Hi. My name is Greg, and I'm an alcoholic. Well, not really, but I wanted a good opening line. Well, okay, so I got that wrong too.

Update

Okay, I'm back. I'm not going to go into details as to why I was away. You don't want to hear it, and I don't want to tell it! To sum it up without saying much about anything, I was finding it exceptionally difficult to write. If you're irritated by my absence, at least bear this in mind: there's simply no way you could be more annoyed with the stagnation of SoS than I have been.

Update

Uploaded one shot named 'Promises'.

Well! Let's see. I'm a twenty-eight year old Science-y guy that feels like he's missed his vocation in life already, and secretly wants to make the forbidden switch to Arts. I've always loved writing discursive essays, fiction, even some poetry (although that tends to be a spur of the moment thing), and yet have found myself drawn towards subjects like maths or computer science, for example. My first foray into the subject of fanfic came when I was ridiculously young to put anything on the net (I think twelve or something, can't remember - I can remember getting into a huge theological debate with a Cambridge student on a forum at the time... Ah the joys of being a teenager, and 'knowing' you are right :)) when I wrote a fanfic for a computer game called X-Com. I was really pleased with some of it, but for one reason or another I never completed it, although I still have a lot on paper, and never put on computer. I think it was probably because being young, it was a gradual thing that took years before it took shape, and writing styles change so quickly in that sort of time. I still think that the premise for it was sound however, and had a sequel planned out. I may, at some stage, combine the two, and phase out the X-Com stuff to make it an original work. I think it could work, if you like Sci Fi adventure sort of stuff. But anyway. I digress.

I guess you might have a vague idea of my interests from that paragraph. I guess I ought to add sport to that list, and emphasise my love of Sci Fi, and Harry Potter. (Good sci fi that is, not Star Wars...I should probably insert that the original Knights of the Old Republic computer game does not classify as Star Wars in my mind, as it is actually quite good, plus, Star Wars should better be categorised as fantasy...) Like JKR herself, I enjoy Jane Austen, although Pride and Predjudice and Emma are the ones I really enjoy, some of the others haven't appealed to me so much. I'll read Tolkein, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Grisham (Earlier stuff more so than more recent), John Buchan, Raymond E. Feist, Janny Wurts, and particularly Brandon Sanderson who I've recently got into... so I have a wide enough range, even if I sometimes suffer from finding it hard to be gripped by a new author's style of writing. I'm not sure why it is, I think there has to be that little spark of wry humour to truly captivate me or something. Or I might just be lazy and making excuses. You choose.

Hates... Too many to mention really. One thing I detest doing is talking about myself, and writing Profile pages. Be honoured. ;)

Anyway... I've two stories here currently, the first being an immense novel:

"Harry Potter and the Scrivenings of Slytherin"

The first chapter has quite a bit of recap in, like in canon, but also brings forward the first of some twists that I am imparting to the series. What it will do however, is give you an idea of my writing style, which of course you may already have some idea about from this Profile page. I hope you enjoy what you read, and will be willing to come back for more, I couldn't ask for much more than that I guess. Personally I think my writing improves as I get past the awkward 'first chapters for eight or nine years' stage. You may disagree.

I started writing this just before HBP (well, 5 months) the plot bunny was plaguing me, and I absolutely loved the emotional possibilities for Harry after OOtP. Unfortunately, it took me an age to finish. It is finished now, however.

As for the direction the story takes... I stick to canon (from pre HBP) as much as possible, both in storyline, and in writing style. (Don't expect much swearing for example (Hermione always stops me...)) I have tried to rate the story as I believe OOTP would have been rated by the system, which I guess suggests something is wrong, because OOTP isn't aimed at 13... anyhoo! To be fair, it turned out a bit more mature, and darker than OOTP.

This story does NOT have:

Anything I feel is out of canon, including Slash, H/Hr pairing, nice Malfoys, friendly Snape, Super!Harry etc. Harry may get upset (i.e. cry), but anyone who has read the books thoroughly knows that Harry has cried in the books, so I see no need to defend that decision. Harry has to get through a pretty tough time of things when the story starts, and he has to learn to deal with it, and he was hardly starting with the best state of mind. If I gave him a heart of stone, I would be being unrealistic. Some people may feel Harry is a bit too emotional at the start, well - I know some people have felt that. I am pretty firm in the belief that the emotional problems Harry has to deal with can't be solved by the flick of a magic wand. For me, JKR should have dealt with it better in book 6. (I wasn't a huge fan of the book, I have to admit...) He has to (and does imo) grow quite a bit.

The other story is a one-shot called:

"Promises"

This (without giving anything away), is a one shot which demanded I write it. It's set after Voldemort has learned of the prophecy, but before Lily and James have used the Fidelius charm. It involves Lily, Dumbledore, and another canon character who starts off unnamed, but soon is revealed. Although I don't think it's hard to guess who they are, I prefer for the story to introduce them. It possibly doesn't quite fit into canon since DH, but with a few gymnastics it can just about fit - it certainly doesn't change anything massively.

Being a one-shot, it might give you an idea as to my writing style if Scrivenings of Slytherin seems daunting to you.

My knowledge of other people's fanfic is limited - I was a relative newcomer to the HP fanfic scene when I wrote this, and not being into romance, haven't read all that many other fics! I guess you'll all have to take my word for it, when I say that all the ideas in the stories are my own. I severely doubt that some of the things featured in the fic(s) have been thought of by other people - I certainly hope not, cos I am quite proud of a few of them - but if they have, they have and there's nothing I can do about it.

Oh, one thing I should perhaps mention. The way I have written my dialogue in SoS is a bit unconventional. There is a reason for that, although not a particularly clever one. Truth is, I wasn't intending to publish SoS in any way, and I was messing around with how dialogue is written on a page, as I was always irrationally irritated with the fact that exclamation marks/question marks are treated differently in dialogue compared to full stops. (They stay inside the quoted speech, whilst full stops don't.)

Once I started, I wanted consistency throughout the story. If I ever have enough free time on my hands, I may go back and change it. But... it's rather a lot to change!