7-4-16 STORY UPDATES: Hey guys, I know it's been awhile since you have heard from me, and for that I am so very sorry. Real life, coupled with writer's block, and regrettably, laziness, has simply kept me from updating my stories. Not to mention, ideas that come from left field that demand to be written before they will leave me alone. (These stories are not finished, and therefore, will not be posted until C&C and BID are complete.) As of now, 7-4-16, I'm currently awaiting the start of my freshman year of college so I'm preparing for that and trying to study for all my placement tests. It should be interesting, seeing as I haven't seen the inside of a classroom in any shape or form since I graduated high school in the late nineties. I'm a stay at home Mom, in case you are wondering, but now that my kids are teens, I am ready to start my career while I'm still young...ish. :)

Anyway...As of now, C&C along with BID are ON HOLD! As for Brothers, I regret to inform you that it is officially ABANDONED. I simply have no drive to work on Brothers and since it has been a long, long time since I have even looked at it, I have forgotten what all I was planning to do with it. For that, I am so very, very sorry.

When I have the time I will complete C&C along with BID. C&C is my official 'baby', so you can bet your bottom dollar it WILL be finished...eventually. As for BID it is my crackfic that I go to when I'm feeling low, so I work on that when I need a pick-me-up. I have plans to take that up to year three, but any longer than that will just be ridiculous.

With all of the important stuff out of the way, I wish to add a little section that will hopefully help other writers should they stumble across my profile. A lot of people ask me 'How do you know that about so and so character?' 'Is what you wrote canon compliant, or is that just for your story?' Along with other things, so here is my secret tips and tricks for writing HP fan fiction.

HP Fan Fiction Writing Tips & Tricks:

HP Wiki is your BEST FRIEND! Just google it. 'Harry Potter wiki' it's three simple words that will give you information about EVERYTHING HP related. I know a lot of people site HP lexicon and Pottermore as places to go as well, but HP wiki has everything those two sites have...and more. In my personal opinion, it is a lot easier to search and everything about a specific topic is all on one page. It even has spells used in the movies and video games, and while I know stuff from those two things are not considered canon, it can help sort out what is canon and what is not.

There is no excuse for spelling a main character's name wrong or misspelling common words like Quidditch, Gryffindor, etc, etc. Do your research my fellow writers, because let me tell you, Potter Heads know how to spell Dumbledore and Fidelius Charm and trust me, we WILL call you out on it! Remember HP Wiki is your best friend.

Know your character's ages. It's ok to say that Snape 'is around thirty-five years old' when writing a story, but it is NOT OK for Dumbledore to be 150! They said that in the movie and it has stuck. Harry, Ron, and Hermione said that in the movie as a joke. It was clearly an exaggeration, but for some reason people think that this is Dumbledore's age. It's not. He was born in the summer of 1881 and was 115 when he died. HP WIKI IS YOUR BEST FRIEND!

On that same note...Know the difference between canon and fanon! Canon is anything in the books and anything JKR as put up on Pottermore, and/or said in interviews. She is the final say so! Fanon is everything you find in fan fiction. It's so common that people think it's canon. Below are some examples.

The underage magic tracer is on THE WITCH OR WIZARD NOT the WAND! Harry is not the Heir of Godric Gryffindor, glamor charms are not canon, Gringotts has not been around forever. The bank was founded in 1474, therefore, the Founders WILL NOT have had vaults there! Harry is not the richest wizard in the world, and the Potters are NOT an Ancient and Noble House. Remember HP Wiki is your best friend. Go to it and search for Sacred Twenty-Eight.

Charlus and Dorea Potter are NOT Harry's grandparents. His Grandparents are Fleamont and Euphemia Potter. He is NOT related to the Blacks by blood ONLY through his marriage to Ginny.

The Unforgivable Curses can NOT be traced by the Ministry and they can ONLY land you in Azkaban if they are used against HUMANS and you are CAUGHT!

I could go on and on, but please know the difference between canon and fanon. I hate it when people tell me that I have something wrong because fanon says otherwise.

Please Note...It is ok to write the above things. I have written about them myself. All I'm asking is that you understand the difference.

Another tip is NOT using wacky symbols to define Parseltongue, Gobbledegook, and other languages. Seeing this at the start of a story and/or chapter is pointless.

$Parseltongue$

Gobbledegook*

#Mermish#

"Thoughts"

"Speaking"

No one is going to remember all that. It is your job as the writer to teach your readers what is what. Having wacky symbols and bold words which are underlined is distracting to a reader and it ruins your story. Italics is the standard form for thoughts and Parseltongue, along with all other languages in the HP fanfic world. For example:

"Hello, what is your name?" Harry asked, as he looked into a cage which held a strange purple colored snake.

"Oh! A speaker! How wonderful!" The snake replied, as it slithered up a dark branch that rested against the glass. "My name is Tim."

"Speaker? I don't understand. Why did you call me that?" Harry asked with a slight frown.

"Parseltongue is a magical language. You have been given the gift of speaking to snakes." The snake answered with an excited hiss.

Harry smiled for just a moment and thought, Wow, this is really cool!

"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione asked, as she came up behind him carrying owl treats for Hedwig.

"Nothing Hermione, I'm just looking."

Doing things like that is teaching your readers what is what. It's simple, easy to remember, and not distracting for the majority of readers. If Harry ends up buying the snake, readers will catch on pretty quick that if he is talking to Tim, he's speaking in Parseltongue. Sames goes for the goblins. If he is in the bank speaking to Griphook in italics, chances are he is speaking Gobbledegook.

My HP Pet Peeves:

Some people have asked me 'What makes you stop reading a story?' and I always tell them first and foremost it's horrible spelling and grammar. I'm not perfect with my spelling and grammar so I can tolerate a lot of mistakes, but obnoxious spelling and grammar mistakes will see me running for the hills before I am done with the first chapter. I also tell them improper formatting and paragraph breaks will see me running away too. Nothing irritates me more than seeing the following:

"Hogwarts is beautiful isn't it?" Hermione asked. "Yes, it is really magical." Harry replied.

No, no, Just NO! This is how it is suppose to look.

"Hogwarts is beautiful isn't it?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, it is really magical." Harry replied.

This is also true for the dreaded 'walls of text'. My fellow writers please understand, the enter (or return) key on your keyboard will not bite you. Please use it.

Adult/Child Pairings. No. Adult/Child pairings are the worst. Teen!Harry/Adult!McGonagall and Teen!Harry/Adult!Amelia is just as bad as Teen!Hermione/Adult!Snape and Teen!Hermione/Adult!Sirius. Having this kind of pairing suddenly come up in a story with no warning will cause me to drop it in a heartbeat.

Aside from the above, the following pet peeves will not make me drop a story, but it will have me rolling my eyes and wanting to strangle you.

Changing Harry's Name. Nothing will make me want to strangle you more than changing Harry's name. Now, I can tolerate Harrison because Harry can be a nickname for Harrison, but anything else, no. He is not Hadrian (or any other silly first name) James Slytherin-Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw-Gryffindor-Emrys-Black-Lupin-Malfoy-Peverell-insert obscure name here-Le Fay-Pendragon-Potter. He is Harry James Potter. Period. Once you change Harry's name he is not Harry Potter anymore. He is nothing but an OC with Harry's magical issues.

Sirius calling Harry 'pup'. No, just no. If I was Harry, I'd punch him each time Sirius said it.

Remus calling Harry 'cub'. Again, no. They had a student/teacher relationship and after Remus left Hogwarts, it developed into a friendship. Harry is not Remus's 'cub'.

Changing 'muggle' to 'mundane'. Really? All because the SLANG definition of muggle means 'ignorant or common person'? Seriously people, it's also slang for marijuana. These are FICTIONAL characters! Trust me, they don't care that they are called muggles.

Super friendly Goblins. These are found mostly in Super!Harry and Independent!Harry stories, but they pop up so often that it leaves me feeling sorry for those blood thirsty, wizard hating beings.

Super!Wands You've seem them. Wands that have multi cores and woods with rainbows and sunshine coming out of their ends. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

Harry related to everyone from Merlin and The Founders to Buckbeak and the Giant Squid. Now don't get me wrong, I can tolerate him being the Heir of Gryffindor and/or Slytherin and being related to Merlin. I've written stories about that myself, but come on people...Morgana, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, The sole Heir of Hogwarts, Lord Black, etc., etc. SERIOUSLY!? At least being related to the Peverells is CANON!

SuperRich!Harry Its nothing more than an easy fix so that Harry has no financial obstacles standing in his way.

Harry falling in 'true love' with someone he has never spoken two words too. Yeah, I'm eyeballing you Greengrass and Davis. Now, I can tolerate a story with those parings and ones like it, but do not drop that crap on me in the first chapter. It's not believable people.

TimeTravel!Harry that falls in love with preteen Ginny, Hermione, Luna, etc., etc., Same as Adult/Child. Please wait until they are 16 or 17 at the LEAST!

Magical and Multiple Animagus. Simply put...not possible. It's cringe worthy and eye straining (due to the eye rolling.)

There are more, I'm sure, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head and I'll add more as I remember them. I'm not saying don't write those things, but I will warn you, a lot of readers don't like them and if there is no warnings about them in your story, people will flame you for it. However, it is your story so don't let my pet peeves rain on your parade. Write what you want, just make it readable.

Below was posted on 6-10-15

Hello my lovelies! After almost two years of being on this site, I've finally broken down and decided to add a little something to my profile. With the success of Brothers, Courage and Cunning, and now with my latest adventure, Boredom Is Deadly, I figured this would be the best place to generalize each story and answer some of the top questions that I get about each of them.

But first I'll start off with the least popular one, Raised By Vampires, and it's one shot companion, Salazar Slytherin Meets Lord Voldemort.

Raised By Vampires is a Vampire Diaries and Harry Potter crossover, and it's main character is Lynn Salvatore, who is the cousin of Damon and Stefan Salvatore. Voldemort is dead and gone in this fic, so the main bad guy is Greyback, who resembles more of a Vampire Diaries werewolf than Rowling's.

This was my first undertaking in writing fan fiction, and truth be told, it could be better. Lynn is pretty much your classic Mary Sue OC, (please dont throw tomatoes, I had no idea what a Mary Sue was when I wrote it) and while I think it is ok, it could use some major help. I leave it up simply to remind myself never to make that mistake again.

The main mistake with this fic, (aside from the Mary Sueness) was the Lynn and Klaus relationship. I must have taken a leave of my senses when I wrote it, but what is done is done...as they say. I have figured out that I am horrible at writing pairings and romance of any kind, which is why I have sworn off pairings, unless they are adult canon pairings.

And even then I leave out the romance.

The reason why I don't do pairings!

Im an adult in my thirties, and writing about teenagers and their love lives just feels...odd...to me. I don't know why, it just does. If I do have a pairing in any of my stories, it's back ground only and doesn't really have much, if any, focal point in the story.

Again, pairings just aren't my cup of tea.

This concept is mostly seen in Brothers.

The pairing for that story is Tom Riddle and Luna, and while it may seem like a very odd pairing, for that story, it just works.

Brothers is a tale outlining all the similarities between Harry and Tom Riddle. Harry is literally the Master of the Immortal Being Death, and Death, Fate, and Destiny interfere with Harry's life when Harry walks in front of Voldemort's killing curse in the Battle of Hogwarts. They send him back with knowledge about his 'future past life'. The story goes, Tom is really a good guy, while Dumbledore is the real Dark Lord. It sounds wonky, but according to my readers, they really like it. As you can imagine, there is Dumbledore bashing, as well as Molly, Ron, and surprisingly enough, Hermione bashing. It also has a lot of Independent!Harry cliches as well.

Death brings everyone who died back to life, and dumps them at the beginning of Harry's fifth year. Tom has reabsorbed his soul and done away with all but one of his horcruxes, and because of this, he regains his 16 year old body, complete with a nose. He ends up enrolling back into Hogwarts in Harry's fifth year, and a zany mess of hilarity ensues as Harry and Tom team up to take down Dumbledore, Umbridge, and the Ministry.

This story has major Umbridge torturing of the pranking kind!

Green and Red Glow Sticks masquerade as 'Bottled Killing Curses' and 'Bottled Stunning Spells', the great hall is turned into a skate boarding park, and the entrance hall doubles as an indoor swimming pool, with a life guard who is none other than Lord Voldemort, who (by the way) is Death himself pretending to be the Dark Lord.

It sounds like a crackfic, and truth be told, it could be considered a crackfic, but it's not. There is a lot of underlying seriousness involved with it, so check it out if it has peaked your interest.

Lily and James make multiple appearances, as do Salazar and Godric! ;)

And speaking of our beloved Founders...

Courage and Cunning is my masterpiece! This is a different take on the 'Harry is Salazar' genre, and while it has some minor plot holes and mistakes, I think it is my favorite story that I have written. First year starts us off, and there is major Ron, Molly, and Dumbledore bashing. The bashing of Molly ends after first year, and for Ron it ends after second year. Dumbledore however...well let's just say that i don't want to give away spoilers. ;)

It has no pairings except for the canon pairing of Lily and James, and Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel.

Salazar is immortal, and the story starts out when Salazar goes to the Potters cottage in Godric's Hollow on the night before they were killed. He tells them they have been betrayed by Peter, and sends them off to his villa in Rio, where the real Harry ends up going to the South American School of Wizardy. By using Polyjuice, two willing elves, and himself, it is Salazar who is disguised as Harry when Voldy comes a calling on Halloween night.

Because Salazar is immortal, the killing curse just bounces off him, and Voldemort is hit by the rebounding curse. Salazar ends up losing his memories and suffers from amnesia for the next ten years, but regains his memories when he gets 'Harry Potter's' Hogwarts letter. (The bouncing killing curse comes back to bite him later in the story, but you'd have to read it to understand how and why.)

Then things get interesting.

Using a bunch of Slytherin cunning, Salazar is able to dupe everyone into thinking he really is Harry Potter, but as you can imagine, people start finding out the truth in various ways. The main cast consists of Salazar/Harry, Neville, Blaise, Hermione, Fred, and George, along with Salazar's pet snake Nora. Nora has become a favorite among most of C&Cs readers because she is a feisty little sarcastic thing, who never calls people by their proper names.

I cant say much more about the plot really, because I dont want to give away important spoliers, but suffice to say with over 2100 reviews, 2000 favorites, and 2300 follows, it might be worth taking a look at.

It is also in 95 communities which blows my mind!

With C&C, people often ask me why there are no pairings. I think my aforementioned feelings on teenage romances explains this pretty well, but with this story, Salazar is a 1000 year old man. It would be more than disturbing to have him paired with one of the children.

I've tried very hard to keep Salazar from being a Gary Stu, and i think i have been successful for the most part. At times he wants to overpower the story, but i have manged to reign him in. He's not a master of all magic, but he does have his area of expertise. He doesn't know everything there is to know, and he gives credit where credit is due.

I think the main thing some readers dislike about him is the fact that he doesn't 'act like a Slytherin'. Salazar is a prankster, but he doesn't let things get out of hand, (unless it's Umbridge). He is very open to the people he trusts, and he just doesn't act like a typical Slytherin. A lot of readers have this solid Slytherin!Harry cliche stuck in their minds, but Salazar breaks that cliche wide open. He is THE Slytherin, and some readers have no idea what to think about him. Most Slytherin!Harry stories have Draco and Harry bestest best friends, and have Harry paired with just about any one of the Slytherin girls, but this is not true in Salazar's case. He is hated by 3/4 of Slytherin house, and the sons and daughters of Death Eaters are out for his blood.

And he hates them just as much.

He has his flaws, his sorrows, regrets, and has learned to deal with the many mistakes he has made throughout the story, but as of this profile update, the story is not over yet. Im up to fifth year, (so there is major Umbridge torture of the pranking kind), and it still has a lot more to go.

First year is pretty standard and follows canon somewhat. Second year is a mixture of canon's second and third year. Third year is only a chapter long, but deals with a very important item. Forth year, is of course, the Triwizard Tournament, and it has some interesting things going on in it. As for fifth year, well there is a very big shake up in fifth and things start happening very quickly because of Voldy's return.

You'll just have to read it to find out what it is all about. I will warn you though, C&C has some tough moments to swallow, but i ask you, stick with it. I never write anything simply because it sounds cool at the time. There is a reason and purpose for everything I write in this story.

As I always say...there is a method to the madness.

Speaking of madness, on to my latest story, Boredom Is Deadly. I just started this recently, and as of now, Im just going wherever the story takes me. Its a true crackfic, so expect some off the wall, crazy, NON CANON COMPLIANT happenings. Things will happen in this story that you cant even imagine.

Case in point, the sorting hat has been replaced with a pink and black polka dotted tea kettle of all things!

Harry is the Master of Death, and has to sort souls for all eternity. So one day, two thousand years into the future, he decides to create a whole new alternate reality and go back in time to his first year.

Simply because he is bored.

By a happy coincidence, Tom Riddle ends up needing to be sorted. They end up getting drunk planning Harry's alternate reality, and chaos ensues. I really dont have a firm outline for this story, and since it's new, there really isnt much to say about it. However, i can tell you this is going to be a doozy. Harry is darkish and a major Gary Stu, but there is a twist and he's not your normal Gary Stu.

Just take a look, you might like it.

If you made it this far, I just want to say thank you. My readers mean the world me and I always encourage them to Follow, Favorite, PM and review because each and everyone of you give me inspiration. Flames do hurt, but i have learned to take them with a grain of salt. I know my stories, and i know which direction i want to take them (most of the time), so flames mostly get laughed at. I always encourage reviews and PMs no matter what they say though. Reviews and PMs often give me ideas for future chapters, and in some cases, brand new story ideas.

Follows and Favorites are very important to me as well. I know most authors say REVIEW REVIEW, but Im happy to get a follow and a favorite just as much as a review. It tells me that people want to read what I put up. So as i always say in my A/Ns thanks to everyone who has F, F, & R'd! I truly am grateful for you all! I'll keep writing, as long as you all keep reading!

Preciousann