Lakeside Heights has been a sprawling and very dear passion-project of mine. Over the years, it has evolved and grown into something I never imagined it would. What once started as a silly Sim drama has taken on a life of its own and become something else.
These stories were first posted here between 2008 and 2013, a long rambling first-draft with an aspiring amount of literary ambition, a little bit of swoon, some funny and a few tears, and though messy and complicated, I have to say, they captured my heart. I soon found I was working on this project as much as or more than my "real" stories. It became one of my real stories. It became bigger and more complicated than I could work on in its allotted 3-hours, once a week of Simming time I had to spend on it.
This story has always evolved as I needed it to evolve, and so it will grow again. What you have here is a lot, but it's really just the beginning. I have plans to finish the rest of it as part of a novel saga in a volume of about five or six books. The end of this blog would line up with about the end of the second book. I can't put a promised release date on the novel series just yet, but I hope to start working on them seriously in the next couple of years.
These stories will not be taken down as long as I have any say in it. The final, revised books may differ slightly, but against my perfectionist Virgo sensibilities, these wandering, messy drafts will remain online where we may look back on them fondly (I hope!). Not only because they represent a fond portion of my growth and maturing as a writer, but because I also know that not all of the stories will make it into the final books, and I want them to have a place to live.
I do plan to continue writing Sim-illustrated stories. At the moment, I'm working on a project called StorySkippers Anonymous, illustrated with Sims 3, and you are welcome to join me over there if you like. Much like this story, you don't really need to know anything about the Sims 3 game to follow the story. It stars a few characters you may recognize from this story, and some new faces too.
If you're interested in following any of my other "serious" work (quotes because my stories are rarely ever completely serious, lol!), you can follow along at lauraraeamos.com.
Writing tweets are at @lauraraeamos, and LH specific tweets are @lakesideheights. There's also the LH Facebook page you can follow for updates. You can email me at laura.rae.amos @ gmail.com.
You can also contact me here (comments are open at the bottom of this post), or through the Twitter or Facebook pages.
I'm truly honored to have met each and every one of you who stopped by to read this glorious mess! Thank you for letting me share these silly stories with you! :)
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About your author: (I totally stole this idea from Jen at Mt. Geneva!)
Laura:
life-stage: adult (age 30)
aspiration: pleasure primary (knowledge secondary, with hints of romance and family)
character traits: amusing, stubborn, spirited, logical, curious, private
LTW: become bestselling novelist
school: B.A. English (creative writing)
job: stay-at-home-mom, writer
family: one little boy
romantic: very happily married! :)
simology:
zodiac: virgo (6/2/6/6/6)... (which I think ends up being Cancer by Maxis standards).
interests: environment, culture, health, fashion, paranormal, sci-fi, school, toys
hobbies: film and literature (OTH), music and dance (membership), games (membership), fitness (interest)
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThis may be a silly or presumptuous question, but could I get permission to borrow your resident profile format pretty much exactly? I've been thinking of starting my own neighborhood blog, and there's information on yours (like BFFs and romantic history) that I wouldn't have thought of including otherwise.
Either way, thanks :) Your gameplay posts have had a lot of impact on the way my neighborhood's been evolving, above and beyond the enjoyment I've had reading the stories.
--larky (boxofrobins at gmail)
Larky, no problem, borrow away! I've borrowed half of that from other people anyway, lol! And thanks for reading! :)
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI was looking up images for a school project and came across your website. I just wanted to let you know that I think your writing and storytelling is GREAT. Keep up the good work, I really loved your series. :-)
Also, I was looking at some of the pictures you've posted of your sims, and I just have to know where you get your custom content. It'd be great to know, I can never find any of the stuff you have! Thank you and happy writing!
~Bella I. (iontaisabella@yahoo.com)
Bella, thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! :)
ReplyDeleteYou can find links to my favorite custom content (= CC) sites on the main navigation bar underneath the header - look for "TS2 CC" or "TS3 CC". Thanks for reading!
OMG, first please excuse the "text" chat I use 'OMG' and 'lol' a lot and alot of smiley faces ;D but I love you're blog, I love even more that you still update. I mostly play Sims 2(just can't get interested in Sims 3 the same way), but I've decided to play again and started reading over your blog as I've been looking for more examples for my own neighborhood. I love your whole university outline and the older pictures of your neighborhood are pure perfection. All I know is, before you, I've never been able to find other people whose sims had Spring Break and a Prom. I'll still be reading as I try to catch myself up xD but I'm just happy to see someone whose blog wowed me and there is soo much detail! When I start my blog/website hopefully it can be as interesting. So long-story-short, sending lots of love to this amazing blog. ♥♥
ReplyDeleteAlexy, thank you so much! The updates are slow-coming, but yes, I'm still at it! And don't worry, I probably use OMG and LOL just as much! ;) I'm glad to have you reading along! I hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDelete