I don't know how you've gotten here, but now that you're here, here's a little about me.

I spent a year studying and living in Sweden, as such, some of the fanfic that I've written, that I may or may not post, are partially set in Sweden, and have other things that I miss in them.

Reason(s) I'm on ff.net: Some people don't allow anonymous reviews and I'd like to be able to review, so...I got an account. I may or may not post anything. If I do post things they'll more than likely be one shots. Be warned, I won't stick with one fandom (or even similar fandoms), so, don't get your hopes up about that. I have a few things sitting on my hard drive. A couple of Naruto, another's Jane Austen (though, since her works are in the public domain, I could copyright my own spin-off stories...), Howl's Moving Castle (book verse), and another's Tamora Pierce, that should tell you something about what I like. As for the one shot thing, my sister keeps on demanding that my lovely one shots are turned into chapter stories.
How long I've been reading here: give or take about a year, since I was about 16. So...since around 2002ish? However, I've been reading fanfic since I had access to the internet.
Name: Heather
Age: since I really don't want to have to update this yearly, I was born in the first half of 1986.
Sex: female. duh, look at my name!
Occupation: I'm sadly an unemployed recent university graduate, with a BA in major: English and minor: history. I'm also certified to teach English as either a foreign or second language.
Location: southern California, where I was born and raised.
How I came by my pen name: a family name and "koira" (dog in Finnish) put together. I love Finnish and my life kind of revolves around dogs. End of story.
Activities/hobbies: I love books. School is normally enjoyable, until I have an in class essay, on a couple hundred page book that I wasn't even supposed to have read by then, that I was given only 5 days' notice to prepare. Yes, I'm bitter about that. I enjoy several anime and manga. I love reading. I'll read almost anything as long as it has good grammar, good spelling, and an actual plot that makes sense. I don't really care if the plot is original or not. After all, most of the time plots are patch-worked together from different influences in a person's own life or in their observations of the world. Books, along with fan fiction, have to meet all those same criteria that I've mentioned. I hold the same standards for everything I read. Though, I give fanfic authors more leeway (typos are inevitable and I've made several really weird typos that were actual words but nowhere near close to the word I meant. Just ask one of my professors, we both looked at a word in my extra credit outline and went "What!? That's a word but not the right one...") since they don't have the advantage of a professional editor. TV can be amusing but I watch less of that than I read. I love the internet. Camping is fun. Music is a major part of my life in both listening to it and making it myself. Martial arts are wonderfully invigorating. I have a lot of activities that don't seem to go together but I enjoy all of them. Learning languages is incredibly fun and surprisingly fairly easy, I just need to actually put some effort into continuing to learn them. :D Crocheting, needle point, latch hook, drawing, painting, et al. are also hobbies. Oh, and I love horseback riding. I don't get to ride nearly often enough, though.

Kel/Joren is one of my weaknesses. I remember this one titled "Hell's Bells". Unfortunately, I vaguely remember the author writing something about going on hiatus and deleting the fic. She did delete it and I'm unhappily wishing she hadn't. I really don't like Alanna/Jon fics. They so are NOT made for each other. They're too much alike in their temperaments. Aside from that, he doesn't respect her. She deserves someone better than him. I adore Alanna/Liam fics. The same goes for Alanna/George. For some reason, I don't like any of the romantic relationships in the Naruto fandom. I just can't see Sakura/Sasuke. I also can't see Sakura/Kakashi. I can, however, see Sasuke/Kakashi, at least temperament wise. For all that I enjoy slash because of the lack of stupid female main characters, I don't like slash just for slash's sake, but then, I don't like het just for het's sake. So, I guess it's even. Generally, I can't see any romantic relationships in Naruto, unless it's Kurenai/Asuma but then, they really are/were together and just kind of fit together well. I don't care who Haruhi is paired up with in Ouran High. Actually, I don't really care who's paired up with whom, as long as I like the story, I'll read it. I also don't care who Toru is paired with in Fruits Basket...but Toru/Momiji is pushing it. Until he grows it just seems too pedophile-ish. The weird thing is that Haruhi/Honey doesn't bother me. I've seen him act too grown up, I guess. Hiei and Kurama go together whether it's as friends, lovers, or brothers. I don't care. They just complement each other so well that I hate seeing them apart. The Mabudachi Trio from Fruits Basket is a unit and never to be separated! :P

I typically don't care for reading canon in fandom. Mostly because, if it's canon, I can read the original. :D Fanfiction isn't supposed to be exactly the same as the original. Sheesh. It was invented because fans tend to have things they dislike, would like explained, or want/need character development for their favorite character(s), but overall enjoy the works. There's only one fandom, that I know of, that I enjoy reading in but can't stand the originals. Harry Potter. I simply cannot stand how JKR writes. I tried reading the books, it didn't work. I tried watching the movies. That worked about as well as reading the books. I got about 10 pages into the first book and went "She's not a very good author. Her writing style is comparable to when I was in 3rd grade!" It really is. I have samples of my writing from when I was in 3rd grade and that's at about the level I wrote. I can read almost any style, but hers really bugs me. (This profile is not a good sample of my writing. It's a profile, and I don't really care about it. It's for informational purposes only. :D Aside from that, college has really inhibited my story telling abilities, I used to be able to tell stories, now, I can write well and analyze things to death, but the ability to tell a story has almost died.)

Pet Peeves (in no particular order. Just the order that I write them):
1) Plagiarism. Both sides can be really annoying. Do you know how many people have been accused of plagiarism, even though their story was out long before the more popular story and was also better written and just plain better? Way too often. And I've had the displeasure of being deprived of a really good story and author that way. Because the popular author and her fans decided to hassle the accused author, the accused (and innocent) author deleted her stories and profile. I was so mad when that happened. Honestly, people, I've read the federal copyright laws (for the US) specifically regarding what is NOT copyrightable. (Yes, I know that's not a word, deal with it). Titles can't be copyrighted. So, if someone has the same title as another person, that isn't copyright infringement. Ideas can't be copyrighted. Someone can run with the idea of having an evil step-father rather than evil step-mother and just flip flop the sexes of the kids, and no matter who "thought" it up "first" it's not their property. Plots are copyrighted only to a point. For example, the basic outline of girl meets boy, boy meets girl, blah, blah, blah, school drama, romance, etc. is essentially up for grabs. Legally, all someone needs to do is change the names, places, certain specifics, about 10 percent of the story, and that's their legal story. It's not ethical, but it's not illegal. There's nothing new under the sun. I have had similar, if not almost identical, ideas long before I read a book/fic/watched a movie etc. in which that idea was expanded upon. Copy and paste plagiarism is, most definitely, plagiarism. And taking credit for another person's work is wrong and should be punished. But just having a similar story line isn't. Got it? No? Well, I don't know how to make it any clearer, so, either you need to reread what I just wrote, or you need a brain. Please, tell me it isn't the latter. Also, Cinderella isn't copyrighted. That story is up for grabs. Jane Austen's stories are up for grabs. If the author has been dead for, 75 years, their works are no longer copyrighted. The same goes for music. As several intellectual property lawyers have said, in one way or another, you can't copyright ideas, you can only copyright how you express those ideas.

2) AU=alternate universe. I enjoy AU stories. However, I don't want a summary to say that it's AU just because a few details are different or the story deviates dramatically from canon's time line at some point. Yes, I know that the theory of alternate universes is that for each choice that a person makes, the universe splits and that same person makes the other choice in another universe, and on and on it goes. For example, in this universe I twich my left pinky to the right, in another, I don't twitch at all, in another it goes left, in another, up and to the left...and, you should get the picture now. It's for every single little choice that you make. It's an interesting hypothesis. However, applied to fanfiction, it means that ALL fanfiction is AU. Because if just one little detail is off, the fic is no longer that specific universe. So, for example, unless it's Sailor Moon and there are no evil alien bad guys and no sailor scouts, then, I wouldn't say that it's AU. But, a betrayal fic where Serena/Usagi/Sailor Moon runs away, I wouldn't call that AU. Not really. If it's still in the universe where there are youma and bad guys and sailor scouts, it's not really alternate, is it? Alternate realities and universes are fascinating, but, please, don't get my hopes up when the storyline just deviates dramatically from canon. It's really disappointing when that happens. I actually really like AU fics. But more than that, I love it when different realities interact with each other. Mmm...this means that I absolutely adore Stargate SG-1's episodes that have different realities. I love it. As much as I love alternate realities meeting and interacting, I really dislike it when the "canon" character ends up with the "alternate" character. It bugs me. Because, no matter what, my favorite is always "my" universe, so, I want my universe characters to stick with each other. I think the only time I like it when a character ends up with an "alternate" is in the movie "The One." I can't explain why I have that exception, but I do. Although, it could have to do with the fact that in his universe, she's dead.

3) Complete or incomplete. If it's complete, I don't really care what the label is. However, if it's incomplete, DO NOT label it complete. Do you have any idea how many stories I've started when I thought they were complete and it turns out they weren't? I can't stand that. I'll start stories that are incomplete, but I like knowing that they're incomplete. That way I don't expect to be able to finish it without waiting for weeks or months or maybe forever for it to be completed. Also, abandoned stories should most definitely NOT be labeled as complete. They're abandoned, not completed, thus, they should either have "abandoned" in the summary, or be deleted.

4) Grammar, spelling, syntax, style, and all those lovely fun things. I'm serious, I think they're fun. That would explain why I've taken linguistic classes, voluntarily, in college. It's also why I've taken an English grammar, under the linguistics banner, college class, I wanted to get even better at writing and grammar and be able to explain/understand why something was done (not just knowing to do it and how to do it). I can understand using the passive voice. I can also understand fragments. Most people think and talk in fragments. Besides, if the subject is understood, why should we have to restate the subject in every single sentence? That's rather repetitive if you ask me. I can also understand misspellings to a certain extent. And that pesky comma is subjective a lot of times, but not others, so I can also understand different comma placement interpretations. What I don't understand is why some authors try to make their styles sound intelligent by using polysyllabic words. There are times when they're useful because they can get a point across and they fit the setting. However, using weird and arcane words (misspelling and misusing them to top it off) doesn't always work. Also, people normally use contractions in spoken English. For example, do not becomes don't, will not becomes won't, and so on. There is a time and a place for not contracting words, but not contracting them all the time, just makes the writing more difficult and clunky to read. There are grammar police out there who think that grammar's set in stone. However, even grammarians have points of contention about some of the more subjective punctuation. So, I'm not going to go all psycho and say that you must have a semi-colon after "also," since that's one of the subjective rules that I don't see the point of. And, as you can probably tell, I don't care if a sentence ends in a preposition. Besides, when the preposition is part of an intransitive verb (intransitive verbs may end sentences), it'll be after the verb, but a part of the verb at the same time, and must end the sentence. :P However, despite my understanding about misspellings, there are lists out there of commonly misspelled and confused words. "Waste" vs. "waist" really bothers me... it just grosses me out. Also, come on, how difficult is it to look up on an online dictionary, what a word means? Some even have commonly confused spellings and all will correct your spelling in looking the words up.

5) If you actually read some of the earliest King Arthur stories, you will find something shocking, Morgan le Fay was good. I actually like her, no matter which version of the story. Even in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Although, she really shouldn't have betrayed both her brother and her husband, I still think she's one of the more interesting and complex characters. Polonius is a pompous idiot who thinks he's the wisest man on earth, but occasionally has profound things to say. "To thy own self be true" is one of Polonius' lines. I hate Polonius. He's one of my least favorite characters in Hamlet. So, my point is, please, don't make characters named Morgan automatically evil and know where quotes come from and their context. If you don't know that it's a quote, then, that's fine, but, most clinches are quotes. "The lady doth protest too much" is Queen Gertrude, also from Hamlet, and she's one of the stupider characters, plus, that was supposed to be a satirical statement about both Gertrude and Ophelia. It's about as true as Santa is real. And, if you're referencing something, please, know the reference. (Note: Rowling actually uses a lot of the King Arthur saga, right down to the Weasleys' names, some major plot points, and various magical objects/things, but, at least she knows it). Oh, Uther Pendragon was a downright evil, spoiled, adulterous, controlling, deceitful, murdering, rapist.

6) Throwing in random Japanese (this goes for any foreign language) words and not translating them immediately, by the time I get to the end of the chapter, I usually forget the context the words were spoken in, so, please, just make it clear they're speaking in another language, unless it's to add suspense, i.e. when no one but the speaker is supposed to know what they said. Actually, just using random Japanese words, bothers me. I'm Japanese-American (yonsei, if you must know. And no, I'm not translating that, it's almost a title), I understand about 99 percent of the words that fandom uses, the words that I don't know are slang, but that doesn't mean that I enjoy it. I agree, the titles are necessary. Sensei does NOT have an English equivalent. It's not merely "teacher." It's basically someone wiser who has gone before and is leading you down that same path, and even that isn't a good enough definition. All of the titles show the different degrees of relationships, so, they're necessary to show the type of relationships that people have with each other. But, names, food, and titles are the only things that I understand using. I don't like reading along, in English, and coming to "Ii otenki desu ne, Naruto-kun" spoken by Sasuke. Ugh. Sasuke is almost always informal to the point of being rude. And, if he's talking to Naruto, he's never formal, and forget almost rude, he's just plain rude to Naruto. Or, I'm reading along and "hai! wakarimashita!" pops up. Kill...me...NOW! And then, the same author has the gall to translate "miso" into "soy bean paste" or "shoyu" into "soy sauce" or "natto" into "fermented soy beans." I end up retranslating them back into Japanese. Food should retain its name. Oh, don't get me started on sushi. Sushi is not raw fish. Saying that sashimi (raw fish) is sushi, is like saying that peanut butter, an ingredient in a type of sandwich, is a sandwich. Sushi is a generic term for a specially seasoned rice, it doesn't even need nori (sea weed) to be sushi. It just needs rice and rice vinegar. I adore sushi, I'm a vegetarian, I hate sashimi. Although, sashimi's not as bad as it sounds.

7) Shonen ai isn't porn. Yaoi probably is. Shonen ai focuses on the romantic relationship between males, usually without sex, and they're generally younger. Yoai's focus is mostly on the sex. Though, not always. Mixing them up and using them interchangeably can confuse me. Yuri is yaoi's female equivalent and shojo ai is shonen ai's female equivalent. It confuses me even more when I come across something that someone calls yoai and I go, "Wait, this is yuri..."