About Me
I am a male in my late 50's, fast approaching 60. I have a background in mathematics and programming, and a general interest in the physical sciences. I began writing fan-fiction in late 2005, based on the manga series Ranma 1/2, with my first story posted to FFnet in April 2006. I wrote steadily up until August of 2009, when I was hospitalized with severe coronary issues, and then went on to develop some additional complications. For the next few months, I managed to post a handful of chapters which were already in the pipeline, but nothing that was really "new." Unfortunately, I've never really recovered back to full health from that time.

My original primary interest in fan-fiction was for the manga Ranma 1/2, and this is the only fandom for which I ever wrote fan-fiction back in the day. I did read some others such as Inuyasha and Ah My Goddess. More recently I have been reading a lot of Harry Potter fan-fiction.

Web Sites
Given in the pidgin form required for display by FFnet.

Primary web site: mzephyr dot altervista dot org
The official versions of my stories are located there (with all corrections). Additionally the site contains some other material concerning the manga Ranma 1/2 and Japanese culture. If you wish to email me directly, you may find a link on this web site.
(This site's domain was changed in Oct 2015 due to closure of the previous Comcast site.)

LiveJournal site: mzephyr dot livejournal dot com
I have not posted to LiveJournal in ages. I used to give hints there of progress I or my pre-reader were making on chapters of stories, as well as providing other little tidbits such as observations about things I've noticed in the manga Ranma 1/2.

Status of Stories
All of my stories are complete with the following two exceptions.
1. Nerima Journals was never expected to be completed.
2. Side by Side was abandoned after my illness (see above). It is the sequel to the story Togetherness, and was intended eventually to be renamed Who's on First, with Side by Side becoming the name of the series (as is the case on my web site).

The following list provides my top two stories according to various criteria. As might be expected, the stories with the largest absolute numbers of hits or reviews are multi-chapter stories, and those with the largest numbers allegedly "averaged over all chapters" are one-shot stories with only a single chapter each. For a more complete ranking of all of my stories, see the "Story Ranking" link on the Library Index page of my web site.

Stories with the largest number of people listing it as a favorite: 1. The Silent Horse, 2. Making War
Stories with the largest absolute number of hits: 1. The Silent Horse, 2. Sendai
Stories with the largest absolute number of reviews: 1. The Silent Horse, 2. Adamantine Mist
Stories with the largest average number of hits (per chapter): 1. Making War, 2. Sharing Thoughts
Stories with the largest average number of reviews (per chapter): 1. Making War, 2. War Cry

Concerning Ranma 1/2
Akane is the only true fiancee.
Although that's only my opinion, and I don't insist that others must share it.

My own personal taste is for stories dealing with the romance between Akane and Ranma, and I don't voluntarily read (and pretty much never wrote) stories which pair either of them with anyone else. On the other hand, I understand how people can hold different opinions about this. It seems to me that most of the characters in the manga exhibit inconsistent personalities, according to what Takahashi-sensei needed for the current story arc, and how one feels about a particular character depends on how one resolves these inconsistencies in one's own mind. Also, although I refuse to watch the anime, I understand from others that its depiction of the personalities of some characters differs substantially from the manga. Personally, I like Akane, I find Ukyo to be mildly annoying, I despise Ryoga, etc. Your mileage may vary.

Stories I wrote generally focused on the romance between Akane and Ranma. The best for which Shampoo and Ryoga could usually hope was a neutral treatment, since I dislike both characters, and in my early stories I must admit that I tended to bash these two severely. Kasumi and Tofu could generally be assured of a positive treatment. Other characters were portrayed positively or negatively according to the needs of the story. Almost all characters behaved "out of character" to some degree; first, because of the inconsistency noted above - I do not believe most of the characters have a consistent character from the series to be in - and second, because I wrote romances, not a martial arts farce. The needs of the genre impose different requirements on the characters' behaviors.

Concerning Harry Potter
In my opinion, J.K.Rowling is only a so-so writer, who could have benefited from the oversight of a stern editor, and her later books in the series especially contribute to that opinion. On the other hand, she did develop a fairly rich world for fan-fiction authors to play in. On a third hand, I was especially annoyed that she made her title character so much of an idiot, but that probably just makes me a more avid reader of stories where fan-fic authors deviate from that characterization.

Unlike Ranma 1/2, in the Harry Potter fandom I am very open-minded about pairings for Harry. Well, as long as it isn't slash, and I admit that Harry/harem tends to make me roll my eyes. My favorite is Harry/Hermione, but I'm perfectly happy to read Harry/Luna, Harry/Daphne, Harry/Susan, Harry/Padma, and even Harry/Tonks (if they deal credibly with the age issue), or Harry/Ginny (if they work to make me forget how poorly Rowling developed this pairing).

It's Hermione pairings that I have trouble with. Because other than Harry and Neville, there just aren't any other really good choices. Hermione/Ron is an automatic vomit inducer. I refuse to consider Hermione and darker characters such as Draco or Nott (or, God forbid, Lucius or Riddle). I also can't deal with pairing Hermione with someone her father's age, such as Remus, Sirius, or Snape. Fred or George can be made to work, if the personality differences are made believable. Hermione with Charlie or Bill Weasley really needs to be set after Hogwarts, preferably with Hermione in her 20s, so that the age difference isn't so much of an issue. Probably Hermione/OC is best if she isn't paired with either Harry or Neville.

By the way, the above statement about Hermione/Ron doesn't mean that I dislike Ron. Ron can be a good guy in the story, and I have no problem with that. Or I can read the opposite sort of treatment for him, so long as it is well written. But no relationship between him and Hermione. It just doesn't work.