March Featured Author

[margotlefaye]

Thank you to everyone who voted to make me one of Hawthorn & Vine’s featured writers for the month of March. Herewith a bit of an introduction to me and to my writing. As I said in my HV biography, I’m an older fan, in my mid-fifties, married, with an adult child. We share our suburban home with a rescue cat. Or, she shares it with us, since

Comments

[dianoram]

Congratulations! :-) I've been following your work since Buffy times and your HP fics are just as brilliant!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Just one thing:
"In canon, I always thought Hermione was better matched to Harry than Ron, and thought Harry’s attachment to Ginny was unhealthy, as it seemed more about wanting to belong to her family than about Ginny, herself."

Ok. With this you've about summed up every subtle, nagging feeling I couldn't quite pinpoint.

[margotlefaye]

Thank you. Glad you like both sets of stories.

The weird thing about Harry/Ginny in canon is that JKR introduced Ginny's crush on Harry in the second book, where she seems to be star-struck by Harry's fame as The-Boy-Who-Lived just after we've been told how uncomfortable Harry is with that fame/notoriety. It seemed to me at the time that it was simply a signal of how pervasive Harry's fame was, how everyone knew him and had expectations of him, even in the family of Harry's best friend. The idea that Ginny's crush at 11 years old could be the basis of anything remotely resembling mature, life-long love was...a little far-fetched, at best, and downright creepy, at worst. Or, so I thought, anyway.

Suffice it to say, I'm not a Ginny/Harry fan.

[akashathekitty]

*butts in* What? I stalk you, you know that.

I think the ship could have worked if she'd put some thought into it and made it clear that Ginny wasn't just some star-struck Lily look-alike that happened to be a Weasley as well (ok, ew on all that), but actually had developed the relationship between them to go beyond that and become something real.

I distinctly remember being disappointed in HBP that we didn't get to see any interactions at all between them during the summer holiday and then BAM, he was all possessive of her. There was this HUGE chunk missing of how the hell we ended up there. I know the books are hardly romance, but come on -- she could have given us something!

I actually sort of wanted them to get together somehow (yeah, sorry, I always saw Harry/Hermione as almost incestuous >_> Yes, I'm aware there's irony to be had), so I think -- don't know, but think -- that maybe some Harry/Ginny shippers/ficcers are trying to fill that canon hole and make the ship work in that healthier way that JKR just never did

[margotlefaye]

That's exactly the point. The pairing could have worked if the author had done something to develop it. But, she didn't, so all we are left with is the "ew" stuff

[akashathekitty]

I don't think we disagree anywhere XD

I was ok with Ron/Hermione, really. I mean, I was never a great fan of Ron, but I don't really expect (or want) every relationship to make perfect sense to me. Sometimes people fall for the oddest people and they somehow make it work.

I mostly was disappointed at the lack of Ron-growth in the Epilogue that Never Happened and how Hermione was far too "Oh, you! *giggle*" about that. =/

[margotlefaye]

Yeah, I don't think we disagree about most of these issues, either

[akashathekitty]

I agree that "show, don't tell" applies and maybe Ron had less redeeming qualities than I remember, because it's been a while since I read the books, but I think that I was able to forgive him for being a "mean-spirited slacker" because, eh, that's most of the teenage boys I know. I expected him to grow out of it.

It was when he didn't that I became disappointed. Also in Hermione because while she may not be aware of everything he does, she should know him well enough after twenty-six years to not be so indulgent with him. The whole thing just rang untrue to me.

TBH, one of the most significant "EWE?" things for me (apart from shipping Draco/Hermione instead, of course) is growing Ron the hell up instead of cheating him of some of the potential that I at least felt I glimpsed from time to time.

By the way, I don't think I have a snowball's chance in hell of finishing my DBB on time. I am sad. D: (and yes, that is slightly on-topic, but not going to go into why that is XD)

[margotlefaye]

I thought the topic of the entire post was writing, so I think we've been on topic all along. *G*

Sorry about the DBB. I may end up in the same place, though I hope not. Still, even if we don't finish by the deadline, we can always get back to our respective stories later, when we have the time.

ITA agree with your points about Ron: he did show flashes of potential, and the epilogue did cheat him out of them. Ah, well...