Name: Eric
Age: 36 (41 now)
Sex: Male

At the moment, I'm just another avid HP Fanfiction reader. A semi-complete set of links of stories I have read, and my personal thoughts about them can be found at my Yahoo group, HP_Fanfic_Central, which can be accessed by clicking on my homepage link. I would have added them all here to my profile's favorites, but 1) it takes too long, 2) It's impossible to organize it other than a huge list of links, 3) doesn't offer personal thoughts to be added to favorites, and 4) some of the stories I like are unavailable here, but are excellent nonetheless. Taking those into account, a Yahoo Group was the best option!

I typically only read Novel-length stories, and very much prefer completed stories, as I am impatient by nature and get bummed when I find out someone has abandoned a good story.

Since back in the GoF timeframe, I have felt that JK Rowling sets canon towards H/G and R/Hr pairings, however, there is nothing that would suggest that any of the main characters can't experiment beforehand! Further proof of this is that Harry tried with Cho in OotP. I do happily read stories with H/Hr and R/LL, even H/Parvati, H/Cho, H/Blaise, H/Tonks, R/Lavender. I can't grasp Ginny/Draco or Hermione/Draco, though. I've read them, but can't see it. HG/SS is also a hard one to grasp!

I'm not a big Marauders-time story fan, but have been known to read a few, and have enjoyed them.

Also, I have almost ZERO use for slash stories. Slash, in my opinion, is simply an attention-getter. I am not homophobic, and personally feel that 'to each his own', but I don't believe that it belongs in Harry Potter's life. I've started reading a few stories with slash, and between all these stories and all that my imagination can come up with, I can't see it as feasable that Harry would be gay (ESPECIALLY Harry/Draco, Harry/Tom, Harry/Lucius, etc). I have read a couple stories that had Charlie or Bill with male partners, and that doesn't bother me. But, I firmly believe that Harry is Straight!

I have a story that I'm currently in the process of writing, but I'm not completely sure I'm going to finish it, so I'm not going to post it until I'm at least sure I'm going to be able to finish it. If you are really interested in reading what I have so far, I have a PDF version posted on my Yahoo Group's Files section. It is a post-HBP story, and will attempt to follow canon.

If JKR's past is anything to go on, I will have plenty of time to finish my story if I choose to do so before she comes out with her next book.

-ET

Update 04June2006 - I have started writing a post-HBP story. It's currently in the middle of Chapter 11, and around 30,900 words. It has not been posted here, as I have found that the end of HBP has left me way too limited in the direction that I can go with the story, and I ran out of ideas. I just don't feel comfortable posting a story that I don't know if I'm ever going to finish. If you are interested in reading what I have so far, you can find it under the files section of my Yahoo! Group, using the homepage link above.

Giving up on my Post-HBP Story for the moment, I have started writing a completely AU story. In all of the time I have been reading the HP Stories and fanfiction, I always had a thought jumping through the back of my head about how different Harry could have been had some things in the HP Universe been different. I also stumbled upon a story that is seemingly abandoned, named "Harry Potter and the Harem of Honeys", which got me thinking about a possible AU story. The Harry that I envision is not the Harry that is created in that story, but I do use a few minor ideas to create my own Harry. My Harry would be slightly damaged due to some abuse and neglect from the Dursleys, but this is balanced out by Harry's early discovery of magic. My Harry would learn of many of the shortcomings of the wizarding world, and would have a different outlook on the world. I also felt compelled to have him not be chummy with Dumbledore, and no hero should be THAT naive, so Harry will be intelligent, witty, confident, and will be willing to step over the line a little bit to do something that could be considered slightly immoral if the desired outcome is positive. Basically My Harry will do what it takes to do what needs to be done. Currently my AU Harry story is in the middle of Chapter 12, at around 37.500 words. I am pretty confident that I will finish this story, and when I get to a point that I KNOW that I definitely WILL finish this story, I will start posting it here for all to read.

Update 12Jan2007 - As stated above, I gave up on my Post-HBP story and started writing an AU story. I've tried a couple times to continue the HBP story, but in reading other post-HBP stories, I find that the only real interesting ones are the ones where the author changes everything around in some way. I can't seem to find a way to make a Post-HBP Story interesting...

Anyway, about my AU Story. I finally have a name for it. I'm going to call it the Grey Wizard series. I put together a very quick outline of where I want to go wtih the stories and what I want to accomplish, and when, and I expect it to be four novel-length stories, which should bring the story just barely into Post-Hogwarts. The Grey Wizard series' Harry Potter is going to be intelligent, wise, and will go into the wizarding world with his eyes open. He'll be cunning, brave, intelligent, and loyal to those he deems worthy. He will not be the wimp that canon makes him, and he will not be manipulated as canon-Harry is. Who knows what house he will be in when he finally gets to Hogwarts, and who knows whether he will end up with the same group of friends he has in canon. You will have to read to find out.

Update 04Apr2007 - I have not abandoned the story. I've received some reviews that ask about it. Real Life has stepped in to mess with me. Between trying to keep up with bills and mortgage, to fighting my ever-failing health, to attempting to relax occasionally, I just haven't had the time to get any more chapters done yet. I did get about two typewritten pages written, but I hate it with a passion and do not plan on using it. I will get an update out, I just don't know exactly when...

Update: 23Apr2009. I know, I know. I'm a horrible person! Has it really been 2 years?! Sadly, real life has been kicking my @ss lately. My health steadily declined but seems to have stabilized for the time being. Between that, and trying to keep bills paid, and the house maintained, and attempting to have some sort of social life, I've been lacking on updating my story. Add to all of this the fact that I boxed myself into a corner with the way the story is currently written and I haven't figured out how to fix it so I can get back on par with my outline. I'm in the process of making some changes to the early chapters of my story to better fall in line with my intended outline, to make the story more believable. For those who want new chapters, I'm afraid that you will be disappointed for the short-term. I'm going to be removing Chapter 4 and all the chapters above it while I rewrite them. The basic premise of those chapters will remain as I repost them, but there will be quite a few differences, so once I repost Chapter 12, I would recommend rereading the story to get familiar with the "new" Grey Wizard...

Update 25Aug2011. I'm sorry. I don't know what else I can say. My health never really improved, and in fact I'm currently 6 weeks out of a triple bypass surgery. The good news is that they expect I'll be getting better once I start getting my strength back. I suppose with my weaknesses and stuff I should have been focusing on my story (stories), but I just lacked the ambition... Going from being totally self-sufficient to being dependent on others and unable to care for one's self kinda screws with you mentally, and Fanfiction (both reading it and writing it) had lost it's interest for me for awhile. It sounds stupid, but reading about the world of magic, and quidditch, and running around being chased by death eaters and Voldemort emphasized my own lack of physical abilities... Yeah, mental issues are very difficult to get over. I took the quick solution, and avoided it altogether... However, I have no intention of abandoning the story, and in fact I really want to finish it. Maybe I'll get my muse back sometime soon, now that it "appears" that I'm finally on the mend...

Update 25Feb2017. I'm sure you all hate me. Been a long time since I've done anything with this story. Truth is that I've re-read my story a couple times to re-familiarize myself with it, and I've looked over the notes I have here for it, and come to the conclusion that I'm just not a very good writer. I think I do alright with creating a good story, but not very good at writing it out. I suck at dialog, which is important in a story. My story seems more like a list of things that happened, rather than a story.

As much as I want to finish it, I just don't think I could do it justice. To that end, if anyone is interested in taking my story and using it (and some of my notes) to finish it, or rewrite a story based on it, I have no problem with that. I'll be sure to check my PMs, just in case.

-ET