on the safe side, part 6

January, 2084 - Summer Phoenix is 19, Hayden is 34, Ryanne is 13.
Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

warnings: a severe lack of pictures, more difficult conversations, renegade third person past tense narration, the Phoenix family's last story on this blog.

***

The future was full of plans again. After dinner, after talking, after the tears had all dried, you could have counted the plans in a list. Nessa looked forward to going back to work. Jack looked forward to getting her pregnant again, which her doctors told her there was a decent chance would be successful. Hayden and Piper's baby, would it be a boy or a girl? They didn't care as long as it was healthy, of course. And then the night quieted down, Nessa and Jack and Grandma Sophie went home and it was just the four of them -- five if you counted the baby -- what a strange thing to get used to.

on the safe side, part 5

January, 2084 - Summer Phoenix is 19.

Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

Summer arrives at her dad's house with a sleeping bag under her arm. She owes her sister a sleepover. She has a deck of cards and she'd going to teach Ryanne to play Euchre. They'll do makeovers if she's up for it, though Summer doesn't care much for makeup. It seems like the kind of thing a big sister is supposed to teach. They'll talk about boys and music and maybe their wrecked family, if Ryanne wants to. Summer isn't sure what good talking about it does sometimes. Because they don't talk about it – they talk around it. They talk about everything except what actually matters.

She finds them all in the living room with Ryanne. It wouldn't surprise Summer that Ryanne had caused yet another argument, but it doesn't look like they're talking about Ryanne for once. There's a nervous calm on their faces, the kind of weight that only comes with matters life or death. Aunt Nessa, Summer thinks, dropping her sleeping bag to the floor where it bounces once and rolls to a stop near the wall.

But then Hayden speaks first, and Summer remembers his phone call earlier in the week. She was partly right about the life and death.

new stories from the lakeside

This is a two-part announcement. Let's start with the happiest news, shall we?!

(Also, this is going to be long... but when aren't they long?)

I've been plotting this little project under the radar for a few months now, and I'd like to make it official.

StorySkippers Anonymous is a "new" neighborhood story illustrated with the Sims 3 game. Sort of new, anyway. The town will be familiar. It's Lake County of 1984, about 100 years before the point the Lakeside Heights blog ends. (Um, more on that in a minute!) Some of the characters you'll recognize, and some will be completely new to you.

hello friends!

I'm so sorry this blog has gone quiet. I absolutely do intend to continue playing Sims (OMG, I miss it so much!!!), and I hope to continue my Sim-storytelling in some capacity as well. Nothing as intense or frequent as what I once did here with Lakeside Heights, but there will be something. I have a lot of exciting Simming projects planned for the coming months, once I get my head to stop spinning, lol!

But first, I'd like to talk about what's been keeping me so busy. I've been hard at work this past spring and summer, and I've gone and decided to make myself the beginnings of what I hope will be a long and fulfilling career, which is what I always intended to do someday. I know I've mentioned here before that I went to college to study fiction writing, and I guess you might say I just got sidetracked with this wonderful distraction that is Lakeside Heights and Sim-storytelling. It taught me just as much (or more!) about writing and storytelling as I ever learned in uni. It taught me about my own personal style and voice, and it led me to some really amazing people, all over the world, who I never knew would become some of my very best friends.

I did it for fun in the beginning, but I had no idea it would become one of the most important and enriching experiences of my life. Writing a Sim story - yes, I'm totally serious, lol!

But anyway, I'd like to show you what's been keeping me so busy! :)

Exactly Where They'd Fall

This is the novel that was inspired by Jodie and Amelia's story, which you may have read first here on this blog many years ago. (Wow, yes, it has been years now, hasn't it?)

But before you dig in, there's one thing I want us to talk about - a note on alternate dimensions. This is not the same story you first read here. In some ways, it's quite different. I'd like to say this is inspired by the story once posted here, rather than a direct retelling of it. If you could take the soul out of a story, and instill it in another body, that would be what I've done here.

You'll likely recognize a few scenes. You'll certainly recognize the main characters, though some characters have changed.  Some are entirely new. Some characters (like Piper) have kept their names and personalities as a nod to their inspirations, but are really living an entirely different life in this book and the spin-off novels that will follow it.

When a writer publishes first draft stories (like the ones you read here on Lakeside Heights), a lot of times, what I see in my head isn't necessarily what gets translated onto the page. That's both the beauty and the frustration of the creative writing process. And that's what critique partners and editors are for, and I have to say, I've had a very talented team helping me shape this little book-baby.

So while it's not the same story you first read here, it is infinitely better and truer to what I had in mind. It's like the skeleton with all the meat on its bones. And some makeup. And a super cute outfit with the perfect pair of shoes. It's matured and filled out and I hope will yeild you a much richer experience.

on the safe side, part 4

January 15, 2084 - Summer Phoenix is 19, Sophie is 61.

Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

Summer doesn't dream most of the time. Between school and work and family, there isn't time to dream. Or when she does, they're those short, nonsensical dreams...

on the safe side, part 3

January 15, 2084 - Hayden Phoenix is 34, Piper Wilson is 29, Ryanne is 13.

Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

Hayden has been through this two times before; there won't be anything there to see for a few months still. But Piper swears there's a bulge, a small one, a bloating. He only smiles and lets her believe it, lets her stand there in front of the mirror, holding her belly, their little bean. Her boobs are bigger already, she says, she's never had big boobs in her life.

She'll hardly even be showing by the time they're married this spring. Piper has plenty of nieces and nephews, and he knows she knows this too, but still she stands there every morning, cradling her still flat belly, as if she might see it start to grow before her eyes.

The first time he'd been through this, he was fifteen years old. There was little magic about that pregnancy. It was mostly panic, indecision, and the transforming end of two childhoods before they were ready for it. This time feels like a fresh start. Mostly.

"Do you want to be there when I tell Ryanne?"

on the safe side, part 2

January 10, 2084 - Ryanne Phoenix is 13, Summer is 19.

Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

After dinner - before her father can pull Ryanne aside to chastise her for her disappointing attitude, before Piper could sulk away from the table, acting all sorrowful like Ryanne could actually hurt her feelings, like she actually had that power - Ryanne gets up first. She grabs her sister by the arm, and quickly tugs them from the dining room and upstairs to her bedroom.

"I wanna show you something," Ryanne says.

on the safe side, part 1

January 10, 2084 - Ryanne Phoenix is 13, Summer is 19, Hayden is 34, Piper Wilson is 29.

Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

It's boring being grounded. It's the middle of winter, but there's no deep snow on the ground, not that she'd be so childish to go sledding, or skating with her sister the way they used to, the way they'd find some frozen puddle in the field, no matter how small, and get their skates out. Most of the time, the thin ice just cracked under their weight, breaking through to one inch of water and soggy winter grass. It was fun for a minute. Back when they still lived in Bluewater, back when their mom was still alive.

But otherwise, there's nothing to do here in the winter, and Ryanne was bored. So she stopped at the CVS on the way home from the bus stop and she did this. It turned out mostly pink, and a little bit green too. It wasn't a statement. It wasn't a rebellion, or revenge, or hatred for anyone. It was just something to do.

profile: Summer

Summer Phoenix

Summer was a surprise baby for her parents, who were barely sixteen years-old when she was born. So that her parents could finish high school, Summer was mostly raised by her grandmother, Sophie. Her grandmother provided her a stable home and relatively normal childhood. Summer grew up knowing that Hayden and Rhianna were her parents, though in relation to each other, they acted more like siblings.

When Summer was nine, her parents married and made a home of their own, along with her new baby sister, Ryanne. Rhianna established a toy store, and named it after her, Summer's Place. In her early teen years, Summer also started a young romance with her childhood friend, Tyler.

For that short time, which Summer remembers as their glory years, the young family did fine on their own. Until tragedy struck. When Summer was fifteen, her mother was killed in a car crash that sent her father spiraling into a deep depression. The girls were taken in by their grandmother once again, as they all tried to struggle through the chaos to put their lives back together and find their way forward.

end of days party...

Please stay tuned while we reconfigure the universe.

There are only two full updates left for TS2 (one of which is mostly shot already, and I have one more left to do), so it's almost time, people! I'm excited, lol! I'm not sure if I'm prepared for the switch-over, but I'm totally going to wing it! I have shot one future update in TS3 already, and while it was tricky, and I know I have a lot of things to learn and get used to, I had a lot of fun doing it!

I'm doing a couple of finishing fixes to my LH-test terrain, and then I'm going to start moving some real families in! It's not "finished", and likely won't be really finished for many more months, but I am ready to play it and build on it for real. I'm sure I won't really know what I want from it for sure until I've played on it anyway, which is sort of backwards, but I've always been a build-as-you-go kind of girl! ;)

this is kind of like a break-up...

This is the last bit of decorating that I'll ever do for Sims 2. It's Ryanne's bedroom. I thought I'd share those pics here, because I'm not sure how much of her room will make it into the story shots, or from which angles, and well, you won't ever see it again.

I did have a lot of fun putting a couch through the wall like that, like a little window nook, where a teenage girl might sit and daydream - or in Ryanne's case, angst at the world! They can't actually sit on it though - I tried. I have no idea if I tried the same trick in TS3, if they would be able to sit on it.

happy birthday, dear Ryanne...

January 6, 2084 - Ryanne Phoenix is 13. (Sam Harris is 12.)

Ryanne hates her birthday this year. Because for Ryanne's thirteenth birthday, she's grounded. It's not just that she has - or had - a boyfriend. It wasn't like her dad had forbidden her to date or anything. In fact, she isn't even really sure Angelo Shaw was her boyfriend. They just held hands in school, and used to kiss a little in the utility closet at school, until she got caught doing something else to him in the utility closet, and now she's pretty sure, even if he was in fact her boyfriend, that he wouldn't be allowed to be anymore.

happy new year, 2084!

New Year's Eve, 2084 - Stephanie Day is 24, Justin Kim is 23, Sophie Phoenix is 61.

Soundtrack: "Drown," by Smashing Pumpkins.

Plenty of people are hosting New Year's parties this year, every year, all over the world. Aunt Sophie is hosting the usual party, and Stephanie's parents will be there, but instead Stephanie is here with Justin's parents. Because Justin's mom makes regular platters of food, sausage rolls in biscuits from the grocery store, nothing imported, nothing strange and gourmet like her Aunt Sophie serves. Stephanie is here because Aunt Sophie's house is always too crowded and noisy, because Corbin has a date which left Justin alone, and she considered spending New Year's in the quiet of her own empty house, but she decided against it. Alone has grown on her, grown into her bones. But not tonight. She knows Justin doesn't like the quiet.

Stephanie wonders how they're celebrating on base, or if they're even celebrating at all. Out there, tonight is just another date, a point on a calendar that's only significant to us because we make it so. Outside the Earth's spinning clock, a year means nothing. Out there, their ships whiz through the blackness and time is irrelevant except to their little electronic clocks, keeping home time like nostalgia.

prequel stories #10: wedding pictures

I actually don't know why I had this post saved up in my drafts for so long. But I'm kind of under the weather this weekend, so I think I'll post this up to pacify you all so I can slack off on the next update for a couple/few more days ;)

Be warned, these are very old pictures. And this was long before I learned to download much proper CC, so some of these outfits are truly terrible, lol!

commence babble!

I should be ready to start work on the next update sometime in the next few days, but for now, I wanted to announce my new babble blog! For those who followed the VSS LH Babble thread, this blog will replace that thread. Babble will continue as usual, just in a different place ;)

And I wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to Blackcat (who writes the brilliant Richmond story) for showing me how to import all of my archives over there!

And thank you to everyone who's listened to my nonsense chatter over the years! I hope it was interesting enough, lol! :)