I am a huge fan of Jane Austen, the Bronte Sisters, all versions of the Phantom of the Opera, Gone with the Wind and Philippa Gregory. I love history and historical fiction. I have a AB in History and a JD in Law. I am not currently in practice because I wear way too many hats, and the job market is not that great. I am also a cancer survivor. I have always wanted to become a great novelist like my heroines, but am past believing that I will do so. I am just content trying my hand here for now. But sometime in the future, I will try to publish using my own stories and characters. I am concentrating on the Phantom of the Opera, because I find Erik to be a very complex and interesting character, who is hard to pin down as either hero or villian. To me that is more human than most characters because many characters are portrayed as either one or the other. I have already written my first fic on this site Phantom Phoenix. My Phantom is definitely more hero than villian because I am touched by the fact that he has been shown such little joy, despite his many gifts. I have tried to portray him as a Byronic hero troubled by his past and yet still heroic. I don't know how many of these that I will write, and whether I will continue to portray him in such a manner; but he is definitely the protagonist of my sequel to Phoenix, Loves Redemption, A Phantom of the Opera Story .In that story I try to portray Erik as a much more self assured man who has absorbed the fact that he can be accepted. His relationships with Christine and Raoul have transformed him into the man that Leroux says that he could be.

My stories are mainly cerebral although I do throw in some occasional M material for the sake of the romantic aspects of my stories. I believe in portraying the inner thoughts of my characters, and drawing their world; I try not to write anything anachronistic. I have read fics that have people shopping in grocery stores eating Pizza in 1905, 50 years before such things became common. Much of the historical events that I write about come from my own knowledge. If I do not know it, I look it up. I enjoy doing so because I can learn as I write, it makes my job yet even more interesting.

My third fic Tears of Hate portrays a slightly darker Erik. His post lair relationship with Christine is rocky to say the least. If they are to reunite they will need to settle some issues that have sprung up between them. This fic is told from different characters points of view which add to the reader's feeling and knowledge of the characters but does spread out the story a little. To develop a character fully I have had to delve into their minds. I also enhance the story with some fairly strong OCs. It largely takes place in the area on the French-German border known as Alsace. It has changed hands between the two countries more than once. In the 1880s it was part of Germany having been lost by France following the Franco-Prussian war. My fic deals with the very real tensions that existed between those two great European powers in the gilded age and beyond. The territory is once again French but serves even today as a bridge between the two nations. It is currently the seat of the European Parliament.

My fourth fic The de Chagny Legacy is yet a different sort of story from my previous ones. Erik is even less trusting of humanity than my previous Fics but he still would change that if he could.This one will be an AU to Love Never Dies. It will explore not just romantic love, but filial love as well, as Erik must struggle with the notion of single parenthood of a preteen child. This fic portrays a fictional town in Colorado, which I have based upon the real towns of Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs where Erik,Nadir and Darius have settled to. Escape the past, but eventually Erik is forced to come back out into the world and face both new challenges and rewards. Eventually he makes his way back to France where he must come to terms with both his past and the forces that shaped it.

I recently completed my fifth story "No Backward Glances, which takes place in England and has some Austen influences. In that story Erik is a widower with two children that he had through his first marriage with an OC. His marriage had been very happy and fulfilling for him and even though his wife was prematurely taken from him he has experienced the kind of love that he always wanted, and is in a way very content with who he is. Christine and Raoul on the other hand were not content with their own lives post lair. Erik and Christine were not fond of looking backwards at their past, or at each others existence, until they are thrown together once again and then they must re-exam both their mutual past and the present time. At first they viewed one another with hatred but hatred and love are not really far apart from one another.

Currently I have started my next story which is called The Prison of My Mind. This story is very unique and is not receiving the readership to which it should be entitled but the very premise is impossible to explain. You just have to read it and find out how. It has much less influence from either ALW or Kay than my others. My main source is the original but even that serves as my outline. It begins as a flashback narrative of the past mainly Erik's but eventually does go into the present time. It has some sad moments but they are tempered by more pleasant moments as well.

Anyhow, I hope that you will enjoy my fics and spread the word around. I love reviews, especially kind ones, and try to answer each one of them personally.