White Hound fan-fiction

WHITE HOUND FAN FICTION:

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This started out as a bit of frippery – a holiday away from the serious SF novel I am working on. But you have to go with whatever inspiration you currently have, because it'll never leave you alone until you write it out, and the more I worked on it the more serious it got.

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N.B. Rather than the flat, tasteless American-journalese style beloved of most moderated sites, I use punctuation in the normal British manner, to indicate the rhythm and inflection of a sentence. See for example the University of Leicester: "Commas [cut] mark a brief pause in the sentence, usually at a point where you would naturally pause if you were speaking rather than writing." – i.e. if you are aiming for a free-flowing, natural effect you should insert a comma at any point where the speaker/thinker would pause slightly, even if a comma isn't strictly grammatically necessary at that point. Because I write all my stories as if they were being spoken aloud, I carry this to its logical conclusion and omit commas after quotes in cases where I feel that in order to create a pleasing, dramatic rhythm when reading it aloud, you wouldn't pause at that point. This is not an error, so please don't bug me about it. This is also why my stories will not be appearing on the Occlumency site, or any other moderated site.

Stories:

Harry Potter stuff

Yggdrasil [nominated for a MultiFaceted Fanfiction Award in the Tears section]
A little stream-of-consciousness meditation on Snape's part, on the vexed subject of Sirius Black and the Whomping Willow.

Mood Music
Set a few months after HBP. Snape has finally made a slip and has incurred Voldemort's most dire and inventive displeasure. Meanwhile the Death Eaters are kidnapping samples of various types of Muggle psychics and witches, to see if they have powers which they can use. Snape and an OC shamanic witch escape together into a system of underground tunnels and fight a running battle with the Death Eaters – and also with each other, snapping at each other, provoking each other and generally arguing about who will be in command (it will be Snape, of course – eventually). Includes expositions on the magical uses of shamanic drumming etc..

Style: songfic, on a longish hook (there are verses of songs stitched through parts of it but they are diegetic, because it's actually about the act of singing). Mood: bittersweet and a bit sinister (like the man himself). Fairly graphically bloody in places, and with references to torture and non-consensual sex which have occurred in the past, although very little of it is actually seen.

Sons of Prophecy
Sequel to Mood Music. Following his escape from Voldemort and his return to the Order of the Phoenix, Snape hardly has time to get his breath before he is arrested and imprisoned for the murder of Dumbledore. It falls to McGonagall to get him out of Azkaban – and to Lynsey, the shaman, to support him through the aftermath of recent traumatic events. Snape himself, meanwhile, has a war to organize.

Style: as for Mood Music, but with less singing. Again, references to torture and non-consensual sex which have occurred in the past; plus some current, not very graphic consensual sex.

Lost and Found
Inspired by another writer's story in which Snape was returned to Hogwarts with horrible injuries which could not be fixed by magic, so that there was nothing his friends could do except support him while he died. This takes the same scenario and looks at what you could actually achieve if you combined magical and mundane medical techniques. It begins as a medical drama, progresses into a hurt/comfort story about psychological repair, and finishes as a flirtatious HGSS romance.

Style: begins desperately grim and graphically bloody, but ends up quite light-hearted and hopeful. Again, references to torture and non-consensual sex which have occurred in the past, plus fairly graphic description of the treatment of severe injuries; some current, not very graphic consensual sex.

Giving Extras
Post-Deathly Hallows story which follows on from the drabble Flower Remedy. He knew he was going to die: he knew he had died. So why wasn't he dead – and why was everyone else suddenly so much older?

The Memory of Water
A view of the Voldemort wars, seen from below the surface. One-shot.

Available Resources
100-word drabble. Voldemort has invaded Hogwarts, and Harry is the last Order member standing. He needs a little something to tip the balance his way....

Monster
100-word drabble. Sometimes, the same patterns of behaviour repeat themselves through history....

Message in a Bottle
100-word drabble. There may be more than one way to put a stopper in death....

Turn and Turn About
100-word drabble. Sometimes, the obvious answer isn't the right one....

Flower Remedy
100-word drabble. Sometimes, the old ways are the best....

Still Recruiting
100-word drabble. The new Headmaster has his own method of dealing with graffiti....

The Ugly Little Boy
100-word drabble. She was sure she would love him forever, no matter what her sister thought....

Icons of Peace and War
100-word drabble. In a true portrait, the sitter's personality shines through....

Treacherous Road
A filk (Science Fiction or Fantasy-based folk song) about the position Snape finds himself in at the end of The Half-Blood Prince.

Biased
A filk about the way in which Snape is judged in comparison with the other characters: companion-piece to the essay But Snape is just nasty, right?

Duet for One
Poem: in order to pass as a Death Eater, Snape must rotate the dark side of his mind forwards and suppress every good thought and impulse which might betray him to the Dark Lord; but doing so isn't exactly psychologically healthy.

A Child's Cauldron of Verse
A selection of playground and nursery rhymes taken from Word of Mouth in the Magical World, a compilation of British wizarding oral literature collected in the early 24^th century by the renowned folklorist Ermintrude Hump.

A Beastly Bestiary
Comic verses suitable for small children, describing the magical creatures in Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them.

The Scalpipede
A missing entry from Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, written not by me but by John Nettleship – who was J.K. Rowling's Chemistry teacher at secondary school, and is about 70% of the blueprint for Snape.

Hexwood stuff

Summary
A brief summary of the book Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones, for those who haven't read it.

Thousand-Year Stare
Vignette of Mordion and Vierran about four years after the end of Hexwood.

House of Flint
Hexwood filk (SF-based folk song): Mordion in isolation, before the events of the book. Grim.

Killing Joke
Hexwood filk (SF-based folk song): Mordion considers various senses of humour, including his own. Fairly cheerful.

Scarlet
Hexwood filk (SF-based filk song): Mordion may be the victor but he's still incredibly damaged. Grim..

Hocus-Pocus
Hexwood filk (SF-based folk song): the Wood contemplates the patterns it has woven out of the lives of Mordion, Vierran, Arthur and Martellian. Fairly cheerful, very long and abstruse – basically a catalogue of all the resonances between Hexwood and Celtic tradition, couched in verse.

Essays:

Harry Potter stuff

Note that the fiction reviews section of my Old Tails for New Primates blog includes a couple of Potter-adjacent essays as well, although they are more concerned with the Potter books as a cultural phenomenon, rather than canon analysis.

Where is Spinner's End, and what do we know about the Snapes' house? – part of the Location, Location series.
This started life as a LiveJournal essay (under the name Borolin – I couldn't get the whitehound ID), but I decided to revamp it and bring it into line with my other essays, with a new section looking at the likely style and layout of the Snape house, as well as the location of the town it's set in.

Location, Location
Possible real-world locations which match various places mentioned in the Harry Potter books, such as Ottery St Catchpole or Little Whinging, or which may have inspired them.

The Map of Hogwarts Project
This multi-part project attempts to map Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and their environs as they are in the books rather than the films, based on minute canonical details such as the lines of sight from one point to another, with maps and diagrams. Nine years in the making as at 2014, and still only partially complete.

Reserved!Snape – Canon or Fanon?
An examination of Snape's character as revealed in the books, with particular reference to how Dyce and I have portrayed him in Lost and Found.

But Snape is just nasty, right?
A consideration of the evidence for Our Hero being exceptionally unpleasant. Revised to take account of the new canon in Deathly Hallows, and substantially updated in June 2009 as a result of discussions on Loose Canon.

Population and Pupils
What we know or can deduce about the number of students attending Hogwarts, and the size of the wizarding population in general.

Birthdates in the Harry Potter universe
An examination of what we know or can deduce about the dates of birth of various Potterverse characters. Includes not one but two coherent solutions to the anomalies surrounding the dating of Charlie Weasley.

When was Albus Dumbledore appointed as Headmaster?
A consistent timeline for Albus's appointment, based on discussions on the Loose Canon group.

When did the Potters go into hiding?
An examination of the conflicting evidence as to when Lily Potter's letter was written, when the Order photograph was taken and when exactly the Potters first went into hiding.

Sectumsempra and the nature of curses
An examination of what Sectumsempra actually does, what class of spell it is, and what makes a spell a Dark spell, a curse, a hex etc..

British cultural references in the Harry Potter books
This page identifies various points in the Harry Potter books which involve specifically British or European cultural references and in-jokes, and which may pass non-British readers by. They vary from the simple (references to British products and historical figures) to the complex (the nature of terrorism in late twentieth century Britain).

Fanon versus canon in the Harry Potter books
This page looks at details about the Potterverse characters and settings which are widely accepted in fanfiction as being established book canon, and as such are used as the basis for stories and debates, but which in fact originate either with the films or from constant repetition in fanfiction, unsupported by the books. Good examples include the ideas that Chocolate Frogs are animated; that saving someone's life results in a formal and/or magical Life Debt; that the Dursleys physically abuse Harry and that Snape is definitely tall.

The inheritance of magic
Possible mechanisms for the genetic transfer of magic in the Harry Potter universe.

When and why did the Marauders begin bullying Snape?
The dynamics of their interactions.

When did Snape join the Death Eaters?
When and why he joined, and when he was Marked.

The prophecy: an analysis
Who knew or surmised what, and why.

Thoughts on the werewolf incident
What precisely was going on and what did Sirius think he was achieving?

What exactly are the talking portraits?
They behave like actual people: could they really just be mechanical imitations?

Plot-holes plugged while-u-wait
Possible explanations for anomalies in the books, and other random thoughts. More to be added as I think of them.

A true original: John Nettleship and the roots of Severus Snape
A memorial essay for lovely John, scholar and fan, JK Rowling's Chemistry teacher and literary model, who said that Snape would be his Horcrux. With appendices:

Caerwent, Camelot and the magical coming-and-going lake: a detailed look at John's historical research and the curious history of his home village of Caerwent, once one of the last strongholds of Rome in Britain.

The Wizard: background information, lyrics and music for this loved but almost lost children's song which John used to perform to amuse his students.

The singing of John Nettleship: songs by John and by Phyllis Lewis, who was the visual model for Pomona Sprout.

There is also a condensed, 1,000-word version of A true original, which originally appeared in May 2012 in the Australian New Age publication Magick Magazine.

Links:
This is a list of fan-fiction stories which I personally find strikingly interesting and well-done. The majority of them are Harry Potter-verse stories about Snape, but other fandoms will be included if I see something which particularly appeals to me.

Loose Canon:
Discussion-group for anyone interested in analysing the details of the Harry Potter canon – when did Dumbledore become Headmaster? How large was Voldemort's army during the first war? All welcome.

Britpicker's Guide:
This is intended as a sort of FAQ sheet to aid American (usually) fan-writers trying to give their stories a convincing British setting. It lists common (and some less common) errors which seem to pull a lot of writers up. More will be added as I think of them.

FanFiction Follies:
Some common errors in fanfiction which are best avoided – a few words of advice for new authors – plus a glossary of common fannish terms and acronyms. More will be added as I think of them.

Fanfiction.net How-To:
A guide to navigating Fanfiction.net's uploading and text-editing features, with sample designs for attractive section-breaks which will display correctly on ffn. Updated to take account of the winter 2009/2010 ffn upgrade.

Character Codes:
Supplement to the Fanfiction.net How-To: a comprehensive list of all characters which have html Named Entity or Windows Alt+ codes, plus some others suitable for making attractive designs, with notes on their behaviour in Fanfiction.net.

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