It's been a long time since I've updated my profile, and as I've seen other people do on their profiles, I'm going to get a few fanfiction peeves off of my chest. I've been reading Harry Potter fics for a long time now, and have written two lengthy stories, so here are a few observations. Well, OK, they are rants more than observations.

1. Enough with the bashing! Ron bashing, Ginny bashing, Molly bashing, Dumbledore bashing. Enough already! It's boring. It's been done a million times, and it's lazy literature. Sure, these characters can have faults, but they are much more interesting as flawed individuals rather than evil or incredibly stupid idiots.

2. "I suck at writing summaries." I cringe when I see that. If you can't write a decent summary, why should I read your story? Also, if you misspell five words in your summary or don't capitalize any words, don't expect me to click onwards.

3. Rewriting canon "with a twist." Why do so many stories just follow canon with a few changes here and there? No matter how much you change it, it isn't very interesting because we've already read it and know what is going to happen. One way or the other, Harry is going to rescue the philosopher's stone, or kill the basilisk, or survive the tri-wizard tournament. If you are going to write a story, then make it your own.

4. Abandoned stories and yearly updates. It really isn't that complicated. If you are going to post a story on this site, you obviously want people to read it. To then abandon a story (without removing it with an explanation) or update it once every two years is an insult to the readers who have done you the favor of reading your work. Updates preferably should be made on a weekly basis, but at the very least once per month. If you can't meet at least a once per month schedule, then don't start in the first place. The best advice I can give is not to post your first chapter until you have already written at least five.

5. Why, why, WHY do people insist on Sirius calling Harry, "Pup." Or even worse, "Cub." Please! It's not funny, it's not cute, and it is not something Sirius would say to Harry, who is not an animagus and whose patronus is not even canine in nature. This is one of the worst creations of fanfiction which has for some inexplicable reason been copied by countless authors. If you must use a nickname, "Prongs Jr." or "Prongslet" at least have some logic to them (though I don't like them much either). In the same vein, I hate the nickname "Mione" for Hermione. It really sounds silly (though it is better than "Hermy," I must admit). Also, who decided that Daphne Greengrass is the "ice queen" of Hogwarts? That was fine the first or second time, but now people seem to think that this is her canon character. In reality, we know almost nothing about Daphne in canon (she is only even mentioned a few times), so she is a character that authors can and should mold into their own. Don't just follow the leader.

6. "The rating is T for now but I may change it later." No, no, no! The rating is for the story as a whole, so even if you are only going to have one chapter where Harry is romping in the hay with a partner, or where there is serious violence, then the entire story should be rated M right from the beginning. Some readers do not want to read M rated stories or do not permit their children to read them, so if you know that there will be M rated material at some point, then rate it M right from the start.

That said, I still enjoy a lot of stories out there, so by all means, if you have the urge, give it a try. I enjoyed writing my two stories, but I believe that my fanfiction writing days are over.

Regarding my two stories, I published A Serpent's Sacrifice on a different site in 2006, but I never got around to posting it here. Early in 2007, I discovered that my story had been plagiarized by someone on fanfiction.net. Fortunately, that issue was resolved easily enough, and I thought that it would be best for me to post my story here, which I have done. I posted it fairly quickly, so I probably did not get as many review as I could have by spreading it out, but so be it.

A Serpent's Sacrifice is a "canon" seventh-year story combining mystery, drama, angst, action/adventure, a little humor and romance. It has been very well-received, and I think you will enjoy it. In 2007, I posted a second and entirely different seventh-year story, The Bottom of the Lake, which is what I like to call "semi-canon." I promised to finish it before Deathly Hallows came out, and in rush of writing, I completed it just one day ahead of time. It deals largely with the effects on Harry of having to destoy the horcruxes. I hope you enjoy both of my stories, and please feel free to leave a review. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. G.