Eeeek! It's been a long time since I last updated! Sorry!

Updated 5/21/09

NEW NEWS:

Meduzza will be translating Walk the Shadows into French; the first translation of that story! I'll put up the link when I receive it.

I finished Year One of Better Be Slytherin!

Alas, I am currently experiencing a dearth of writing mojo, as well as a dearth of outside employment, both of which, I hope, will reverse soon. I've started work on the next chapter of Before the Dawn, but it's been slow going, and there is no news about jobs for moi.

OLD NEWS:

The Voting ended a long time ago at The Quibbler Awards, and Whelp II--The Wrath of Snape is Runner-up for "Most Original" and "Best Angst." Better Be Slytherin! WON for "Best Chemistry," and is Runner-up for "Best WiP", and I was Runner-up for "Best Writer"! The results were very exciting, natch -- as Sally Field would say, "They love me, they really love me!" Thanks, all you Reader and/or Voter Dudes! You're the best! :)

I have a Yahoo group called Better Be Slytherin for discussing all of my stories, not just "Better Be." Consider joining, all you Reader Dudes, to get notified about any and all new chapters I post, or to read them as PDF files on the site, to chat about my stories (or anything HP Fandom, really), ask me questions, and/or prod me to get that next chappie out or commiserate with me about lost jobs, chronic pain conditions, or whatever comes to mind. Should be fun!

Click here to join Better_Be_Slytherin

TRANSLATION NEWS:

Whelp I has been completely translated into French by Dyneen, who did a wonderful job. See the story link here, along with its hundreds of reviews! She has a good start on Whelp II already. There's a Russian translation underway, too, by Funnycow. Her translation of the story is also available here, a Russian site. German translations of Whelp are available now from Honeymausi, whose work can be found on our very own FanFiction.net, and also on a German site, Fanfiktion.de. I've also had requests from someone who wants to translate Whelp into Slovak and into Spanish, but have not received any links for those yet, alas.

Véronique Oysel has started to translate Better Be Slytherin! into French via DiagonAlleyParis, and Dulzura Letal has started translating Better Be Slytherin! into Spanish. Due to a bit of a mix up, Better Be Slytherin, chapters one to five so far, are also available in Spanish from Relena Sakurazuka Kaiba. Both of these translators are aware of the other, and both are official, as far as I'm concerned. Chapter One through Four so far of Better Be Slytherin is now available in Italian from GiuliaSnape. Ticklishfly has begun translating Better Be Slytherin! into Russian here, on Fanfiction.net. It's also available on this site.

Meduzza will be translating Walk the Shadows into French; the first translation of that story! I'll put up the link when I receive it.

Yay, Translator Dudes!

If anyone wants, or knows someone who wants, to do any other translations than those mentioned, please let me know.

FICTION RUNDOWN:

I have four stories and/or series presently under construction. Hopefully, the following tidbits will answer questions you have about which are series, who's shippin' who, and all that kind of stuff.

My first sequel, Whelp II -- The Wrath of Snape is complete! It started where Whelp left off, only a couple days later, and ends about six months into the school year. (Naturally, Book Three -- which is nearly upon us -- will be The Search for . . . someone/thing. Remus? Peace? Sanity? Suggestions are welcomed and encouraged.) This series will continue at least up till Harry starts at Hogwarts, perhaps further, encompassing his career there as well. We'll see.

Before the Dawn (as in, "It's always darkest . . .") is the sequel to Walk the Shadows. It picks up shortly after the end of WtS, and I'm told it's as good as the original story, so far. (Thanks, Reader Dudes!) I expect this series will take one or two more books to be complete. There's been some question about whether pairings might appear in the future, so let me just say this: if there are pairings in this series, they won't be for a while yet. Maybe next book. Harry's damaged, Reader Dudes! As in, not looking for romance. At all.

Better Be Slytherin! will be a series, as far as I can take it, with each year of Harry in the House of the Snake as its own story. Re: Pairings -- In the first book of the Slytherin Series, there are no pairings at all. Later on, as the characters mature, there probably will be, but whether the pairings will be canon or not, I cannot say, 'cause I don't know yet. I have decided that none of the main pairings will be slash, as I'm trying to stick to canon characterizations, if not actual pairings. If you have suggestions or favorites, feel free to let me know.

Getting Back, my angsty/slash Harry-goes-back-in-time-and-loses-his-memories-while-falling-in-love-with-a-Slytherin-or-two fic. It's AU after HBP -- in other words, Dumbledore is dead by Snape's hand, but nothing that's canon after Harry leaves school for the summer holidays has happened or will happen . . . although there are spoilers for Deathly Hallows, from events that happened in the past and are just shown or explained in DH, such as Regulus' treatment of Kreacher and his status as a Death Eater. The story starts out with a Harry and Regulus pairing, and might move on to a Snarry pairing later on, with others thrown in as whim takes me. I don't know how long this story will be, except that it's likely to be novel length. This one is mostly a "when I can get to it" story, unlike my three primary ones.

It Eats You, Starting with Your Bottom is my attempt at humor, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Harry Potter story, with all kinds of 'ships, most of them slashy. Like with Getting Back, I'll only be working on that one intermittently, and usually just when I need a break from the angstage of my other stories. I am, after all, all about the angst.

Finally, I absolutely love hearing people's thoughts (positive and negative--seriously) on my work, and most of my story lines are wide open for suggestions, so if you have any plot bunnies you'd like to see me explore, let me know. Also, if you have any plots you'd like to see me explore in their entirety, I'm open to that, too . . . though the more open projects I have, the less often everything gets updated, natch.

If you've read through this whole thing, you are way cooler than I'll ever be.

Cheers all, and thank you for your support.

--Rachel