I think I'm a bit old for fanfiction writers. I'm 25, but only discovered the practice a couple of years ago. I started reading an insane amount of my time. I started on Stargate where I was a passionate Sam-Jack shipper, but quickly spread out to other shows (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Justice League, X-Files, 24, Veronica Mars even the RARE Star Wars or Star Trek story).

My first attempt at writing had mixed results. An OC fanfiction, "The Dramaless College Years...Right?" (in addition to continuing my trend to never thinking up good titles for anything I write) was for awhile a success. Despite having the single most least-written pairing on the site (Seth-Marissa) received mostly positive reviews. But then two things happened.

Firstly, the third season started pissing me off to no end, so much so that I stopped watching the show on a weekly basis for the first time since it came out, deciding, "Screw this, I'll wait for the DVD!"

The second was my discovery of Harry Potter fanfiction. I was addicted immediately, spending entire evenings reading.

I had never waited in a line for the books. My extent of knowledge was listening to my college roommate and his fiance read the first book to one another. They tried to get me to join in on the second book and despite their assurance that I had a kick-@$$ Dobby voice, it failed to hold my interest. Which is remarkable, I think, given that I have a deep voice... or perhaps just an incorrect opinion on their part. Also, my younger siblings dragged me to the movies (first two were terrible - too devoted to the source material and Columbus, while a competent writer GOONIES!, has continually disappointed me as a director - though I liked Rent, but that might have had more to do with being a Renthead, the third I was anxious to see and enjoyed quite a bit love Alfonso Cauron's Y Tu Mama Tambien and the fourth was enjoyable as well).

But most of my experience in regards to HP involved ridiculing others and their devotion to it. Well, thank you very much Fan Fiction writers. The last half-year was basically devoted to eating a load of crow. Almost as soon as I started reading fan fiction, I became passionately devoted to the cause that Hermione and Draco were made for each other. And I read as many decent to excellent stories of them I could find. Other pairings interest me (Draco-Ginny, Harry-Ginny or Luna), some still make me shiver in fear (teachers-students, esp. Snape-Hermione or Harry).

As my interest grew, my roommate (my brother Nick), took more than a couple opportunites to gloat over how wonderful the world of Harry Potter is. To this day he is the Harry to my Draco and the argument between which of them should end up with Hermione will never end (even after Rowling puts her with Ron, ugh).

So fascinated was I, that I had to write my own. To hell with the OC, this is the place for me. Of course, I still had the problem that most of my knowledge of the series, especially the two most recent books, came from fanfiction. I found myself hardly getting anywhere, constantly asking questions about whether this happened or that happened or if this character was really like this. So, in all my undiagnosed OCD glory, I read the entire series in a couple weeks. I thought it was pretty quick, eight years of editing my high school and college newspapers showed me the need for speed. Although, my little brother assures me he can do it in less time. At the end I knew what I needed and had discovered that I still didn't think Rowling was much of a writer (especially action scenes), but I loved the universe. And I was not a big fan of the character of Harry, himself, although he has in the writing of my story grown on me substantially.

Regardless, having all relevant knowledge, I continued plucking away at my untitled DREAM take on the seventh book.

So here we are finally writing in force and now 20 Chapters into "Changed Fates," my opus, on fanfiction.net and harrypotterfanfiction (where it is called "Changing Fates" and has a wicked cool banner). As it has evolveda great deal of mostly positive feedback has been coming in. I was lucky enough to be nominated for Best War Fic in the first round at Dragon's Bride Awards. Despite not winning anything there, I was thrilled when one reviewer nominated me twice at Dangerous Liasons in the current round there in the categories of Best WIP and Best First Kiss. Now we're 160,000 words through the story, with the drive to continue still there. Of course the story is now a bit over half-way complete, so plenty of time for things to grow or fall apart.

Ah, well we continue to march onward...

Cause, every profile needs a list, I give you...

MY FAVORITE SHIPS

Draco-Hermione, Draco-Ginny, Harry-Ginny, Harry-Luna (Harry Potter), Sam-Jack, Weir-Sheppard (Stargate), Seth-Marissa (The OC), Wesley-Buffy (Buffy/Angel), Mal-Inara (Firefly), Batman-Wonder Woman (DC Comics -- yes, I am a huge comic geek), Veronica-Logan (Veronica Mars - I guess I identify with the jerks of the universe), Obi-Wan-Amidala (Star Wars, makes much more sense if you look at the characters and leads to far fewer Imperial dictatorships)