Hello. I'm a 46 year old father of 3 who enjoys Harry Potter, but was disappointed by Half Blood Prince.

My favorite year 6 story is michelle_31a's Luna's Year. However, since we are now in year 7, I decided to write my own, hopefully fixing some of the faults I saw with HBP.

These include:

The disappearence of the Order, especially Remus; the marginalization of virtually everyone except Harry and Dumbledore; the awful romance between Harry and Ginny, and other things I can't remember at the moment.

So, here it is my seventh year story, Harry Potter and the Horcrux Quest.

Update May 2006

I was on Roscharch's Blot's newsgroup, and he posted the beginning of a story. I envisioned a scene, and started writing towards that point; as it was late at night I never got to the scene I wanted, but I did write about half of what became chapter 2. I confess, I have been bitten and infected by a rabid plot bunny. I have not abandoned The Horcrux Quest but at the moment the scenes just keep coming on Luna's Hubby.

Update Dec 2, 2006

Just won my first NaNoWriMo! Which put a hold on my other fics. But just wanted to leave a little status:

Horcrux quest has a first draft of the next chapter complete. Will clean it up and post it in the next week or two.

Am actively working on Luna's Hubby. Made some notes last night, and have identified 18 scenes I want to include in their 3rd year. (there may be more). I don't know how they will be devided into chapters. I'm not even sure of their eventual order. I'll try to update here as things progress. I'm anxious to get the story going again, too.

Update July 18,2007

Harry Potter and the Horcrux Quest is now complete! And my 7th year fic was published before Rowlings!

Things I learned from writing:

Commas, are, confusing,

I'm prone to passive voice.

The initial enthusiasm doesn't last.

Writing is hard. Once the initial enthusiasm for the story fades, it's hard slogging.

Since I created a Harry Potter dictionary for Open Office, I've been mispelling MaHcGonagall fewer times.

I need more practice doing action scenes.

I should keep a notes file; I had an idea for the ending a long, long time ago, but forgot it. Had something to do with thinking about all his previous encounters with Voldemort, but when I finally got around to writing the scene where Luna tells him what she figured out, I forgot what I intented to put there. I JKR uses my idea, I'll be really angry with myself.

It's very easy to not write. There are millions of things that are fun or time wasting when you have that scene that just isn't coming.

I think part of the problem with the last scene I had to write was psychological - once it was done the story's over and I can't make it better.

Enjoy! Now to get back to work on Luna's Hubby and some other projects I have brewing.

Update September 2008 -

Not much to say, except that I'm really pleased with my HP/Big Trouble in Little China crossover, and I've been wondering what the characters will do next.

Oh, and as the icon doesn't seem animated, here's a link to the animated version (not sure if this will work):
The animated GIF I tried to use as an icon.

Tom A.