Hello, I'm Expecting Rain.

I'm not around much these days, but I come back from time to time - so I'm sorry if I don't reply to you in a reasonable amount of time!

I've somehow complied quite a list of stories, so let me try to make some sense of them.

Harry Potter

Challenge Drabbles (usually 100 or 500 words)

A Silly Muggle Custom, Pretending, Breakable, Pink Sugar Roses, Gurdyroots, Bravado, Hold It True, Devouring, Careless, The Tiniest Space of Time, And Hold The Earth In Place, Drowning, Crimson, That Kind of Dream, Fragile, For Life, Reflect What You Are, Periphery, Colorful, Mind, Body, Mind, Affinity, Keep My Secrets Hope To Die, Stars That Clear Have Been Dead For Years, The First Morning, Wolpertingers, CrumpleHorned Snorkacks, and Love, Two Vessels, I've Got You On My Answering Machine

Other Oneshots

Just Old Light, Seventeen, Like a Lethifold

Oneshot Collections

Dirge, Cake, Ice Cream, and Challenges!

Multichapter

Prisoners and Captives - my attempt at a realistic Dramione. Unfinished.

Secret Garden

Forever And Ever And Ever and its sequel A Good Year For The Roses are completed multichapter fics about teenaged Mary, Dickon, and Colin.

How Does Your Garden Grow? is an angsty three-shot about adult Mary, Dickon, and Colin. It is NOT in any way connected to my other two Secret Garden fics.

Lord of the Rings

Always Torn In Two is a oneshot about postwar Legolas and Sam.

Waves Like the Sea is a strange, semi-stream-of-conscience story about postwar Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli. I'm not a big fan of this, but some people liked it, so I'll leave it up.

Miscellaneous

Of Malls and Minivans, TicTacs and Telephones - Juno oneshot

Long Live General Tapioca - Tintin oneshot

OTHER STUFF

maria.a.kov translated my fic Reflect What You Are into Russian! You can read it here.

About reviews: I review everything I read, and I think the world of fanfiction would be a better place if everyone did the same. It's extremely frustrating to look at the stats page and realize just how few readers are reviewing - several my stories have been favorited more times than they have been reviewed. If you've taken the time to read, please, please, please review. It only takes a few seconds, and something as simple as "I liked it" or "I didn't like it" is fine. Even :) or :( or :/ would be infinitely better than no response at all! And I'm not just complaining for myself - I think every author here gets a little confused when they compare the number of hits to the number of reviews.

About constructive criticism: I like it. If you have the time and inclination, tell me what I'm doing wrong and/or how to fix it.

About review replies: Unless you specifically tell me not to, I always reply to reviews - it's just good manners, I think. If you'd rather not hear from me, mention that in your review and I'll leave you alone. I also accept anonymous reviews so feel free to go anon if you'd rather.

I've had a few anonymous reviewers include their email addresses in their reviews. However, fanfiction.net makes them disappear - so if you're an anonymous reviewer and want a response from me, make sure you space out your email address, as in: emailaddress @ email . com. And I apologize to the reviewers I haven't been able to reply to because of this problem!

About Britpicking: I make an effort to use British vocabularly, food, settings, etc. in my Harry Potter fanfics. However, I'm American, so of course I will make some mistakes, and if you see any, please point them out. I use American spellings - intentionally - because that's what's easiest for me to use; it seems a little extreme to use new spelling and grammar rules and adjust my wordprocessor settings just to write HP fanfic. The Harry Potter books I grew up reading and fell in love with were the American versions, so that is canon for me, and if all goes well, that's how my fanfic should read - British vocabulary but American spellings.

My icon was made by the wonderful Xx starlight-moon xX, who besides making fantastic icons and being a great friend, is also an extremely talented writer. You should go check out her stories - she specializes in the Black sisters.

My challenge drabbles are answers to writing challenges at the lovely xoxLewrahxox's amazing forum (with all its AMAZING members), Bellatrix Lestrange: The Dark Lord's Most Faithful. It's a Bellatrix-appreciation forum, so if you'd like to discuss Bellatrix Lestrange, her family, the Death Eaters, and an assortment of wonderfully random topics, both Harry Potter related and otherwise, feel free to join us.