Allison Marshall

  So confession time: I play the Sims. I play the Sims A LOT. I have tried quitting multiple times, and I even managed it for about a year and a half once, but I wound up back at it again eventually. I wrote the first generation of a Sims 3 Bring Me to Life Challenge (dare I show this 2013-2015 project to my friends and family? Eh, yeah, sure, I dare .) and had an absolute BLAST doing it. It was like writing a graphic novel, and that's always been my favorite thing about the Sims. I can create the characters in my head and make pretty pictures.  Anyway, I decided to try out my photoshooting skills in Sims 4 for a change. Dang it , it's so much harder than in the Sims 3! You. Can't. Move. Sims. In. Build. Mode. I'm sure Sims 4 legacy writers and machinima creators have figured out a cheat or a fix, but I've been out of the community so long and I didn't feel like rushing into a group of internet strangers and shouting, "HEY! QUESTIONS!!!!" Maybe next w...

When I listen to other writers discuss writing, specifically the creation of characters and how they shape their personal plots, I've come across a very prevalent mindset/idea. Namely, that characters talk. ....?!?!? Yup. Numerous writers, from the successful and famous doing a televised interview to the obscure blogger that I swap creative ideas with, claim this. They say that their characters talk to them. That they argue. That they won't do what they're told. That they have grown personalities so potent they have an audible voice inside the author's head. And whenever I encounter this mindset, I feel a little left out. But maybe more weirded out. Because it doesn't happen to me. My characters do not (watch me go cross-eyed here)  " speak" to me. Why is it that I feel like *I'm* the crazy one when I say that? Nope. I made them up. They never talk. They never argue. They stay totally quiet when I conjure them in my brain and move them like the little...

“Eloise just told me the news, and I knew I needed to speak with you immediately.” Grandmother said. “Yes, grandma?” I asked, with an exasperated sigh. “I’m very glad she wants me to host the wedding party. I have plenty of charms and barriers in place, and the night before the wedding will be the worst. They never came for your mother, but her gift was subtle. Eloise is in considerably more danger.” “Danger?” I said, squinting my eyes as I looked out the window at the night street below. “Danger from what?” “The Demon Fey and the Incubus of course.” Grandmother said as though it were the most logical thing in the world. “They will try to steal Eloise’s power.” Here comes the Demonic Wedding Crasher. Wedding bells are ringing for Annabella's Beloved older sister, Eloise, and Annabella has been named maid of honor. A dire warning comes to Annabella from their superstitious Grandmother Roxanne: Eloise has supernatural powers and during her wedding she will be vulnerable to attack. It...