Review replies

[magentasouth]

Don't worry! Take your time! As long as we know that the chapters are coming, then it's all good! XD Don't burn yourself out!

hm.. *on* the topic of burning oneself out - i'm actually in the hospital right now. I've been here for a week already. Hopefully they'll let me go home tomorrow.

(sigh)

What should be great - giving me all this time to write - kind of doesnt do me any good at all since i'm so weak that I sleep most of the time. Today was the first day I was given food.

being in hospital sucks.

[Strawberry Passion]

Poor Dear!!

Get better for us! Being able to eat food is a lot more important than a story right now.

I send you lots of love and instant chicken noodle soup.

Get well soon!

Strawberry Passion

[Guest Fleur K.]

Oh my goodness! Please take care of yourself and feel better soon!

[Nerys Dax]

hm.. *on* the topic of burning oneself out - i'm actually in the hospital right now. I've been here for a week already. Hopefully they'll let me go home tomorrow.

(sigh)

What should be great - giving me all this time to write - kind of doesnt do me any good at all since i'm so weak that I sleep most of the time. Today was the first day I was given food.

being in hospital sucks.

I hope you feel somewhat better and are out of the hospital now. It sucks to be sick and like you said, you'd think you'd have loads of time to write, but you just can't (which I don't know how you perceive it but I find it incredibly frustrating). Anyway, best wishes and take your time getting better, fanfiction can wait.

[magentasouth]

@ Atlantean_Diva

- (shrug) can be. I didn't mount a structured campaign. I see what you are saying - however precious mudblood was the first story I started - the first attempt. In the beginning it *didn't* have a plot therefore; it was just an experiment - so I guess it really does seem like it just swims around with things happening. I was kind of reading it as I was writing it.

I started writing while I was working (or rather *not* working on) my masters dissertation. I was writing for my own enjoyment, not for that of unknown readers since I didn't think I would actually post anything i'd written. I was writing because I had read literally EVERYTHING in the ships I particularly gravitate toward, to the point that I was running out of stuff to read, and because I was getting frustrated at waiting for updates on stories I loved by other writers.

That being said - with the exception of one, every story (unfinished though they are) does have a general plotline that is (at least in my own mind) developed to completion.

In case you are wondering - the one where I really do not know where it is going is necessary sacrifices. I only started it based on a plot challenge that I considered a bit implausible from the start. Its more just a bit of fun. I only know where it is going about four or five events into the future.

So the problem is not a lack of direction in plot stopping me writing - its really more a lack of focussed will. Writing is more effortful than reading. There are a number of stories for me to read now (although pickings are getting thin again at the moment) so its always easy to 'just read for a while and then write later' which doesn't end up happening. Also - I just changed to a very hours intensive job after my degree and before i went into hospital i'd just moved into a new apartment a week or two before. Things happening in the real world are distracting.

@ Nerys

Thanks! I hope all is going well in your life. - yes I know what you mean about just not finding the will to write.

For some bizarre reason I am holding back chapters right now because I want to post an update on everything at once.

Anyway though.. I was just about to turn off this music and go back to the chapter i was working on before I noticed a flame review that motivated me to wander into the forum and be all defensive and bristly. ;-)

I hate it when the critique is a) justified and b) something i've already defended three or four times already.

<sigh>

[Guest Atlantean Diva]

I understand about life getting in the way of writing, and I truly understand how you can plan to write and it just doesn't happen. I have major respect for those people who can write everyday, but I not everyone can or maybe they haven't gotten to that point yet, I know I haven't. Take your time with your stories and work on them when you get a chance.

Thanks for replying to my post.

[Nerys Dax]

@ Nerys

Thanks! I hope all is going well in your life. - yes I know what you mean about just not finding the will to write.

For some bizarre reason I am holding back chapters right now because I want to post an update on everything at once.

Anyway though.. I was just about to turn off this music and go back to the chapter i was working on before I noticed a flame review that motivated me to wander into the forum and be all defensive and bristly. ;-)

I hate it when the critique is a) justified and b) something i've already defended three or four times already.

<sigh>

Hi,

Well, same as you, I suppose. RL sucks at times.

Ermm... I think you misread what I wrote. I didn't say lacking the will to write, just the ability to be able to do so, which to me is even more frustrating. Since when I don't feel like writing, I just don't write. When I want to write and I can't, I just want to pull my hair out and scream.

Holding back chapters... oh, I am envious. I wish I had chapters ready to go. Then, I could update something. LOL Although I do have about 9,218 words written for the next chapter, it's a lot of unfinished, unpolished scenes at the moment. So nothing that can be updated yet.

And why do these chapters always turn longer than I planned? Tom and Hermione are just too big of a chatterboxes. *hides*

Well, if a review makes you pissy, I recommend waiting before replying unless that only makes you more aggravated. *sniggers* I personally don't mind most reviews, even flames, they just make me laugh. I had some crazy ones on FFnet. *snnnrks*

But I had this one anonymous "reviewer" on FFnet who kept telling me what to do with my time, that I wasn't allowed to beta for others but should work on my own stories and that person kept making rude remarks about the lacking updates. Now I normally am a nice person. If someone complains about my lacking updates, I take it as a compliment since they obviously want to read on and I respond in kind. But this person was pissing me off with her rudeness. We write stories they can read for FREE. We don't get paid and she thinks she can tell me what to do with my time?!!! Grrrr...

OK, rant over.

Glad to see you're back writing, too.

xx Nerys

[magentasouth]

@ Nerys - just got the weirdest sense of deja vu.

You remember ages ago we were talking about my fic 'captive audience' and whether I might have taken the idea from some other story that had a cage that I might have read (probably did, even if I don't remember it and had mostly been inspired by 'caged bird' a ss/hg fic with very different... well.. very different everything really. Her 'cage' was more of a 'cell'.)

ANYWAY... i'm rambling.

I was just reading a new fic in Fanfiction.net and I had the weirdest sense of holy crap - thats just like what I wrote!

I'm not sure whether great minds think alike <smirk> or whether whoever this is actually read my story (flattering) and was so tickled by the idea that they put their own version of it into their story (weirdly enough - also totally flattering) - or maybe there's just a limited number of ideas in the world and its entirely random - after all, the rest of the story apart from that one little section is novel - haven't read anything like it thusfar.

In any event - it made me think of you somehow and our discussion last year.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5997364/3/Bound_By_Words

First section: Hermione and Voldemort take a bath: ;-)

[Guest Nerys]

When I saw your post, I went: Oh noooo, I don't want to read another shitty fic of someone who can't make up their own scenes. However, curiosity does kill the cat and I clicked on it anyway. *deep sigh* My God, what a big deja vu story all over. Indeed, the bathroom scene, but there were so many other things in that fic that I've seen before that it made me nauseated.

You know I really don't get it. Sure, there will always be coincidental resemblances and there are only that many plots you can create within the world given, but when I first came in contact with fanfiction, I saw authors give credit to other fanfic authors when they used their ideas or plots or scenes. But nowadays it seems more common to just use it and pretend its yours.

The other day I talked to Shan and she got a review (I kid you not) from an anon who told her she loved her story and had used a smut scene Shan'd written for her own story, only changing the characters names. I really don't know what to say to morons like that. What's the point of getting praise for something you know you did not write? And to just state it (anon of course) and not even ask the author BEFOREHAND if it's okay to use it, and I doubt she gave credit where it was due in her own story since she didn't dare give a link to her own story. I mean, what's wrong with these people?

I do know it's weird to discuss these things giving that we're using the original author's creations, but that's why we have disclaimers and the readers know those things aren't our creations. I don't get why it's so hard to extend the same curtesy to a fellow fanfic writer. I mean I don't mind when people use things from my fics ( by all means, they may knock themselves out), but one tiny mention would be nice and surely appreciated. And it doesn't cost you a thing to do. Not one reader ever thought lesser of me as a writer because I had an A/N stating that a particular creative swearword that I had Hermione use in my story came from another fanfic author and then I proceeded to tell them where to find said author's fic and what it was about. I even got a few reviews from readers thanking me for the link because they'd enjoyed that person's fic.

However, that's just a tiny thing. When it comes to the point where one can wonder by whom the story is really written, it's all a bridge too far to me.

I recall writing a Tomione a long time ago and I was ten chapters in when I looked at it and thought: Crap, this resembles Chelle's Deceived too much. So, I stopped writing on it and never posted that story. The other day I was beta-ing for Lady Miya and she had a discussion between Hermione and a Healer about abortion, I read it and wanted to bang my head against the wall because (spoiler) I had just written a discussion between Hermione and a Healer about abortion, too. Now, despite that our take on it was completely opposite and the entire scenes were completely different, I ended up scratching the scene from my story.

Now maybe I'm being overly careful and sensitive about these things. Maybe it's my college background where anything remotely resembling plagiarism/paraphrasing is a big no-no. And to be frank, most of the time I shrug off these things, thinking: Meh, it's just fanfiction; it's probably just a stupid teen or twimom. But then there are times (usually coinciding with my periods-- ), when this shit just really pisses me off.

Sure, you can be flattered she used your bathroom scene, but wouldn't it be even more flattering if the author of "Bound by Words" had had the decency to mention you in an A/N? Just a little, "I was inspired by magentasouth when I wrote the bathroom scene, go read her fic at ...". I'd personally preferred it if she'd done that. Now I read the fic and thought, well, if you nicked this and that's familiar to me, so where did you steal such and so from that I don't recognise? All it does to me is wonder about the origin of everything she wrote. I mean it's just insulting the readers' intelligence to do this kind of thing.

Ugh... and I really need to stop ranting now. **starts meditating** it's only fanfiction ... it's only fanfiction ...

waves,

xx nerys

[Guest rockinraven]

hello! just wanted you to know that ive been thinking about you lately and i hope all is well

[magentasouth]

Hi

I'm alive.

I apologise for making you wait an irrationally long time for updates. You see the problem is that when I started these fics i was writing my masters and was a full time student. That means that I didn't have to work; spent the entire day on the computer anyway; was highly motivated not to think about or work on my actual masters topic, yet held in place (by guilt) from actually going out and doing things. As a result, toward the end of my stressful dissertation I wrote prolifically. Most days i'd work on two or three stories in a row.

Now however... I work in a badly paid, cognitively undemanding McJob for twelve hours a day (thank you recession. It's wonderful to know that attaining three bacheors, two hons and a Masters degree within six and a half years will get me about thirteen bucks an hour and sore feet.) and this leaves me exhausted, increasingly cynical and sometimes quite apathetic.

They tell me that I don't have enough 'experience' and the market is flooded with those who do. I can't, however, even get unpaid job experience as I work shiftwork with no fixed hours and am essentially on call at any time day or night. So I stay where I am because it pays the rent and keeps the car running.

Incidentally - if anyone can help in pointing me toward a better job anywhere in the world - i'd really love to hear about it! Seriously. If your brother's friend's second cousin knows someone who is looking, i'd be interested. You can email me at magentasouth@gmail.com.

The following status updates based on my own chapter length expectations of between 7000-9000 wds

Precious Mudblood - half a chapter done

New Skin - quarter of a chapter done

Captive Audience - quarter of a chapter done

The First Horcrux - about to start new chapter after I post this message

That which we Make - pending

Necessary Sacrifices - pending

I do have work for the next seven days straight but I will try to at least get two of PM, CA and NSk finished and posted this week.

[Guest Fleur K.]

It's really good to see you updating again! I'm also really sorry to hear about your current job situation. I know exactly how that feels. Have you considered teaching abroad? I'm not sure where you are currently living, but there are some really good opportunities for teaching English in China, Taiwan, or Korea. Actually, if you have a masters degree, you can teach university level in Taiwan. I've looked into it many times because I think I will end up doing just that. Anyway, I thought I would throw that out there as an option, I have no idea what your career goals are or what your degrees are in. Regardless, I wish you the best and I hope that something else comes along soon

-Fleur K.

[magentasouth]

Here (for the first time in twelve aeons) there will actually be review replies. I kind of lost track of reviews for a while so if you reviewed in the period when I was still AWOL - I apologise for not responding.

But first:

Thanks, Fleur K! I probably shouldn't have been pointlessly whining but I appreciate the sympathy and the advice. I can't teach overseas as I am a New Zealander and they have a system here to discourage students from jumping the ditch and running off - if I leave the country for more than six months I will be slapped with massive interest on my student loan. The salary (wage?) of tesol teachers in Taiwan (or any of the other countries) is not high enough to justify the added money I'd have to pay back. I would go anywhere in the world for a REAL job with a decent salary but I can't leave for anything else (unless I plan on never returning).

My career goals are.. no.. *were* would be more appropriate.. My career goals were simple. I just wanted to be an analyst. I wasn't even picky about what manner of analyst as I've studied quantitative and qualitative analysis, political analysis, risk analysis and threat assessment, strategic analysis...

Alas - the government here changed hands from the equivalent of democrats to the equivalent of republicans and massive numbers of public servants were canned - flooding the market with trained analysts with 3+ years experience. Now it is not even possible to get a position as a graduate analyst.

My degrees? Not the wisest choices possible - but I was operating in light of a world with heightened security threat rather than an economic meltdown..

I have BSc Psychology with Honors (Spec forensic psychology and neuroscience), BA German, BA Russian (plus a couple of other languages), Honors in diplomacy and international relations, Masters in Strategy and Security (Spec - China and India)

Oh for a time machine to go back and study medicine instead.

MOVING ON....

Precious Mudblood

Fan Reader, Bythefireside and Elizabeth - You were instrumental in convincing me to start writing again. Thank you! Your words reached me on a day when I was rather down and despondent and the warm feelings you evoked persuaded me to pull out my own stories and start reading through them. There are a lot of things I didn't like in them but in lieu of rewriting everything now and putting off new updates I think I'll keep writing and fix the problems when I am finished.

Also - someone contacted me today asking if i was still looking for a beta - so perhaps some of the flaws will be ironed out sooner rather than later.

LadyCandi - thanks! You make me feel all warm and fuzzy!

Dru - the future part is in there for two reasons. 1. because sometimes I want a break from the events at scene and it seems to 'cleanse my palate' slightly when I jump somewhere else. 2. because it is relevant to something coming up. I think i've already explained this in the chapter I posted but the future Draco and Hermione part isn't purely to confuse, although I enjoy springing it on you without warning and making you adjust your mental frame for a moment - it ties in. The intervals in which it occurs aren't important but the information is - so I just skip there whenever I feel like it.

Evita, Elizabeth - Thanks! I appreciate it and i'll try to deliver.

Ricc, Fan Reader and venny christayani - thank you!! You posted massive compliments and I was glowing for hours after reading them! Thank you for your well wishes too. You made my day!

brightneeBee - sorry about the dialogue format issues. Also that you can't really stomach HarryxHermione in any context (there's a bit of it but not that much, considering). My characterisation may flipflop - after all these chapters were written quickly in a short period of time while I was writing my masters (or avoiding writing my masters) - and it was my first fic. I originally never intended to post it so I suppose I was writing for my own satisfaction rather than public viewing when I was writing this story. This means that it will probably need to be beta'd to death now to appease my need for logic. (So much still irritates me now and I cringed while reading it. Nevertheless other parts were still satisfying to read. i don't know.) The overall structure is a bit inconsistent because when I started this one I had no plan at all. Curiously - it became harder to write it from the moment a concrete plan coalesced in my mind. From that point it became less like dreaming while typing and more like working on a report. In fact I can correlate the time I wandered away from writing chapters with the time that I completed the ending in my mind. I think the story was like a puzzle that i was working out for myself in a slow enjoyable way as I was writing it - but once I had 'solved' it in my own mind it lost all appeal. As a result, in order to get myself back on track with writing I have had to discard some of what I planned, in order to animate myself. Like saying - ok, that is ONE solution. What is another?"

Even so - I hope you enjoy some of what I have written!

Necessary Sacrifices

Tres tres chic - Thank you for the compliment!! You made me smile. All my stories are twisted but this one even has tentacle porn. i worry about my mind! I will be updating this one too - in fact the other night I was thinking about this story specifically and where it goes from here.

That which we make for ourselves

Roseemilee - Thanks! I appreciate it. I'm glad you enjoyed the selfcest/threesome! I can't kill off Grindelwald just yet, sorry - he isn't finished being a nasty prick and complicating matters. Personally, i'd rather get rid of Dumbledore since he is far more inconvenient. I can't get rid of any of them unless the story runs to that outcome naturally. Besides - the story would be over in one chapter if I just wrote - and then everyone who ticked Tom off spontaneously combusted and he lived happily ever after with himself and Caedmon.

I have had a writer do that in a story i was reading. It upset me more than anything else possibly could have. I felt cheated out of an actual progression of the narrative.

The first Horcrux

addiena saffir - if others listed above 'made my day' with their compliments - your review actually trashed my confidence. (sigh) I suspect you may not have intended it that way.

The story is like a train wreck. To have Tom win and remain evil isn't an outcome you'd like to see (I'm not actually sure how you got to that outcome since he seems pretty non-victorious to my mind). Tom getting away with things upsets you. Technically he hasn't gotten away with much yet since he's been caught and had his magic taken away to prevent him from doing anything worse. Now he has it back because Dumbledore is indeed a manipulative old bastard but he will insist upon giving people a chance to make the right choice. Either that or he anticipates their responses and choices better than they do themselves.

Tom raping Mione - well.. at some point early on i toyed with some variant on this idea. This was originally going to be a TR/HG fic but I changed it because the idea didn't appeal to me as much anymore. I don't know what will happen with them in the long run here. Things would have to change before I could see anything like that happening.

Your complaint that Dumbledore was a lying, manipulative jerk - he is in the originals. Didn't you notice? I loathe dumbledore. In some of my fics i manage not to demonise him, but it is difficult. i dislike him almost as much as Ginny and Ron.

unneeded - thanks! Glad to be back. I'll try and update you soon!

Raven - sorry I didn't update on your birthday but, to be fair, I didn't know it was your birthday and I updated soon after! Hope you had a good day anyway!

Roguelle - AAAAAARGH - YES I AM!! THANK YOU!! Don't know what I can promise re future pairings. Not sure if the Hermione I have written here would combine well with the Draco constructed here. We'll see what happens with them in the future.

Krysania - Pleased to be back!!! The chapter was creepy? I found it a bit stilted myself but i'd boxed myself into a corner and needed a magical out. Now the question remains - will things go back to status quo or will I take a small, medium or massive step sideways?!

Captive Audience

Alliel - Don't worry, I won't. I'll get to this one too!! Sorry it wasn't first on the update list!

[brightneeBee]

brightneeBee - sorry about the dialogue format issues. Also that you can't really stomach HarryxHermione in any context (there's a bit of it but not that much, considering).

I think it's just unfathomable to my mind that Harry and Hermione should do anything more than sibling-hugging. I find it hard to imagine Hermione and Ron ending up together, either....XD

My characterisation may flipflop - after all these chapters were written quickly in a short period of time while I was writing my masters (or avoiding writing my masters) - and it was my first fic. I originally never intended to post it so I suppose I was writing for my own satisfaction rather than public viewing when I was writing this story. This means that it will probably need to be beta'd to death now to appease my need for logic. (So much still irritates me now and I cringed while reading it. Nevertheless other parts were still satisfying to read. i don't know.)

Yes, reading it, I can tell that it was a first fic XD but it didn't stop me from the temptation of copying and pasting so I could beta without asking you first. But, I've thought that maybe me Beta'ing would be a bad idea, because I would be sorely tempted to beta-out the HarryXHermione bits XD sorry.

The overall structure is a bit inconsistent because when I started this one I had no plan at all. Curiously - it became harder to write it from the moment a concrete plan coalesced in my mind. From that point it became less like dreaming while typing and more like working on a report. In fact I can correlate the time I wandered away from writing chapters with the time that I completed the ending in my mind. I think the story was like a puzzle that i was working out for myself in a slow enjoyable way as I was writing it - but once I had 'solved' it in my own mind it lost all appeal. As a result, in order to get myself back on track with writing I have had to discard some of what I planned, in order to animate myself. Like saying - ok, that is ONE solution. What is another?"

Even so - I hope you enjoy some of what I have written!

Yes, well everyone has their different ways of creating stories and typing them up. I, for one, end up with a journal and a few multi-colored pens and start writing an outline, of sorts, and adding in research in the margins before typing the outline up in a word-program. But I always have the first chapter, middle chappter and ending chapter outlined before I go through and fill in with details and dialogue, and then comes the filler chapters. It helps create a timespan between events.

By chapter 64 of Precious Mudblood, it became extremely hard to understand where you were taking the storyline. I can understand that writing blind works for you, but structuring the chapter itself would have helped to create a more visual picture of what exactly was going on. I'm still between the thought that A) Hermione split herself into two selves and sent one 50s years into the past, B) either her waking up with only Draco alive is reality, or her time in the past is her reality and her awake with Draco is just a dream that she never remembers, or C) I have no flipping clue what the hell is going on. XD It's very confusing, and difficult to understand. Literally made me want to pull my hair out by the time I got to chapter 75.

I can understand the need to avoid structuring a solid idea for the entire story, but the chapters themselves are so disorganized at times that it hurts to try and figure just one chapter out.

Also, a side note since I was reviewing my full outlines for a possible Volmione that I wrote over a year ago and plan on starting once my Remember November is finished...I read the chapter in Prec. Mudblood where Hermione threw herself out of the hole in the wall to kill herself and couldn't help but thinking - "Oh my god, that's my suicide scene down to the last sentence!" I've never read your works before, and I've been working on the outline for this upcoming epic for two or more years on/off, and I have to say, it was like rreading my outline without knowing it. Except for the conduit thing...

Anyway, I didn't mean to come off as a total bitch just now - I did not have that intent when responding, at all. I apologize if my reply was...rude.

I am actually hoping you will update Captive Audience and Precious Mudblood soon ?

-brightneeBee

[SRaven_Underhill]

I'm sorry for your troubles. I definitely think you deserve to complain a bit. I sent you an email a while back in response to one of your posts, not sure if you ever received it (though might be kind of useless since teaching overseas isn't an option). Regardless, I hope things turn up for you soon!

Annnd this is Fleur K. That was probably obvious, but still.

[magentasouth]

I think it's just unfathomable to my mind that Harry and Hermione should do anything more than sibling-hugging. I find it hard to imagine Hermione and Ron ending up together, either....XD

I like taboos.

Yes, well everyone has their different ways of creating stories and typing them up. I, for one, end up with a journal and a few multi-colored pens and start writing an outline, of sorts, and adding in research in the margins before typing the outline up in a word-program. But I always have the first chapter, middle chappter and ending chapter outlined before I go through and fill in with details and dialogue, and then comes the filler chapters. It helps create a timespan between events.

That's ok. I was extremely rigorous in my Masters thesis. I didn't write these stories for others and I don't take them too seriously. I wrote them as a pleasurable escape from analysis of truly painful amounts of raw data. I wouldn't have started writing at all, had I not actually run out of fanfiction to read in the ships I like.

By chapter 64 of Precious Mudblood, it became extremely hard to understand where you were taking the storyline. I can understand that writing blind works for you, but structuring the chapter itself would have helped to create a more visual picture of what exactly was going on. I'm still between the thought that A) Hermione split herself into two selves and sent one 50s years into the past, B) either her waking up with only Draco alive is reality, or her time in the past is her reality and her awake with Draco is just a dream that she never remembers, or C) I have no flipping clue what the hell is going on. XD It's very confusing, and difficult to understand. Literally made me want to pull my hair out by the time I got to chapter 75.

I like to surprise people with things they have forgotten they read. But since it confuses you to such an extent. I'll throw away this one surprise and explain.

Voldemort demanded Hermione make a horcrux, however she actually ended up making two, simply by virtue of the fact that he would not remove the magic suppressing bead. He even said as much at the time.

This is the bead that she is wearing when she wakes up with Draco. The bead which we know Harry removed from her in order to force her to use her abilities, which resulted in her ending in the past. Draco is evidently lying to her - judging by the things he tells her when she wakes up; i.e things that we know did not happen, such as that she has been in some kind of coma since the attempt to make a horcrux - obviously Hermione hasn't. Thus nothing else he has told her can be entirely trusted. Beyond what is shown, we know nothing of what has occurred in the future after Hermione's departure. We do not even know how this bead/horcrux came to be in Draco's possession.

Also, a side note since I was reviewing my full outlines for a possible Volmione that I wrote over a year ago and plan on starting once my Remember November is finished...I read the chapter in Prec. Mudblood where Hermione threw herself out of the hole in the wall to kill herself and couldn't help but thinking - "Oh my god, that's my suicide scene down to the last sentence!" I've never read your works before, and I've been working on the outline for this upcoming epic for two or more years on/off, and I have to say, it was like rreading my outline without knowing it. Except for the conduit thing...

Look forward to reading it then. I like your conceptualisation of Voldemort. I'm sure you'll write the scene better than I wrote it. It was a bit of a cop out at that stage in the story. It solved a problem conveniently at the time.

[magentasouth]

I'm sorry for your troubles. I definitely think you deserve to complain a bit. I sent you an email a while back in response to one of your posts, not sure if you ever received it (though might be kind of useless since teaching overseas isn't an option). Regardless, I hope things turn up for you soon!

Hi Fleur,

I thought I had responded to your mail specifically. ...Actually I responded to it on several occasions but often was interrupted. Perhaps I never managed to get one of them up at all.

First - thank you so much for your kind and generous words. I was touched that you cared enough to respond to my rather ranty and self-pitying post. it brightened my day.

I considered teaching overseas. I still consider it occasionally. The dynamics of the student loan system in New Zealand mean that I would have to pay massive amounts of interest if I left the country for longer than six months. Thus the money I might earn if I left would have to be not only considerable but also regular and reliable. None of the positions I have looked at have been able to tick all those boxes. (If i left for a year and came back, i'd still have to pay interest, even living here and thus my situation would worsen rather than improve)

Nevertheless I did appreciate the idea and wanted to thank you!

M

[magentasouth]

Ok. That time again (although i feel cheap replying to reviews when I haven't updated all stories in a long while but I have points to address and so needs must)

These are not in order of reviewing but in order of immediate urge to respond.

Precious Mudblood

@Lyra Aphrodite Moon

I agree entirely - This story grates against me at the moment because it feels like it is in three sections in my mind. Problem is that by the end of my storyline (yes I do have it complete in scratch form) it becomes essentially four sections and an potential epilogue in my mind. It irritates me because I want to rewrite it. I have actually had three lovely individuals approach me at various times offering to beta but I have either been far too busy or wimped out before I continued along that line. Technically I'd like to correct everything myself and probably a measure of rewrite will be involved - none of which will happen if I hand it over to someone else. Or worse - all of which will happen, but not as I was planning.

Worse.. there are scenes in the immediate future which are necessary and which I have no real interest in writing. I put it on pause in order to prevent myself from coming up with an avoid technique to get around those scenes. It is so tempting to skip over them. As you say - there is more sex and gore in this story than strictly necessary. i find myself less interested in writing the sex and gore parts than I used to be and that is giving me a problem because both are required to get where I am going.

@shannon

Thank you so much! I am sorry if you are a bit confused in the later chapters (I assume from the jumps back and forth to draco and hermione in the future) - if you let me know what is confusing you, I will try to iron it out a bit.

New Skin

@KisaraP

Thank you thank you thank you for your review. Reading it made me feel warm, proud and motivated to go and write. Which I did. And then I deleted. and then I wrote and then i cursed for a bit and walked around in a sulk and now I'm writing again. I hope this story continues to surprise you.

The first Horcrux

@krysania

Thank you - I try. I'm not sure what AO3 is actually so I guess..no.. no I haven't thought of moving there. I'll google it. Keeps slipping my mind.

Other related updates.

I wrote two chapters of Necessary sacrifices - and I was actually pleased with them.

Of course now they are somehow gone and I cannot find any copies. All i have is three or four copies of the earlier point that I stopped at. Can only imagine that i must have saved it over them accidentally when pulling out autosaved files. Drove me mad for a few days and the motivation to rewrite is never easy to find. I guess i'll rewrite and change things to make it bearable. Perhaps i'll post the chapter I have anyway.

Till next time, M.

[Guest Mykle]

Cant wait to read more of your work! it is so amazing and i will read everything you put out cuz it is awesome love the flash forwards and backwards really. I have never found any story more compleling and addicting than precious mudblood. I have been told I have tons of will power to wait because good things will come lol. I do hope you find time to continue writting and as i have not read 50 shades of grey I think you could tweek the story and and publish it and itd be way better that 50 shades of grey lol. Good luck and may your muse guide you!

Brittany aka Mykle

[Guest Kat]

I've never understood some people's fascination with TR/HG stories. I've just never understood it and frankly the thought of it kind of disturbed me. That was until I read Precious Mudblood. I absolutely love it but unfortunately I haven't found any other stories that match up to the same quality as yours in this coupling. Which is why I'm begging you to update as soon as possible. You've made me akin to a drug addict and now I need my fix. I think I'm seeing what you're doing great with the future thing and if it's split up even more I think I have a vague idea of what's happening, I just really hope there's some more HG/TR / HG/LV action at one point. Looking forward to an update!

[magentasouth]

Wonderful news! I have just fortuitously changed jobs and will now have TIME (ah glory of glories!!) to dedicate to writing. I look forward to resuming regular updates soon, starting with PM (since that seems to be the story that readers continue to review)

Thank you to anyone who is still hanging in there!

[Guest Mykle]

omg i am so excited!!!!

[Guest MissVD]

Please, whatever you do, after Precious Mudblood, start with Captive Audience

[Guest a disappointed fan]

been a year since you updated PM i was excited to see you working on it again but that was like 20 days -.-

[Guest Gabby0515]

Excited for you to update Captive Audience. Can't wait! Congrats on the new job too