I've realised that all that really matters is the stories. Here goes nothing.

Bellacine Black: Prisoner of Azkaban:

Yes, I know, chapters 1-7 are quite horrible. FORGIVE ME. I was young, I was inexperienced, I'm too lazy to fix it all and repost it. Thank god it's over. I'm actually surprised that I haven't received any death threats for Bellacine's opinion of Lupin. An interesting show of psychology. Anyway, the point is, that is not my own personal opinion but the opinion of a character. Although, you know, there's no law saying you have to agree with Bella, or even like her. God knows I know people who don't.

Notes on the Sky Falling Down:

I will finish it. Just not today. Tomorrow doesn't look good, either.

Here I Am:

Receptacle for all my Barty Crouch moments. Formerly a one-shot, now my happy place. When I get around to posting, that is.

You Don't Know Me:

Just so you know, I am of perfectly sound mental health and I'm not sure how I managed to get myself into his head.

Bellacine Black: Goblet of Fire:

Ah, the sequel! I would have put it into PoA and changed the title, but I've noticed that most people don't care to pick up on stories that long. Thankfully I'm done with writing it and have moved onto OotP, but the typing and posting is an entirely different matter. Let's see...well, I usually write whilst listening to music and I swear I spent the entire time writing GoF with The Wall (Pink Floyd) in the background, with occasional breaks for The Who's 'Slip Kid'. Hopefully this has not affected me too much. I blame Led Zepellin for the weird moments.

It's a Wonderful Life:

A little something that my friend (doctor17blood but she's not on here) and I wrote to give us all a bit of Christmas non-cheer.

On Reviews:

Do I really need to tell you that if you review I'll think you're brilliant and check out what you've written, and if you review more than once I'll be willing to do an inordinate range of non-graphic things for you involving my soul? Ramzes, Moromu, Someone aka Me, I owe you one.

On Canon and Continuity In My Stories:

Technically everything I've written agrees with everything else I've written, i.e., it can all be viewed as aspects of the same AU-universe, but the only stories that properly belong together are Bellacine stuff, NotSFD, and You Don't Know Me. I'm trying to keep with absolute canon and I do quite a bit of quoting from the books (meaning I carry around the book whilst I write) so most is accurate. But to keep a disclaimer, in all Bellacine stuff, the end result will ALWAYS be the same but the method may be different. And if nothing is formally declared, I consider it open season. Which leads to my next topic...

On Durmstrang:

First of all, ignore the film. It is in no way an all-boys school. In GoF a girl is standing beside Poliakoff during the scene with Moody and Karkaroff at the door of the Great Hall, and she taps him on the arm, which indicates that she knows who he is and is not simply a random Hogwarts or Beauxbatons (which is not all-girls, mind you!) standing nearby. To make a list of the teachers: Mueller (a girl)-Potions, Savchenko-Arithmancy, Karkaroff-Dark Arts, Rukovskaya-Charms, Novy-Astronomy, van Rijn-Muggle Studies, Rademacher-Transfiguration, and that's all I remember at present. On school years: It starts at 10 for some reason I don't remember at present, aside from the fact that Krum is 18 in GoF. Therefore, D. 1st year is H. nought, D-2 is H-1, and so on. It officially ends at D-7, age approximately 17, but one may take two additional years, 8 and 9. If one pleases. On Anton: His father (Antonin Dolohov) is Marya Gnedich's brother; the Dolohovs are technically Russian but live in Germany since the end of WWII and Anton's mother is German. The curse he used in PoA chapter 8 is the same his father used in OotP, and I believe it's called Wizard's Whip. On location: Durmstrang Institute is located somewhere slightly south of Arkhangel'sk (just to give you a relative idea, since Mother Russia is rather large). On language: All classes are taught in German, simply because the cachement area of Durmstrang is so large that the people-in-charge thought it simpler to learn, if one must, German rather than Russian with its separate alphabet. However, most students speak Russian and if you don't, you're vaguely screwed. Like Jan Maarten. Who serves no real purpose at all. On cachement area and Harfang: countries: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, European Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and the Ukraine. Harfang was located in Iceland until the early 1900s and contained Scandinavia and Central Europe but is no longer used due to a power struggle between possible headmasters. So now everyone's at Durmstrang.

Q&A with the Author...

What on earth was Bellacine doing at Durmstrang, then? Why not Hogwarts? All in good time, my friends. All in good time.

Why the name Bellacine? Because the voices in my head said so. This is true, actually. The whole concept of 'Regulovna' will be explained in chapter 9 of GoF, coming sometime shortly after Christmas 2008. And her middle name...ooh, do I feel malicious...well, she had to have some part of her name from a star or constellation, yes? Just wait for OotP.

And who is her mother and does she really matter to the story? Rocella (nee Malfoy) Black, Lucius's sister. To Bellacine stories? Not terribly. Well, meaning it won't hurt you if you don't know who she is.

Why does she (Bellacine) think Regulus was killed by Aurors or something of that ilk? First of all, if you were Lucius and/or Narcissa, would you really tell her that her father was a traitor-and-an-idiot-and-got-himself-killed-for-it-like-Sirius-said-in-OotP? No, neither would I. The other Death Eaters know, but they all assume somebody else did it. So they don't know the culprit.

Do you realise how ridiculous the thing involving the word which starts with 'A' (trying not to say it, trying to forget it ever happened, I was young and inexperienced) from PoA is? Yes, and if I felt like redoing all of PoA AND a bit of GoF, I would take it back. Meanwhile, Obliviate! There. D'you feel better now? I do.

Don't you know that realise is really spelled 'realize'? It's called BRITISH SPELLING, okay? I like it. I type with it. I have a fundamental right ti use it. The reason, therefore, that I don't use single quotes ('Hi,' said the narrator) instead of double ("Hi," said the narrator) in my stories is a straight-up, somewhat-ornery, Because! Is that enough?

Computer vs. Pen-and-Paper? I write Bellacine in a notebook that I carry around with me EVERY SINGLE DAY. But when I'm typing it up...well, that's when the editing occurs, because by then I've usually written several more chapters so I've a sense of direction. NotSFD and most random Barty stuff was written at a computer on a whim; You Don't Know Me was written by hand because the ideas generally occured to me during class. Which kind of angered my French teacher. Oh well, too late now. And for the record, black ink. College-rule notebook, 120 sheets. I am very particular about this.

If there was one character you wouldn't kill off (or other method of permanently leaving the story), who would it be? Hmm...personally, I'd choose Barty, because I'm borderline obsessed. (Borderline? Yeah right.) And he actually is of some value in GoF, and I miss him dearly. But to further the plot...probably Sirius, even though I think he's completely heartless, because I'm writing OotP right now and Sirius has been the basis of several scenes. I mean, what am I going to do about the Black family in general when he's gone?

doctor17blood says hi:

Hi!

Thank you to everyone who has ever read, reviewed, favorited (I invented a verb!), alerted (again!) loved, or done anything else of favourable connotation to any of my stories. Keep the word out! Keep fighting! Stick it to the man! Never say die!...or just have a nice day. You know. The usual.