Greetings! I am an over-educated, under-employed white male aged 20-25 currently living in the north-east United States. I'm sure you've heard of me, right? Well, if you haven't, I just thought I'd tell you a little about myself. Anyway, given the fact that I can only find a job laying hot asphalt on roofs in 100 degree weather and have no real way to express myself creatively given that I am not currently a part of academia (where I belong, incidentally), I've decided to try my hand at writing fan-fiction.

I have many ideas I'd like to work out, some pure Harry Potter stories, HP/Marvel and HP/LotR crossovers, and a Star Wars story which are all in the works. (I'm not really sure if this is a sign that I'm either too bored and in desperate need of creative stimulation, or if I've finally started succumbing to what I have always suspected is a rather strong (if latent) case of ADD, so we shall see where I am mentally at the end of this experiment.)

Now that that's out of the way, I'll say this: I've been reading fan-fiction for a bit less than two years now and I've discovered that there are some really talented writers on this site, and I look forward to trying to make my mark among them. I've never seriously written something non-academic that didn't have to be submitted for a grade, so my style might need some work for it to be palatable to a larger audience. I would ask for your patience.

I welcome all reviews, of course, however please do keep in mind what my mother tells me when I yell at the illiterate, ignorant, ignoble, insincere, irredeemable, iniquitous, and insulting monkeys on television who seriously need to be taken to a lab and studied: if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.

Thoughts:

Magic:

I must say that I do not at all like the whole "Magical Core" thing that is so prevalent in HP fan-fiction. Nowhere in canon is there talk of any magical having a limited amount of magic they can use. It's so silly. They are witches and wizards--they are magic! Harry isn't exhausted after fights because he 'used all his magic', but because he was running around and getting tortured and blown up and stuff. For more on this subject, see what Taure has to say; it's definitely worth a read, because it develops canon!magic in an understandable manner (which JKR rather failed to do).

However, I'll expound on it some just for the hell of it, so here's something I wrote for my own benefit a while ago:

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The Soul and Magic:

All beings have magic. Not all beings can wield their magic (Muggles). Beings wield their magic at different levels of intensity (Squibs [who can brew certain potions] vs. Tom Marvolo Riddle).

The body lives for a short while after suffering from the Dementor’s Kiss because “Magic always leaves traces,” and the soul is not immediately destroyed—there is a very real connection between the soul and body. (“Dark Magic” especially leaves traces because, as certain Magical Governments have defined it, it requires strong emotions to perform, so the ‘magical residue’ is more palpable than it is with other magics.) Dementors ‘eat’ souls—it is a torture for souls—and eventually they are destroyed, though the body usually dies long before the soul does because the connection between soul and body eventually withers away (why Voldemort cannot feel destruction of Horcruxes).

The Killing Curse kills because it destroys the soul immediately. It is Soul Magic.

The soul is a warrant of Magic that gives life (is literally ‘life’) to beings. Some beings are themselves possessed of magic, others are not. It is the architecture (information) that builds the living world. Humans think themselves unique in their belief that only they possess a soul—and this has more to do with the fact that it has been named and ‘studied’ than anything else, such as a theory built on reliable evidence—and so do not really understand its nature, which is, essentially, the magic of life itself.

The soul grows as beings grow, and reflects their magic. Magic is the manifestation of a person’s emotions channeled through the soul. (There is no “Magical Core”.) A soul is neither ‘Dark’ nor ‘Light’, it is a soul; and as much as it influences beings, beings also influence it. It reflects a being’s life. Long-term detainees of Azkaban prison are said to lose their powers because Dementors essentially ruin or spoil the soul—the “haunted” look in prisoners’ eyes are reflections of the conditions of their souls ("the eyes are the windows to the soul"; Voldemort's eyes were red because he was a monster full of hate and anger, otherwise known as the color red).

(Why Horcruxes resemble their creators from when they were made, e.g. Tom Riddle’s Diary vs. Slytherin’s Locket.)

Souls influence beings. Over time, as beings used magic more and more, souls affected the physical building-blocks of organic life, DNA. This accounts for the various magical traits and abilities (Metamorphmagus, Parseltongue, magical affinity or otherwise, Sight, etc) passed down through families, and plays a large part in why there are Squibs.

Beings influence souls. As magicals reproduced, the physical body had more and more of an effect on the being's magic, and vice versa. It may be said that Magic 'recognized' the ill bodies of children who were the fruit of a great deal of inbreeding, and the magic rejected their bodies. The magic, though dormant, continued to live in the genes of these squibs until such a time as was deemed sufficient by Magic to express itself, hence, "Muggleborns". (The 'magic' gene is a dominant one.)

Magical power is derived from one's innate ability (proclivity), willpower, the wand, intent, and skill (essentially, how much one knows the spell [comprehends its component parts, or theory] and how often one performs magic in general [the more magic one knows, the more powerful one is). Essentially, there are many factors which indicate magical power. This means, folks, that canon!Harry wasn't so much of a pansy because the Horcrux was eating away at his "magical core" or because Dumbledore put on various "bindings", but because he didn't study! Knowledge is power, after all.

Cliché:

I know we all have at least one 'Harry gets betrayed by everyone and turns into Merlin 2.0' story that scratches some desperate itch (I know I certainly do; "Partially Kissed Hero" anyone?), but I really do get annoyed something fierce when cliché becomes a matter of course for writers. Fan-fiction is supposed to be about originality, so please, let's have some.

That being said, I know there are several elements in my nascent stories that are used frequently in others, so I would address that issue here. In my stories, I am attempting to flesh-out a few interesting ideas that other authors developed, but which I feel most have ultimately under-utilized; I seek to breathe new life into these honestly really creative elements to make my stories more interesting.

I think this is a key difference which should be underscored: using cliché to enhance a story's plot vs. using cliché because one lacks creative imagination. Or am I wrong?

(I am completely ignoring the obvious fact that there are so many HP fan-fictions now that it is really difficult not to use a cliché in a story.)

For example:

"Lily has fiery temper that is common to all redheads." Oh, really? Wow, I didn't know that. Can you tell me something else that is patently false? In canon, Lily had a sharp tongue when she was dealing with morons. How can one extrapolate form that that she had a famous temper or something? Not only is this lazy writing trying to be passed-off as character development, but it doesn't advance the plot. So frustrating!

"When Harry goes to Gringotts, he can claim the Peverell Family Vault because he can trace his family back a thousand years previous to Ignotus Peverell." Oh snap! Why didn't any of the hundreds of other Potters think to do that? Or any of the other hundreds of other families who can trace their lineage in the same way? Good thing Harry's so smart, huh? Stupid.

"Pup. Cub. Prongslet. 'Mione. Dogfather. Pseudo-uncle. Smartest witch of the age. Ice Queen. The Light. The Dark." Are you fucking kidding me? (And remember that there are more of those dastardly, insidious, rabid contrivances, people, so please be careful!)

"Lord Potter. Lord Dingbat. Lord Muckety-muck." Okay everyone, if you had bothered to research the peerage system of Great Britain you would know that calling someone a Lord does not really tell you all that much, because they actually have real titles, like Baron, Earl, Viscount, Marques, Duke or whatever, and the Lord thing is just a way to shorten their title and name for convenience. Also, just because Harry is Lord Potter or something doesn't really mean that he can do much with it if he isn't of age, not to mention the fact that there is no way anyone would call an eleven year old boy "My Lord" or whatever. Get real.

Pairings:

Harry/Ginny:

Wow do people have serious opinions about this pairing! Mostly, it seems that readers (and writers) take JKR's inadequate writing of their brief romance (as well as her obviously screwy idea of romance in general (Love Potions, honestly!)) and they go from there. Well, that's fine for them. I think that if a writer took time to develop Ginny's character and her relationship with Harry, then they could honestly make a good pair. Ginny is supposed to be really cool and fun, which would make her a good foil to serious, dour Harry.

Harry/Hermione:

Many seem to live or die by this pairing, and for the life of me I cannot understand why. I highly doubt that Harry would be able to suffer Hermione's constant nagging and holier-than-thou attitude for life (and you cannot honestly say that canon!Hermione was any different than that!), if for no other reason than the fact that sooner or later he would be reminded of his Aunt Petunia and want to go hide in a cupboard somewhere. Yesch!

Harry/Fleur:

If you can make it not disgusting, or have her in a harem with eight other girls, it has potential (e.g. "His Angel").

Harry/Daphne:

Honestly, this is my favorite pairing. There's just so much for a writer to do with this: the whole Gryffindor/Slytherin thing is obvious, but there is a really great opportunity for some serious character development for Harry. Canon!Harry was so bland and weak that I was honestly rather disgusted at time (but I still totally adore the books), so the Harry with Strong!Slytherin Girl paired will let him develop in a way that a Harry with law-and-order!Hermione never could.

Harry/Male Character:

As a matter of principle, I have absolutely no problem with Harry being paired with a guy. Being a rather enlightened "Millennial" who went to university where half the other guys were gay (including several of my own friends) with whom I marched in solidarity during a rather spectacular parade or two, this should not come into question. (Seriously, even the College Republicans would totally party-down at these events. Insane.) That being said, it's quite uncommon to see these pairings done tastefully (for a good example, see "Their Verdict of Vagaries" by Angstier). Usually he's with Voldemort or Snape (Ugh! Gross!) and there's all sorts of weird shit like mpreg and it turns out that everyone is gay and Lucius Malfoy wanted to get with James Potter, totally ignoring the fact that Wizarding Britain is stuck in the Victorian Age. I just can't wrap my head around it.

My Stories:

Harry Potter:

The Phoenix Saga:

A four-part series that accounts Harry Potter's rise from ignominy to stardom. There are some AU elements that occurred before the start of the plot, but rest assured that everything will be explained (I am so irritated by plot-holes in other people's stories that I could not bare to have any in mine). I try to strip-away the PG-veneer that JKR painted across her books that I might make things more interesting (read: less frustrating), and I have some rather fun ideas to implement which I haven't seen used before.

Phoenix Fire (In progress)

Begins during the summer before Harry's 5th year at Hogwarts. As of now, the story will be split between Harry's and Albus' perspectives (which I think is neat, because usually when one reads Albus' perspective he is frothing at the mouth and hallucinating conversations with his boyfriend/co-conspirator Gellert Grindelwald or his long-dead sister Ariana, which I certainly don't do).

Aside from certain rather important AU elements which I inserted into Harry's history, Phoenix Fire is more or less a canon divergence from the Dementor attack onward.

Phoenix Ashes (Not started)

Phoenix Rising (Not started)

Phoenix Flight (Not started)

The Dragon Chronicles:

A re-imagining of the Potterverse, things are, to use an ignorant, vulgar Americanism, 'bigger and better'. I begin with a Harry who is much more obviously like Tom Marvolo Riddle than canon!Harry, except for, you know, the whole psychopath thing. He is powerful, smart, somewhat arrogant, and rather cunning; however, he is still a kid who is in way over his head, which I think will make the story more interesting than usual. Most stories that have such a Harry make him too much like Riddle, or they have him be this experienced statesman who is mature beyond his years or whatever, and they totally fail to give him any original characterization, so I try to avoid this and some other pitfalls that seem common to the genre. I hope I am successful.

Harry won't have an easy time of it, he won't have the backing of every adult who ever knew his parents or the entire Goblin army at his beck and call because there's a nasty Horcrux in Bella's vault, and he is going to have to work against a lot of adversity to accomplish his goals. That being said, I certainly plan to ensure some pretty kick-ass stuff happens along the way.