Just another muggle that likes playing in JKR's world...

Likes: Harry/just about any female, though with definite soft spots for Hermione, Tonks, Luna, & Ginny. Oh, and after reading some excellent fanfics, let's include Susan, Daphne & the Delacours. I enjoy redo fics, super!Harry, happy endings, pina coladas, getting caught in the rain.. (err, never mind..)

Dislikes: Ron (he's a jealous git - I can tolerate him, especially if he's not paired with any of the above girls), Dumbles (manipulative old coot that has "a lot of 'splainin to do"), too much angst, poor spelling/grammar, pointless character deaths. I also dislike begging for reviews, author's notes and asides in the middle of a story. It's bad enough they appear anywhere except at the beginning of the first chapter, or the end of the last. Seriously, if you have to explain your plot device in an authors note, then you need to rewrite that part of the story. As for the 'Don't hate me for..' requests in authors notes, does that ever work? I mean really? Imagine what the reader is thinking.. "...Aaarghhh, that damn author killed off Luna, had Tonks raped, and now Ginny is evil?! What the? Oh wait, he said he was sorry.. well I guess that's ok & I don't need to be annoyed anymore then..."

Hates: Draco, Snape - any pairings with them should be OC's, or Umbridge, or maybe each other? Better yet, just take off & nuke 'em from orbit - it's the only way to be sure! Anyone who thinks otherwise is hung up on the alleged hotness/coolness of Tom Felton/Alan Rickman, NOT Draco or Snape. Speaking personally, those guys don't do it for me, but I'd be happy to discuss the hotness of Emma, Bonnie, Nat, Clemence or Evanna though..

Loathes: Slash with main characters, any rapes - 'The Story by Dad' is the only fic I haven't hated. I still didn't like that it happened at all, but if t'were done, t'were best done this way I think. Plus, the author warned everyone up front in chapter one that it was going to happen, so full marks to Dad9.

Just plain sick to death of: I'm heartily sick of reading stories that I start to really like when all of a sudden I'm reading about how Harry's love interest is being sexually used or abused. Examples include stories like Dagger and Rose and Harry Potter & The Marriage Contracts. Seriously, what is wrong with cutting Harry a little slack? Hasn't he had enough abuse heaped on him in his life without having his (would-be) girlfriends become the playthings of scum? sure, authors can write whatever they want, but please have enough respect for your readers and WARN them what you plan to do in advance so that they can CHOOSE whether to read your story or not! There is a good reason JKR created the concept of the cruciatus curse (IMHO). It allows for the painful impersonal torture of characters. Maybe those authors should try following her example, since she obviously knows what she's doing, being a billionaire and all... /rant /soapbox

Spelling & Grammar notes for authors from your average Joe (eg, I'm not an English teacher, so feel free to correct anything below that I've got wrong).

You're: contraction of "you are". Your: belonging to. "You're right of course, and here is your prize"

They're: contraction of "they are". Their: belonging to. There: location. "They're over there with their friends!"

Vile: nasty. Vial: small container for liquids. "the potion in the vial tasted vile"

Lose: misplace. Loose: free, unrestrained. "Your grip on your wand is so loose you're going to lose it."

Accept: take. Except: exclude. "I accept the blame for all pranks except vanishing Lav's underwear. I think she did that herself."

Threw: tossed. Through: into, beyond, across. "He threw the quaffle through the centre hoop for 10 points."

Allowed: permitted. Aloud: audible. "He wondered if he would be allowed to leave, then asked the question aloud"

Cloths: pieces of material. Clothes: items of clothing. "Harry's old clothes were barely suitable for use as cleaning cloths"

Forth: brought to. Fourth: number-related. "The consolation prize for coming fourth in the race was brought forth"

Canon: rule, standard. Cannon: a heavy gun on wheels. "According to canon, Ron's favourite Quidditch team is the Chudley Cannons"

Complement: goes well with. Compliment: praise. "That dress really complements your hair" she said, complimenting her friend on her fashion sense"

Definitely: certainly. Defiantly: with defiance. "I most definitely will not!" She screamed defiantly.

Bare: expose, naked. Bear: carry. "As his Occlumency failed, his mind was laid bare. 'How do you bear such burdens?' she asked."

s: used for plurals. 's: apostrophe of possession, eg, belonging to. s': plural & possession. "Ron Weasley's home is full of Weasleys, while the Bones' home usually only has Susan & Amelia in it". (With thanks to TheatricalBarrister for a needed correction. :) )

More Spelling: (I swear, some fanfic authors must have skipped reading JKR's books)

Ginevra - not Ginerva or Virginia

Parvati - not Pavarti

Percy Ignatius Weasley (if it was Percival, the pompous git would have used his full name as court scribe in OoTP wouldn't he? Of course he would.)

Harry James Potter, not Harold. Sure, Harry can be short for Harold, just like Dick is short for Richard. But it doesn't automatically follow that they were given the longer version of the name. The reason you never saw him called Harold in canon, is because that isn't his name. It's Harry.

Veela - not Vela (and Fleur not Fluer while we're at it)

Occlumency - not occulmency or Occlumancy

Grimmauld - not grimwald (it is a grim old place after all)

The plural of elf is elves - not elfs

French accents: If you can't do it well then don't get too elaborate, just keep it simple. For example, try;
replacing the h's at the beginning of words with apostrophes, Eg, 'Ello 'Arry! (though "Bonjour 'Arry!" might be better). For extra credit, replace "who" with " 'oo
replacing the th's with z's
replacing i's at the start of words with ee's (and perhaps some in the middle as well, as in "leetle boy"

Et voila... "Zis ees one way to.. 'ow do you say eet.. write like ze french?" or how about.. "Madame Maxime, 'oo ees 'e?"

Briticisms:

I was born a brit, but at the age of 9 followed my parents to Australia where I live quite happily. Having grown up a brit, with brit parents, I do have at least some knowledge of briticisms, though it is quite dated.

The one fingered salute. This wasn't a brit thing to do when I lived there. Brit's used a two fingered salute - a V with index and middle finger extended and spread, the thumb holding back the ring and little fingers, palm facing the person giving the salute. Unlike the one fingered salute which is usually held still at around 90 degrees, the two fingered salute is a motion, starting at about 20 degress, and with a flick of the wrist bringing the fingers up to around 80 degrees. (Thanks Brigrove for confirming the old Harvey salute was still current in 2001!)

If anyone has any other pet writing hates, drop me a mail and I'll add it in. :)

New Story (coming soon): Stranger Than Fanfiction.

While my Thoughts of Pudding muse is sadly still off having a sabbatical (hope the little B returns soon), I had a plot bunny attack me - and it had a vicious streak a mile wide. You can find it at the moment in messages on either my own Yahoo group, or Caer Azkaban. I'm going to post the story here and on Ficwad after it's been beta-edited.. for a change. :)

I'm not sure if it will appeal to everyone. For one thing it will be a straight Harmony fic this time, and for another the story will prominently feature an OC. Normally I have no interest in OC-centric fics and usually won't bother reading them myself. However in this fic, the OC is created by the Room of Requirement, and it is impossible to utilise an existing character for the role. The other thing that will stand out fairly soon is that the OC will appear to be a SI. All I'll say on that is that although I will borrow from some of my own ideas, I think of the OC as kind of an 'every-reader' instead. After all, if you woke up in the Room of Requirement faced with a 'real-life' Harry Potter, what would you do? I'm kinda surprised I haven't seen this sort of thing done before, as it seems obvious to me now. Closest I've seen it are those fics where Harry (& usually Hermione) confront JKR over how she 'messed up' the relationships..

Re: Thoughts of Pudding.

Ok, since I hate reading filenotes in the middle of a story, I'm not going to become a hypocrite and start adding them myself. If there is anything I want to say about it, or in response to reviewers publicly, then it'll be here, or in my Yahoo group.

Yahoo group. click the homepage link at the top of this page to visit the group, discuss the story, etc. This is also the place to get early access to new content, and particpate in polls.

Latest notes: I will be deleting the info in this section periodically, otherwise this bio would start to need a beta reader..

Chapter 20: Draft chapter has been released on my Yahoo group. That's right, you could be reading it right now.Just click the homepage link at the top of this profile page, then join the group. :)

Chapter 21: For those that have just found this profile page, I've been working on a Governent tender for the last couple of weeks (or as I put it, the 135,000 word job application for our company) and that's what delayed the new chapter. Up until that started I had been thinking on taking up the NaNoWriMo challenge, possibly by starting on the sequel (since I need to write something new). Anyway, I've decided not to do it this year. After all, I only started writing ToP in July! I think I'd rather get some more creative writing under my belt before taking NaNoWriMo on.

Chapter 22: At 5800 words it isn't as long as my recent chapters, but as mentioned in my notes for Chapter 21, I've been involved in some tender writing at work, and that sapped some of my energy for writing. Sorry, I can only spend so much time doing it, but my enthusiasm is returning.

Chapter 23: Sorry for the holdup, but I've found it harder than I expected to get back into writing after the tender writing and then holidays. I now have a new beta as of 8th Feb 2009, so the discussion and editing of early chapters is renewing my interest in telling this story. For those who have't already read it, there is a short scene between Kingsley and Kreacher from the next chapter posted on my Yahoo group.

Oh, and for those of you wondering about the tendering I helped with before Christmas... we were successful! The agency I work for is the only one in Australia delivering the type of specialist services we offer under the Job Services Australia contract.

I'm hoping the wrting I'm doing for the new story will dislodge some cobwebs and help me come up with some more original angles for ToP.. When I think about the scenes to come, the majority of them just seem like they've been done to death already.

Regarding the shipping - a response to reviewers

Ok, this is probably one of the silliest things I've ever contemplated doing, as I expect it will reduce the number of reviews I get - when really I need more, as my list of fics to read keeps growing and fighting for my time. Anyway... A lot of reviews tend to cover the same sort of issue which I'll paraphrase as; when are they going to wake up and work out all three of them should be together?

Well, I suppose the question I have for my reviewers would be; how many real life relationships do you know that are long term threesomes? (I say 'long term' in order to avoid any reviewers bragging about their 'menage a trois' experiences). Nowhere in canon (that I recall) does it suggest that the wizarding world has a habit or predisposition towards polygamy, despite what fanon might suggest. Even if we accept the oft-used idea of allowing multiple marriages to avoid losing noble and ancient family names, both Harry and Hermone were raised in the Muggle world. Culturally they are fixed on the concept of traditional couples - aren't they?

My question is, even discounting Luna for the moment, why would those two even consider the idea of Harry dating both girls at once & sharing? It's still only around 10am Thursday morning - Harry only got Luna as a girlfriend at around 2.15pm Monday, three days earlier. He's had Hermione established in his brain as a 'friend only' for years, and now he's trying to.. actually, better make that; being forced to.. reprogram himself to think of her romantically.

Seriously, I just don't get why people think they would suddenly go, 'oh right, why don't we all share instead?' , or maybe 'Oh, you like her as well? No problem, just date us both, Harry. By the way, let's pick up Ginny and Susan on the way back since I know you liked their hugs, and since we all think Tonks is hot...'

Sorry, not going to happen in this fic. As much as I like Honks stories (and Ginny, Susan, etc, as per my likes above), I'm trying to write a semi-believable story here. Bringing in Hermione to the mix made that much, much harder than if I'd stuck with H/L, but if I'm going to end up with an H/L/Hr relationship by the end of it, I want to get there with as many readers as possible thinking, 'Yeah, I could see how that worked'.

The other thing that's come up lately is about one or both girls manipulating Harry, or testing him. This isn't the point at all. The Granger's explained this quite well I thought. Luna does not want to end up with Harry simply because she was in the right place at the right time and made a move on him when nobody else did. Let's face it, just about any unattached teenage boy is going to react positively to a pretty girl attaching herself to him just about every time she sees him. Luna knows this, and doesn't want her heart broken down the track when Harry get better control over his hormones and the novelty of having a girl pay attention to him. She knows that Hermione is the one that has the greatest claim to him, and is her biggest challenge for his affection, so she wants to ensure (as much as she can) that they can all stay friends at least. While hoping she'll get lucky, Luna fully expects that Harry and Hermione will stay together. She figures that if its going to happen sooner or later, she wants it to be sooner.

The next thing to be addressed is why would Harry pick Luna over Hermione? We already know 5 years of history between those two, so what do Harry/Luna have going for them? In an nutshell, Harry's only known her in 5th year. She was in the compartment on the train, and of course the opportunity for conversations during the DA. She was also there at the Ministry - but then, Hermione was there for all of those things as well.

Well, I know the answer to why this isn't going to end up a straight harmony fic, but the rest of you will have to have patience and wait and see how it unfolds. Just try to keep in mind that no matter how many words in the story, the characters themselves have only been out of Hogwarts 5 days so far.. These things shouldn't be rushed.

Another response: Some people have commented on the fact that Ron should already have known where Harry lived, since he, Fred and George rescued him during CoS, and the Weasley's picked him up during GoF. Okay, firstly, we have no idea how the twins learned Harry's address, but it doesn't necessarily follow that Ron knew it as well. For all we know, the twins used a Point Me spell. Hermione should have realised she could have used a telephone book to find the Dursleys, but then perhaps the Dursleys have a silent number (at Dumbledore's instruction) so that Death Eaters can't find Harry. I don't recall Harry saying much about his home life to R & Hr, and with the way the Dursleys treated him, I doubt he'd be comfortable talking about it.

Credit where credit is due.

I've read lots of fanfics, so it's inevitable that I'll use a plot device that others have used before. If I do, and remember where I saw it then I'll note it here. I trust my readers will help remind me of anything I miss.

With that in mind, the idea of Harry joining Luna on a Snorkack hunt was most notably realised in Nonjon's "Lovegood, Boobs Gooder" (at least by me). The term 'Durzkaban' in chapter 4, I read in one of Seel'vor's fics. Xeno's mention of a 'bundling charm' in chapter 10 came from the story of the same name by Aelfwine. The movie quotes in Chapter 11 were from John Carpenter's "An American Werewolf in London" of course. The 'Nerfherder' reference is from Star Wars; The Empire Strikes Back. The 'Plethora' scene was from 'The Three Amigos', and in addition to his paraphrasing from 'When Harry Met Sally', Dan's other movie quote was from 'The Sound of Music' (but everyone knew that, right?). I can't wait until Dan and Luna discover that the other is a movie quote fanatic!

The information for Harry's Post Owl assignment in chapter 16 was taken from the owlpages. In Chapter 18, If you think the conversation topic about what is normal at the beginning between Harry and Tonks seems a little familiar, then you (like me) probably watched the scene between Data and Picard at the end of the episode 'Skin of Evil'. It actually took me quite a while to remember what inspired Harry's sentiments.

Needless to say, you will also find the occassional quote, description or paraphrase from one or other of J K Rowling's books. The phrase "Gang Aft Agley" is from a poem called 'To A Mouse' by Robert Burns. I have no idea who to credit the song "Rock and Roll All Night" to, but everyone should already know the artist is 'Kiss'. Paramount is responsible for Star Tek: The Next Generation, but I think it was the Austin Power's movies that got me thinking about 'Number Two'. Oh, and don't I wish Austin Powers was released in 1996 instead of 1997. I had all these great Dr Evil lines ready for the temporarily bald!Harry.

Not sure why I forgot to do this earlier (my bad). My original story summary was along the lines of "What if Luna...blah, blah.." and I asked for some help. The current summary about chaos theory evolved from a suggestion by delta16669.

Finally! Since Matt (Fake a smile) released the final chapter of Taking Control, I've started rereading it all over again, and as a result I've finally discovered where I first read the twins hamming it up over 'dreamy' Harry. Yep, TC helped provide the prompt for 'my' twins behaviour during the will reading.

Beta readers, editing and story development:

NEW: From Feb 2009, I have a new beta; Azhure, who is currently working her way through my early chapters. These edited chapter are being uploaded to my Yahoo site only for now. Once the job is done, I'll replace the bug-ridden chapters posted here (and the few other places it's posted). I don't want to drive people crazy thinking there is a new chapter though when the announcement has gone out due to an old chapter being replaced.

I'm always willing to have some help editing the story, so if you'd like to beta some of the early chapters, please send me a PM - the more the merrier.

Since I started posting teasers and drafts to my Yahoo group, I've been getting some great feedback, mainly from KafkaExMachina, Vern/Herman Tumbleweeds, and Red Jacobson.

Another person I particularly want to thank (and you will too once you get to see the results), is Briannah from the PotterFicWeekly forums. She's worked through some of the early chapters, as well as those from chapter 14, and improved the grammar and scenes in all of them. Don't go rushing off and downloding early chapters yet though. Once I start posting edited versions, I'll let you know here. However, there is an html version of my story (with all edited chapters to date included) on my Yahoo group's file section. You will need to join to get access to it though, so it's completely up to you.

Ok, BIG, big props also go to Vanir for his work on Chapter 14 (and others). Anything to do with Sweden - it's pretty much his, and we've been corresponding since his first review. He's suggested content, locations, helped me with some concepts, and generally been an all round Godsend. I just hope I haven't flubbed any of the translations - if I have, then I'll change them. If you write a review, please take a moment to thank him. His story can be found on ficwad, and you'll be able to find it easily if you google "Harry Potter and the Midnight Sun by Vanir". This is an NC-17, Harry/harem fic, so if that's not your cup of tea, don't read it.

To my reviewers:

Reviews are what keep me writing, but I'm not going to beg for them. I would ask that if you are going to leave a review, that you please say something about why you liked or didn't like it. When I get that little email alert that says I've received a new review, I open it eagerly, but if all it says is, 'good work' (or similar) it feels a little disappointing.

Reviewers Hall of fame:

As of chapter 22, Both Fibinaci and Fire From Above have taken the time to review each and every single chapter, and not just a 'good chapter'-type review either. You have my thanks, and you also deserve the thanks of all of the other readers.

Many others have joined the story later, and made a point of reviewing each chapter from that time on. It's not as easy for me to identify those people individually, but you know who you are. :) Some names that do come to mind are Morbious20, Wonderbee31, & whatareyouevensaying... Paladeus has also contributed a lot of ideas in reviews and on the forum, There have also been a plethora of good reviews from Dennisud, Petites Sorcieres, Luckner and DrT. I'm sure there are others I should highlight - you're welcome to prompt me with a PM! Oh, I probably should mention that some of those reviewers left their reviews on ficwad.

If anyone is interested, I do have a couple of commercial websites where I'm marketing ebooks - saferpasswords (dot) com for example..