Pretty, Pretty Pictures!

You may remember me posting a while back about some artwork that my good friend Limlight was working on for me in exchange for some knitted projects. Well, the work's all done at both ends now and I'm happy to say we're both pretty chuffed :D

The hats Limlight asked me to make were great fun, and I blogged about them over on my craft blog; they were both on a sci-fi theme and were really satisfying to make. She chose them both because they were cool hats and they were from two of her favourite shows: Ma Cobb's Firefly hat and Starbuck's Mandala hat, and here they are!

Jayne Cobb's 'cunning' hat that his Ma made him :) (sans pompom, which went on later)

Hat based on the mural on Starbuck's wall (Battlestar Galactica, as if you needed to ask!)

The pictures I asked Limlight to create for me are based on characters from my Harry Potter fanfiction Dreams and False Alarms (which I've heard is quite a good read, hint-hint!) - well, my versions of some of Rowling's characters, anyway, and one of my very own. Here they are, in all their glory:

Severus, Amelia and Remus; Amelia Brown, the new Muggle Studies Professor at Hogwarts has something of an effect on these interesting young men...

Amelia and her cousin Hermione Granger, being cousinly and winding each other up - it's Hermione's third year and she's beginning to develop that famous fiery temper!

I think these pictures are absolutely brilliant, and I can't think Limlight enough for bringing my character and her friends to life! By the way - unless your name is munchkin, Limlight or Rowling, mitts off :p

Much Ado About Hogwarts

Most of May and June are a bit of a blur now - mostly involving preparing to move house and large quantities of rain, along with the passing of my wonderful Grandad.

One thing I do remember though (largely because fanfiction.net provides you with a 'published' date) is starting a new Harry Potter fanfiction. I've been working on A Given Value of Safe - the sequel to Dreams and False Alarms - for a while (along with my proper novel, Daffodils in the Twilight), and needed a bit of a break. A few of the lines from Much Ado About Nothing kept rattling around in my brain and I decided to have a play (hah) with fitting it into a Marauder-era story - you know, try new styles, have different characters to mess with, see what new techniques I could fiddle with - and I'm having a great time! It's not how I intended it to go - the characters seem to have more say over what happens than I do in some chapters - and I really didn't intend it to be this long, but for some reason it works! I'm learning lots about how I write and what does and doesn't work in a narrative, I'm playing with poetry and prose and I get to get up close and personal with one of my favourite plays :D

Oh, and the reviews don;t hurt my self-esteem, either ;)

If you want to read it (please, please, please!) it lives on fanficiton.net and is called Much Ado About Hogwarts. Along with that pretty 'review' button. You know you want to!