Important Update: I have changed my username from MysticSong1978 to The.MysticSong (on my profile URL the period is dropped). I am just "MysticSong" on Archive of Our Own, and I believe most FF sites, and I decided to drop the random numbers that were from an old Yahoo email (which I no longer have). So, this is still really me. No one copied my stories or anything like that! (I wish I could just by MysticSong but someone else already has that one, so The.MysticSong was the closest I could do to match other sites.

To my loyal readers:

A briefing on what's been going on since I last updated my HP WIP, which I know has been way too long ago.

I have not forgotten about writing, but supporting your wife through a diagnosis of a rare cancer, which ultimately leaves you as a widow because the doctors are too chicken... to do the recommended treatment, doing any of your regular life stuff is just... HARD, bordering on impossible. I'm slowly working my way back to writing.

2007 - Accepted to graduate school.

2008 - Managed to update WIP only once (so sorry!).

2008 - Started looking for employment related to degree. No luck.

2008 - Went gluten free through medical necessity.

2009 - Met the woman I would later marry.

2009 - Graduated with an MBA in Economic Crime & Fraud Management; still no luck with employment.

2009 - Got a job ... in retail as a cashier. Later I would move to balancing tills, doing the deposit, etc. But still not related to my degree. This is what I am still doing, but now with hours so small as to not even be truly considered part time. Last I checked, my income put me at around 130% below Federal Poverty guidelines. This causes me a lot of stress.

2009 - Started my blog, Gluten Free & Tasty.

2009 - Moved 2 hours south to live with my girlfriend. Took a job in retail because I couldn't find a job related to my MBA.

2010 - 2012 - Worked on publishing an original book (poetry and art), Echoes.

2012 - Published!

2012 - Started backing up all my old files, as well as hunting down my notes on my WIP.

2013 - Got married in New York state! (Sadly, marriage still not legal in home state of Virginia.)

2013 - External HD with all my writing, fan fiction and original, crashed. (As of spring 2014, am still saving up for a new HD so I can see if any data can be sucked off of the crashed one.)

2014 - Took on a big (but great) position for the organization I volunteer for.

2014 - Our marriage became legal in Virginia!

2015 - My dear friend and fellow author, known here as Ms-Figg, passed away unexpectedly. If you're on Facebook, you are welcome to join the group I created to honor and remember her, Remembering Ruth.

2016 - February - wrote my first fan fic in 9 years! Once Upon a Time fandom. It just came to me! This gives me the first real hope I've had in years that I can get my head back into my HP stories and complete them. *crosses fingers*

2016 - Summer - Some hearing loss confirmed during struggle to discover if I have Meniere's Disease. Final tests costs too much (more than I made last year) so I have to settle for "probably Meniere's" but not knowing for certain.

2016 - September - leaving stressful retail job I took in 2009. Hoping the lack of stress will return my sorely missed muse.

2016 - October - newer desktop crashed. Backed up everything, I think, but in such a rush, it wasn't an organized backup.

2016 - December - got my author and fan fic email accounts set back up. Trying to reply to all of my reviews. My apologies for the delay. Having various trouble with the laptop I have on loan.

2017 - February/March - Laptop overheated. Finally runs again on cooling board. Feel like I have a computer curse hanging over me! :-)

2017 - April - Trying to catch up with about 2 years of new stories/chapter updates. Will review as many chapters as I can as I read along! (Many times I'm reading on my iPad, where it's really hard to leave reviews. So while I can get on here on my laptop, I'm going to read/review as much as I can. Following so many good stories, and you all deserve the reviews you get. And I'm so glad to be able to leave them again!)

2017 - April - Updated my FF profile image.

2017 - August - Wife has 32lb tumor 8lbs of fluid removed via life saving ex-lap procedure.

2017 - September - Wife diagnosed with aggressive, treatment-resistant cancer called leiomyosarcoma; specifically uterine myxoid leiomyosarcoma.

2017 - October - early December - Aggressive chemo regimen of gem/tax which ultimately doesn't work. Tumor regrows to half of original size by December 5.

2017 - December - Waiting to hear what next move will be. Wife is hoping for surgery first, chemo second.

2017-2018 - So much.

2019 - January - Widowed.

What does that mean for you, my dear readers?

In 2012, I received a request from a reader to take over my second "Take 2" story. But it turned out he wanted to completely ignore my second story, change the first one and go from there. I told him, "No thanks!" People like what I have so far, so I am not okay with this idea! Plus, I had never considered my stories abandoned, so therefore, they didn't need to be adopted.

If I got one offer though, surely, eventually, I would get more. Or, like some authors readers deem abandoned, I would get plagiarized and my story would be continued without my knowledge or consent.

Several months ago, I downloaded HPCOS Take 2 into a Word file, and have been editing it. I'm nearly positive a copy of that file was on my laptop when my external HD crashed, so there is hope that I don't have to start completely from scratch.

If I make any changes on this site, it will be to fix minor errors. I don't want to remove/combine entire chapters here and risk losing all the wonderful reviews I've collected on these stories over the last eight years.

To try to prevent you all from then waiting ages between that and another chapter, however, I am not going to post it until I have made sufficient headway into another chapter, or perhaps complete it (COS2) altogether, and then upload it, perhaps a chapter a week.

It was requested, long ago, that I do the entire 7 books for my Take 2 series. At the time, I agreed, but I can no longer guarantee the possibility of that. Although I still love HP, and still read fan fics for it, it's not my top fandom these days.

Now I'm heavily into Once Upon a Time, Bones, The Fosters, and Switched at Birth. And working on my original stories, of course.

But I hate coming across unfinished stories when I'm the reader, so I am determined to provide an ending to my WIP, someway, somehow. (And hopefully one that doesn't suck. ;-) ) Thanks for sticking with me.

Onto the profile . . .

I have my undergraduate degree in Journalism, History, and Russian, and a graduate degree in Economic Crime & Fraud Management.

I live in VERY southwest Virginia (not far from Tennessee), but my heart is northern and I hope to 'escape' out of the south one of these days, preferably to New York state since I have so much family there, and my wife is from NY state.

But, who knows? No timeline on when (or if) we would move at this point. My wife and I are definitely staying here until we get the majority of our bills paid off and have money saved. If Virginia ever legalizes marriage (it's in the works now, at least), or if the US Supreme Court ever gets a case that forces the issue for the country, and our marriage is legal anywhere, maybe we'll stay in Virginia (although hopefully somewhere that gets less tornadoes!).

I send my thanks to my wonderful beta-reader and dear RL-friend, Slave4Severus. My own beta-experience stems from the Journalism portion of my undergraduate degree, as well as having tutored English & Journalism. I do not have time to take on new beta projects right now, however.

I am technically, a moderator on the LiveJournal community Stop Plagiarism, which deals with plagiarism in Fandoms. (Although I am currently, probably permanently, out of rotation on cases there, due to so many things going on in my life.)

On May 7, 2012, my first original book became available for sale, exclusively through The Book Patch. If you purchase a copy, I would absolutely love to hear from you about it, especially if you would be willing to write a review that I could place on my official author site. :) If you're interested, send me a PM so I can tell you the title and my author name.

NOTE Due to an incredibly rude wholly inappropriate review I received, I would just like to point out that if there is ever any sexual activity in my stories, the people involved ARE OF AGE. If I ever have a story that calls for otherwise, there will be hefty warnings available.

I do write slash here and there. Not all the time, but it is in some stories. If you do not like, do not read it. Please refrain from "reviews" telling me how sick you are going to be. Frankly, I am sick of reading about it, especially after I warned you.

"Duck Duck Goose" and "Our First Christmas" have slash, the latter story being very, very mild since it is a drabble, and is more just of a quick passing glance. "Duck" has intimate activity of both the slash/non-slash variety. I do not write in heavy, descriptive detail (regardless of the pairing).

Should any story turn into, or just have a chapter that would be relative to a "death fic," I would provide appropriate warning.

Constructive comments are one thing; nasty reviews are something else. If I write something that does not seem believable for any reason (ex: you have been in a similar situation), please review and let me know. Please include your reasoning though so I will understand why something is not working for you.

On the other side, if you receive a review from me that you perceive to be nasty, please reply and ask me to clarify instead of lambasting publicly me on your next chapter.

I do not have the time, or the desire, or the energy to flame anyone. If I really do not like your story, I am simply going to stop reading it, not send nasty notes about it.

Also, please note: for those of you who have the urge to write in and tell me all the things about the first of my Take Two stories and tell me how it's not original and how it is too much like the book . . .

1)It was published in 2004, at which point what I did was an original concept and 2)It was my first attempt at fan fiction. Loads of people have enjoyed it. If you do not enjoy it, that's fine, just stop reading it then. :-)

If I leave you a review with a lot of editing suggestions, please do not take it as a "flame". I am sending the suggestions as constructive criticism.

Aside from lack of editing, what really irritates me is when writers insist on giving characters a middle name, particularly when it is done to "make the wedding vows sound right". If you marry someone in real life who does not have a middle name, are you going to force them to take one?

I do respond to Private Messages, it just may take me awhile. I don't get to login here as often as I would like!

STORY UPDATES as of 05/30/2014:

Time For a Four-Way: I took this story down quite awhile ago due to a personal life event that nearly ended the story and a friendship with a co-author. I really did not think I had it in me to finish it. Times change and I am once again working on this delightful little gem. When you see it show up again, know that it is totally finished and you will be getting a chapter a week. If I could just convince the other folks involved in the story to get back to me when I send out new chapters...!

Dragon and I are slowly working on editing the existing chapters and filling in the empty spots as frequently as possible. Given that I live in the US and she is in Canada, frequent is a matter of opinion . . . but we try!

OTHER UPDATES as of 8/12/2008:

Yes, Slytherin Selection was my site. No, it is no longer on-line. No, you may not use any graphics (or otherwise) that are tagged with Slytherin Selection without my permission.