When it’s not focused on food or sex or why the leaf-blower guy next door can’t just get a fucking rake, it’s often thinking about reading, writing, or the Harry Potter universe, although not necessarily in that—or any—order.
The first thing to know about me is that I am old. Older than you, probably. Old, as in, I-watched-the-first-Moon-landing old. I was sitting in a very wet diaper at the time, but since you probably have never Let Your Fingers Do the Walking or Sung Along with Mitch, I think I probably win the oldness sweepstakes here.
The second thing to know is that I have been writing and editing and getting paid for it for, lo, these many years.
Thing is, it’s all been editorial jobs and magazine articles (when I’m lucky enough to get them) and copywriting (when I’m not, but still lucky enough to get a paying gig). This fiction thing is relatively new for me, and it’s glorious, hair-tearing, teeth-clenching fun.
I had just finished reading the first five HP books on the recommendation of a Very Learned Friend, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Mr. Squib and I had fun predicting together what might happen in the rest of the books, and that led me down the rabbit hole that is HP fandom.
At first, most of what I found trawling though fanfiction.net wasn’t very good, but some of it was wonderful. Much like any other sort of writing.
Since I was, at the time, casting about for something vaguely creative to do to take my mind off Stuff, I thought I’d take up the quill and give it a go. Fanfiction was the perfect busman’s holiday: fun, challenging, and as serious and as frivolous as I wanted to make it.
I was lucky enough to meet a few supremely gifted writers who wrote HP fanfic and were generous enough to take me under their wings, so it was all Accio headcanon! from there.
I’m an American.
When I write in the HP universe, I try very hard to impersonate a British person, but no matter how many guv’nors or O-levelses I throw around, I will never actually be a British person. If you are, and you find any appalling Americanisms in my HP stories, please drop me a note to tell me what a wanker I am so I can fix it.
I’ll write about (almost) anything they pay me to, but my bread and butter is medicine and healthcare.
So if you’re writing a story and need a non-fatal-but-definitely-icky injury for your main character, or, for some reason unknowable to man, you’re fascinated by the crack!fic laughingly known as the American healthcare system, hit me up. I’m neither a clinician nor an expert, but I can generally steer you in the right direction.
My stories are mostly written for a mature audience.
Which isn’t to say they’re all dripping with sex and violence (although in many of my stories the characters do end up making the sign of the Humpbacked Hippogriff.) It means I write from an adult (old) perspective, generally about adult characters doing adult things (or very silly things, as adults are wont to do.) In the HP universe, it usually means I’m writing about Hogwarts staff or their contemporaries. JKR created these wonderful minor characters, and it’s fun to explore what they might be like when they’re not seen through the eyes of a teenaged boy wizard.
I have lots of writing and editing resources I’m happy to share.
