Image: Owl Gardens

As I'm the girl who decided that Lipstick Royalty Magazine, instead of choosing to do a glittery festive issue each December chose a Gothic Issue, you can all kinda guess that I LOVE everything dark and deadly... which included HALLOWEEN! Now I'm not having a Halloween party this year, which makes me really sad so I've decided to have an imaginary Halloween party instead. This is how my day went...

Ok so I got up about 11:00am, after a nice long lie in (I don't get many of those!) and after hopping in the shower decided to wriggle into my first costume of the day to head out shopping for all the ingredients and decorations needed (as well as the finishing touches to my party costume) for my Halloween dinner party later that evening...

Check out those thigh boots - wicked or what? And those vamp teeth are fantastic... but the thing I think that really made my sexy vamp costume was the Lime Crime Make-up Styletto opaque black lipstick - incredible.

But I'm thinking the big question everyone wants to know is who else came to my party... and what did they where? I decided I wanted a small intimate gathering so aside from myself there were only 5 other guests...

Lipstick Royalty's Fashion Editor Amy Claire Thompson (because Amy's cool and we love her), Lime Crime Make-Up founder Doe Deere (because she's the queen of my Halloween liptick), True Blood's Eric Northman (well obviously we needed a real life vampire on the scene... AND he had to admire his pumpkin!), Karl Largerfeld (who's scarier?), and New York Couture's Cassie (so we could see what a fabulous costume she's make!)

Well I think you can guess what Karl wore, and Eric just wore leather trousers and a "Fangtasia" tee shirt, but the girls went all out...

Amy came as a small, but vaguely over the top sugar sprinkled fairy...

Dead Unit Dark - Grab HERE!

Home for the holidays my mother is getting kinda upset that I'm being rather antisocial - I spent the first 24 hours with my nose in a couple of books. One of these was excusable, an English Lit. text; Cat On A Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams but the others were part of the Sookie Stackhouse serise of novels by Charlaine Harris, or for those more television than book literate of those of you who read NYLON Magazine last month; the set of books the HBO hit series True Blood is based on.

Now, like with Harry Potter I'd be hard pressed to find someone who has not read/ seen Twilight. Now I'm a big Twilight fan, but to be perfectly honest they are not really that well written. I like Twilight but now Twilight fever has peaked and is on the comedown I can live without regualr fixes of sparkly vampires and staked werewolves.

On the other hand, bring on the Fangbangers. I CANNOT get enough of True Blood! One of THE best shows on Television and it has reignited my love for all things Vamp.

Image: Trueblood.net

I HIGHLY recomemend THIS post by Manju Gone Blog entitled "Fangbanger Faceoff" for all the reasons why True Blood heroine Sookie Stackhouse is twice the leading lady Bella Swan will ever be.

Also for anyone who has happened to read the Sookie Stackhouse books, and has got as far as book 4, True Blood has something Twilight will never have: Eric Northman.

Image: Sucker For Vampire

I've made you want to go read them now, just to get to book 4 now haven't I?!? Now a wonderful little Edward vs. Bill note to leave you on...

Image: Fanpop

*Edit* - I've just realized I haven't expalined to all you heathens what a "Fangbanger" is... its someone who has sex with vampires.

Image: Magic Fly Paula

Slightly diffrent to my post entitled "I Wanna Be: An Band Photographer", I've decided that my above dream of becomign a novalist is the slightly more attainable goal, well at least for now on my list of dream jobs!

This November, mostly thanks to Amy over at Confessions Of A Fashion Editor I've signed up to take part in NaNoWriMo 2009. According to the NaNoWriMo website, NaNoWriMo is:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2007, we had over 100,000 participants. More than 15,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, the long and short of it is that in November your not going to be hearing much from me, unless I'm procrastinating, which sounds a lot like me! I already have my plot, charecters and hopefuly by the end of November a rough manuscript!

Then, thanks to a wonderful post by up and coming author Laura Cassidy (watch out for my interview with her coming up soon!) on her blog First Three Chapters I went out the other day to buy this:

This book is fantastic, I recomend it to all wanna be childrens/ young adult writers and now I know once I have a (polished) manuscript how to get an agent, hopefully (!) and hopefully (!) get it published!

I AM going to do this!

For ages, I've been on a mission for a brilliant concealer. On thats flawless; one that makes your skin look flawless and one that makes it look like your not really actually wearing any concealer at all.

However there is one fatal floor to my quest, one floor that makes the mission in hand all that little bit more complicated: the said concealer has to be hypoallergenic. That and the palest colour has to look flawless on uber pale skin.

First up comes MAC's Studio Stick Concealer. Not strictly hypoallergenic, but it didn't give me any problems like MAC's eyeshadows do. Studio stick had an almost perfect, but not exact colour match and it lasts a long time. It was quite a heavy formula so therefore gave good coverage but could look quite caked on. Good, but I didn't buy it again.

Next in line comes Clinique's Airbrush Concealer. This one came with beauty awards so I was pretty confident. I use a lot of Clinque - eyeshadow and mascara as well as skin care products (body butter, eye cream, face cream, hand cream, face scrub etc.) as they are a really good hypoallergenic brand. And I really liked it. It looked flawless, had easy application (it comes in a pen like YSL's celebrated Touche Eclat) and was fabulous for use under the eyes. In fact I still use it there! However I find it didn't gave enough coverage everywhere else...

So we've got Clinique for under the eyes... but what about the rest of the face? Thats when my obsession with Benefit Cosmetics comes in... Benefit make 3 types of concealer... Boi-ing (industrial strength), Erase Paste (paste in a jar) and Powderflage which is under eye powder. Well I already had the eyes covered so I buzzed over to the Benefit counter to take Boi-ing and Erase paste for a test run. First up was Erase Paste. I know my friends use it and love it but I found it too, well, paste-y and it didn't match my skin tone though it gave great coverage.

Image: Benefit Cosmetics

Next up was Boi-ing. This could be applied with a concealer brush or with a finger. Good skin match and next to perfect coverage. Not too heavy and gave a flawless look. We have a winner! The three skin tones mean they can match to almost any caucasian tone.

My name is Rachel, and I'm a self confessed Fan Fiction addict. Some may (well they actually do) call it sad but I can't help it. I love reading (and occasionally writing) fan fiction! Today I'm joined by Isabelle, one of the best Fan Fiction writers I've ever come across to talk about what its like to make someone elses characters and to explain to everyone just exactly what fan fiction is...

Image: Gossip Girl's Chuck & Blair, c/o The CW

For those readers who does not know what it is, introduce us to Fan Fiction:

Fanfiction is writing a work of fiction based on fiction already established. For example, if a person would like to write about Harry Potter because it's already based on the work of a published author that work of fiction would be labeled as 'fan-fiction'. Fanfiction is about forty years old and it was originally started in the Star Trek fandom (a group fans of a certain media).

When did you start writing Fan Fiction?

My very earliest work of fanfiction was when I was actually 13 but it just ended up being in notebooks and I wouldn't let anyone read it, it's horrible. I started publishing in 2001, it was for the Buffy fandom.

How did you get into the writing of Fan Fiction?

When the show was just not enough, this is the easiest way of explaining it. Before a writer I think I'm a great fan. I love these characters immensely so I greatly admire the writers who have created them. So when I needed more I turned to fanfiction. I was watching Season 5 of Buffy when the urge to read fanfiction took over and from there I decided to try stories on my own.

Who do you write about?

Couples. I'm a romantic at heart and all of my fanfiction revolves around my couple of interest. I write both series (multi-chapter fictions) and 'one-shots' (which are no longer than one chapter).

Do you do other types of writing, poetry or fiction with your own characters?

Yes. I write loads of poetry, I have a copyrighted screenplay and I'm always working on a new novel though I never have to urge to publish. I write to write so occasionally I'll let a friend or a family member read it.

I have read quite a few of your fan fics, but I LOVED your future of Blair and Chuck from Gossip Girl; where do you get your ideas from? You told me that that story was all imagination, but its turned into a pretty good idea of what the current economic situation could become.

I wanted to write something that was a twist of Gone with the Wind, Amor Real (a Spanish telenovela), The Four Feathers and Cinderella. Like a dirty fairytale. In short I wanted something that was grander than anything I had done before, to push myself on what I could accomplish both in character development and plot. So I took all this talk about the economy and asked myself - what would happen if we take these filthy rich spoiled kids and make them poor. My very favorite thing in fanfiction is taking the characters written, removing them from their usual surroundings and placing them somewhere completely different. In a story I did with Buffy I set it 100 years in to the future and in Gossip Girl I marooned them in an island. Just something to spice it up, make it interesting (for me, of course).

Yeah, I just read the island one. You really got the characters bang on and thought about how they could possibly adapt to their new environment...

Tell us about your offline persona; your hobbies, your job...

I am a self-confessed shopaholic. There's really no stopping me, it's very sad. I dont discriminate, I just loved buying; clothes, shoes, make-up, just anything that can be purchased. I love dinning and dancing with friends, I'm Spanish so I'm a big fan of Salsa and Merengue and attempt to engage in it at least twice a month. I also love cooking and baking, I have been cooking since I was 11 recipes that have been passed down generations. I think one day I would like to own my own restaurant and create all sorts of fusion dishes. The job that pays the bills: I work for a University as a Coordinator for Client Programs. Mostly a lot of paperwork and emails that don't really let me use my imagination so I bottle it up and it comes out in my writing.

And finally, what would you say to the people who tell you that fan fiction is for people who aren't good enough writers to make up their own characters..?

I have never heard that but I honestly can't agree. I have read some amazing original characters that are integrated into the based storylines. And honestly, it's fanfiction, it's fun, it's light and it shouldn't stress you. Neither by writing it, reading it nor critiquing it. If we were to say this of fanfiction writers then we would have to say the same of writers for a TV show. Those characters are not theirs, they write character created by the creator and they have to adhere by the same guidelines we do as fanfiction writers. And can the same be said of screenwriters who adapt screenplays? Are they not good enough either?

To read Isabelle's Gossip Girl, True Blood, Harry Potter, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and Peter Pan fan fiction click HERE! Also she has a brilliant guide to writing a Blair and Chuck (Gossip Girl) Fan fic which really applies to any fan fiction about a couple HERE!