "kitty terms," and sometimes something slips by that I later think would be better described in a different way, so I have made a few light edits here and there, particularly to early chapters when I was really getting the paticulars of Shadow's tone down.

    Some time after I had started Cat Chronicles, I began reading a 100 Puppy Challenge, which was written from the Momma Dog's PoV, but the way it was written, this dog could easily be a "human" character. She can narrate all the goings on of her masters lives, and in the end, the result to me feels like, "Well, why use a dog then rather than the owner?" I still follow that story (I mean, cute puppies!), but it did really make me make sure to be careful to watch my PoV; if I have to ask myself, "How would Shadow know that?" or "Why would a cat care about that?" then I typically change the line. And I really hope there aren't too many instances like that which slip through. Of course, I do have to slide in a few questionables a bit just to give the readers a few glimpses into what the Hatcher's are up to, because in all honesty, if I was 100% faithful to a cat PoV, the cat would probably not give two l*cks at all what they are doing, hahaha!
    Shadow's family is growing. :) Did you plan for him to be a father when you started your story?

    Not exactly. I don't really plan anything ahead of time in Cat Chronicles, to be honest! It's a very laid-back kind of story, where I just go into game and see what brews. But I did have an inkling, since it was going to thoroughly explore this cat's life, that kittens were probably going to happen at some point.

    The one thing I did really waffle about was moving Senna and her crew of cats into the household! (I mean, that's a lot of cats to contend with!) In the end, the reason why I did so was because I have my fears of losing Shadow when Rose passes, since you can't have a "single Pet" household, and I don't know what the game would do to Shadow then -- having Senna around, I know he'd be okay. So she moved in to help her elderly mom who is having a hard time with her dementia out. With her cat and two kittens. Sometimes I feel like I'm tripping over cats, hahaha!
    Shadow's story is very different from your Yandere Diaries? How do you balance it out between your two stories? Do you have a schedule for writing/uploading or do you work on one of the story when a particular mood strikes you?

    It is very different! Night and day as far as theme (cute and fluffy family-friendly vs. dark and mature romantic murder mystery), and while Cat Chronicles is very laid-back and not very plot-driven (what I like to call a "dessert read"; sweet, but not very filling), Yandere Diaries is very plot-driven, where I have certain arcs in mind, and certain plot points that will make reappearances (though it isn't so tightly scripted that I can still allow the game to heavily influence how certain events turn out and throw curveballs at me, which is one of the things I love about writing SimLit). I really wanted to start writing Yandere Diaries because it was something so thematically different; I love cats and all, but I have a strong penchant for the macabre as well.

    When I first started writing the stories I was alternating chapters on a daily schedule, until that became way too much for me and I needed to back down. Yandere Diaries has been on hold for a while, but I intend to start working on a rewrite (mainly on writing style, though the overall plot will remain the same). For a long time, because Cat Chronicles tends to get more views/comments, was to always put my priority on it, since I have so little time to update my site, but lately I've come to have a lot of respect for the "silent readers" and realize that mature works, by their very nature, are just going to have less vocality in general and I need to create a better balance (plus, I miss that crazy Cora). So my plan for the future, if my head will allow it, is to try for two updates a month: the short story challenge story, and Yandere Diaries or Cat Chronicles on alternating months. I updated Cat Chronicles in August, so I'm aiming for a re-write of YD Ch. 1 this month. I have no idea if I've set the bar too high cause my head is a troll, but I'm going to try. ^_^
    I confess that the story of Shadow and his "wrinkly one" is one of my favs

    Aww, thank you.
    I love how @mastressalita "flips the camera" on it. All of a sudden we are seeing from a lower and simpler perspective.

    I've tried to get better with my camera perspectives in later chapters. They are really bad in the beginning! @ValoisFulcanelli helped teach me keyboard commands to really help me properly sink the camera right down to the floor to get much better angles from that kitty view!
    I imagine you know cats very well to be able to do this

    Heh, I grew up with an outdoor cat, and I can't help but see a lot of him in Shadow (he was quite the mouser and had quite a feisty attitude with the neighborhood dogs... he only lost a fight once, but landed with a pretty bad injury as a result!) Maybe that's why I had that soft spot for the Aggressive stray? I also have a fur-nephew that is an indoor cat and spoiled rotten. But I actually don't own a cat now, I've had a bird for the last 17-18 years or so! (My current apartment doesn't allow cats, alas). One day I hope to live somewhere that I can have one. Life goals!
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  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    Twiggy wrote: »
    I've noticed messages on WordPress are not getting through on some pages, like yours @writtenfae and @lisabee2 There will be quite some older messages waiting in the spam box to approve, I suppose. Would you be so kind as to check? I naturally don't want you to think I only like your chapters and never comment on the ones I've read :'(

    OH I did not know there was a spam box ... :(

    Here, @lisabee2 , I shall teach you how to check your spam box, so comments from your friends don't get lost there! Sadly, it can happen, because Wordpress isn't perfect with its spam filter. (And I find this is even more likely to happen to those folks with a foreign IP addresses, like our friend @Twiggy who lives in the Netherlands! Poor Twiggy...)

    tut1.jpg

    First, look on your site and see if you can find a link to your Site Admin section on Wordpress. If you can't find it located on the front page of your site, the url https://lisabeesims.wordpress.com/wp-admin/ should get you there, as long as you are currently logged into your Wordpress account.

    tut2.jpg

    Scroll down on the sidebar of the page and look for "Comments" and click on that. This will get you to the area where you can perform maintenance on the comments on your site.

    tut3.jpg

    The two sections you need to check for "hidden" comments are Pending and Spam. I have my Wordpress set so all my comments get immediate approval and don't go into a Pending status, but MOST people use the default setting, where they require approval the first time someone posts, so there may be comments stuck in your Pending section that require your approval. Also, sometimes false positives can get filtered into the spam section, so comments made by friends might be left in there. Looks like I have three items in my spam section; I better check them out!

    tut4.jpg

    Rats... all three of them really are spam! You can click the checkboxes beside a message, and then pick from the drop-down menu an option you want: "Not Spam" or "Delete Permanently". If you have "false positives" in your spam section (comments from your simming friends), then checkmark all of those, mark "Not Spam", and hit the Apply button, and they should get released onto your site. Any messages that are spam, mark the checkboxes, then pick "Delete Permanently" and hit "Apply" and they will be removed out of your spam filter.

    @sweetnightingale : Did you miss out on my post when I read As Tears Go By a few weeks ago?

    I'm still in a post-vacay haze and (slowly) getting caught back up. I got hit with a very severe migraine yesterday that hasn't helped much (if pain levels are supposed to be measured on a 1-10 scale, this one was a 15... there was a moment when I asked myself if I should go to the ER, at about the 12 hour mark into the migraine). Always such a relief once that has lifted! So today I've just been sipping tea and vegging. I'll be getting to @lisabee2 's stuff momentarily as I was out of town last weekend when it popped up in the rotation (I did get the reading done ahead of time, though!) and then moving on to posting cute kitten pictures.
    ^_~ With probably several tea refills in between. (A person can't have too much tea, right? I'd hate to think I have a problem...)

    OH TY TY TY @mastressalita that was so helpful .. I had so many!!! LOL goodness .. and yes @Twiggy yours were all there :) AND nope never too much tea :) Enjoying a little Ginger Lemon Tulsi even now!

    13903248_10210828397774600_2195541652066745033_n_zpsactqrivs.jpg
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  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    As promised I put my two cents in about Shadow, be it late. The questions already posted here are great and I'm about to dig into reading your answers @mastressalita But first, here are my questions to you :)

    What I, as a cat owner and enthusiast, really like to see is that you catch the fine line between respect for the two-legger for taking care of the cat and the sheer discontent about the way the cat is being cared for perfectly. Although it provides chapters with so much humor, isn't it hard sometimes to write with such pride and arrogance when speaking from Shadow's pov?

    I've read in earlier posts that you and sweetnightingale are talking about pet adoption for the kittens. I am keen to see the kittens going to good homes. Will this be featured in the CC and do you have ideas yet on how you will weave this into your story?
  • sweetnightingalesweetnightingale Posts: 2,084 Member
    @Twiggy - I'm glad you brought up the pet adoption between @mastressalita and me. That reminds me, I owe some de-CC'd Sims to @mastressalita , which I'll be getting over to her in the next day or so. I'm sure she'll explain more on what we're doing with me following her lead when the time comes.

    And look at those BABIES!!!! Those kittens are sooooo cute! :grin:

    BTW, @mastressalita , you were concerned about what would happen to Shadow when Rose passes. When the last Sim in a household dies, the game prompts you to either make another household or choose one to play. I think that if there is a kid or pets remaining, the social worker comes in to take them. In that case, Shadow would just disappear. This means your fear of losing him is certainly founded. Do you have him backed up in case something does happen? If not, you should back everything up on external drive. This way, if you need to rebuild, you can use Master Controller to do that and you won't lose any of your Sims. I learned this the hard way after losing all of my saves a few years back. I certainly won't let that happen again.
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    Simming With Sweet Nightingale.Forever in Time, Short Stories, and much more
  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    Getting back to my recent post about activity, I want to add that I haven't meant to offend anyone. It was a way for me to try and remind us of the guidelines we set ourselves out to follow when joining this circle if you will. :smile:
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    @Twiggy I do try to stop in every few days. I keep totally up on my reading (now that I say that I will fall away) but like @sweetnightingale prompted I need to be more proactive in speaking to what I was reading. As for posting I do come in with my stories . but I have been on a bit of a slow down as I flip gears in my story. I did not post my short story because there was some scuttle about me "asking" for votes and I did not want to cause any controversy. BUT I am here to be supportive :)

    @lisabee2 Thanks for your reaction. I know you do <3 I haven't meant to confront you in any way. It was more a comment in general since not all members have been as active or have even been online on the forum. That's why I'm happy to see your reactions.

    But speaking of members not being active, though, I have been thinking about @writtenfae I've been thinking of sending her a message about the fact that she hasn't commented for a long time and hasn't replied to any tags in this thread. Though, when checking, I see she hasn't been online on the forum since July this summer. Sending a message wouldn't do then. So maybe it's time to start thinking of a replacement member... how do you guys feel? Do I inform CathyTea over in the Reading Circles thread about a spot opening up here?

    On a different note:

    @sweetnightingale Please, don't feel like any of you have to wait for me to start a discussion on the weekends about the selected story. I want this to be a place where we can all feel free to start a discussion or talk about a topic anytime we feel like it. Isn't this the idea behind our reading circle in the first place? :smiley:
    Twiggy wrote: »
    There are a few pointers when joining (in). You'll be asked to work together on creating a place where we have fun, read, write, give compliments and grow whether as a motivator, writer, simmer or friend. It's also important to keep up with each members' selected story on a weekly basis when we are able to, being flexible with each other when life asks us and let our circle know when we need to take breaks.

    So in the spirit of our roundabout, I thank you for biting the bullet for this week's discussions!
  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    I'll be updating the second post next to inform everyone on our reading for this week and the topic of discussion this weekend and then it's off to bed for me :) I hope you have a great day/remainder of your day!

    ~hugs~
  • sweetnightingalesweetnightingale Posts: 2,084 Member
    @Twiggy - Oh, no worries on my end. I wasn't offended in the slightest. I'll be the first to admit to not being as active as I should have been.What you sad was said very gracefully. I just hope I didn't offend you with my comment about the place being dead. It's nice to see some activity happening now. :) Thanks so much. I didn't want to seem like I was jumping the gun by getting things started yesterday. :)

    As to a replacement, that's fine with me. We're having the same issue in the circle I'm hosting, so we're making some adjustments and changes that appear to be working out very well. Shame when that happens but I guess every circle faces that some time or another.
    36314395402_b6f8316264_z.jpg]
    Simming With Sweet Nightingale.Forever in Time, Short Stories, and much more
  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    @Twiggy : I think we should open up @writtenfae 's spot on the Reading Circle master thread and see if there is anyone that would like to join our motley crew. ^_^

    @lisabee2 : Yay, I'm glad the tutorial helped out! Like Christmas morning to find all those extra comments! (And that looks like a fine cup of tea... I have that same tea ball! Coconut Chai was my poison this morning, though I had some Lemon Ginger last night. ^_~ )
    Although it provides chapters with so much humor, isn't it hard sometimes to write with such pride and arrogance when speaking from Shadow's pov?

    I adore cats, but I think that sort of in the way that one can "roast" (poke jokes and get a good laugh without being offended) the things they really love, because I love cats it is easy for me to look at them and exaggerate certain personality quirks, like, they always seem to me to have this "holier than thou" attitude and are looking down on us humans. I think it is fun to kind of play with that natural pride and arrogance. Now it has just sort of become his quintessential tone and I don't think about it too much, and I think a lot of the humor comes from the fact that, perhaps, we as the reader getting to see the wider picture know the cat isn't as perfect as he continues to think he is, hahaha.
    I've read in earlier posts that you and sweetnightingale are talking about pet adoption for the kittens. I am keen to see the kittens going to good homes. Will this be featured in the CC and do you have ideas yet on how you will weave this into your story?

    Yes, in game right now I believe the kittens age up in 5-6 days. I had always wanted adopting the kittens to be a part of the story because that is a very normal and typical part of cat life (most households that have kittens try to find them homes rather than keeping them and having a whole caboodle of cats running around). Right now I have a few ideas of things I'll do while the kittens while they are still kitten-sized (one of which is actually already screen-capped!) and then I'm going to drop some Sims from @sweetnightingale 's stories into my game to come around and adopt the kittens. I'm actually going to give the .sim files to @sweetnightingale of Trixie and Boo so she can put the kittens in her game. At first I had kinda just thought I'd get a Sim to plop into my world and have a household somewhere that I could stick them all in or something, but when I was approached for this cross-game adoption I liked the idea a lot more! So they will be leaving Appaloosa Plains, and also the save file (but going to great homes)!

    Of course, Rose's granddaughter Ivy really wanted a kitten, but her mother was not keen on that idea, since they have a dog (Basil, aka Shadow's nemesis "The Scotty") and she has a guinea pig (that was a gift from gramma) and there is going to be a new baby in the house soon (plus, Melody is a known dog-person)... and I think Ivy would have had a hard time having to decide between the two, anyway! She really liked playing with the kittens. (What eight-year-old wouldn't want a kitten, though?)

    @sweetnightingale : I have my entire harddrive cloned every Monday onto another harddive, hahaha! But yes, I also have .sim files exported, save files backed up, all my cc backed up, all my writing gets synced to an online server, etc. (I'm notorious about backups). I also still have Rose/Shadow households in my library (in both kitten and adult cat forms). But that isn't really an issue anyway, since because I *did* have that fear (that he'd get lost if she died) I moved Rose's daughter Senna (a YA) into her household (she's helping her old mom out; since Rose has dementia, she is a bit forgetful around the house, after all). When Rose passes away, Shadow will at least be "protected" by that mean old social worker by Senna being present in the household, then. But ya, I was kinda scared something like that would happen, which is why I moved the extra Sims into the household. Being new to Sims 3, I wasn't sure what would happen to Shadow when Rose died, so I merged Senna's household into Rose's home for a little insurance once I started feeling like Rose's time was "drawing near". I didn't even know if I could "re-adopt" Shadow after choosing another household, and didn't want to take that chance!
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  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    <3@Twiggy I was not offended in any way :)

    @mastressalita I cannot wait to have a good cup of tea with you in person <3
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  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    edited September 2016
    Hiya, I hope you all have/had an awesome day with more following!

    Thank you for those insights @mastressalita I'm looking forward to the future of Shadow's household! heh

    @everyone And wouldn't it be awesome to do a roundabout in each other's company? I would be happy to host with fresh oven baked apple pie and hot steamy tea! Who wants whipped cream on their slice of pie? ~snaps out of daydreaming again~ :smiley:

    Okay, if we agree on opening up @writtenfae 's spot, I will set things in motion. I'll throw a mention of a spot opening in the RRRoundabout in CathyTea's reading circle thread and I'll change the first two post of this thread. Taking 'The Blackmoore Legacy' off our reading schedule opens up week 12 (September 19 to 25) and 16 (October 17 to 23). I will leave these weeks open for now. I do plan on checking the current chapters of members and adding this to the schedule somewhere this week. When I make changes, I'll let you know naturally. :)

    So for now, we leave week 12 and 16 open to start a more general discussion perhaps about writing, reading or have a week where we get time to catch up if so desired? If there are any suggestions, I'm open to all and would like to hear your two cents.

    When we find a new member this will hopefully boost activity but this person is going to be way behind on reading since we have a schedule, which may be daunting to them. Maybe we could work something out (like if it is a Mezilkree week, they could do 1-10 when we are doing 21-30 and so on). We'll have to be careful to keep certain discussion points in spoiler tags, though. On the other hand, it could also be fun to ask a new member something that we know in hindsight they may not know just coming into it that could provide a different sort of discussion.

    Okay, that's all on my end for now. I'll bbs :wink:
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    Brewing up the tea and passing out the pie :)

    I am flexible and open to what happens :)

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  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    With the trip still ahead there is lots of happenings around the Charming home to keep them busy til they take off :)

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  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    Hi hi, are you having a good weekend? Hope so! So far I've been caught up on 'If It Doesn't Kill Us' by @cuddles5427 and had a good time this afternoon at my mom's :)

    Now to Roundabout business heh In other circumstances I would be opening the weekly Roundabout with questions/my two cents about chapters up to 20 of 'If It Doesn't Kill Us'... but you know what?... Cuddles hasn't been online for quite some time now either. Last time cuddles was here was around the last time we discussed her story tbh. I've commented on her blog and am gonna leave it at that for the time being because I would like to keep this spot on the TS forum motivating to every single one of its members. The activity by members doesn't have to be equal all around, don't get me wrong. However, we all agreed to adhere to the guidelines set up when starting this reading circle so I'm gonna stick to them.

    So in conclusion, I'm about to head over to CT's reading circles thread to announce we are looking for (at least) one new member. :smiley:
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    I am fully caught up with cuddles story as well.
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  • mastressalitamastressalita Posts: 2,874 Member
    I haven't had much time for reading this week as this was my weekend to work, and I'm crossing my fingers and toes that I get a pain-free day tomorrow to try to crank out Short Story Challenge since my next two weekends will be busy (going on another vacay September 29 - October 3rd to San Francisco to go a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention with my BFF where one of my all-time favorite authors, Anne Bishop, will be a guest!). So I do need to get SSC in before then... unless I just really embrace the theme and get it done... late. ^_~ But since there is an open discussion week coming up, hopefully I can use that to help catch up on the readings then.
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  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    edited September 2016
    Hey hey, How are ya all? I'm sore from work in the back garden but happy with the results. The borders and patio all looking good! So happy to enjoy this soft weather this time of year. Especially since there is still a front garden that is starting to look somewhat overgrown here and there lol good times

    Roundabout wise I made some changes to the first page of this thread, the reading schedule has grown some after adding our newest chapters to our reading :smiley: Although it might change again soon. I have included newest chapters by @cuddles5427 but I must say it's kinda disappointing to see so little activity there. How long do you think we should wait for a member to come round again (without a mention of them being away naturally)? Let me know what you guys think, please? @lisabee2 @mastressalita @sweetnightingale I can sure use the input :blush:

    ~hugs~
  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    Have a great morning/afternoon/evening or night! ~Boulders in and trips over the rug~ lol Just dropping in with my latest chapter for anyone interested :smiley:
  • TwiggyTwiggy Posts: 995 Member
    Hey hey, me again :p

    @everyone If there are general questions you might be facing when writing your story or have general questions you would like to have more than your own answers on, feel free to drop em here this weekend! To start the general simlit discussion this weekend off, I'll have a few questions for you all lined up. If you care to know, I'll be answering them myself also... maybe yours too, so don't hesitate and jump in on the fray! ;)

    Here are my questions to you:
    1. Are there any mods, programs or apps you use to enhance your simlit, be it your writing or screencaps and how do you feel these programs aid your storytelling prowess?
    2. What do you think, makes good simlit and how do you strive to achieve this quality in your own story?
    3. How do you plan or outline your chapters/story and is this a constant or do you mix things up from time to time?
    4. Do you have experience with writing besides simlit or do you think you wouldn't be writing (the same story) when not using The Sims to form/accompany your story? What's your take on this?
    5. What made you choose your current publishing medium (Blogspot, WordPress, forum and so on) and do you have preferences for any of these mediums when it comes to reading simlit? In other words, what do you think makes a good blog?

    Okay, I guess that's it for now. If more pop to mind I'll be sure to drop em here haha

    Have fun and don't forget to hug someone! <3
  • CathyTeaCathyTea Posts: 23,088 Member
    Ooh! This looks awesome! Thanks for letting us know that we're welcome to participate, @Twiggy ! I'll think of questions and make a point to swing by over the weekend! How fun!
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