Hi!

Alright, first things first. No, I haven't written any fics. I have two worlds in my head, one of which somewhat has a plot and vague characters, but neither have much actually written down (and I refuse to post unless the story's already finished), and only one could qualify as fanfiction. Possibly. Depending on where I take it.

I read predominantly Harry Potter fics, and HP crossovers. Which often involve another fandom I have little/no knowledge of, with the main exceptions being Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, Artemis Fowl, and the Chronicles of Riddick. Woot. So yeah, if you're here because I reviewed your crossover fic and made a stupid-sounding comment, that might be why. Sorry.

I also read almost exclusively slash fics. It's kind of funny, one author tried to write a "straight" version of their slash fic, and several of the reviews complained that it still had too much of a slashlike feel to it ... I'm the opposite, most straight fic plotlines piss me off (See most Ginny/Harry fics). And the best Dark!Harry fics are almost all slash or gen.

And if you have never read the epic (seriously, the last few fics are crazy long and detailed) Sacrifice series by Lightning on the Wave, do so ASAP. It features a very Grey!Harry and Twin!Harry, politics, equality, explores the different sides of magic, and has mystery and battles and awesomeness. It covers all 7 HP books, and has a Drarry pairing and many many side pairings - slash, het, and femmeslash. It's what got me interested in slash fics, actually.

My favouite fics are somewhat sorted, with complete fics in my C2 and incomplete fics in my favourites (along with some complete ones that aren't HP-related, or are just in the wrong place).

Oh, and my avatar has departed from my usual preference and is now both not black and white and not mine. I just cropped it and played with the colours a smidgen.

There are several things you should never put in a summary or Author's Note, here are a few things that I hate to see and usually convince me not to read a story:

1) Saying something along the lines of 'Flames welcome!'
... Do you understand what a flame is? A flame is someone saying rude, horrible things about your work, often insulting you in the process. Do you go around asking bullys to verbally abuse you? No? Then don't say this. Flames are NOT constructive critisism, which (while it can be written rather harshly) says what you could improve on and is actually useful if done properly.
Seeing this also tells me that either you couldn't be bothered to fully figure out what a word meant before using it, or you're just plain ignorant. Wikipedia is a wonderful thing.

2) Putting "I suck at summaries" in the summary.
Seriously, if you can't put enough effort into writing a half decent summary, then why should I think your fic will be any better?

3) Bad grammar/spelling in summaries
It's irritating, and if you can't be bothered to make your summary (the thing that entices people to actually click on and read your fic) look nice then I can only assume that your fic will have grammar/spelling as bad or worse.
--3i) THERE IS NO 'E' IN SUMMARY!!! Summery: adjective; being summer-like. As in the season.

4) Texting shorthands: u, r, 2nite ...
It's juvenile and just looks horrible. And for the love of god don't EVER use these in a fic. Unless referring to people actually texting each other or talking on IM or something.

5) "This is my first fic" and something along the lines of "I'm not a very good writer"
By putting this you're making me think you won't be any good, and it usually makes me more likely to stop reading if I notice a few mistakes. It's kinda like reverse psychology, you say it to excuse your bad writing, and I see it and immediately percieve your writing as bad, possibly worse than it deserves.

Truly epic/awesome/amazing fics:

Schooled by WyrdSmith.
The whole fic is great, but the first chapter/scene (which can be read as a oneshot) is priceless. Read it!

The Apple Tree by Philo (on hpfandom.net)
HP/Severus. Nice twisty plot, but not for those who shy away from darker fics. Seriously. Lots of angst and some serious stupidity on the parts of the main characters means there's a fair bit of emotional and physical pain at times. On the other hand, this story is brilliant and long and complete and just generally awesome. Lots of investigation into what magic actually is vs how wizards tend to think about it.

With Strength of Steel Wings by AngelaStarCat
WIP, unfortunately, but still definitely worth a read. Just think of it as an incomplete series; as of April 25 the author's reached the Triwizard Tournament stage of things. This story explores morality in several ways, as well as some truly epic musings concerning what magic is and the different ways it can be weilded. Also, runes, bloodmagic, wingfic, and phoenixes. All the awesome.