So where are the cool kids submitting HP fics these days?

I've done my duty by Fiction Alley, of course, and eventually I'll probably get around to putting this fic up at the Pit of Voles, just for the sake of those who have me on Author Alert. The Sugar Quill is no longer an option, alas, but I'm open to other suggestions as to where I should put this "Secrets and Lies" thing so that people who've read and liked the Darkness and Light trilogy (and hey, even some who haven't) would be likely to see it...
Here it is at last -- the promised post-HBP Snapefic. A very early draft of the first few paragraphs appeared in this LJ a few months ago, but there have been quite a few changes, not to mention additions, since then... hope you enjoy it!

Secrets and Lies )

Author's Note: Heartfelt thanks to my betas [livejournal.com profile] lizbee and especially [livejournal.com profile] cesario, whose shrewd and practical observations about characterization, tone and structure helped make this story a great deal better than it would have been otherwise. Any shortcomings that remain in this final draft are entirely my own fault.

This story follows the events of "The Potions Master's Apprentice" and "Personal Risks", and is meant to stand as a more canonically viable alternative to the popular but now unfortunately AU "If We Survive". I have tried to take into account Snape's character as presented in OotP and HBP, for whatever that may be worth. I have not addressed the question of Snape's apparent megalomania in announcing himself to Harry as "I, the Half-Blood Prince!" but my take on that scene* would be better served in essay form, or perhaps in a brief genfic.

As always, comments and criticisms are welcome. Thanks for reading!


------
* The short answer is that I think he was simply trying to let Harry know in the quickest and most direct way that it was his textbook he'd been cribbing off all year. Vain as Snape undoubtedly is in some respects, I really can't imagine that he'd still be preening himself on a ridiculous self-bestowed (or possibly Lily-bestowed) title that he'd used as an adolescent, especially as the term "half-blood" isn't that prestigious and any fool would know he wasn't really a prince...

Oh hey, now I don't have to write the essay or the genfic. Go me!
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I just watched this again to see if it was as eyebuggingly, earwormingly horrific as I remembered, and yes, yes it was. I think the cracked-out dancing girls may actually be the worst bit, because dude, the choreography. Anyway, the only way I could make the pain go away was to share it, once more, with the rest of you:

The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.

In other and completely unrelated news (unless you think that Leonard Nimoy reminds you of Snape, which is possible in a random sort of way), I have actually started writing a post-HBP Snape/Maud fic, to serve as a more canonical alternative to the now-AU If We Survive.

I've been moving toward a less romanticized portrayal of Snape for a while -- you can see it in "Cold Water" and "Bewitching the Mind, Ensnaring the Senses", both of which were written after OotP. But the "Spinner's End" chapter of HBP was, in a strange way, comforting and confirming to me: it showed that I hadn't been that far off the mark in guessing what Snape might be like, how he might converse, in a situation where he was on reasonably civil terms with the others present and his hatred of James Potter & Co. wasn't uppermost on his mind. (Plus, so totally Snape pulling the wool over Bellatrix's eyes and manipulating the situation to play out with his and Dumbledore's planned endgame, but I digress.) So while Snape is certainly not any normal person's idea of a good date, and I can no longer imagine him in a situation like the one I wrote in IWS Ch. 3 (pity, as I rather liked that crimson turtleneck), I still don't think he is hopelessly screwed up when it comes to all human relationships.

Anyway, the fic. Don't worry, it's short -- I have not completely parted ways with sanity. But the challenge of writing Snape again, given what we now know of his personality, was too tempting to resist. [livejournal.com profile] lizbee and [livejournal.com profile] cesario have seen the little bits I've written so far and seem to think they're all right, so I shall continue as time and responsibilities permit, and hope to have something to post here soon.
The entire contents of my skull have liquified and are leaking out my nasal passages. When I'm not testing the holding capacity of various-sized wads of Kleenex, I am coughing up little bits of tonsil and lung (or at least that's what it feels like). All I can hope is that things will be better by Friday, when we're supposed to drive seven hours to attend a family reunion.

Needless to say, the post-HBP Snapefic is on indefinite hold. So, I present to you what I've written so far:

Untitled, As Yet )

Not much to it yet, admittedly, but maybe in another few days I'll be feeling better and able to add more...
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Fic Happens

Jul. 22nd, 2005 09:07 am
rj_anderson: (Snape Portrait)
Yes, it really does. I wrote a good couple of pages' worth last night, and am having great fun, even if nothing has really happened yet. But trapdoors and tunnels are always fun if you ask me.

In other HP-related news, I have just seen the new EW cover and all I can say is, please will someone take a weed-whacker to Daniel Radcliffe's hair? And his eyebrows too. No, make that especially the eyebrows. I'm not sure I can sit through a whole movie where Harry keeps reminding me of Groucho Marx.

And finally, I have a cold. Blech, ack, ptooie.

Minor Grouch

Jul. 20th, 2005 12:18 pm
rj_anderson: (GHW - art by Anneth)
I forgot to mention this, but it made me go "Gah!" the moment I first saw it in HBP --

In the first four books, the process of Apparating from one place to another is called "Apparition". In OotP, however, and consistently throughout that book, it is called "ApparAtion". I know, because I was grumbling in my virtual beard about it the whole time I was revising D&L to be OotP-compliant -- I had to change about a zillion instances of "apparition" to "apparation".

Now, in HBP, JKR goes back to "apparItion" again, with nary a hint that it was ever spelled any other way.

As a reader, this doesn't really matter. As a fic writer, however -- *beats head on desk*

Speaking of fic, "If We Survive" has been Jo'd in so many ways that it's easier to declare it AU and have done with it than to try to revise it, so don't expect to see an HBP-compliant IWS any time soon. However, "The Potions Master's Apprentice" and "Personal Risks" are still reasonably undisturbed, I think, so I could just go back to that point and work from there, and I do think I may give that a try. Don't expect epic results, however. I have a short genfic involving Snape and Aberforth Dumbledore, and another (which could be a sequel to, or even part of, the first) with Snape and Maud meeting for the first time after Albus's death, but I think that's all I'm likely to get out of the can before the new baby comes...
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Icons!

Jun. 20th, 2004 01:54 pm
rj_anderson: (Gratuitous Het (art by ?))
First, these Alias/HP icons are sheer brilliance. And I agree with most of the House assignments, too... though Jack has decided Slytherin tendencies. Slytherclaw?

Second, GIP! If you are wondering what inspired this particular bit of weirdness, you can find the relevant comment, and my frivolous reply, here. I finally managed to get my own icon concept -- the one that was driving me nuts yesterday -- working, but I still welcome other people's takes on the same theme. And thanks to [livejournal.com profile] penwiper26 for her lovely (and fast!) effort. Lisa, what characters/fandom did you want me to write that drabble for?

Just for the record, the illustration that appears on the icon is not mine, but was taken from a pencil sketch by Anneth Lagamo entitled "The Potions Master and the Protege". Although it was labelled as Snape/Hermione, [livejournal.com profile] chresimos thought it looked amazingly like an illustration for chapter six of If We Survive, and I had to agree.

Now I'm off to run some errands...

ETA: Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] sinick for reminding me of the artist's name and pointing me to her gallery so I could give her proper credit, here and in the icon keywords.
Besides, it was such fun last time, and I learned all kinds of things about the characters I hadn't known before. So, gacked most recently from [livejournal.com profile] yahtzee63 (whose answers nearly made the apple I was eating come out my nose):

Ask any of the characters in any of my stories a question, whatever question you want, and they'll answer.
Because [livejournal.com profile] lizbee thought it was unfair to go looking for Susannah and Geoff when I hadn't even done Imogen yet. And of course she was right, so here she is:

The irrepressible Imogen Crump )
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Since I've had a bunch of requests for this now, and since I've decided it really isn't terminally spoilery but more a general indication of The Shape of Things To Come, I'm going to post the fic that I wrote [livejournal.com profile] lizbee for her birthday last year. This is not part of the main Snapelets story; it's more of a sideshow. But it does mention some upcoming incidents in the Snapelets fic, so... be forewarned.

HP: Golden Boy, PG-13 )
Look, now I've done the whole Snape family! )

Albion and Severus were the hardest, because I had to do a lot of manipulation. Severus started with a screencap of John Wood from WarGames, but the changes are significant. Albion, meanwhile, is partially based on an old pic of Simon MacCorkindale, but with completely different hair and a major nose and jawline adjustment. The others are simply pictures of models I found while browsing through various image banks, and tweaked in Photoshop Elements to get the colours and facial proportions right.

I like working this small. It's a very forgiving medium. :)

GIP!

Feb. 22nd, 2004 05:06 pm
rj_anderson: (Maud Regret)
Because I stumbled across a Maudalike the other day while image-browsing, and it was too cool not to make an icon out of...
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This part was going to be longer, but I didn't have the last half of it beta'd yet, and upon reflection it seemed more natural to divide it up this way anyway. So, a bit short, but better than nothing.

ALIAS: What You Never Knew You Wanted, 4/? )

Part Five is more than half done already, so look for it within the next couple of days. Oh, and thanks to everybody who voted for me on [livejournal.com profile] hpbnfdm_lives! I was sure I'd get chopped, but I ended up making it to Round Three by a score of 59 to 50! Woo hoo!

Of course, along the way I was charitably informed by two courageous souls that D&L "sucked" and was "boring", but fortunately I was in a playful mood this morning, so I just had fun with it. Mind you, if they'd caught me tonight, I might have felt a little less cheery... O_o
This took me forever, but I'm pretty pleased with it now. Hopefully as I get more adept at using Photoshop Elements and my new graphics tablet, future drawings will be a little less time-consuming. But anyway, here it is...

"In The Forest" (D&Lverse illustration, Snape/Maud)
  • description and preview
  • full size

    Or go here if deviantART is too slow or otherwise misbehaving.

    And now I have to run like crazy, because I'm still in my jammies and we have to leave the house by 8 a.m....
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    Hooray!

    Oct. 21st, 2003 08:16 am
    rj_anderson: (D&L Snape & Maud)
    Finally, the D&L trilogy has been updated at all the major archives where it resides...

    ...except, unfortunately, Diagon Alley. Where, it turns out, somebody read it just last week and sent me e-mail, and they were very positive and all but I do wish they'd been able to read the revised version and not the old one.

    Oh, well.
    Courtesy of Em:

    A beautiful portrait of Maud, taken from a larger pic of Maud and Snape together which I also like very much (especially the trippy look on Snape's face -- I mean, clearly that Hair Thing has become a serious addiction).

    Then there's my secondary OC's, Jennet Peachtree and the irrepressible Imogen Crump.

    And finally, appropriately enough considering my previous post, it's the Snapelets. I never thought of giving Margot this particular hairstyle, but now that I've seen it... it's awfully tempting.

    Check out more by the same artist -- if you're into Tonks/Remus, for instance, it's a positive feast.

    And just when I thought my week couldn't get any better, I got an e-mail alerting me to a new gallery of D&L illustrations by [livejournal.com profile] sannalim:

  • Trilogy cover
  • The Potions Master's Apprentice cover
  • Personal Risks cover
  • If We Survive cover

    aaand it's the Snapelets all over again! Snape Family Portrait

    Seriously, I am overwhelmed. Thank you both very, very much. Wow!
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    Yes, believe it or not, the great D&L Revision Project is finally, completely, done! I've already deleted the old versions from FF.net and uploaded the new ones; and will update the versions at Fiction Alley and The Sugar Quill as soon as I figure out how they want me to go about it. ([livejournal.com profile] heidi8, didn't you say you wanted me to let you know before I submitted the new version to FA?)

    In the meantime, you can find the complete revised text of all three D&L stories here:

  • The Potions Master's Apprentice
  • Personal Risks
  • If We Survive

    And my deepest and most heartfelt thanks to all the people who helped me with this project. It was a lot of work, and a bit nutty of me to take the time to do it in the first place, but I'm glad I did it. Why that is... )

    Whether I'll get any new readers out of this, or whether anyone who disliked the first version will be inclined to give the revision a try, I don't know. But it doesn't really matter, either -- I didn't really do it for anybody's satisfaction but my own. If other people turn out to enjoy it as well, that's gravy. :)
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    Art Plugs!

    Sep. 26th, 2003 08:51 pm
    rj_anderson: (Moody Charisma)
    This seems to have been a day for finding wonderful pieces of online art.

    First, this amusing entry by [livejournal.com profile] ursulav, presenting her new digital illustration Mortimer was a very bad egg. Come on, what could be better than a goth version of Humpty Dumpty?

    Then I noticed that somebody else had linked to a rather lovely drawing of the Trio, movie-style (by someone whose art I had never seen before, possibly because she seems to favour H/Hr -- but, you know, even those are pretty enough I almost didn't mind looking at them).

    And finally, I just got an e-mail from Teri, telling me that a friend of a friend had done a piece of AU fan art for D&L. Well, as you can imagine, I was blown away by that as well... so here it is, "Meeting Maud". I love Maud's robes, and her hair, and the length of her nose, though how she persuaded Snape to go to a formal ball, I cannot imagine. :)

    There are so many good artists out there! And they all know how to use Photoshop a great deal better than I do! Of course, I suspect they also have graphic tablets, which is an investment I've yet to make...
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    Yay me!

    Sep. 25th, 2003 01:13 pm
    rj_anderson: (D&L Soundtrack Cover)
    As of last night, I have finished my first complete redraft of all three D&L stories, incorporating many of the criticisms and questions raised by the Revisions Group along the way. I've uploaded the files to the mailing list for the barrel o' betas to nitpick, and asked them to give me any additional feedback they might have within the next five days. Once I've got their input, I'll do a final re-edit -- then off to the archives it goes!

    I've enjoyed this project more than I thought I would, but I'll still be happy when it's over. Mind you, then I won't have any excuse not to work on my new stuff...
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