About me

I'm an adult from Austin, TX. I have a day job and responsibilities, so I usually don't write fanfiction unless an idea has crawled so far into my brain that I can't sleep until I dislodge it. That's happened a couple of times, and when it does, I'm usually extremely productive. I've been known to write an entire 60,000 word story in the space of two weeks. But otherwise, I wouldn't consider writing fanfiction a passion of mine by any means. It's just something I do when I'm moved to.

I consider myself a decent, but not perfect, writer. I have a few flaws, which I work on actively when it's time to write, but otherwise my stories are almost entirely unbetaed, and the longer ones tend to be done to very little actual planning. It usually works out, but I imagine the quality would be a bit better if I put more thought into it. But when the muse bites, she really, really bites.

I am currently learning Japanese, and am pretty close to the level of passing JLPT N5. Which means if you see Japanese in my stories and you think I'm just one of those Japanese wannabes, think again. The odds are high (but not 100%, as I have met some here who know far more than I on the topic) that I know more than you on the topic. So if you wish to correct me, feel free, I am often wrong on a whole lot of things, but assume that I know enough to not need a basic explanation of grammar, etc.

My other hobbies: Collecting baseball cards, figurines, porcelain dolls, bronze statues - basically fun things I find at thrift stores and think "oh, hey, these are neat. I want a few more of these".

Please note:

While I do appreciate if others enjoy my stories, I don't write for other people, and at the end of the day, I'm the only audience that matters. That being said, the only reason I leave "The Goblet's Revenge" up at this point is that some people seem to enjoy it and it is, for better or worse (mostly worse) my best read work. I get two major criticisms on that story. The first is that it's stupid. Guilty. It's crack and that's the entire point, the stupider, the better. So I'm inclined to ignore that criticism.

The other criticism relates to my attitude. I have been told by a longtime friend of mine that I "don't suffer fools gladly". This is either something to admire or a character flaw. Either way, it just is what it is. If you like the story, it'll stand on its own. If you don't, then sorry, but I don't really care. All things being equal, I'd prefer you like it rather than not like it, but at the end of the day, it just is what it is and the only thing you've wasted is a little time.

My other stories are, objectively and in every other way but crack, much better.

Stories:

"The Goblet's Revenge" is predicated upon a simple, erm, predicate: What if the Goblet sticks its mitts into the first task and bollocks everything up? Starts out kinda serious, and rapidly devolves into complete anarchy. This is by far my most popular story, and yes, it is funny, but I wouldn't consider myself proud of it by any means. It is no longer my longest. For those that do like to laugh, though, this is a good one to read.

"Harry Potter and the Champion of Yeshua" is a story that explores theological matters and attempts to merge them into the Harry Potter Universe. I have too much to say about that here, so there is an entire section devoted to it below.

"Mayuyu" explores what happens when the rather backwards, insular, and frankly racist (by the classical definition of the term) British wizarding society collides with Japanese culture, in the form of two exchange students, one from Japan, and one from England. So far this story is turning out pretty well. Starring a former AKB48 idol, or at least a caricature of her. It hasn't been updated in a while, and I may remove it for that reason.

The following stories are one-shots that are inspired by specific pieces of music. As songfics are not allowed here, let me state clearly that they are not songfics.

"Ballade #3" is a story of Pansy Parkinson wanting to direct her own life and getting far more than she bargained for. It is a fic to Chopin's eponymous tune. I rather like this story, though, like many of my stories, it tends to be a bit abrupt and could stand to be quite a bit longer. There is also a "rewritten" version that some people like better and some don't. Both are up so you can take your pick.

"Claire de Luna" is a story of an evening of magic with Luna Lovegood. My favorite story. If you read any of my stories, read this one please. I think it really is beautiful.

"Prelude in C# Minor" is a story of Luna finding friendship. Based on Rachmaninoff's eponymous tune. One of my lower quality stories.

"Aldebaran" is a story of comfort and tragedy. Based on Enya's eponymous tune. I love the imagery of this story, though the plot is a bit lamer than I'd like. But I wrote it specifically for the imagery, so I'm okay with that.

And this one is just inexplicable:

"Rhapsody in Flew - a ComposerBird concerto" is a series of short vignettes about the life of ComposerBirds.

I put a lot of myself into my stories. I love Luna. Something about her just makes my heart melt. So many of the oneshots I wrote explore aspects of her beautiful personality. At least the personality that I see in her, and thus, have made up.

Deleted stories:

"No" is a story I want to finish but haven't gotten around to it. It's been a year. I need to (expletive) or get off the pot at some point, I think. So I got off the pot. I still like the idea but if I intend to pursue it, I'll restart it from scratch.

"Hunting for Plimpies". One of my first stories and I really don't like it.

Shipping:

I do not ship. Some pairings may be more of a challenge than others, but I can write H/G, H/LL, H/Hr, H/PP, H/DG, and sometimes I might get a bug up and write some pairing that's so completely off the wall that it makes people wonder about me. At one time I wrote a story about Hedwig and McGonagle in her cat form. So I'm up for just about anything.

That said, each character has their own personality, and I might write a piece because I want to explore the personality of one girl or another.

Though I sometimes will write something as close to MA as I can safely get, as I don't mind a little smut every now and then, I don't write multis. To be quite frank, the idea of Harry managing to keep more than one woman happy is kinda ludicrous - and when you have a whole harem, it stretches any kind of credibility, even though you're supposed to suspend disbelief in these stories anyway, it's too much. I don't write for wish fulfillment in general, I just want to see where some ideas go. Though there is a rule for every exception (or is it the other way around), and I have a short H/HG/L fic floating around somewhere that is not here. That was another of those ideas that just wouldn't leave me till I wrote it. It is strong MA, so it's not here.

Future plans:

Honestly, very few. I'll just go where the muse takes me. If you want to take one of my fledgeling plots and do something with it feel free.

Thoughts on the "Champion of Yeshua"

I am not at all comfortable with this story, but not for the reasons you might think. There are many different traps that people who attempt to write a story with Yeshua, or Jesus, as a central character can easily fall into, and I took great pains to avoid falling into those traps. But my discomfort with the story only increases as the difficulty of the topic I chose as the central theme sets in.

For I honestly feel that I may have picked one of the most difficult, and perhaps contentious, topics in all of literature to attempt to play with, and then I tried to merge it with another Universe that increases the complexity two or three fold.

I received a review that commented that there is no antagonist to the story, and upon thinking about it, the reviewer is correct. But because of the nature of the story elements I chose, I couldn't have written one realistically. So perhaps there was a trap that I was blind to that I fell into anyway. I didn't just write a Super!Harry - those are easy to write - I wrote a Super!Harry with the support of someone who literally cannot be opposed or beaten unless he wills it. So any conflict has to be internal to Harry or in the relationship between Harry and Yeshua. There is some but maybe not nearly enough.

There is the potential for conflict in this story, though. And the plus side is that there are plenty of other things to explore that can be of some interest. But my discomfort grows daily with this story, though I intend on leaving it up, if for no other reason than to parade my folly for the world to see as absolution for biting off this kind of topic.

There is a sequel, and while writing that, I became far more okay with the story. I have taken a bit of a hiatus because of COVID and all of the other stuff going on, but I intend to finish it soon.

Other thoughts:

Why I don't read or write slash: I usually don't read slash (though if it's an ancilliary character it doesn't bother me) and I absolutely do not write it. This is not due to any kind of animus, it's simply respect for the characters. No character in canon except for maybe perhaps the odd Creevey and maybe Draco ever shows any inclination towards same-sex attraction whatsoever, so I'm not going to shoehorn it in just to fit some kind of political agenda. Dumbledore is another animal entirely - I accept JK Rowling's vision of him as gay, but it really has no bearing on anything at all, so I don't see any reason to focus on it. I doubt Harry even knew! This even extends to Femslash, though being a red-blooded male, I might be convinced to give that a try. Tastefully, of course. I haven't yet. At least on *this* site. I have a story floating around elsewhere that's significantly more racy than anything here. PM me if you want a link.

On one-dimensional characters: Voldemort is not good, and neither is Snape. But I think that sometimes fanfiction authors can fall into the trap of seeing characters as one dimensional. Snape is an utter bastard, but he is nothing if not complex, and is Voldemort irredeemable? Perhaps, or perhaps not. It's something that could be explored.

On the "independent" genre: I really love the idea of "independent!Harry", but it's almost never executed well. It is a rare fic indeed where it has good spelling and grammar, manages to do something unique with the trope, and also manages to treat characters as multi-dimensional without irrational bashing. I honestly get the feeling that most of these stories are just writers with a chip on their shoulder. Or very young. Or both.

On character bashing: I don't really like Ron Weasley. It's not because he's a bad guy and I think an argument could be made for him being a loyal friend as well as a complete bastard, but something about him just rubs me the wrong way. I won't write bashing fics, but I don't think he's going to come out unscathed. But bashing fics seems to be a bit over the top to me.

On Dumbledore: I don't generally write either a good or an evil Dumbledore. I see him as a very complex character who has made many mistakes, some he is not aware of, but has the good of the Wizarding World at heart. In other words, his intentions are good, but his actions tend to be autocratic and myopic. That's why, usually, my stories that include Dumbledore tend to acknowledge the damage he's caused, while eventually having him realize the damage that he did. I can't honestly imagine it being any other way. I do read fics that paint him differently, but I can't help but have a soft spot for the old coot.

On fanon: Some elements of fanon make sense. But I only use them when it does. I have absolutely no issue going against core tenets of fanon, not even to mention canon, if they don't fit in my story. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's canon and what's fanon, so sometimes I'll just go scorched earth. On the other side of the coin, going too far AU eventually starts to make me wonder why not just take all elements out and be an actual writer, instead.

On Japanese in stories: Anime and/or Manga Japanese is not real Japanese. I mean, yes, it is, in one sense, but in another sense, they never use the kind of Japanese that real Japanese people would, it only tangentially reflects real Japanese culture, and stories that base themselves upon this kind of Japanese and Japanese culture seem to turn out like a poorly-written caricature. Please take the time to (at least try to) get it right. There are some interesting and amazing things to Japanese culture, but in the end, they're just like us, only a bit different. Put another way: If you think it's written "des", don't bother.

On Goblins: They're not cute and cuddly, and it annoys me when people treat them as if they are. They are a warlike people who were subdued by the wizards and forced into fleecing wizardkind for financial power. But they're not dumb.

Musings on my writing style

Y'know, I surprised myself. I thought I couldn't write a "serious" fic. Most of my long fics tend towards crack or lose cohesion somewhere around 10,000 words. But that didn't happen with "Champion of Yeshua". It held together. This actually rather astonishes me.

I tend to be very economical with words. I tend to use as few words as possible to describe something. Sometimes I use too few. "Claire De Luna" is the result of my making a concerted effort to stop doing that.

I like reviews, both good and bad, but I'm inclined to not be too fond of reviews that actually cross the line into rude. Sometimes those will find their way into the story. I'm not usually complimentary when I do that. I also ignore overly critical guest reviews. If you can't be bothered to stand behind your words, I don't have to listen. I haven't yet gotten to the point of deleting them, but I'm close.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy.