Cosplay, the Novel

Oddly enough, I'm going for a double hitter this month, which means TWO stories will be featured on this blog. The first story is called "Cosplay! The Novel", where a boy ignores his own heritage and embraces Japanese subculture.

This story might also be interpreted as a warning against cultural appropriation.

To start, Nicholas Blue Prater (yes, his middle name is Blue; don't ask!) moves with his family from Owasso, Oklahoma to Pacific Grove, California in 2003. As he battles the worst of all evils (often called high school), he discovers anime and cosplay via a sympathetic classmate.

That's when most of the trouble begins.

As Nicholas and his new friends explore Japan's many subcultures and attend many anime conventions and festivals, Nicholas unknowingly turns his back on his own heritage (much to his family's chagrin). As well, Nicholas also embraces his inner nerd and discovers role-playing, which makes him a target for the student council (which frowns upon role-playing and anything not having to do with being part of high school).

As he goes about his year in high school, Nicholas discovers the dark side of anime and wonders what his friends are watching on TV. He also discovers that one of his ancestors committed a grievous crime, one that history ignored and tried to bury. He must face his worst fears when his family confronts him about his many interests.

OK, so I haven't finished writing the story, but that's why I have this blog; to help me finish the story. Unfortunately, I don't see this story having a sequel in the near future, but that's for a later post.

Let's get this month started!

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 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.)

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.

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.

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.