Taste of copper = blood.
Why do so many writers think that blood tastes of copper? Why do they assume that readers would just as easily understand that blood tastes of copper. Is copper a common part of the diet somewhere? If it is, I must explain my confusion. I've never tasted copper. I've never tasted blood, for that matter, either. I've seen it, bled quite often, been hurt even, but I never bit my tongue nor have I felt the urge to taste blood when I cut my finger.

Any idea why this copper taste thing is so common in fanfiction?

P.S. Now I remember I've often had blood in my mouth at the dentist's, but I can't remember its taste. If it was copper, I could not tell.

I have been silent for quite a while and will probably continue to read and comment only. I intend to do a major overhaul of my friends list in the next couple of days and before I do it I wish to tell you why and prevent, as much as I can, any hard feelings.

My only interest on LiveJournal is SSHG fanfiction. My first pick of people to friend was guided by my appreciation for their SSHG stories. I later learned that some of them have lost interest in SSHG fanfiction or, if not, use their LJs for other purposes mostly or always. For a long time now, when I read my Friends' list (almost every day), I skip an enormous percentage of content. It is not only that I have no interest in things written there, but I very often have no idea what they are writing about. I live in Austria and have little interest in television even here. My knowledge of the USA daily interest is limited to politics, and world politics at that. I know about the main presidential candidates, but not on a day-to-day basis. I have never seen a single Dr.Who episode, for instance, and I know of his/her name only because an author whose WIP I crave mentions him/her as her current interest.

I despise memes, but I have no problem disregarding them as long as there is chance of reading something about SSHG once in a while. The same goes for private or semi-private stuff that I don't understand or don't feel like getting into. I am good at "diagonal" reading and skipping altogether. But, very often, there is nothing SSHG at all and little chance of ever appearing.

So, I am going to unfriend many people and try to friend others, on one basis only: SSHG content or lack thereof.
Please don't be offended if I unfriend you. It is not personal.

I would appreciate very much if you could point me to LJs which deal with SSHG fandom. I am sure there are many that I know nothing about.

Thank you.
Lipasnape

I painted my first Snape last night and thought it would be a fitting topic for my neglected LiveJournal. Only, I am so full of something else, I must twist my arm to even mention it. I made a userpic of it, I hope it shows, and the big picture can be seen HERE . No, it is a worthy topic after all. I found a great little painting program, ArtRage 2. For twenty US dollars you get an infinite supply of all kinds of canvas, paper, brushes, pencils, charcoals, sprays and even "real" tubes of paint to squeeze out and mix on the spot. I haven't painted since I left high school, 35 years ago, I never really missed it, but this is such a treat. User-friendly as in you can start right away.

All right, before I do my hot topic for tonight, I must mention that last week's WIKTT list and Saturday chat gave me a push to do something about the SS/HG saga that I've been carrying in my head with only a few random chapters written down. I even read for a few hours about basic instructions for writers (shiv5468 gave some guideline links last weekend). I'm sure you know that all that is helpful and logical and easier said than done. Some images from my prospective fic have been haunting me for a while now, so I was ripe to try to paint them. With this toy in my hand, I just might. But I have not opened the file to read where I stand, let alone write.

A few hours ago I cast a glance at my friends' journals and regann's complaint about hogwarts_elite caught my attention, so I jumped to see what it was about. There is little about LiveJournaling that isn't new to me. I am better acquainted with mailing lists than blogs, but I have mostly managed to avoid places ruled by the very young, especially those of the USA persuasion. If you come from there, you cannot possibly imagine how alien it is to me. Teenagers from my own family are alien to me, despite love and familiarity and I do not have an issue with that. It is the natural way. I am also at peace with the USA at ground roots level. Almost fifty years of watching Hollywood movies have not left me untouched. I've read a small library wing of American books (more before JKR invaded my life than after) and I had a full contact revelation when I made my pilgrimage to attempt the American dream in 1990.

But, still, what I found in the megalopolis hogwarts_elite terrified me. I hadn't know this monster existed and I don't know if they produce any quality. It seems to me that whatever is made there stays there, but if not, I will gladly look/read before judging them on all counts.
( My findings are under this link )

I came across fractal pictures and a relatively user-friendly application Fractal Explorer so, naturally, I've been exploring. Also naturally, I managed to corrupt the innocent application to produce Harry Potter illustrations.
Please take a look and tell me if there is any point to this activity. My userpic is one the results. Other examples can be found HERE . Feel free to be very critical. I already suspect that I am wasting my time so a push away might do me good.

Happy birthday, dear Severus. May you live beyond the end of the seventh book and find happiness of your choice.

I've read all the gifts so far delivered in the SSHG Exchange. I liked many of them, some were terribly interesting, but... I am listing here only the stories without any buts whatsoever. Thank you, anonymous authors. I am looking forwart to learning who you are.

For the Present I Speak Your Echo
I was carried by the story and bumped into the empty paragraph at the end, and awed by your prose (or is it poetry?) hesitated to comment with what I have of words. So I read all comments and I feel as if your readers channeled your sentiment driven and needing to give the story more time, more chance for more life. I have no idea who you are, but I know that I will read all you have written once I learn your identity.

The Wheel of the Moon
Outstanding. Nothing forgotten, nothing overdone. (If a gun was shown in the first act, it went off before the curtain fell.) You found use for many a forgotten canon detail. Even the preposterousness of the whole ordeal neatly follows precedents from the canon (eg. Goblet of Fire). I am usually bored to the point of snoring with grand action scenes (guns or wands, cars or brooms), but yours was as compelling as the rest of the story.
Great work. Better than many a best seller.

The Devil You Know
Excellent. The story is compact and powerful, no wavering or indecision -- just like your Snape.

Snapes On A Plane
Absolutely brilliantly hilarious, starting from Minerva's exit with a bang, through hundreds of Pythonesque twists down to the unhappy future of the baby Longbottom. Reading this was as funny as watching Allo, Allo and Blackadder. You could be making big money in the media of your choice. Are you?

Loss
Snape alone with two photos in his dungeon: one with Albus, one with Hermione. Very sad.

Falling
Excellent story, superb writing.

To Make Much of Time
A funny story, full of everything. I mean, everything. Including Lucius in drag, shaved clean of all that silvery hair.

Better With Chocolate
Good without chocolate, too.

No Dungeon So Dark
Darkfic, very good. Morality and love are there, though hidden and burried with Snape.

Third Time's the Charm
Blind date with Percy with Snape as the waiter, for starters. How well they clash.

The Fifty-Third Tuesday
Excellent story. Real life-like angst. And hurt and comfort. And worry. Live characters in actual interaction.

A Matter Of Perspective
Nice. Not feasible, but sweet.

The Ninth Life
Heavy wartime reality of living and dying. Some skilful plotting. Some heavy suffering, physical and emotional. Altogether: a good story.

Mistletoe
A warm and touching Xmas story.

True Colors by Elephas
Complete in 5 chapters. Unpretentious but well well done. Snape the outcast captured in New Zealand and left in St. Mungo's to die. But, Hermione works there as a Healer.

Shimmer by Aoibheann
One-shot. An optimistic Snape, OMG!

Fade by southern_witch_69
One-shot. A sad sad take on surviving the pain of loss and loving again. Read only when necessary. It hurts.

On the Road That I Have Taken by Humanity74
Chapter 50. This comes after such a long time that I'd completely forgotten that it was a WIP. I remember the main issue (loop) as resolved, but it wasn't really. I had to go back to several chapters in order to remember where we were. This is a "one of a kind" plot, well written and still open for very different endings. Everything and anything can still go wrong. A time-turner, time-loop plot with breaking the loop and making new future for the first time. Not knowing if it is new, not knowing if repetition is good or even possible. A rare treat.

I roamed around the fandom (getting lost repeatedly) and I came across Canon Illustrations Chapter by Chapter. With a lot of time and persistance very good pieces of art can be found.

First: I apologize to shiv5468 for assuming she did what she wouldn't and didn't do. I should have asked her before taking public action (regardless of how small an audience I have) based on my own jumping to concusions.

Second: I've removed the offensive text from my journal.

Third: I've asked SSHG_Exchange moderators to inform the public that negative comments on Gifts are not welcome. I did not know that different rules apply to Gifts than to fanfiction published elsewhere. I did not understand that gifters take these gifts literally. I don't and I had no idea that they did. It is not common knowledge, it is not self-evident. Some visitors come from Mars and have no way of knowing what gifts are great no matter what.

Fourth: I thank larilee for explaining the reasons why an author of a gift might be more sensitive to criticism than s/he would be had it not been a gift, but a regular story.

Fifth: I will keep my journal private from now on. It will do more good that way. I will be able to keep better track of the HGSS fics I've read. I will make no enemies. I will publicize only the fics I heavily recommend, and there aren't many.

Transfiguration of the Heart by Losille
Chapter 25. The usual after-school Hogwarts-professors' love affair spiced by Minerva's dislike of Severus and her intent to pair Hermione with Viktor.

Evil Hermione by uzicfan5
Chapter 7, Hermione 20 years in the past has nightmares. The author says s/he has lost motivation. I don't remember seeing any evil signs in Hermione so far and have no idea where the story was meant to go.

What Needs To Be Done by InLoveWithLove
Chapter 3. Riddle/Granger time-turner. Interesting so far. I wonder if you are making Hermione foolhardy on purpose, or she slipped through your fingers. If she'd done her research so well that she really believes that she has covered all angles, she is in trouble. How could she forget that it was Slughorn who talked about Horcruxes with Tom? How could she not realize what an oversight it was? If Myrtle is dead, she is very late, too late even to kill him, let alone turn him to the Light. Now, if you did all this on purpose, giving us a story about an overconfident while incompetent Hermione, it could be a really really interesting story.

Accountable by Dyce
Chapter 8, Filch poisoned instead of Harry, Hermione in charge of things. As good as before.

Maternal Instinct by LadySnapey
Chapter 33. Things keep happening, I keep reading, no justifications available.

Revelations of a Bed and Breakfast by Soul Bound
One-shot. Harry catches Snape proposing (after making love) marriage to Hermione. Yet another regurgitation of the ubiquitious cliches.

New Perspective: THE CHOSEN by Bellegeste
This is a complete work. I have only just started reading it because the sequel, New Perspective 2, has caught attention of (some in) the fandom. Interesting and reasonably well written, but hardly sufficient without the sequel.

New Perspective 2 : TAKEN ON TRUST by Bellegeste
WIP, I've reached Chapter 3. I am irritated with babbling and insecure Hermione. The story goes too slow through too many words. But I'll read on anyway. So what else is new?

Pet Project by Caeria
Chapter 18, after an awful lot of time. I remember some structural details, but not where the story was going. If it updates soon, I might need to revisit the rest.

Looking for Magic by Hypnobarb
Chapter 58. Setting the bigger picture, a lot of dry history and official conversation, but necessary, I believe.

When Up Becomes Down by HiddenAllusion
Chapter 32, after a long wait. Snape and Hermione are hidden under Fidelius together and there were all the usual problems when she strives to gain respect and independence, but now they are about to embark on a spy mission in disguise. Interesting plot.

Reprisal by broomclosetravenclaw
Chapter 2, Hermione consumed with plans for revenge against Snape, uses Lupin in more than one way. Promising twist in the usual plot. OOC Hermione out of necessity. Thin writemanship, though.

Hostile Intentions by ladyinthecloak
Chapter 2. The Grangers are rather Dursleyish, easily offended and willing to take Hermione to the "normal" world. The plot promises to reveal evil in the post-Voldemort world, which I consider quite natural. It seems that our heroes are a bit too good, though.

Lost and Found by Borolin (Whitehound and Dyce)
Chapter 7, that is as far as I got in two days. I've been reminded about this story at least twenty times in the last few months, but only now started to read it. Snape has finally woken up. The medical details were tedious. I don't like hospital stories. Characters were rather non-existant so far, with unbelievable sentences coming out of their mouths. I hope it will improve once Dyce starts writing Hermione.

Pumblechook by wartcap
Chapter 14. Lunch at Luna's. It is well written as usual. I must be tired. I did not enjoy what I appreciated.

Epiphany by melusin
Chapter 11. Mostly smut, read a few hundred times in exactly the same words, so it does not read as erotica at all. It was a long time since I read previous chapters so I cannot be sure, but I seem to remember that the story was told jumping back and forth in time too many times to really follow. I might wait for the last chapter to be posted before I read any more.

An Army of Snapes by ladyofthemasque
Complete in 8 chapters. I've known about this story for a long time, but only now managed to read it. The idea is excellent and mostly well developed, but the story is far far far far far far too long for no good reason. It is detrimentally overworded. I had to force myself to go back to it many times.

Accountable by Dyce
Chapter 7. Excellent as the previous chapters. I am glad the story is finished and will update often.

New Beginnings by nogod1215
WIP. Chapter 15. All characters in this story are OOC. Ron beats Hermione almost to death. She bears it for years. Snape is kind. Harry and Draco are married. Nothing happens except domestic violence and domestic violence is not justified.

Fighting For His Freedom by lilsnape
WIP. Chapter 10. Until now I had no explanation why the autor writes this story. Now I believe s/he wants to put Snape and Hermione in some privately important locations in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Aparating from England to Moscow, then taking the train north. Why? What why? Whyever not? I solemnly swear that I will not read more of it.

Black Seduction by Snapesflower
Complete in 14 chapters. Somebody praised this one highly on the WIKTT list, highly as in "best ever", so I looked. It is PWP with something like a plot, but none of it works for me. Unconvincing: characters, justifications, passion, sex, love. False, all of it.

Ask Calus by Hermy Puckle
Complete in 11 chapters. Writing style unusual for HGSS, kind of like "Front Page" with a running commentary, only here the commentary comes from the stupidest Hermione ever, the kind that Snape as we know him would never be attracted to. Oh, well.

To Put Him Out Of His Misery by septentrion
Complete in 7 chapters. Based on drabbles, and so it remains. I don't get it. Must be stupid. Why would anybody write this? Why would anybody read this and leave a trace of it? Oh, well.

No Loyalty in the Moonlight by Ariadne AWS
Chapter 11. I don't like these winds shifting cold darkness among stones and the like. Appropriate images? I don't care.

The Twenty by Leyna Rountree
Complete. I've read all 25 chapters. Pity it was drowned in too many words, excessive repetition of the basic (false) dilemma. Oh, well.

Accountable by Dyce
Chapters 5 and 6, Hermione learns that texbooks in Potions have been deliberately flawed. Hermione diagnoses Harry as suffereng from an unprecedented lack of doom. Albus suspects Snape is in the same situation.

How A Few Drinks Can Change Your Life by Maddy Riddle
One-shot recommended by Shiv. Lucius and Hermione ploting to become Minister of Magic. Left me unmoved and unimpressed.

The Twenty by Leyna Rountree
The story grabbed me for real. I am at Chapter 14 at the moment. Long, complicated, but very interesting.