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.

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.