Well, it's that time again

Once again, we're going to have to bring this month to a close.

*audience groans*

But not to worry though, because I plan to pick the story back up in the near future. Now that I know exactly what I'm doing, I can safely jump back into the story and go over everything I missed. So there you have it.

Thank you for reading this blog, and don't hesitate to leave your comments and share this blog with your friends. I will be back in March with the third NaNoWriMo story called Janette Lennox.

The Characters and Places Featured in this 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. Noelle Forbes: Noelle is the main character in the story. She is notorious for being a Dylan Drake fan, yet she doesn't have much of a social life. Her dealing with an addiction to fanfiction is the main story.
2. Aaron and Valerie Forbes: Noelle's parents. They are usually tolerant of her online activities, yet when she gets an "F" in English, they are forced to intervene.
3. London, Paris, Boston, and Juneau Williams: Noelle's cousins. They were raised by Carolyn Williams, an anti-social Christian woman, and had never set foot outside their house, not even to attend school. Yet when their mother dies, they are sent to stay with Noelle's family. They discourage Noelle from taking part in a Christian play, as how Christianity was presented in the play is extremely offensive to them.
4. Sarah Wibley: Noelle's best friend. She is the most hated student at Wellstone High School, as she is bullied by many students. She and Noelle try to maintain their friendship, yet that fails. She is later sent to Iowa after a tragic nervous breakdown.
5. Marina Gibney: A classmate at Noelle's school who is a bigger fan of the "The Silver Stones" than Noelle. She and Noelle challenge each other to write the most fanfiction stories before the school year is over. She lives with a foster family.
6. Simon Webster: Another classmate of Noelle's; he wrote the play called "The Third Noel", which stirs up controversy, for not just its subject matter, but for the overall story.
7. Mr. Elliot Dodderidge: Noelle's English teacher, who sees fanfiction as the end of decent writing and tries to ban fanfiction from the school.
8. Angelina Greer, Autumn Elliott, Julianne Nichols, Walter Brooks, and Benedict Dodson: Noelle's new friends; they are more content to be in the background rather than participate in the school's activities.

And now for the places that were mentioned in "Confessions of a Fanfiction Addict":

1. Wellstone, Arizona - The city of Wellstone is a moderately-sized town located in the mountains and has a futuristic look. It is best-known for its fine dining, a tumultuous history, and for being the home of a famous scientist. Also, there is an old ceremonial site nearby.
2. Wellstone High School - Wellstone High looks a bit old-fashioned as it was built over the remains of a school that was destroyed in a fire in 1987. Overall, the school has a horrible reputation, which is starting to change, thanks to the school's drama club. Also, it was one of the filming locations for a well-known drama movie. Recently, the school's culture club organized a charity event and a member of the cheerleading squad was given an award for community service.
3. White River Presbyterian Church - The church that sponsored Simon's play "The Third Noel"

The Bloodstone Key vs. Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone

While almost everyone knows about "Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone", here's what "The Bloodstone Key" is about:

14-year-old Cyrus Nicholson, a shy nerd, is suddenly whisked away from his home and sent to Atarerra Institute of Magics, which is in the city of Yarlford in the magical land of Erthana. While he struggles to understand why he was taken away from his family and sent to a magical school, he meets Jesse Barham, David Harrison, and April Weinstein, three children who were taken away from their broken and abusive families and sent to Atarerra Institute.

But when Cyrus meet the famous mage Dylan Drake (who survived an attack from the wicked mage Estazius Bloodworth when he was 2 years old), he gets more than what he bargained for when Dylan ends up taking him and his unexpected new friends on a magical adventure.

In spite of the book being well-received by critics and Publishers alike, Scholastic Books accused Theresa Beckett of plagiarizing J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone. Yet, many people who read The Bloodstone Key believed that J.K. Rowling had stolen the plot from Beckett. Unfortunately, many bookstores and Britain and the United States refused to sell copies of The Bloodstone Key because they wanted children to read Harry Potter. Ironically, The Bloodstone Key became more popular than Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone among the high school and college students.

And to make things even more ironic, Dylan Drake became more popular than not just Cyrus Nicholson, people who read the Harry Potter books appear to like Bill and drink more than they like to Harry Potter, as Dylan ( who is seen as sassy and arrogant) is more confident and smarter than Harry Potter.

So what's the debate over The Bloodstone Key and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? I will let you know that in a later blog post.

What does Noelle have to confess?

Noelle claims to be a fanfiction addict, but that's not all she is. She is also friends with an unpopular girl that the bullies and other students beat up on a daily basis. Noelle also challenges a disabled girl to a fan fiction writing contest; both girls are fans of "The Silver Stones" series while their classmates have moved on to other "pointless" young-adult books.

While Noelle deals with the contest and classmates that want her to stop being friends with the bullied girl, she is cast in Christian play with a subject matter that angers many people. Also, the English teacher is an application as a bad thing and has all fanfiction sites banned from the school. Noelle ends up getting an "F" on an essay for using fanfiction characters and is forced to attend a support group for fanfiction addicts. That event forces her to deal with why she is addicted to fanfiction.

So with the play in limbo, a friendship that is all but torn apart, a writing contest that saps all creativity, and even an unexpected movie, Noelle learns that it's better to balance your life instead of just being stuck in the world of fanfiction.

What were Noelle's other fandoms?

It's safe to say that before she became obsessed with “The Silver Stones” , Noelle was obsessed with The following TV shows:

• Magical Monkey Girls (derivative of "My Little Pony)
• Tiny Petting Zoo (derivative of Littlest Pet Shop)
• Megabears (derivative of Care Bears and Gummy Bears)

Yet, when a group of people decided that kids were watching too much television and not reading mind-numbing books, they tried to shut down TV shows for children. (It's safe to say that they failed on a number of occasions.) “The Silver Stones” book was promoted by the anti-TV group, yet children were reading other books, books that advocated being kind to one another, telling the truth, and taking care of the Earth, three things “The Silver Stones” did not advocate.

Yet, the biggest blow to "The Silver Stones" was the much-maligned Harry Potter series. In fact, many fans of “The Silver Stones” who read the Harry Potter books believe that J.K. Rowling had stolen most of the Harry Potter story from “The Silver Stones”. The eventual success of the Harry Potter movies left many people feeling very bitter.

Not to worry though, as Logan Dara's "Frostfall" movie took down "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" at the movie theaters, which angered many Harry Potter fans. I will give you Noelle's opinion about that later.

In spite of everything, Noelle was a normal child until she turned 11, which was when she picked up a copy of "The Bloodstone Key" and begin reading it.

And the rest, they say, is history.

So, what on earth is "The Silver Stones" series?

I'm going to leave it to Fantopedia.com to have this explained.

The Silver Stones Fantopedia page

From Fantopedia, the Ultimate Fantasy Encyclopedia

This article deals with “The Silver Stones” fantasy series. For other uses, please see The Silver Stones (disambiguation).

“The Silver Stones” is a young adult fantasy series written by Theresa Beckett. The books describe the adventures of Cyrus Nicholson and his friends Jesse Barham, David Harrison, and April Weinstein, who are all students at Atarerra Institute of Magics. Atarerra is a magical school that is located outside of Yarlford, Erthana, and is home to Funior the Vigilant, the most powerful mage in the world.

Cyrus also befriends Dylan Drake, who is the orphaned son of Harold and Susan Drake; his parents were killed by the wicked sorcerer Estazius Bloodworth when Dylan was just 2 years old.

Since the publication of “The Bloodline Key” in 2001, the book series has enjoyed some mediocre success (due to it being all but drowned out by the more popular Harry Potter series). Despite that, “The Silver Stones” series was translated into 12 languages and sold over 11 million copies.

Theresa (sister of famous author Julianne Perkins/Jodi Beckett) was criticized for putting some scenes of violence, sex, and bad language in her series as well as creating characters that were selfish, bad-tempered, and cruel towards other people. One of the books, “The Quantum Mystery”, infamously called for the death of “God-Worshippers”, which led to Christians around the world to boycott the book. Plus, a gay character named Shane Dinanham (which was featured in “The Cracked Roses”) drew some considerable ire and controversy for his unfavorable views about women and people of color (of which Theresa was accused of refusing to add some diversity to her novels).

Despite that, “The Silver Stones” continues to score a hit with high school and college students who are looking for something to read after Harry Potter. In fact, The Science Fiction & Fantasy Weekly calls “The Silver Stones” "one of the better-written fantasy series of the last decade".

A movie combining "The Bloodstone Key", “The Quantum Mystery”, and “The Hunter of the Night” is currently in negotiation with Moviemagic Films, which was responsible for the award-winning movies The "Frostfall" Trilogy, "Return to Her", "Atlantis 2020", and "A Tale of Magic".

*****

Publishing history:

Book 1: “The Bloodstone Key” (June 9, 2001)

Book 2: “The Quantum Mystery” (October 8, 2003)

Book 3: “The Hunter of the Night” (December 12, 2004)

Book 4: “The Edge of Night” (April 26, 2005)

Book 5: “The Cracked Roses” (July 2, 2006)

Book 6: “The Force of Magic” (November 7, 2006)

Book 7: “The Seventh Moon” (July 7, 2007)

Book 8: “The Cold Shadow” (June 21, 2009)

Book 9: “The Frozen Legacy” (September 5, 2009)

Now you know.

What is Fanfiction?

According to dictionary.com, fanfiction is "a fictional account written by a fan of a show, movie, book, or video game to explore themes and ideas that will not or cannot be explored via the originating medium".

As you can see from dictionary.com's definition of fanfiction, fan fiction is just a simple homage to a movie, TV show, book, or video game. Yet. many of us forget that it's just fanfiction, and as such, we center most of our lives around fanfiction.

The story starts out with Noelle telling us how she became obsessed with a fantasy series called "The Silver Stones". "The Silver Stones" is a young adult fantasy series written by Teresa Beckett and it describes the adventures of a group of young students who attend a magical school. The series, although very popular with high school and college students, is unable to topple the much-maligned Harry Potter books.

But we'll talk about that later

According to the story, Noelle said she became obsessed with "The Silver Stones" when she was 11 years old, after picking up a copy of "The Bloodstone Key" (the first book in the series) which was meant for her cousins. After that, her interest and toys and watching television inevitably takes a backseat to "The Silver Stones"

And that's how this problem happens. (I'll get back to you later on how Noelle reacts to the Harry Potter books.)

Story of the Month: Confessions of a Fanfiction Writer

The next story featured on the blog is called "Confessions of a Fanfiction Writer". The story deals with a girl named Noelle Forbes, who is obsessed with a Harry Potter like fantasy series. Her biggest obsession is fanfiction, which she loves to a point of shutting everything else out.

Noelle gets a lot of flack for having no social life; plus most of her classmates have already dropped the series in favor of teen books. She also deals with a fanfiction writing contest as well as getting the part of an angel in a controversial school play.

When her English teacher decides that fanfiction is the end of creative writing and bans fanfiction, Noelle is forced to confront her addiction and why she is addicted to fanfiction in the first place. She ends up having to attend a meeting for fanfiction addicts as well as getting the creative rights to the play after the play's original writer is criticized for trying to force Christianity on people without giving them a choice.

OK, I've already said enough, so let's get this month started.