Welcome!

"People very often say to me, 'How did you do it, how did you raise a baby and write a book?' And the answer is - I didn't do housework for four years. I am not Superwoman. And um, living in squalor, that was the answer." - J. K. Rowling

If you enjoy reading one of my stories or a new chapter of one, it would be most appreciated if you'd leave a little review in thanks! Short, long, constructively critical, rambling, or excitedly incoherent - all reviews are welcome. :) I try to logged-in fanfiction dot net members' reviews by private message, but I've felt a bit overwhelmed lately so please don't be offended if I don't reply - let me know if you're particularly keen to get a response. Non-member (guest) reviews may sometimes get a response in an author's note at the end of a new chapter if there's a specific question that it seems important to respond to.

Recent News & Updates

21/7/20 - Writing Update. Chapters 30 & 31 finished. Roughly 4 chapters left to go! :D

9/7/20 - Writing Update. Chapters 28 & 29 finished of the next "Perfectly Normal" fic draft. :) Another 16K total added to the story. I estimate there's another 6 chapters to go to finish off the fic.

I'm currently bribing myself with tiny squares of gourmet fudge. 1K of words earns me a tasty treat!

It's been a trying couple of weeks as I've had a case of shingles, but it never got bad enough to need to head to the hospital and I'm on the mend now.

All is well here, but I do worry for my sister's family as their city is currently experiencing a bad outbreak (by local standards) of COVID-19.

Stay safe, everyone. xx

15/6/20 - Writing Update. Writing update! :) It's been a while since I finished a chapter, so I'm proud to say I've now finished the draft of chapter 27 of the next "Perfectly Normal" fic. Another 9K added to the total!

The fic needs an absolute minimum of five more chapters to be completed (and ready for editing and posting), but knowing how I write it might blow out to significantly more than that. Still, the end is in sight! :)

I've also been working a little on one of my many unpublished WIPs, adding a bit more to a smol!Loki & smol!Tony fic (MCU fandom). It still needs work, because it's getting a bit too serious and I need it to stay light and fun. Also it needs to be longer!

Stay safe out there, everyone. xx

19/5/20 - Writing Update. I've just spent the past five days rereading and editing my draft fic. The story's so long, and the writing's taken so long to do, that I was starting to forget details of my own story. My memory has been refreshed, some errors caught, and some forgotten plot points noted down for inclusion in upcoming chapters.

6/5/20 - Writing Update. Still well here! Australia's in a good place right now in the pandemic, I hope it continues. My best wishes to all readers stuck in less comfortable circumstances. xx School goes back in a couple of weeks for my kids, which will be an anxious time if case numbers pick up again, but so far so good.

I've done some writing today, and wrapped up the drafts of chapters 25 and 26 of the next "Perfectly Normal" fic. It was going to be one long chapter, but it got a bit too long so I split it up into two chapters of 4.7K and 7.4K words, which I think works much better. I try to keep 10K as my max cutoff for a chapter, and 4K is my minimum these days.

17/3/20 - Covid19walkout Dear fanfic friends,

As some of you may know, I'm an Australian, and the coronavirus outbreak is just starting to reach our country, with a few hundred cases confirmed (about 68 cases in my state). Our government is recommending strong social restrictions; sporting and cultural events are being cancelled, the university my husband works at has shut down all classes, gatherings of over 500 are advised against, and international visitors are required to self-isolate for 14 days or face jail time (some countries are just plain banned). It's early days with few cases, which is the critical turning point at which with strong measures our country can stop a handful of cases turning into a flood.

I'm pretty scared. I have both a respiratory and a heart condition (risk factors for poor outcomes), and everyone else in my immediate family isn't 100% healthy either, so we're bunkering down. My husband is working from home (thank goodness he's allowed), I've pulled my kids out of school, I've stockpiled some groceries, and we've cancelled all social outings and gatherings.

This all comes at a very stressful time for me, as my mother just passed away. :( I returned from her wake (interstate) to find the country going from, "Oh, those poor Chinese and Italians!" into full-on panic mode.

None of my family has significant signs of illness at this point, but every tiny sniffle has us freaking out. Hopefully thus far we're all well, and will stay that way.

Should the worst come to worst, my husband or daughter have my permission to post my unfinished and unpublished fics.

I will check in on my Goodreads blog on a weekly basis to say, "Hi! Still alive."

For now, all is as well as can be expected. I have paperwork and belongings to go through as I wrap up my mother's estate, a will to update (just in case), and then I'll be trying to de-stress by working on my fics.

Stay safe out there, everyone. If you can,

Love,
BrilliantLady

#covid19walkout

29/1/20 - Happy New Year! The summer holidays are over now, kids are back at school, and I'm getting back on track with returning to writing my "Perfectly Normal" fic. Wish me luck!

23/12/19 - New Story. Merry Christmas/Hanukkah Sameach/Joyous Yule/Happy Holidays to all my readers! :)

I have a new fic up as a gift for my readers this holiday season. It's not a Harry Potter fic (sorry!) but I hope you'll enjoy it. It's a Frostiron (Loki/Tony Stark) Christmas two-chapter fic called "Mistletoe Truce". Due to explicit adult content it can only be read on my account on AO3 and won't be posted here on FFN. The first chapter's just gone up, and the second will go up in another day or so (Xmas Eve or Xmas). It's already complete, I just want to give chapter two some extra editing before posting it.

20/11/19 - Writing Update - WINNER! Who just finished Nanowrimo? *proudly points to self* This lady right here! That's right, fifty thousand new words have been added to the draft of my next "Perfectly Normal" fic, in just 20 days! Since I last reported in on the third of November (having just completed chapter 17) I've written four and a half new chapters! I'm now more than halfway through chapter 22!

How close am I to finishing, I hear you ask? (In my mind, at least...) Well, that's the bad news, I still have a lot to go. BUT I'm a lot *closer* to being finished, and I'd say I'm comfortably over half done, perhaps around two thirds. All the major events are plotted out; I know where this fic is going, and I know how it's going to end. I also know it's going to need ten more chapters to get that all down with the lavish detail I enjoy writing. Y'all want a really long story, right? (If not, you might be disappointed...)

I won't rest on my laurels and I'll continue to try and keep up the pace now I've built some good daily writing habits over the past two months of frenetic writing.

4/11/19 - Writing Update. Chapter 16 has been wrapped up and chapter 17 has been started and completed, at 8K and 7K respectively. Whoo! Running total of over 9K words for Nanowrimo so far over the past four days. It's good news for "Perfectly Normal" fans as I power through my draft: six new chapters added since the start of October. :)

Notes

My Community

I've made a little community, "Harry Potter for Kids" (and for adults interested in good HP fics with low levels of violence/romance/bad language), which I will slowly add new fics to as I have a chance to review them. Feel free to subscribe if it sounds like your cup of tea. I've recently brought on an extra person as a staff member for the group, so new fics should be added more regularly from now on.

Blog

I've started a blog over on my author account at "Goodreads". I'll re-post my "News and Updates" from this profile over on that account, so if you'd like to subscribe there to receive story & writing updates you're welcome to. Note - it's not a story-hosting site, it's a story *reviewing* website.

Perfectly Normal

This is my long series - it is five fics long and the sixth in the series is an incomplete and unpublished draft - this series is ongoing. When browsing my list of works keep an eye out for the little rainbow snake image making it easier for you to spot the fics in this series. There is also an additional work summarising the first four fics in the series, as an aid for readers who'd like to refresh their memories on the details.

Series summary: Harry just wants a quiet life. He wants to be ordinary, unremarkable, and get along with everyone. Being "normal" for the Dursleys yielded great results in improving his standard of living, and as he heads off to Hogwarts he still retains that impulse to blend in. Of course, life isn't as simple as that, and Harry is a magnet for trouble, it seems! Give this series a try if you love seeing the pure-blood wizarding culture more fully fleshed out, slow realistic character development, and some unique twists on the canonical story starting with a more realistic reaction to neglectful child abuse than you often see.

Images for "Perfectly Normal"

It's not necessary to enjoy my series, but if you'd like to see some visuals of things referenced in my fics, visit my page at: http [colon slash slash] members [dot] optusnet [dot] com [dot] au [slash] ~pelari [slash] potter [dot] htm
You'll need to replace the sections in square brackets with the appropriate punctuation - fanfiction dot net censors all links except to its own website.

You Need More Fics?

Some additional fics are available only on my AO3 account for older readers (same username - BrilliantLady). No fics with a rating higher than "T" will be hosted on fanfiction dot net.

About Me

I currently read primarily Harry Potter fics (including crossovers), Sherlock, Lucifer, Big Bang Theory, and Pride and Prejudice fics. I occasionally enjoy Smallville, Star Trek, and Avengers/MCU fics. I also like Stargate and Supernatural crossovers with my other fandoms, even though I don't watch those shows! :) You may see little nods to some of my favourite books and shows in my fics. I write primarily Harry Potter fics, with a smattering of other fandoms including Pokemon, Star Wars, Big Bang Theory, Marvel/Avengers, Smallville, and Sherlock.

Some of my favourite books include: "The Gumshoe, The Witch and the Virtual Corpse" by Keith Hartman, "Prince of the Godborn" by Geraldine Harris, "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "The Dark is Rising" by Susan Cooper, "Princess of Wands" by John Ringo, and "The Land Behind the World" by Anne Spencer Parry.

I can also be found on AO3 with the same pen name.