So. I originally joined this site in 2004, madly in love with anything to do with Harry Potter. Naturally, all of the stories I've written thus far... Harry Potter. But then, this amazing thing happened. My friends and I, bored and home from college for the summer, decided to start a book club. We kicked it off with Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging... but that's not actually the most important part of my story. The next book we picked was Into the Wild, but somehow, it got overruled by a collective decision to read Stephenie Meyer's 'Twilight'. Quite honestly, I had seen the book before, and expressed no interest in reading about vampires. I mean, come on... that's just weird. It took a bit of convincing, but I finally went out and bought it. It took maybe the first couple of chapters before I became completely enthralled, thus entirely forgetting about my main man Harry and his buds at Hogwarts. 'New Moon' was purchased within days, finished in less than 30 hours, and 'Eclipse' was borrowed from a friend even before I had finished reading the second book. I couldn't believe myself... I had doubts about reading Twilight? (Insert random funny story here: I got my mom and sister to read Twilight as well. They too, had their doubts, but they are now fully convinced otherwise.)

Anyways, during the long month of July 2008 (long only because I had lost my summer job, and the countdown for Breaking Dawn was becoming increasingly excruciating), I turned once more to fanfiction.net for my daily quota of Edward and Bella. Sometimes, Alice and Jasper, and even a little Esme and Carlisle. (Whose name, by the way... I find this incredibly amusing... my friends think that it's pronounced Car-Leese or Car-Leslie. It is, in fact, Car-Lyle.)It was during this long month that I discovered I have an addiction to fan fiction. Ha. A Fan Fiction Addiction. That should be a proper disease, you know.

I think we're nearing the end here. Oh. I guess I could tell you a little about myself. I'm a sophomore in college this fall, and I'll be in 'la bella italia' this coming spring. Studying the language... and the men. Maybe I won't come back. There is always that possibility, if America collectively swears in another Republican president. I'm majoring in magazine journalism, which is pretty kick ass so far. I write when I have too much time on my hands, so maybe you'll get a story or two out of me this summer. I have a possessive cat who growls in his sleep, which I found out today. It's actually super amusing. That's it.

I am 100 percent willing to be someone's beta. We'll have fun times, as long as you're a good writer. Kidding. Love you all!

P.S. Since I do love you all, I'm sharing you the secret of what my pen name means. 'Hbthegr8' probably has no significance to you whatsoever. It is short for Hollsballs_the_Great, but since ff.net wouldn't let me put the '_' in the name, it became kind of pointless, because jumbled together, Hollsballsthegreat doesn't in fact look so great. Neither does Hollballsthegr8. And since you don't even know why in gods name I would call myself Hollsballs, that sealed the deal, and I shortened it. But for another story, here's why I do call myself Hollsballs. See, my friend at school occasionally (and when I say occasionally, I mean all the time) likes to replace curses with the word 'balls'. It cracks both of us up everytime. "What the balls?" I don't know. It just does. Anyways, my nickname before I came to school was just plain old Holls. (By the way, in case you haven't guessed, my name is Holly.) My brilliant friend decided that one day, she liked the way both of those words sounded... together. At first, only she was allowed to call me Hollsballs. But then, we were at a party one night, with a bunch of drunk people... and she may have called me by that endearing name from across the room. The rest is history. The whole 'the great' thing was added later simply to boost my ego. Plus it sounded cool, like one of those 'Alabaster the Conqueror' type names. Don't even ask me where I got Alabaster. It's late.

TTFN, Ta Ta for Now!

By the way. I am a firm believer in that Superman does indeed wear Alice Cullen pajamas.

NEW STORIES:

The Night James Tempted Fate: Basically, the most ridiculous thing I've ever written in my life, but everyone seems to like it so far. Read the summary for more information.

The Sorting: This one revolves purely around the thoughts of Albus Severus as he waits nervously in the line of first years to get sorted. The sorting hat takes a bit longer with him than it does with the rest...

Why Do You Think I Never Bet Against Alice?: One night, while Bella sleeps, Edward does what all humans eventually do at some point in their lives... he googles himself. Imagine the complications when he finds out he is the protagonist in America's most popular book series...

PLANS:

I was thinking about doing a short one-shot, involving our two faves, Bella and Edward. It would take place in Edward's room, with him sitting amidst a list, a computer, and several hundred of his CDs. Bella walks in, sees him sitting confused on the floor, and wants to know what's up. He explains that he's trying to pick out the best mix of music for their wedding reception, but can't seem to make a playlist that will suit ALL the guests. His entire family has thrown out requests for their favorite songs 'back in the day' (yes, even Carlisle...), but the music also needs to please Bella's high school acquaintances. Thus, Edward has turned to the internet for ideas, and... Well. You'll just have to read the story to find out. When it exists. Because I think I'm going to write it.