I’m a married to wonderful wife (I married up) and we have two exceptional children (who take after their mom, thankfully).

I’m a bit of a Harry Potter fan, though more of the world JKR created than some of her characters who are a bit of a mixed bag. Don’t get me wrong, they are almost all great reads and are very well realized. But I think many are disturbing. For example, I despise Dumbledore, who uses his school to recruit child soldiers, and Snape, who emotionally abuses children. As to Ron, he has physical courage but he’s bullying someone in every book. I don’t think he’s bad, he just gets on my nerves. That said, some of his behaviors remind me of me at a similar age so I can empathize with him a bit. Molly’s overbearing and entitled attitude grates.

That said the stories are engrossing. I’m trying to practice my fiction writing using the wonderful world created by JK Rowling. It makes it easier to practice if we newbies don’t have to spend too much thought on settings, etc. As I’m not being paid by anyone, I mainly write when I have time (an all too scarce and precious commodity) and for my own amusement. I have a hundred ideas in my head. Getting them all on paper is a bit of a chore.

So with that I want to be clear that my stories are:

"These are works of fan fiction using characters from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by J. K. Rowling. I do not claim any ownership over any characters or the world of Harry Potter. The story I tell here is not part of J.K. Rowling's story canon (which is far better than anything I could write). I’m only borrowing some of her characters to practice fiction writing. The fanfiction stories I write are for entertainment only, I will make no money off of them, and is not part of the official story line."

The portrait used as part of Riddle’s Son and the Dark Lord’s Equal is of a Russian Revolution military officer (i.e. communist) and author Dmitry Furmanov by Sergey Malyutin. It’s close to how I picture the main character of Riddle’s Son to look, if he were an older Durmstrang student. The real life Furmanov died in 1926 and lived a fairly colorful, though short, life.

The portrait used as part of Becoming Draco Malfoy and Harry Lupin is of Rupert Brooke, painted by Clara Ewald, oil on canvas, in 1911, NPG 4911. He looks a bit like how I imagine an older Draco would plus the hat looks cool. He was an extremely popular poet in England at the time, enlisted to fight in WWI, and died as part of an expeditionary force at age 27.

The cover art of the Peverell Gambit, Harry’s Excellent Vacation and Walburga’s Plan is a Portrait of Paul Victor Grandhomme by Raphael Collin (before 1890).

The cover art for Rise of the Dark Lady Hermione is Flora by Evelyn De Morgan (1894).

The cover art for the Wolf and the Bear is Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods by Arthur Rackham (1911).

The cover art for the Stone in the Snow and Good King Robert is The Slaying of Sir Lamorak by N.C. Wyeth (1922).

The cover art for the Greengrass Boy, How Molly Weasley Saved Britain and Hedwig’s Last Stand is The Three Ages of Woman (1905) by Gustav Klimt.

The cover art for Detention!, Harry’s Last Step and Dumbledore’s Education is Nathan Hale by N.C. Wyeth (1922).