Profile:

December 20, 2022

Yesterday evening, my husband died. I was his caregiver, off and on, since 2013, when he was diagnosed with his first cancer. He went into remission in 2014, but the second one showed (with a side of a sudden life flight when his kidneys failed). His health continued to deteriorate over the years and now he's gone.

I will be busy with dealing with the necessary things to be done, but I will keep on catching up on reviews. I hope to get back to writing at (September was a very bad month and it was difficult to get anything written, never mind the fanfiction I love, after that).

August 7, 2017

It’s been a while since I updated this profile. I took early retirement at the end of 2015, but that was mainly because of my husband's health. I also have another story that simply needs a bit of revising, and a Marauders-era AU called “The Apprentice” which is now at 80k and I have no idea where I’m going with it, but it’s fun.

And yes, I just uploaded the first chapter of WIDOWS' WALK. Note that I will be updating with *extreme* irregularity, since my time for writing varies due to pro work, cleaning, and other stuff.

I also have professional original universe work for sale on Amazon, please look for my author page as Jean Lamb since the link is gone. I have four books up there right now, and am working on book #5. I also have a spreadsheet for the next 30 books I plan to write (fortunately, one of my natural lengths is the six book series).

I am a Snape fan. That explains a lot right there. I am in awe of how he managed to stay on the side of the Light despite all the misery of his life and the ongoing attempts by Albus Dumbledore to squash him or otherwise throw him to the wolves, beginning while he was a student at Hogwarts. His adolescent path was a pretty normal one, considering he was not accepted by anyone else at school, and that I seriously doubt the Death Eaters originally recruited students on a platform of rape, murder and torture right off the bat. He had the strength of character to turn away, and to stay turned away, despite having his adolescent desire for people who actually didn’t want to beat him up thrown in his face by nearly everyone in the canon books. I just feel, somehow, that treating a spy with everyone’s lives in his hands like dirt is going to be hard to find in normal Spy Handling books (I do wish someone would ask Le Carre what he thought of way Snape was treated by the people whose lives he happened to save over and over again).

Another note: Snape is the *only* canon character concerned about his soul. The Order members feel certain of moral correctness because they were sorted into Gryffindor, and the Death Eaters don’t care. Note that because of his courage, Dumbledore thought that it was obvious Snape didn’t really belong in Slytherin—if someone is good, they *have* to be Gryffindor, right? Note also that Dumbledore felt confident about blaming Snape for the death of the Potters, even though he kept the Cloak that Lily was known to have asked for him to give back after he borrowed it from the Potters—a Cloak that might have protected both Lily and Harry. Note also that Dumbledore could have Obliviated knowledge of the Prophecy from Snape to start with (and why was he interviewing Sybil at the Hogshead, a known hangout for shady types to begin with, and not up at the school?). Let’s see, allowing important information to be disseminated, borrowing the Cloak from the Potters and not returning it—looks suspicious to me, anyway.

Yes, Snape is a bad teacher, at least he’s nasty to people who try to blow up the lab. Hint: he’s not there at Hogwarts voluntarily. He still has an extremely good safety record, despite aforementioned idiots, and lots of teachers don’t like teaching junior high, and would rather be teaching college students. That’s doesn’t make them evil. Other students besides Harry actually do well in Potions, and since we know that Harry really doesn’t work at his classes except the ones he’s naturally good at—and even then Hermione does most of his homework—let’s not take his point of view as the only one here, please.

But in the books, we most often see Voldemort at the end of the year, if we see him at all, but we see Snape all the time. Not all teachers are fuzzy and friendly, especially towards students who goof off and set fires. If you happen to draw a teacher like that, do the bleeping work and see if his or her attitude improves. You might be amazed.

I do like some of the other characters, especially in their fanfic incarnations where the authors are allowed to use common sense about them. Rowling has created a marvelous universe and great characters (even if I would like to smack them around just a smidge, you know, just for fun), and I thank her for it. I am really enjoying the Cormoran Strike universe (CUCKOO’S CALLING and THE SILKWORM), and I strongly recommend those books for adults. I keep thinking that someday Mr. Strike and his able assistant Robin are going to run into Peter Grant and the nice people from the Folly, and what fun that would be…

I hope you enjoy my work, both fanfic and professional. Nice to meet you!