Random parodist, hanging around the HP fandom since late 2001. Marvolo family historian, pre-HBP. Product of the Australian education system. Essential aspects of lifestyle: cats, computers, coffee, chocolate, lots of books.

In the HP fandom, I'll read almost anything - gen, slash, het, Snapefics, Slythfics, Lupinfics, Riddlefics, pastfics, squick-fics, Squidfics, et cetera. I have a special fondness for oddfics, a tendency to rhyme at will, an OC who's Voldie's grandpa, an irresistible urge to mock summaries, and an inexplicable fascination with Peeves the poltergeist.

You can find me as "mctabby" at Dreamwidth or at LiveJournal.

Any of my writing that's too rude for is probably at AO3 or at Skyehawke or in my LJ Memories.

Check out the C2 for Young Dumbledore fics: stories of Albus in his Hogwarts years or as a young man. Includes Albus turned young by a spell, or time travel. Young Aberforth and Ariana fics too. Gen, slash, het.

McTabby's Fanvids

Started learning vidding in 2012. Much fun, but not much time to do it.

Crucio! (a Dark Lord filk fanvid) - The graveyard scene from the Goblet of Fire movie, to the tune of ABBA's "Waterloo". I wrote this filk (song parody) in October 2002. Delighted to mark its 10th anniversary with a karaoke vid version.

Captain George Osborne: Die Young - Ke$ha's "Die Young" meets Vanity Fair (1998 BBC miniseries). Character death warning for a bullet through the heart at the Battle of Waterloo. Pairings: George/Amelia, George/Becky, Dobbin/Amelia.

In the Mood for the Holy Grail - Monty Python and the Holy Grail to the tune of "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller.

McTabby's Random Opinions

Best story in the HP fandom: the 7-fic Sacrifices Arc series by Lightning on the Wave.

Best Voldemort quote in fanfic: "Potter, did your mother take Felix Felicis all through her pregnancy?" (from Twisted by cheryl_bites)

Best rewrite of the "Harry and Draco meet at Madam Malkin's" scene: in Chapter 5 of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Less Wrong

Any fandom cursed with a green-eyed character will soon get bloody tired of the word "emerald" popping up in fanfics.

Fandom's best Sorting Hat song - by Textualsphinx, to the tune of Mac the Knife: "I'm the hat that / Reads your mind, dears, / And there's nothing / You can hide..."

Writing Advice

From Chapter 2 of With Charity Toward None by Florence King:

The fun of writing is in the rewriting. I like to prune every unnecessary word from a piece, to polish and sharpen sentences and arrange them in seamless sequence so that the reader's eye travels effortlessly from left to right in unbroken rhythm as if set on optical cruise control. This is called "tightening" - what Evelyn Waugh was referring to when he wrote in the preface to one of his novels: "If the author had been less industrious, this book would be twice as long."