Here We Go, Folks, It's the End of the Month!

We have now reached this thing called the end of the month, which means I have to put the project "And You Thought Your Family Was Weird" on hold.

(audience groans)

But not to worry, because I plan to pick the story back up in the near future and finish it, no matter how long it takes. And you can certainly bet on that.

Next month, I plan to talk about my next story which is called "Confessions of a Fan Fiction Writer". Plus, I will post lyrics to the songs I'm writing for February Album Writing Month, which takes place in February. So watch for that to happen in the coming hours.

With that, I bid you all adieu and I will see you in February.

Winding Down...

OK, so this month is almost over and I have to wrap the story up. This means I'll have to take it down and rewrite the whole thing and who knows how long that's going to take. But not to worry though, because I have plans to publish the story next year.

With that in mind, I must say this:

Thank you all for reading this months blog post; I hope you have enjoyed them and will send me as many comments as you can begging me to please hurry up and finish the story so you can read it. I bet that most of you want me to finish the story while some of you want me to take my time writing it. But it doesn't really matter, because I don't know if I'm going to be able to write the story with so many writing projects going on.

Well, that's that.

Other Characters Featured in This Story

Oh, I am such an idiot! I almost forgot about these characters, and I can't believe I did that! I'm going to have to correct this mistake right now.

1. Arianna Ward, Adrian Olson, Micheal Baxter, and Jamarcus Johnson: Arianna, Adrian, Micheal, and Jamarcus are Kristin's old friends from the 5th grade. The group was notorious for making YouTube videos that poked fun at many children's books. Kristin has not seen them since the 7th grade.
2. Jaslyn Escobar: student president of Northview High School; she had Kristin expelled from the school's Facebook network and was responsible for destroying her social life.
3. Sabrina Bell, Alicia Wilkins, Erika Candelaria, and Adsila Archuleta: Kristin's former friends; they don't speak to her anymore since David Lewis called the police when Kristin didn't invite him to her 14th birthday party.

Places Featured in This Story

And now for the places that were mentioned in "And You Thought Your Family Was Weird": 

1. Shawneetown, Florida - Shawneetown is a small town located near the Atlantic coast (and 7 hours away from Miami). It is best-known for its beautiful parks and its diverse population. Also, there are some unusual ruins near the city, possibly the remains of an old settlement from the 1500's. Kristin and her parents lived in the city until recently.
2. Northview High School - The school looks a bit old-fashioned. It was built during the 1980s. Overall, the school has a bad reputation, which may not entirely be deserved. Recently, the school's football team lost a championship and a faculty member was arrested for child abuse. Kristin was once a student at the school until she and Nora exposed a student teacher who abused special ed students. Both girls ended up being expelled from the school.
3. McDermitt, Arizona - McDermott is a moderate-sized town with a population of 45,612 people. It is 5 hours from Phoenix, Arizona. It is located in the desert and has a rustic atmosphere. It is best-known for the nearby military base, which was used during World War II. (The base is still in use, by the way.) Many artifacts from that era are still lying around the base. The MacPherson family lives in the neighborhood of Copperhill Haven, which is near downtown McDermitt.
4. Cimarron High School - The school has a space-age look to it. (Yet the use of social media and some technology is explicitly forbidden by the student council.) Overall, the school has an average reputation. Also, a local writer once donated to it. Recently, the school's knitting and crocheting club organized a charity event, the school's journalism club won a prestigious award, and the school's cheerleading squad won a championship. Kristin is sent to this school instead of attending McDermitt High School with her cousins Velvet and Nader.

Regarding Kristin's Parents

At the beginning of the story, Kristin talks about how her parents, Scott and Tilly, are getting divorced after 19 years of marriage. The divorce upsets her and she wonders if her activities at school brought about the divorce.

But the truth is more dangerous than that.

According to Kristin, her father's parents did not approve of his marriage to her mother and they ordered him to divorce her and marry a Hispanic woman. The woman in question is severely disabled and has the mental capacity of a child, both of which is not suitable for marriage. Kristin's mother is upset about this, so she files for divorce.

Later on, we will see if Kristin and her father can reconcile or if their relationship is over.

As for Kristin's mother, she's  a best-selling author named Ariel Cross, whose books are on the New York Times Bestsellers List. She writes mainly fantasy/science fiction stories, but she sometimes writes historical and contemporary fiction. She rarely writes young-adult or new adult fiction (as she's not fond of YA fiction). If she writes young adult fiction, she avoids dystopias and focuses on issues that teenagers face every day, such a divorce, cancer, bullying, even suicide. One of her YA book series deals with a girl dealing with homosexuality and going to church while another of her YA books, "The Love Fool", is popular with the middle school crowd. Kristin, ironically, has yet to read any of Ariel Cross's books.

It was Tilly who gave Kristin a diary after reading Kristin's blogs and being upset that she's keeping "her real self" off the Internet. She also insists that Kristin reads some of the books that she dismisses, even if they are YA fiction. Towards the end of this story, Tilly uses Kristin's addiction to social media as a topic for her new YA book, "Disconnected".

Characters Featured in the Story

Well, we come to my favorite part of the story, the part where we feature some of the characters that you'll meet in this story. And they are as follows:

1. Cristina Maria "Kristin" Fernando: Cristina Fernando (who usually goes by Kristin) is a social media addict who enjoys her life as a normal American teenager. But when her parents divorce and she is sent to stay with relatives in Arizona, her life changed forever.
2. Alison Weaver, Mercedes Wood, Stefanie Doyle, and Deanna McCoy: Alison, Mercedes, Stefanie, and Deanna are Kristin's best friends. They are known to text each other and chat on Facebook. Yet when Kristin is forced to move to Arizona amid a divorce and a school scandal, the other girls are forced to break their friendships with her.
3. Tilda Sawyer Fernando: Kristin's mother moonlights as Ariel Cross, who writes urban fantasy, paranormal, and supernatural stories with a dash of historical fiction. She also writes chick-lit and teen fiction on several occasions even if she avoids YA and dystopias. She sends Kristin to Arizona to help her get over her parents' divorce.
4. Reynaldo Scott Fernando: Kristin's father is from Morelia, Mexico. He once worked for Clover Technologies as an executive until last when, according to Kristin, the company was forced to shut down because of a frivolous lawsuit. And to make things worse, Scott's parents (who didn't approve of his marriage to Tilly) forced him to divorce his wife and marry Belicia Deltorrez.
5. Belicia Deltorrez: Belicia is a severely disabled woman being forced to marry Kristin's father, Scott. She doesn't like Kristin.
6. Tybalt and Cassandra MacPherson: Tybalt and Cassandra are Tilly's cousins who offer to take care of Kristin while her mother handles the divorce and the move from Shawneetown, Florida to Savannah, Georgia.
7. Velvet, Nader, Jacquala, and Siegfried MacPherson: Velvet, Nader, Jacquala, and Siegfried are Tybalt and Cassandra's children and Kristin's cousins. At first, Velvet and Nader don't exactly welcome Kristin to Arizona, as they had not seen her in many years. Velvet is as old as Kristin, Nader is two years younger, Jacquala is 10 and Siegfried is a baby.
8. Nora McAndrew: Nora was one of Kristin's classmates until a scandal involving a student teacher sent her away from her parents and straight to her grandmother, who lives in Harpwood, Minnesota. Kristin's involvement with her was one of the reasons she was banished from Northview High School.

The "Family" in "And You Thought Your Family Was Weird"

You seriously thought this month (and story) was all about social media?

Think again!

In the story, Kristin tells the reader (which is you) that she's being forced to move to Arizona to stay with relatives while her parents undergo a nasty divorce. According to Kristin, the MacPherson family was once the stereotypical American family until they moved to Arizona and became the long-lost cousins of Ozzy Osborne. yet, Kristin's cousins Velvet and Nader refuse to welcome her, with Nader claiming that Kristin was one of those spoiled rich princesses from Malibu. (Malibu is in California, in case you forgot!)

Well, Kristin appears to be the stereotypical American teenager (albeit one with too many social accounts) and yet has to put up with a family that's determined to be anything but the average American family. Kristin also longs for normality, which was almost impossible for her to obtain, as her parents' divorce gets nasty and former friends and classmates blame her for it. They seek to make her new life a living nightmare.

But the title of the story is called "And You Thought Your Family Was Weird", which means that even if you think your family is messed up, Kristin's family is ten times worse. But most of Kristin's blog posts in he story seem to center on her family, which is why I titled the story that way.

Go figure.

Kik and Wattpad

It was already established that Kristin's mother, Tilly Sawyer Fernando, writes YA fiction, which she publishes using the name Ariel Cross. Kristin follows in her mother's footsteps by getting a Wattpad account and publishing stories there using the name FernFayeCross.

Wattpad ( launched in 2006) is an online writing community where users can publish essays, articles, original stories, fanfiction, and poetry. (I have an account on Wattpad.) Once she starts using the site, Kristin learns to separate the person she created in her blogs from her real self.

The texting app Kik is also featured in this story, as a number of the kids in Cimarron High School use the app to text each other. Kristin becomes a reluctant user of the app (her username was Fernanger55), but her new friends use the app. But when a student was caught texting a mentally disabled student using Kik, the student president ordered the school to delete the app from their phones.

As for Wattpad, several people use the app on their phones, so Kristin is mainly all by herself when it comes to the site. But when she gains a following based on her fictitious character, she learns that while making up things about yourself is harmful, yet making up things about a fictitious character can be rewarding. (Plus, Kristin unknowingly becomes the subject of her mother's latest YA novel, which is ironically called "Disconnected", but that will be saved for later.)

Well, by the time the story ends, Kristin goes from social media addict to a well-balanced person who learns to use the Internet in moderation. She also learns to appreciate her family instead of always shutting them out. Plus, she learns that it's OK to have offline friends, even if they're fewer in number.

Now you know.

About Google+, Blogger, and Tumblr

Kristin decided to get a Tumblr account for her 16th birthday, but she didn't start using it until January 25, 2014. (Which was when she had to stop using her LiveJournal blog.) While doing so, she grows into her Tumblr account, using it to post funny pictures and rant about which movies and books she hates (and she has a crapload of them). She starts enjoy using Tumblr when the few friends she makes at Cimarron High School are into Tumblr. Plus, Tumblr leads her to enjoy watching movies and reading instead of bashing books and movies.

As for her Blogger account, Kristin is forced to use that to replace both her LiveJournal and WordPress accounts. Blogger is slightly dated, but she uses it to unleash not only her anger at being forced to give up her other blogs, but to rant about the school in general.

As for Google+, Kristin isn't particularly a fan of using it, as it seemed to be a poor replacement for Facebook. Yet when she is forced to delete her Facebook account and migrate to the site, Kristin realizes that she has wasted a good part of her life on Facebook, especially after most of her other friends abandon her (at the orders of the Northview High School student president). In addition, Kristin's cousin Velvet calls Facebook "poison on the computer". Go figure that one out.

To cut this blog post short, Kristin starts losing everything that once held meaning for her. Not to worry, as I'll be talking about her other online activities in the next blog post.

Regarding Kristin's WordPress Blog

At the start of "And You Thought Your Family Was Weird", Kristin maintains a WordPress blog, which isn't exactly popular as her LiveJournal blog. (In fact, most of her blog posts are just repeats of her LiveJournal posts, with very few original blog posts.)

Well, to make this blog post short, Kristin goes to her new school and is forced to delete her WordPress accounts, posting her blog posts on Blogger. This upsets her because she swears to never use Blogger due to a previous bad experience with that website.

My analysis of Kristin's LiveJournal Blog

In the story "And You Thought Your Family Was Weird", Kristin once owned a LiveJournal blog, which she had since the eighth grade. (That was when everyone learned about Internet responsibility.)

Anyway, Kristin writes on her blog about the things she doesn't like. She doesn't like movies or TV shows and will only read a book if it's for a homework assignment. More often than not, she rants about her boring, uneventful life.

But reading her LiveJournal causes her to reconcile with her cousins, who she hasn't seen in almost 10 years. Reading about how her cousins treated her better than her own parents shocks her into understanding her own issues.

When Kristin gets to her new high school, she's forced to stop using LiveJournal, as the student council banned the usage of LiveJournal (whether at school or at home). With great reluctance, Kristin closes her LiveJournal blog and migrates all her blog posts to Blogger (as everyone in the school is ordered to use Blogger). Yet she vows that her time on LiveJournal wasn't a waste, as it taught her what she learned about blogging.

The Future of Social Media

In this blog post, I will tell you where I think social media is heading in the next five years. (And if you say "down the toilet", I will hunt you down and shoot you. That kind of loser talk is not allowed on this blog.)

So anyway, I have this to say about where social media is heading:

If you recall, everyone you knew had a MySpace profile, which was the big thing back in the day. There, you could chat with others and share fun things. In 2005, Facebook was founded, and almost everyone flocked to that site, leaving MySpace in the dust. On Facebook, you can find people who are part of your network, making those dreaded high school reunions more bearable.

In 2006, Twitter was founded, with many people flocking to that site. Twitter is known for micro-blogging, in which users are allowed to post 140-character tweets. Most people combine the usage of Facebook and Twitter.

There is also Tumblr, which was founded in 2007. Tumblr is a site where users can post whatever they like on a short blog. Users can follow other users' blogs.

(And before you ask, yes, I'm on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.)

Next to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, there is also YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Vine, but that's for another blog post.

In the story "And You Thought Your Family Was Weird", Kristin is a major social media addict, with accounts on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and LiveJournal. But she soon decides to get a Tumblr account, which leads to her addiction. She is later forced to use Google when her new school decides to convert to using Google-only products.

So, how will Kristin's social media usage survive these changes? I'll let you know when I finish the story.

Kristin's Social Media Accounts

Here's a short list of every social media account Kristin uses in the story:

1. Twitter - MissEnergeticRants
2. Facebook - Cristina M. Fernando
3. Tumblr - journeys&memories.tumblr.com (A Heart's Lament)
4. Wordpress - invisiblevolume.wordpress.com (Another Useless Blog)
5. LiveJournal - notanotherblog.livejournal.com (Not Another Blog)
6. Email (Yahoo) - FlamingDream181@yahoo.com
7. Blogger - thewiredmuses.blogspot.com (I've Got the Write Stuff)
8. Email (Google) - KrisMFern0109@gmail.com (school), WritingThief2@gmail.com (personal)
9. Google+ - Kristin Marie Fernando
10. Wattpad - FernFayeCross

Story of the Month: And You Thought Your Family Was Weird!

OK, while everything else is starting to fall into place, I will explain my story here:

The year is 2014 (I know, how original), and Kristin Fernando is being shipped off to stay with some relatives in Arizona while her parents deal with a bitter and nasty divorce. Kristin is a huge social media addict, with accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Wordpress, and Livejournal. She also texts her friends as often as she can.

But once Kristin gets to Arizona, she is given a less than stellar welcome and finds herself in a new school where the use of social media is not allowed. Due to an incident in her old high school, Kristin loses most of her old friends and has difficulty making new friends. And to top it all off, her cousins aren't exactly the traditional American family that she sees on TV.

But when her online life is exposed to the school, Kristin will have to make a radical change to her entire life or else her life (both online and offline) will end up going down the drain!

This month will be dedicated to not only blog posts about the usage of social media, but about Kristin herself and the world she lives in.

Now you know.

The New Year Begins

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. I'm happy to announce that this blog is off to a good start and I'm ready for action. And when I say action, I mean, getting ready to take care of those pesky things called my unfinished stories. You can't call yourself a writer and have half a thousand unfinished stories, am I right?

Anyway, I'm going to update my other blogs now and then I'll come back here. These stories aren't going to finish themselves, you know.