Well, first off, I'd like to dust off my journal, and, in fact, my entire dA account.

I've been neglecting dA a bit, primarily due to working on my story that I've been making slow progress on, playing games and general sloth.

But now I'm planning on nipping them habits right in the bud! Which I doubt will be too easy, as they've flourished quite magnificently.

Now, here's where I get right down to the nitty-gritty.

First thing's first, I'm hopefully going to be writing some more poems, probably sonnets or other strict form, and am going to submit them to Youthful Wisdom Press. YWP are a group dedicated to spreading the word of young writers and getting there work published.

YWP only published the works of young people aged 13-18, so, being 16 and 4 months, I'd better get my skates on if I want to get myself published.

Sadly, I won't be able to submit my story to YWP, as one of their regulations states that murder is not suitable to be submitted, and if you've read the first chapter of my story that I've submitted, you'll see that four people are killed.

In regards to anybody who liked the first chapter of my story, I'd like to say that I am still working on it, albeit at my own pace, but I should have the second chapter up shortly, after I get somebody to proofread it first.

I also have a question for however many people will be reading this journal. If you've had the time to count, or did the easy thing and copy/pasted the chapter into a word processor, you may have noticed that the chapter has roughly 10,000 words in it, and I'd like your opinions on whether it's too long or not.

Seeing as I lack a subscription, I can't make a poll, so I'll just ask it here. In case you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I've showed it to some members of some other literary communities I'm in, and they've suggested I shorten it, which I may consider doing.

It wouldn't be particularly difficult, rather than shortening the chapter itself, I could merely break it down into smaller chapters, and finding where to put the breaks wouldn't be too difficult either, as I can easily identify points where I could put them.

Now, before I digress any further, I'd like to get to the main point of this journal entry, aside from being bored of seeing the same journal entry time and time again. I've had an idea for a series of short stories that will depict what can happen when the human mind begins to deteriorate. The series shall be called 'Mental State' and the stories will be of varying lengths.

I will keep this journal updated with the progress of the stories as and when I start writing them.

Mental State Titles:

Me, Myself and You: Planning Stage
A boy has led himself to believe he has a split personality which is the complete opposite of him; smooth talking, confident, and unafraid of the consequences of his actions. However, soon his own imagination starts to take over and he becomes somebody he hoped he would never become.

I Love my Brother: Planning Stage
A story of two middle-aged brothers who lead completely different lifestyles, thrown together after not speaking to each other for 15 years. Adapting to how each other leads their lives turns out to be more difficult than they had hoped and brotherly love gets put to the ultimate test.

A Perfect Christmas: Planning Stage
A woman, raised by her over-protective family and shielded from every bitter truth, was always led to believe that on the eve of the 24th of December, Father Christmas would slide down the chimney of their luxury estate and leave presents under the tree in their living room. She was always told that she had to be perfectly well behaved if she were to get any presents that year. As a result, she spent the first 24 years of her life avoiding any situation where she would be tempted to do anything 'bad'. After finding out the truth, she realises that she has carte blanche with the entire world, and she has 24 years to catch up on...

A Second Family: Planning Stage
A happily married actress takes up a job posing as the mother of an example family for an estate agent, to show how a house could look when people were living in it, rather than the potential buyers having to imagine what it could look like. After a while she starts to think how much better her life could be if she lived in this sublime family home with her sublime husband and sublime children, rather than in her adequate suburban home with her adequate husband and no kids. Eventually the pressures of having to lead two lives collide and she's lost in her own mind, locked within her own ultimatum.

Drawn to Death: Planning Stage
A relatively well-renowned artist with oodles of talent draws people. With a photographic memory, he can capture any moment of time he sees while he's outside and recreate with almost perfect precision, he lives, breathes and loves these people, his people. After a devastating fire, the entire collection of his drawings is lost, unable to take in what has happened, his mind becomes a confused concoction of real life and what he used to love. Unable to define between the reality he lives in and the art he loved, he can't understand why his drawings don't do what he wants them to do, and he resorts to making them do what he wants them to do, although he prefers to use other mediums of capturing his inspiration...

Another Day, Another Lie: Planning Stage
Synopsis not yet available.

This is far from the entire list of what Mental State will contain, but I will keep this up to date, and keep you posted on any new info as and when it's released.

I hope I get some feedback and/or opinions on Mental State, and I can assure you now that these will be rather dark stories, and not for the faint-hearted.

Well, I think I've submitted a decent journal entry, and I'm sure that this will keep people occupied while I get on with what I do best. Goodbye, and may your preferred deity, if any, bless you.