Thanks for coming by! I'm Elvee and this is my author page. Feel free to drop me a PM.

About Snatch: 3/18/14 (17:31 PM EST)

Well, I got thirty three up on St. Patrick's Day and am currently working on thirty four. I'm home now after changing jobs, but that just means I have a ton of real life junk to go through after being on the road for seven years. I'm sifting through it best I can, but it will take some time. I will try and update once a week or so in the mean time.

Can anyone recommend some Dramione or Snamione to read?

A Few Writing Tips:

Please Avoid:

Bad Usage:

Breath is a noun. i.e. He takes a breath. Breathe (notice the 'e') is a verb. i.e. He breathes.

Vile means disgusting and foul; vial, on the other hand, is something long and thin that you put liquids in.

First person narrative: (i.e. "I" and "me") Stick to the tried and true Third person narrative (i.e. "he"/"she") It is much more flexible, allows you to get multiple perspectives without head hopping (see below). It allows for limited or omnipotent POV. And, one last tip for folks who want to write professionally: First person is considered an amateur's mistake. In my opinion, I won't even read first person narrative, it gives me a headache.

Head Hopping: Another amateur mistake when using POV. Let's say we're telling a story from Bob's point of view. We hear all of Bob's thoughts and not only see everything that is going on around Bob, but know how he feel about all of it. Good. That's the way it should be. The mistake comes when we jump or "hop" into someone else's head while we are supposed to be experiencing everything only as Bob does. Unless we're in an omnipotent narrative, we don't belong in any one else's head BUT Bob's.

Filter Verbs: You know these, but you might not know the term. Filter verbs are things like: hear, smell, taste, in short, using the character's senses in place of painting the true picture of where our character may be or what is going on around them. You don't say: Bob heard the door slam and he jumped. You do say: The door slammed, making Bob jump. No hearing necessary, our audience is already right there with us. The only exception would be if Bob has some kind of super power that lets him do things different from us; i.e. super hearing, bat speech, etc. If he's just a regular guy, simply tell your readers what happens without Bob getting in the middle.

I hope you take this advice in the spirit it was intended: to help you be a better writer. :)

Current Stories:

On Snatch: This will not be my first Dramione, but it is my first of length. If you enjoy a thinking person's read, this one might be for you. I don't see it going much farther than 25 chapters (edit: maybe 35) at present. I have everything all outlined, and it could be slightly shorter(hah! as if!). Although, my characters tend to have mind of their own. It has been wildly popular in visitors and page hits, much more so than my other longer HP story. As such, I've decided to finish this one, then return to WPV.

On What Price Victory: We all have to admit it at one time or another. *sigh* I have writer's block. Doesn't mean I won't finish it! Just means I'm writing some smaller work to get the old juices flowing. If you have a request, see below and send me a PM. :)

*On Requests* I don't know where everyone finds the challenges and requests and trades online, so if you have a request, I will certainly consider it. I WILL NOT write any of the following: Marauders, Lily (any), 3rd gen. I also don't do smut, slash, non-con, etc. (Trust me on this one, you wouldn't want me to, I blush while typing and it... well, it goes downhill from there.) PM me if you think I can scratch your itch with something 10 chapters or less. :)

Harry Potter

On Severus:

OK, so I admit it. I have a 'thing' for the Severus Snape character. Alan Rickman was wonderful in the movies, yes - and if he ever reads this (as if! snort!) I'd like to tell him he's the sexiest thing ever (Been drooling over him since Die Hard in the 80s) and the age difference means nothing to me! But the thing that has me captured completely is this wonderful, beautiful, poignant character that JK Rowling totally neglected. Yes, yes, I understand it wouldn't fit with the Harry perspective, but Gods! What a heart wrenching loss! This talented, tortured, loyal, capable man kicked to the gutter by his creator makes me physically ache. Even though he isn't real. The more I think about it, the worse I get. It's almost as if Rowling treated him as badly as Dumbledore and Voldemort.

Shame on her! SO!

I try to bring him depth. I try to give him the life he never had. I try, at the end of it all to make him happier than Rowling did.

I hope against hope I can do that for him.

On Draco:

I don't have a thing for blondes. So, sorry, Tom. You're a bit too young and a bit too blonde for me. (But if you happen to find Alan Rickman, send him my way and I'll give you hundreds of my reviewers, deal?)

BUT, this character - this kid- is tragedy from the word go. Has everything and nothing. Is offered everything and can't see it until it's almost too late, and I gotta say Rowling played this young man badly as well. (Brilliant to come up with him, JK, really, but honey, Draco was far too smart not to outgrow his upbringing far sooner.) If I were to give any character a shot at Hermione, it would be Draco. He's smart enough to keep up with her, physically handsome, common sense clever, he didn't hit her back in third year, and let's face it, they're both manipulative.

He doesn't have the beautiful poignancy of Severus, but he is a very tragic, neglected young man in his own right, who - I believe- not given a shot at redemption could one day fall very far indeed in his own right.

On People I Wish I Knew:

John Steinbeck: I want to beat the secret of writing about an extra-ordinary everyman out of him with a Nerf bat! He's the adult's Dr. Seuss.

Kurt Vonnegut: I wish I had a fifth of this man's wit. He is and will remain one of my biggest influences and mentors.

The Comedy Troupe of Monty Python: Any of them. All of them. I just want to thank them for making me laugh for years on end.

Basho: A Japanese monk from the feudal period. Not only did he open my eyes to a bigger world with his writing, he also taught me how to be concise in my words and my thoughts.

Akira Kurasawa: A tremendous film director from early 1950's Japan. His use of light and shadow in the lens was deliberate and exquisite.

e.e. cummings: A line of one of his poems has stuck with me for years. It reminds me to chose my words precisely as I write. "eyes like big love-crumbs"