Thank you, dear readers, for checking out my work, in whatever fandom you're enjoying today.

"Anna and the King", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Buffy" took me completely by surprise. I had never planned to write fanfic for any of these stories. Nevertheless, the process for them was cathartic, and I am pleased with the results.

I loved Star Trek: DS9 and TNG as a child, and have turned to TOS as I've gotten older. Cheesy episodes, but great characters, especially Mr. Spock, who has not been matched in any of the many successive shows in my opinion. His relationship with Kirk is practically a love affair in canon - a beautiful friendship that could also be an amazing romance.

The STAR WARS classic trilogy was a childhood favorite, and has remained on that favorites list. Darth Vader has been my favorite character ever introduced in any setting since I was eight years old, and I have taken great joy in the many hours I have spent thinking and writing about who he is and how he thinks. I loathe the prequels, as I feel the trilogy butchered this character. However, watching TCW series has been a joy - the prequel era is cool and the world building around that era is first class, no matter how poorly executed the I feel the actual films are. Unfortunately, I find the sequels derivative and frustrating. While the actual scripts of the three films are line-for-line better in many places than the prequels in terms of relationship development, and the acting is a distinct improvement in my opinion, Disney clearly did not bother to sit down and actually plan a coherent trilogy or a world to match. This is mind-blowing considering that SW has the popularity it does. There are aspects of the sequels I enjoy, but my favorite SW film outside of the classics is going to remain Rogue One.

Image Credit for "Common Ground": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DXDOQ-bs9c&feature=share

I was introduced to Discworld pretty much in university, and the character of Lord Vetinari has been a standing favorite ever since, with Sam Vimes a close runner-up. I love the City Watch books, and Night Watch especially. The relationship between Vimes and Vetinari - while obviously canonically platonic - is fun to play with. Sam Vimes's explosive character fits so well in opposition to Vetinari's preternatural calm.

The BBC's "Sherlock" hit my Netflix's list and became an obsession - and I love the love-hate-friendship relationship between John Watson and Sherlock Holmes. They are one of the most remarkable examples of male friendship in modern culture, and the chemistry between Cumberbatch and Freeman give us plenty of room to play with their mutual attraction. However, like many fans, I only like the first two seasons of the series. Not because John gets married (which is what happens in Doyle's world, and Mary is pretty kickass), but because the story telling goes so radically off track. I signed up for solving crimes and sexual tension (in that order), not personal issues and complex Holmes family dynamics that aren't nearly as clever as Steven Moffat wishes they were.

Harry Potter was my introduction to and first love in fanfiction, and JKR's Wizarding World is a phenomenal world populated with awesome characters that I love spending hours in. My reference material is exclusively the book series, as I find the films to be poor adaptations despite a phenomenal cast, and to this day have not seen "Half-Blood Prince". In many ways I also struggle with the end of the series, as I feel the last two books of the series do not offer the story a resolution that has any societal or personal value. However, that gets into a whole argument about the place of art in society and I won't bore you with that.

In case the following stories don't betray my bias, I am a Snape fan through and through, largely in combination with Hermione Granger. I find them an interesting pair because of their diametric opposition. While I find it an unlikely pairing in real life, because a) he's her teacher and, really, student-teacher relationships are actually criminal and should be and b) even after she's grown, he's simply too damaged to have a constructive, happy relationship without a lot of personal work. However, I enjoy them on paper and, after all, what is fan fiction for? I am not a fan of Snape-Lily, nor of the way that Rowling chose to describe Snape's character arc in the end. Reducing a series of excruciating and exacting life choices made over the course of more than a decade to an unhealthy, unrequited, and, above all, trite, obsession with a girl from his teen years ruined the character and sadly reduced Rowling as an author in my eyes. I also find the Ron-Hermione dynamic ultimately unsatisfying. I have no doubt they love each other deeply as friends, but their personalities and goals are too different for me to reconcile them to a marriage. I think such a marriage would leave them unhappy in the end with neither being quite sure why.

And that covers it, except to say that I owe my genuine, head-over-heels love of the Granger-Snape pairing to Kalina Lea's "The Buried Life." It remains one of my two absolute faves in the entire genre (the other being "The Summoning" by Bambu, published on Ashwinder at Sycophanthex), if you haven't read either, I strongly recommend them. A word of warning: "The Summoning" is unfortunately still listed as a WIP - and I do not know if it will ever be finished. The 44 chapters that are available are a rich and detailed epic, however, and I return to them often.

Whatever your reading pleasure, please read and enjoy!

A note to my reviewers: For those who leave me encouragement, constructive criticism, grammar corrections, fact-checks and unmitigated hope for my continuation of my longer pieces, I thank you from the depths of my heart. I love reading your thoughts and truly appreciate everyone who writes in with a comment to help me improve my writing (even if I am terribly slow about fixing some mistakes). I would not still be going without your encouragement. Honestly. For those who unabashedly flame: you are, of course, at liberty not to like my work, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, if you flame, please sign in on your review so that I might open a dialogue with you. If my writing sucks, or a story is unbelievable, distasteful, or just plain boring, I would like to know why you think so and what you might recommend to fix it. Critics can help us improve - but only if we have a chance to actually learn from them. Thank you.