Welcome to the profile! I've got a mishmash of stuff on here, including expanded summaries of my stories, a few words about myself, my epic Top 20 Harry Potter Fanfics of All Time list, and a link to a forum devoted to the discussion of my work, where I can interact with readers and answer questions.

Update, 5/3/15 - FFN profile name changed to "Newcomb" from "Lane Anasazi." I'm integrating my writing pseudonyms.

To help you navigate, here's a table of contents:

Newcomb's Profile and Other Goodies

I. Expanded summaries

II. Link to forum for discussion of my main story.

III. Profile, a few words about me.

IV. Newcomb's Totally Subjective But Ultimately Correct Top 20 Harry Potter Fanfics (Updated as of 1/24/15!)

V. (New) Chapter-by-chapter summary for What You Leave Behind

Section I: Expanded Summaries

What You Leave Behind

Most fanfiction gets written because authors are particularly interested in one or more facets of canon (or fanon) and want to tell their own version. Here are the elements that have captured my eye, and thus the things the story will focus on:

1. An exploration and expansion of Hogwarts as a truly magical place – I want to capture that sense of wonder first-years feel when they see the castle for the first time, and let Harry really delve into the castle’s secrets – of which there will be many only hinted at in canon (or completely made up by me.) Hogwarts has a 1,000-year history with unprecedentedly clever founders and tens of thousands of the brightest wizards and witches of the day all leaving their mark on the place. Secret rooms, tapestry puzzles, forbidden knowledge, hidden passageways and hidden dangers. (There will be no physical manifestation of Hogwarts that gifts Harry with all sorts of silly powers, though. Don’t worry. The castle is alive with magic but it’s not alive.)

2. A different trio of main characters. Canon focused on Harry, Ron, and Hermione. In this story, Harry is exactly one year older, and is in Cho Chang’s year. The ‘trio’ of this book will be Harry, Cho, and Cedric. I always thought Cho and Cedric got a raw deal in canon – they were mostly there to be foils for Harry. In Cho’s case, a generically pretty love interest, and in Cedric’s, a generically perfect do-gooder to make Voldemort look extra-evil when he had Peter casually murder him. So, expect Cho and Cedric to get a lot of character development and screen time. They won’t replace Ron and Hermione – don’t expect Cedric to suddenly sprout red hair and a massive inferiority complex, or Cho to morph into a bookworm heroine. They’re their own characters. Ron and Hermione (especially Hermione) will have their own roles.

3. A believable, slow burning, in-depth love story. I’m a sucker for a good love story. In reading (a lot of) Harry Potter fanfiction over the past year and a half, I’ve been really drawn to Harry/Fleur stories, partly because Fleur is an extremely interesting character to me, especially the way her ‘fanon’ personality has evolved, and partly because there are so few stories that feature this pairing that nail it, and so many that come oh-so close. Of course, your mileage may vary, but it’s how I feel and it’s a big part of why I wrote this. Also, a word of warning (or reassurance, depending on your predilections): There will be no special veela life debt magic, no soul bonds, no veela “marking”, no marriage contracts, nor any other kind of relationship cheat codes. If Fleur and Harry are going to make a go of it, they’ll have to come by their love honestly.

4. A believably powerful, proactive Harry Potter. My version of Harry will be reasonably near to Dumbledore and Voldemort’s league in the end, but it’ll be a long, tough road to reach that level, and he’ll do it without the help of a fortuitously-powerful ancient magic that he’s gifted through random chance or Fate. Almost all of the magic that Harry wields will be the magic in and hinted at in the books, and it will be available to anyone with the dedication and talent to master it. Harry will also rabidly, sometimes ruthlessly protect the right to control his own destiny. If this is setting off some alarm bells in your head about certain types of fanfics, all I can I say is that there are no bad clichés, only bad writers. I’ve made a sincere effort to come up with unique and fun ideas, and most of the wild stuff I’ve thought up I haven’t read anywhere else, but there are over 600,000 HP stories on this site alone, so by the law of Sufficiently Large Numbers… no promises.

The Lesser Sadness

What you see is what you get: this is a super!Harry fic, with a twist on the classic setup where he's sent back in time after the King's Cross Vision in DH. Unlike What You Leave Behind, it wasn't planned and plotted ahead of time. It's pretty much a shoot from the hip, bolt from the blue, "write when the writer's hot"-type fic. The scope is novella length - probably between 30K and 50K words.

The Warrior Poet

This story is based on the Knights of the Old Republic corner of the Star Wars AU. If you're not familiar with that, this fic will probably still make sense, but the spoiler part of the summary likely won't and will spoil you for KotOR 1.

This story starts in medias res as the Ebon Hawk escapes the bombardment of Taris. You may assume that the events on the Endar Spire and Taris played out basically as they did in the game, with Revan having taken a mostly Light Side path to rescue Bastila. Revan knows herself as Lara Sekhmet and is understandably curious about her own natural talents as well as all the strange visions in her head.

I always saw Revan as a Rhaegar Targaryen type – someone who’s a once-in-a-generation mind, a person of extreme cleverness and vision, who molded herself into a warrior for a greater cause. In other words, a warrior-poet. The narrative will start to diverge in some places on the journey to Dantooine, and after that will blaze its own trail.

What's In A Name?

Humor, one-shot. This is the first fanfic I ever wrote, back before I knew anything about HP fanfiction, or fanfiction in general. I thought I was pretty clever thinking of the idea. Turns out it's been done a couple hundred times. Not a bad first effort, and short, but certainly nothing I'd heartily encourage anyone to read.

Section II: Forum

If you'd like to discuss What You Leave Behind or any of my other fics in a more interactive, back-and-forth manner than the Review system, I have active WbA threads over at Dark Lord Potter. I'd link them, but FFN doesn't like that link, apparently. I love reviews, but I love talking about my fic on a message board even more - the back and forth is awesome. If you have a question, or even just want to respond to a tiny detail, feel free to join the conversation!

All of my fics will have updates posted there well ahead of chapters being posted on FFN.

Section III: Profile

I'm a piano teacher and writer. I've had short pieces published but not a novel. That's the goal, that's what I'm working toward. I don't see the point of putting down too many personal details, to be honest.

Since I started reading Harry Potter pieces on this site, I've been blown away by the quality of some of them. Obviously there's a lot of chaff. But I admire anyone who takes the time, who makes the effort to post something here. It's truly a labor of love. In the past year I've read pieces that are incredibly good, and the author did it for nothing but recognition and respect. There's something quite beautiful about that.

I'm writing a few longer pieces now, and I'm doing it because my own writing has been stagnating lately, and I see this as an opportunity to flex my muscles, get some feedback, have some fun. For that reason, I'd love to interact with people about my work - reviews, debates, critiques, edits, suggestions, whatever.

To anyone who reads my stories: I read every single review, even if I don't respond to all of them.

Section IV: Newcomb's Totally Subjective But Ultimately Correct Top 20 Harry Potter Fanfics

My profile was getting a bit long, so you can find my Top 20 list (complete with links, honorable mentions, and commentary for all 20 fics) at the following link:

Newcomb's Top fanfiction

Section V: Chapter-by-chapter summary of What You Leave Behind

It's difficult to get back into a story if the updates are too far apart, and while I'd love to update my fic every single week, alas, real life gets in the way. If you're reading a new chapter, though, sometimes you want to remind yourself of what's happened before, kind of jog your memory. So, here's a short version of the story so far:

What You Leave Behind summary