February 20, 2020

Hullo, everyone,

Thank-you to all who have read some or all of the stories. For those who liked them, thanks for the kind words. For those who didn't, thanks anyway, just for reading.

I hope 2020 is going well for all of you. If not, hang in there. This too shall pass.

Best, Bfd1235813

Bio notes:

--Retired, with lots of time to write. Pottermore sorted me into Slytherin.

--Reading, gardening, bicycles.

--Harry and Daphne make lots more sense. They always have and always will. Finding a new voice writing Harry and Daphne fiction means it's a very good day.

--Most appreciative of all comments, positive, negative, neutral.

Wheels Within Wheels, Part One was supposed to be a short riff on Harry and Daphne and a marriage contract that comes to light. Surprise! Deal with it, Potter. I can't remember what I had read of that breed at the time but Contractual Invalidation by R-dude and Harry Potter and the Marriage Contracts by Clell65619 were probably in there. After writing Part One (the only Wheels Within Wheels at the time), I posted it as a piece, then someone asked that it be separated into chapters for ease of download (?), so that got done and the plan was to remove the original. People keep reading it, though. Go figure. It is still up because if people want to read it they ought to be able to.

In a related problem, the conclusion of Part One put a sequel in my mind and Part Two practically wrote itself. By the end of Part Two, Harry and Daphne were engaged and cohabiting, Daphne was allied with the portrait of Walburga Black and had become the mistress of #12 Grimmauld Place. With Draco and Astoria about to tie the knot, the logical follow-on was a Harry and Daphne wedding. Daphne finding out she was pregnant at the beginning of Part Three was nothing more than a scale-tipper. Part Three evolved as a long, drawn-out next-gen saga that follows Harry and Daphne's daughter, a witch they named Iolanthe Astoria, her first cousin Scorpius Malfoy and Iolanthe's cosmic twin Rose Granger-Weasley until the commencement of their seventh year at Hogwarts.

An Ordinary Magical Couple and Millicent In Bloom both feature Harry and Daphne but come at them from different angles. Merit and Inheritance revolves around Harry and Daphne but observes them through a little wider scope, dealing with the usual human issues of inherited money versus new (earned) money, selflessness versus selfishness, the importance of family, love, empathy, friendship, acceptance, loyalty and giving and accepting help when the normal buffeting of life intensifies.

Life can be hard. Share. Be kind to each other. Lend a hand when one is needed. Accept a little help when someone offers. If someone around you is tedious or annoying, it is all material for a writer. Don't get mad. Soak it up, change the names, write it down. Just don't tell them. Regards, B