Hey there. I'm me and you're you. Ain't it grand?

American / Male (please don't hold the politics of my country or my accident of birth against me. I just try to roll with it and be glad for what I've got.)

Mostly a Potter fiction fan, and judging by the number of stories created on this site so are most of the visitors to the site. I also enjoy some Sherlock Holmes, NCIS and similar stories. In the process, lengthy and intermittent though it is, of writing my own stories - kind of.

As a reader I tend to try and let the story speak for itself, so I skip almost all A/N (author's notes) except those at the end of the story.

As a reviewer I try to provide useful feedback and positive reinforcement. That said the feedback is not always going to be positive, but I do try to provide reasons for my dissatisfaction and potentially alternatives that I think might have been more effective. I see no value, or any point really, in bashing a story or author. As should be obvious, any review I make is limited to the scope of my, and only my, opinion. If I was to find that each of my reviews was read once and discarded I think I'd be OK with that. I do like getting replies though.

Pet Peeve - when authors use the word "one" preceding a character's name. (. . . and then she met one Harry Potter. . . . he was assisted by one John Watson . . . she was handed a cocktail by one Tony Stark.) Please, please stop this. Do you think the reader is under the impression that there are numerous Tony Starks and we'll find out which one is being mentioned later? NO. Do you think the reader is unaware that they are reading an HP fan fiction story? NO. This trite bit of word play needs to stop. Whenever I see this it just screams to me that I'm reading a story by an author that is trying too hard and not succeeding. They are copying the other sophomoric authors that think this is clever and new. It isn't and it's not.

A curious thought about time-turners - OK the person is in two places at once; are they aware of the other self's consciousness (not likely); if not, when the time shift is finished, what happens in the person's head? I mean if I just spent two hours watching a movie and interacting with friends and another me was researching an academic topic . . . how does the information get in my head. Did I suddenly know, before the movie started, the two hours of research I did or is there a sudden 'snap-back' of information suddenly hitting my brain? If you have a thought on how that would appear from the timer-turner user's perspective please feel free to send along a note with your take on that.