EDIT: I have placed a poll on my profile page for those that wish to vote anonymously. If you haven't done so already, please read the note below for a full explanation of what I'm talking about. Thanks for your time.

Important Author Note – Where do we go from here?

Hello All.

Cliché I know, but firstly please accept my sincere apologies for the unacceptably long delay in updating this and all my other stories. Apologies especially to those that were kind enough to spare a moment to review, or add me to their favourite/watch lists. Trust me when I say that this means a lot to me, and that I've relished your reviews, criticisms and advice.

If you've got this far, please read to the end. I'm going to explain what's going on, and then give you, my readers, and a choice.

I'm still just as committed to Harry Potter and these stories, as I was when I started writing years ago. In fact, as time has passed, I've had even more ideas about where I want the plots to go, and I really do believe I can make something worthwhile out of them. I have several scenes from different stories that I've worked on now and again, which I would hope to fit into the final versions.

Having said that, real life has kept me from writing, and for once, the excuse isn't a lack of time but health issues. I suffer from ever worsening Reynaud's in my fingers. In short, it's a constriction of the blood vessels in the fingers that cause them to go ice cold, and then leave me in agony for hours as they warm up again. Anything less than it being positively sweltering causes an attack to surface, so you can imagine the weather we've had of late has not been conducive to my feeling all that great. Sometimes I'll catch a break for a few hours, at other times I'll be practically living in bed for weeks (as was the case most recently in November 2009). To anyone unfortunate enough to suffer from this, you know what I mean. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, and what's really soul destroying is that it stops me from doing just the things I enjoy the most. Also, as I'm partially sighted, the computer, and thus my fingers are my lifeline. Therefore, you can hopefully understand why I try to prioritise on the most important activities during what pain-free time I do get.

I'm not just writing for the sake of it, but because I genuinely enjoy it, and thus I want to take the time to make the best of it that I can. If that involves writing half a dozen drafts of a chapter, so be it. So, whereas I could dash off a University essay in a few hours and be happy with it, chapters for my stories do take significantly longer to take form.

Because of this, and because I know how frustrating it is to see stories which seem as though they may be a good read later on just seem to fizzle out and die with no update for months on end, I thought it was only fair for me to give you the chance to choose where I go from here. I see the following possibilities:

1. I can stop all my stories here and give them up for adoption. I'd hope whoever took them on would be just as passionate about them as I am, and I'd still be honoured to have some input in tossing ideas around, but they would have the final word and set the schedule, etc. I'd be happy to hand over my notes and unwritten scenes to the adopter. Whereas being credited as the original creator would be nice, I won't insist on it, as I don't believe I have the right.

2. I can stop all my stories here and remove them from the site. I don't suppose there's much point in having something online that isn't going anywhere. Whether I start up again in the future with either a totally new story, a story that merges parts of those I've already worked on, or not at all, would have to be seen.

3. I can continue to work on the stories at my own pace, but I would be unable to promise any timescales for updates. There's just no way of saying what the health will do from one day to the next. Also, whereas I've now finished with university as of October 2009, I'm still in the process of pressing a formal complaint due to grievances with the way the course ended. Also, I'm now coming under pressure to find a job, which could be anytime, or not for a long while. I suppose it helps that I won't get my official results until February and papers until July.

There's not much more to add, but as I said before I feel that as I'm not just writing for myself, I owe it to my readers to let them decide the fate of what's published here. I'll leave this open for a fortnight or so, maybe a little longer, before I decide myself. Please let me know your thoughts in a review or by mail or private message if you prefer.

Thanks, and sorry once again.

P.S: I had Alphabeat 'Spell' and Abba 'The Winner Takes It All' playing in the background whilst I dashed this off. Both are great songs, if a little melancholy, but they seem to fit the mood.

EDIT: As of 14 January 2010 I have 5 votes for option 3 above. I mention this only as the votes may have been deleted whilst this note was updated.