Well, where to begin...

If anyone's wondering why I'm called 'Little Umbrella', er- you'll have to keep wondering. But Parapluie is the most poetic way of saying umbrella I ever stumbled across in my tentative high-school forays into French. And here we go, obsessions listed in order:

LesMis is (or was) a big one of mine. Used to merely be a rabid fan of The Brick, but I can now add the '98 movie to my LesMis research. Sort of. I must admit, I see Javert as looking like he did in the movie.Geoffrey Rush does repressed/thwarted quite well. But character wise I stay with canon. He was too 'mwahaha' evil villain in the movie.Ahem.Moving on swiftly, before I rant. I'm an occasional dabbler in Leroux, and absolutely anything and everything written by Alexandre Dumas, too! French Literature is very much, you know...me. I have nearly the full collection, alongside my Discworld and Garth Nix (on a lighter note). I do love Victorian literature though, so don't get me started on Dickens or the Brontes.I'll go on forever!

Or...erm, certain German operas.Ahem. This is a new one. No doubt anyone who has read both Residuals and Spare Me These Unending Trials can figure this one out. I stumbled across the Overture to Der Fliegende Hollander once and was quite frankly inspired - I fell in love with the legend! Alas, my hopes of seeing it onscreen were dashed once I saw what they did to it in POTC 2 & 3.But I remain hopeful and obsessed at the same time...

It has come to my attention that all my female OCs are oddly the same - middle-aged and getting a sly kick of making people uncomfortable with it (Well, with the possible exception of Adeline, Mirrum, and some minor characters. It's not just repetition! I merely fail to see why adventure is restricted to pouting blondes and eerily perfect heroines. So if you like, this is my reaction against ageism in literature, by saying that you can be pushing forty and still have a swashbuckling adventure or two.

http://ameliemontmartre.deviantart.com/ sometimes hoards a couple of badly drawn illustrations to go along with them...

Caveat Reader:or, in other words - just a word to excuse myself. My computer's been having a hiccup day recently; so if there's any dire mistakes in my posts I've overlooked (most recently I made one of my main characters attempt to wrestle herself to the ground and strangle herself - somewhat unusual, even for my fictional characters), please - I beg you, the reviewers, to kindly advise me, since my spell-check refuses to resurrect itself. And thank you to all the people who've helped so far - I've read over some of my posts sometimes and groaned aloud that I've written such mistake-riddled twaddle...

Just for my humble readers (and myself) so I know where I'm up to speed (or not, as the case so very often is) on a story.

Residuals: Ah, the first debut fanfiction of a nervous author. Reading it now, much of it isn't exactly coherent or making any sort of sense at all - but hey! Javert was a pleasure to write. After writing this, I stumbled across an old black-and-white movie which pretty much encapsulates the Elise/ Javert thing - The Ghost and Mrs Muir. I'm sorely tempted to write a one-shot resembling the final scene...

Sixty-Second Opera: Der Fliegende Hollander: ACT 3 FINISHED!! At last! Complete in all its cheerful idiocy - and thank you for the surprising amount of reviews I got for this. Opera plots are always insane - I mean, can anyone actually follow what happens in The Marriage of Figaro? I may be tempted to write a couple more three act one-shots.

Spare Me These Unending Trials: My favourite humourfic! And thank you, thank YOU, for the overwhelming reviews and interest in this one-off piece of mild insanity. It's been an absolute pleasure writing it, and I can now tell you it is coming to a grand conclusion!With any luck, it'll deliver all the kerpow of At World's End with the amazing kick-ass propensities of Madame Giry, who has a slight problem with the idea of 'heroes'... Will Madame Giry kill her (literally) slimy swain? Is Admiral Norrington going to die nobly (yet again?) Will Cutler Beckett and his army of painted miniature soldiers take over the world? These problems will all be resolved soon! THREE to go now! But currently on hold. Tu Salus Fidelium needs some attention.

Tu Salus Fidelium: My second favourite fic, for the good reason I get research like hell and explore my own ignorance. And it's an excuse to buy books, of course... And for all the wonderful earnest reviewers who begged me on bended knee to make it AU... it is, indeed, AU. Any historical info you feel is useful is ALWAYS welcome, since I adore the period.

An Eschiva one-shot: Suggested by the ever splendiferously wonderful Mercury Gray, because I moaned about missing out an important twelfth century character in Tu Salus Fidelium. Not entirely sure whether I should make Mirrum quiver in the face of the powerful Lady Tiberias, or tell the tale of Tiberias and his lady-love in Marie-de-France style.

In A Cursed Hour He Hies: A lurking Mary Shelley fic (guess the book, anyone? - just on a hunch, this isn't The Last Man ). This may take great effort not to be a Mary Sue fanfic - and to my gratification, it's not simpering Victor Frankenstein who gets the girls in most fanfiction today. The title is taken from Paradise Lost - anyone who's read the book will guess why. Although I may revise this one; it's reading badly at the moment.

Der Fliegende Hollander re-telling: Yup, the obsession has no end. And this will be an unrepentant Mary Sue fic that will probably read like Twilight with added sailors, but what the hey. I need to do a LOT of research for this one. Eighteenth century Norway is proving surprisingly difficult to find about, not to mention poor Sandviken - know what its doomed fate is, when you Wiki it? The 'administrative capital of Norway'. That's IT. Not a mention of the opera, or delightful doomed anti-heroes seeking brides ashore. Nada. So, if there's anyone with a wider knowledge on Norwegian history out there, don't hesitate to PM me! I have practically nothing apart from a working knowledge of the 'bunad' folk costume.

The Seven Deadly Redemptions of Cutler Beckett: Basically an apology for the Beckett-bashing in Spare Me These Unending Trials. After writing a letter of complaint to the Bureaucrats Up There, the gentle reader is entertained with seven different takes on Beckett as a 'misunderstood' character. Watch out for the cameo film takes. I don't actually LIKE Cutler Beckett, but... as a rather neglected villain with matching sugar tongs and a miniature army, he's far too fun to resist poking good-humoured fun at.