Girldetective85: Hey guys! I'm Jules, one of HPFF's new validators.

JLHufflepuff: And I'm Jessi, another new validator. Well, kind of new, anyway.

Girldetective85: Jessi and I have just arrived at the brand-spanking-new offices of HPFF for our grand tour as new staff members.

JLHufflepuff: I definitely like what I'm seeing. I mean, the way the staff talked, I thought they were working from a wireless connection in a truck stop or something.

Girldetective85: The building looks so normal. Are you sure we've got the right address, Jessi? I half expected to see a huge poster of Sirius Black in a loincloth.

JLHufflepuff: (stands at the doorway apprehensively; pushes Jules forward) You go first.

Girldetective85: FINE. But you SO owe me! (takes a deep breath) Ooh automatic doors ... classy. And look, a receptionist desk with a house-elf! It's typing furiously into a dozen laptops at once. Oh man - you don't think that's someone important, do you? What if that's Jay or Logical? What if they're really house-elves?!?! (frightened squeal)

JLHufflepuff: Stay calm. (clears throat) Um, ma'am? Excuse me. We're the new validators ... Jay told us to be here at 9:00 sharp. Uh.....

Star Mochee: You is late, misses! Master Jay will be so angry with Star Mochee! Star Mochee will be finding Master Jay's hot pink tutu for sure, and then Star Mochee will has lost its job! Follow me!

JLHufflepuff: (looks around) What's in here? This looks like an awesome break room.

Girldetective85: Ooh look at this ginormous coffee machine! Here are some mugs! Let's fill 'er up (reaches for the coffee machine)

Star Mochee: (turns red in the face) WHAT IS YOU DOING? (slaps Jules's hand) No coffee for you until you is validated at least ..... 400 stories!

Girldetective85: OUCH! (eyes fill with tears) All I wanted ... *sniff* was some *sniff* morning joe...

JLHufflepuff: (cowers slightly) I think we're going to have to toughen up. We haven't even seen the queue yet. (glares as menacingly as possible at Star Mochee) Can we see something else if we can't have any of that? Like maybe our workspace?

Star Mochee: (rolls eyes and snorts) Weaklings. This way. You come with me.

Girldetective85: Look, Jessi! That's the podcast room! It looks like a MTV studio ... look at all the fancy audio equipment and the "On Air" sign!

JLHufflepuff: Whoah! Who is that in there? I think it's Snitchy... Should we go talk to her?

Girldetective85: Nah, let's play it cool. We don't want to look like drooling fangirls. (takes a deep breath, trying to restrain herself; gives in) SNITCHSISTA! I'm such a big FAN! I LOVE YOU!!! Can you sign my shirt?!

JLHufflepuff: We're totally gonna get fired. (eyes Mochee) Um, is that the staff room? (runs in and knocks over 12 foot stack of papers) That wasn't important, was it?

Star Mochee: (screeching) NOOOOO! That was Stack #132,242,212,498,921 of Dramiones! Miss has mixed it up with Stack #132,242,212,498,922!

Girldetective85: What is a Dramione, exactly?

Star Mochee: (looks at Jules pityingly) Miss will see. But you and other Miss will need to fix these piles up before Mistress LogicalRaven sees this or she will put you in the Emerald City!

JLHufflepuff: What's the Emerald Ci-

Star Mochee: (leaves the staff room in a huff; door slams behind her)

JLHufflepuff: (shrugs) How do we know which order these stories go in? (checks out a few fics; face turns red) Oh ... my...

Girldetective85: What? What? Let me see. (grabs a Dramione) Oh ... wow. Shouldn't this be tucked in the back of a Barnes & Noble, under a cover of a bare-chested man in a mini-kilt?

JLHufflepuff: (closes eyes) I need a break already. (leans against a bookshelf; bookshelf starts moving) AH! Hey, a secret passage! Look, Jules, torches and stone walls...

Girldetective85: Guess the Phantom turned to Harry Potter fanfiction to get over Christine. (grabs a torch) Come on, let's see where this goes!

JLHufflepuff: There's a door up ahead. It looks really heavy ... come on, help me push it. (door creaks open creepily) Oh wow - it smells SO good! Like piping hot coffee and donuts dripping with glazed sugar.

Girldetective85: That's because they're there on that desk! This is the Archive and Forum Admins' office! (points to sign) I'm starving. I'm SO stealing a Krispy Kreme. They can't fire me for being hungry, can they? (reaches for a donut)

JLHufflepuff: (nervous) Jules, don't touch it! I have a bad feeling about this!

Girldetective85: Don't worry. I'll do the Indiana Jones thing. (grabs a stapler, fingers wiggling; inches toward donut)

JLHufflepuff: Oh boy.

Girldetective85: (snatches donut and slams stapler down where the donut was) HA! See, nothing happened! Wait, what's that? Do you hear that noise, Jessi?

JLHufflepuff: Yeah, it sounds like thunder. Or maybe something reeeeally big rolling towards us... (turns to see a giant ball rolling towards us from an open wall) RUN!!!! It's going to SQUISH us!

Girldetective85: This way! There's a door over there - please be unlocked, please be unlocked. YES! (gets in, slams the door; looks around) This place is really dark and cold. How did they get these huge trees in here?

JLHufflepuff: Jules. Where the heck are we? It looks like the Forbidden Forest! Trees and dirt...

Girldetective85: Check. A night sky with a big full moon and lots of fog...

JLHufflepuff: Check. The howling of a werewolf...

Girldetective85: Check. Wait a second... (laughs nervously) Must be sound effects. They have loudspeakers playing somewhere, I'm sure. (picks up a twig) Dude, they really make an effort with this place.

JLHufflepuff: I'm starting to rethink this whole validating thing. Maybe we should just go back to being members and forget this whole thing.

Girldetective85: Me too. Let's go back and find that elf ... uh-oh. (turns around, tugs on door) It won't budge.

JLHufflepuff: Let me try. (tugs on door) You're right. Guess we have to go all the way through the woods .... hey, there's a light up ahead! It looks like it's coming from some kind of shack.

Girldetective85: We don't have any other choice, we'll have to go knock. (leads the way timidly; pauses) Did you hear that? There's some kind of rustling coming from over there...

JLHufflepuff: (pushes Jules) Don't look at it! Just keep going and maybe it'll leave us alone.

Mysterious Voice: (sinister laugh)

Both: (shrieking; runs to shack, pounds on door) Hello?! Hello!? Please let us in!

Kreemy Krisp: (opens door) Who is you?! (frowns) What is you doing here!

JLHufflepuff: Another house elf? You don't look like the other one ... you look kind of mean!

Kreemy Krisp: (eyes widen at the donut in Jules's hand; stomps on her foot VERY hard) WHAT IS YOU DOING WITH THAT! That is Mistress Kay's donut!

Girldetective85: OW! Okay when I agreed to take this position, I did NOT see any fine print about getting harassed by house-elves!

Kreemy Krisp: (snatches donut away) Krisp goes to put this back. You don't move! (shoves past Jessi and Jules; stalks into Forbidden Forest)

JLHufflepuff: Look, Jules. (points into shack) A table full of little colorful bottles. And there's a fire in front of that door! (picks up a piece of paper and reads aloud) "Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind. Two of us will help you, whichever you would find..."

Girldetective85: Oh NO! This is the Potions riddle from Book 1! (slaps forehead) I SUCK at riddles! Where's Hermione when you need her?!

JLHufflepuff: (cackles triumphantly, pointing at a bookshelf with all seven copies of the books) Right here! (thumbs through Book 1) Aha. This goes here ... this goes over here... this is the bad one... (mumbling, then holds up a bottle) It's THIS one!

Girldetective85: Are you sure?! It doesn't look like we're supposed to drink it. It has one of these squishy things that old-fashioned perfume bottles have... (takes bottle and squeezes)

JLHufflepuff: NO! Don't waste it, Jules! (the stream of liquid hits the fire and puts it out) Whoa. You just extinguished the fire.

Girldetective85: Go us! (rushes over to door and opens it)

JLHufflepuff: The house-elf told us to stay here!

Girldetective85: The little beast broke my toe. I think that means I get to do whatever I want. (goes in, looks around) Jessi, we've found some more offices!

JLHufflepuff: It's a very nice, normal-looking office. Bookshelves, a little tray with MORE donuts and coffee - DON'T TOUCH THEM, Jules ...

Girldetective85: (grumbling) I wasn't going to.

JLHufflepuff: Two comfy desk chairs, one with an "L" on the back and one with a "T." Look at the poster of Harry and Cho kissing on the side with the "L" chair.

Girldetective85: And there's a nice picture of Sirius Black taped above the "T" chair. Maybe this is LogicalRaven and timeturner's office!

JLHufflepuff: You're right, it is! Logical's favorite ship is Harry/Cho. (tiptoes into the room) I hope nothing weird happens to us. I kind of just want to get started on the queue...

Girldetective85: Look, a door that says "Do Not Enter." Let's go in.

JLHufflepuff: (groans) You're going to get us fired! (looks closely at the door) Wait, why would there be a "Do Not Enter" sign on a locked door? People can't enter anyway.

Girldetective85: Yes they can. If they catch the key. (points to a key flying around the ceiling)

JLHufflepuff: Urgh! I'm sick of these stupid games! (pulls out a chair and stands on it) I am catching this key if it's the last thing I do! (swipes at the key; misses)

Girldetective85: (climbs on timeturner's desk) I hope she doesn't mind. This'll be quick. (snatches at key; loses balance; falls flat on face) Ouch.

jLHufflepuff: (finds a roll of duct tape) I'm going to make a ball of this and chuck it at the key. (throws sticky ball at key) Yes! It's stuck to the wall! (wheels chair over and grabs the key) I got it! I got it!

Girldetective85: (cheers) Quick, try it on the door! (cheers again when the door opens; follows Jessi inside)

JLHufflepuff: It's really dark in here. I can't see a thing. (door slams shut behind us) Oh no!

Mysterious Voice: (deep, booming through the room) Mu hu hu ha ha ha! Welcome!

Girldetective85: (squeaks and grabs Jessi) Who's there?!

JLHufflepuff: (quavering) V-V-Voldemort?

Mysterious Voice: (sighs) Er, no. (back to booming voice) Are you JLHufflepuff and Girldetective85?

Both: Y-yes.

Mysterious Voice: Good! (I'm a big fan of "Visions of Greatness," by the way. Go Scorpy!) (clears throat) You have been selected to join the exclusive HPFF staff. I congratulate you on your promotion and on passing the first three tasks!

Girldetective85: Tasks? You were testing us?

Mysterious Voice: Of course! Task #1 involved an irresistible Krispy Kreme donut. It tested for a sweet tooth, which is mandatory if you're going to be working for us. Also, bonus points for using a stapler. Our last candidate for validator didn't put down anything at all. Obviously they have not seen Temple of Doom!

JLHufflepuff: (wipes brow) Wow! Jules passed that one with flying colors! Was the Forbidden Forest a test?

Mysterious Voice: Yes, we wanted to see if you were brave enough for the queue ... actually I'm lying, it's just fun to watch people throw a fit in a dark and scary forest. (back to booming voice) Task #2 involved the Riddle of the Potions. This required resourcefulness and the ability to thumb quickly through canon, locating with speed and dexterity the exact passage you need at any given second. This is required for all validators.

Girldetective85: (pats Jessi on the back) Way to go, Jessi!

Mysterious Voice: Bonus points for squeezing the potion at the fire. The last validating candidate simply drank the potion by squeezing it down his throat.

Girldetective85: Yikes. What happened?

Mysterious Voice: He died.

JLHufflepuff: (gasps) Really!?

Mysterious Voice: No. (back to booming voice) Task #3 involved a flying key to a forbidden door! This task tested your ingenuity at catching elusive things. You'll need that for the queue, in case some wise guy tries to slip a swear word into a 12+ story with a warning for Spoilers. He'll be the one it's SPOILED for! HA HA HA!

Girldetective85: (claps) Go Jessi! Catchin' swears with duct tape, all right!!

Mysterious Voice: Bonus points for seeing the "Do Not Enter" sign and immediately wanting to go in.

Girldetective85: Because it shows my mental resilience and ability to bend rules to my every whim?

Mysterious Voice: Nah, I just thought it was funny. (booming voice) Now that you have passed these preliminary challenges, there is one final task. Each of you must validate all of these stories before time runs out on this clock. (lights snap on)

JLHufflepuff: OH MAN! (looks at the enormous warehouse filled with stacks of paper)

Girldetective85: This is ridiculous! How much time do we have?!

Mysterious Voice: Here's the clock. (a huge digital clock appears with 1:00:00 on it) You have one hour before this place blows up.

Both: (hugging each other and crying)

Mysterious Voice: Do it to it! (loudspeaker clicks off; clock begins to count down)


Can Jules and Jessi race against time to validate a room full of stories? Will the room blow up our brave new validators? To whom does the mysterious voice belong? And how many calories does a Krispy Kreme REALLY have?

Find the answers to these burning questions in the next edition of: The Scariest Interview EVER!

Okay, I was going to make my first blog here something about myself and what I've been doing around the site this week but it turns out I’m not all that interesting at the moment. So instead I’m going to talk about the fandom, and in particular, those who wrock!

So, do you Wrock?

One of the things I love most about the Harry Potter fandom is that it embraces all sorts of people with all sorts of interests and talents. It’s really amazing to me how one series can spark so much creative drive in people. HPFF celebrates Potter people with a fondness for literature and writing, but fan fiction is far from the only creative outlet for fans. I personally have a very soft spot in my heart for all the wizard rockers out there, and there sure are a lot of them these days.

If you by chance don’t know about Wizard Rock, well, it’s pretty much what it sounds like… it’s hundreds of musicians writing and performing songs about Harry Potter. And there is some really amazing talent out there. These musicians put on concerts, sell CD’s and are an ever-growing presence in the fandom. Just like fan fiction authors, these artists use their talents to express their love of Harry Potter. So next time you need a fix of the Boy Who Lived, consider trying out some wizards rock. Drop by a concert, many are free and open to people of all ages, or just download a few songs.

And feel free to let me know if YOU wrock in the comments section...

It's been a crazy week in the staffroom. With the house challenges going strong, the Dobby's opening up and a dozen other things, we've had little downtime. Since we haven't been able to get out much, our staff room is littered with coffee mugs and stale doughnuts.

Anyway, just dropping a note to let you know what's playing on our staff radio this week. I figured it might be fun for everyone to know what we are banging our heads to while queue diving!

Dance with the Devil - Breaking Benjamin - timeturner
MMMBop- Hanson - LovlyRita
High School Never End - Bowling for Soup - LisaMacKay
Superfly - Curtis Mayfield - Arithmancy_wiz
Livin' on a Prayer - Bon Jovi - Harry_Potter_Mom
Leave Out All the Rest - Linkin Park - JLHufflepuff
Pointless Nostalgic - Jamie Cullum - AndrinaBlack
You Could Be Happy - Snow Patrol - Almost_witch
Red Necks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer - Hank Thompson - PropMaster
Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd - Hermione006
Don't Stop Believing - Journey - slytheringinny
Why does it always rain on me- Travis - Jay
"Fall For You" - Secondhand Serenade- LogicalRaven

Within the next 24 hours, nominations for the Dobby Awards will be officially opened. Make sure to stop by the forum and nominate up your favorites in each category!

So, I'm sure that many of you who are active on the forums are aware that I am the head of Slytherin house. And I'm absolutely pleased to say that I love my house and I'm so proud of them! They fought a tough match against Ravenclaw during the fourth challenge, which was Quidditch. Both teams performed admirably, but Slytherin lucked out and managed to find the snitch. Congratulations to both teams for their hard work. In the second match, Gryffindor edged out Hufflepuff in a thrilling finish, so congratulations to both of those teams as well. It's going to be a hard final game, I'm sure.

And where was I when the four houses were fighting the good fight? In the queue. Hiding.

It's okay, you can laugh. I was hiding in the queue, away from the fast paced "who's-gonna-post-next" match! And it wasn't that I was afraid of the speed or the fearless members playing the game...I was afraid of the game itself! You see, even though I had access to the answers and explicit instructions on how the game is played, I still didn't understand it! In fact, I believe Logical Raven laughed me.

She didn't just laugh at me...she "LMAO-ed" me. Her game was a brilliant design, it truly was. And though it was fast paced and a little confusing in the beginning, it really played out awesomely.

And I, the strong, cunning leader, the Slytherin Head of House...I hid in a pile of 15+ stories with mild violence warnings.

I'm sure our poor last head of house, Severus Snape, is rolling around in his grave.

But all is not lost. Upon reviewing the threads in my common room, the kind members of Slytherin have explained to me through their hard work what exactly was going on during the competition, and I'm coming back for the finale prepared and ready to help out!

Never fear, LovlyRita is here! And this time, there will be no hiding in the queue (unless Logical Raven laughs at me again)

Just kidding!! :)

I, like everyone else, have been staring at the blog screen since I said I would pitch in. I get the quivers when I do stuff like this, but oh well. I'm the second mod to post here WOOO! And I decided, "Well, might as well post something before I leave until Thursday on my glorious vacation!" It officially started yesterday, but what the hey - I can't stay away from HPFF for that long. Please, that would be virtual-suicide.

Anyway, yesterday I was spending my entire day inside, in an air-conditioned News Room attending meetings, working with the copy desk staff, and business reporters - watching them do their stuff as part of my senior project I have to complete. I got on HPFF there when I was done proofing the horrible horoscopes, and validated some posts that way I could just crash when I got home and watch So You Think You Can Dance, and sleep.

This morning I woke up again, got my stuff ready to leave for a birthday camp-out thing, and validated some more posts, updated some masterlists, and gave my Owl Inbox a good dusting.

You'd be surprised how many owls you can pile up in there. . . I can hear my mum downstairs laughing on the telephone obnoxiously and my brother watching cartoons on TV, which is making it very difficult to try and write my next chapter and post it before I leave. At least I don't have a dog running over my keyboard like other staff =).

Oops, I missed a few owls - I probably should get to those before I disappear. . .

Well! I can't say it was an exciting first post, but hey - it was entertaining!

Truthfully, I'm a wuss. It's rather pathetic, but is also oh-so-very true. Which is I've been staring at this very page for the last few hours, pressing random buttons and making words like 'ghajhsadb' and so on. Productive? I think so. Now, I'll get started on my first blog entry. The chances are this will be seen as rather useless, but I'm just trying to start up some hype.

Anyway - I'm the first Moderator to post on here for while. (Yes, I have to claim to be the first of something seeing LovlyRita already claimed another title and timeturner... well, she's always around here. Right?) Anyway - for those of you that don't know, I do wicked little things around the forum, mainly trying to clean things up. Although it seems that no matter how much you clean, more stuff will always come up behind you! I can't complain though, it's all with the job!

Now I've been trying to figure out what this 'secret' timeturner has up her sleeve that she mentioned a few days ago in her own blog post. And last night when I wasn't able to get onto a computer, I managed to have come up with a few ideas. Number one - timeturner, logical and jay all admit to actually being JK Rowling and handles three separate accounts to try and fool us all along. Number two - every single member is going to receive a *gasp* official prequel to HP. Or, number three - number one AND number two put together.**

I should probably go now. I'll leave you all to mill over your own theories while I go tell my dog to stop barking outside and then try to go through roughly 20 ship discussion requests. Or maybe I'll just do through and search for some spam. And validate some posts. And add links to a masterlist. And... it goes on and on.


** Note: No, to my knowledge timeturner, logicalraven and jay are NOT JK Rowling - nor are we all receiving a prequel that hasn't even been written. Although, it would be pretty cool if I was correct, wouldn't it?

I know that blogs aren't supposed to be scary, and yet it took me nearly 24 hours to work up the courage to make a post! Should I be the first staffer new to the blog who does it? Should I conform and wait for someone else to blog before I do? And after pacing back and forth, poking at the blog with a stick, and basically doing a lot of soul searching, I decided...why not? What do you have to lose?

So here I am! I'm excited to tell everyone about my interesting life and the time I spend validating! Well...maybe not interesting...but you know.

I shall begin my time here telling you about my afternoon, which I had set aside to work my way through the queue. After a hardy lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I made a big pitcher of lemonade and set out to work!

And as I was knee deep in a 14,000 word chapter (sheesh! I don't know how you all do this!), my sweet 'lil doggie Izzy wanted to sit next to her mommy! So I helped her to the couch, only to discover two bumps on her back. After several text messages to my husband...I learned they were ticks!! I almost threw my computer (and as a result, the queue) across the room! Ticks?! EW!

After completing the mighty "There are ticks in my house and on my dog? Gross! I hope they aren't on me! Ewewew!" tribal dance of the natives, I put poor Izzy outside and waited for her Daddy to come home to fix the situation.

But no worries! She is now all better and I am back in the queue. I just thought that you all should know how quickly distractions from validating can happen! At the drop of a hat, in the blink of an eye!

So, in conclusion, I'm excited to be here, and hopefully (fingers crossed) my next blog post will have everything to do with my success as a validator and NOTHING to do with ticks!

7:00 Finish up my shower and start a pot of coffee. Wonder why I still haven’t received my airmail package from Jay that is rumored to hold expensive British pastries. Sign online to drop him a note and let him know it still hasn’t arrived. Get distracted when I open my pm box and there are 18 new messages. Decide to deal with those before even more show up.

8:30 I forgot about my coffee and now its cold. I put another pot on and wake the kids. Throw together a quick breakfast for them and they sink in front of the tv to watch an oddly absorbing cartoon called “The Replacements”. Muse thoughtfully about what it would be like to replace my hubby with Sirius Black and then come to my senses – I prefer a man who doesn’t trip over drapery, thank you very much.

9:00 Kids are off to a day camp. Wee! I can stay in my jammies all day. Time to get back online and filter through my HPFF email. Oh, look! I may have won a free collection of the entire HP series! Grumble about the idiocy of such an email coming to an HPFF email address and then decide it must be time to upgrade my spam filters.

10:20 Still sorting through emails and working on the filters. Realize I probably do need to get dressed since the courier should be delivering some cover proofs for the story I’m working on. Too late. In jammies and fuzzy blue slippers I meet him at the door. I try to make myself seem halfway intelligent and mumble something about the package being from a publishing company. He doesn’t buy it. He gives me that look that says “humor her and back away quickly”. Perhaps I should have brushed my hair this morning.

10:30 Time to do some real work. Grab another cup of coffee and pull out the stack of edits I’m supposed to be working on and delve in.

12:45 My tummy is growling. Must find food. That reminds me: I never did send a note to Jay about my pastries. Gotta go do that. Get sidetracked with another dozen messages in my pm box and decide to check the trouble tickets while I’m at it. Use the nifty copy/paste feature to answer 11 about “when will my story be validated?”

1:30 Time to eat. Grab a quick sandwich and work on a scene in my story that the editor thinks needs more dialogue. I hate dialogue.

3:00 Decide the editor is insane and people talk way too much anyway. Give up on rewriting the dialogue and head to the site to work on the Dobby Awards. Check in with the moderators and validators. Ban some icky people that have nothing better to do with their time than harass the staff. Start to send Jay his pastry email but find 3 messages reporting plagiarism. Go hide stories and sent emails to the authors involved. Back to the forum and working on the Dobby’s and cleaning up around the forum.

5:30 Kids are home! They see I’m on HPFF and want to play the Yeti Seal toss. Have a rather amusing discussion with them about animal cruelty and how they think tossing creatures isn’t nice. Then they take over the computer and start chunking penguins as seal bait. When I can’t take anymore of the little penguin screaming “weeeeeeeeee!” I take my computer back.

8:00 Dinner is over. Dialogue scene has been rewritten thanks to that crafty seal toss game which got my creativity going and a cup of Starbucks my hubby brought home for me. It’s time to snuggle in to watch a movie with the family. Tonight’s feature? Transformers.

9:30 Summer bedtime for kiddos. Read a few chapters of “Tom Sawyer” before lights out.

10:30 Time to get my work done at HPFF. Go through the stack of emails that arrived since I last checked. Update the site stats. Check back in with the validators and mods to help out with the things they need done. Get started on the Dobby’s but receive a message about a new member that’s gone off the deep end posting stuff. Chase the person around, remove them and then spend an hour cleaning up the mess they made on the forum.

1:00 Feel guilty for having not updated my stories at the site. Open the only active story I have but am too tired to write anything. Feel terrible about it so I go read Violet Gryfindor’s Sirius/Lily because well, Sirius/Lily will always cheer a gal up. Check the reviews and realize that even though I’ve read them a hundred times I haven’t left a review on either. I must do this. But she probably wouldn’t like my lack of sleep rambling. Tell myself to remember to review it tomorrow when I’m actually coherent.

2:15 Hm, got a message from Jay. He’s asking something but I’m not sure quite what…which is odd because we are usually on the same wave length. He should have been in bed hours ago. After thirty minutes of messages back and forth, we both decide that we are both too tired to decipher what the other one is saying. It has something to do with knickers, chickens, pink tutus and the mermaid icon on my coffee cup but we are both clueless.

3:30 Decided to check through my messages one more time. My plagiarism pals from earlier in the day are not happy with me and have filled my email with nasty little messages. One in particular, reminds me about my box of pastries. No idea why. I drop a note to Jay, who still hasn’t gone to bed either, and finally let him know my package didn’t arrive. He thinks I’ve lost my marbles and tells me the post office isn’t even open at this hour. He listens to me whine for a bit then tells me to get some sleep. Sounds like a plan. Only 3 more hours until it starts all over again. Oh, wait. I need to go post on the HPFF blog. Better do that before I forget.

4:30 Bedtime for Bonzo. Sweet dreams everyone! And if you happen to see my pastries anywhere, please….send them my way, will you?

Happy Writing!

I know, I know. I just posted. But I can't help it, I'm so excited! We are about to have the most amazing event ever at HPFF. Something that has never been done before. Not just here but at any fanfiction site anywhere on the net. I'm just so giddy about the whole thing I'm about to pee in my knickers.

I can't say anymore right now or I'll get my rear kicked for spilling the beans but keep a close eye out for upcoming site events because one (the super secret one) will require advance registration and spaces will be limited.

Happy Writing!

I love Dobby time.

All year long, we staffers sit behind our little cubicles, chained to our desks on some days and validate away. We help get all those stories up into the archive so all our wonderful members can have something to read in the wee hours of the morning. Come Dobby time, though, all of that work comes together for the authors. All the sweat, tears, heartache and desperation get to be flaunted as you wait impatiently to see if you are going to earn a little Dobby ribbon that will be yours forever more.

It's more than just a contest. It's more than just a chance to help your favorite authors and stories get recognized. It's a time when all of us get to come together as a family and put each other on parade. We get to thank them for the hard work, thank them for the joy/sadness/laughter that their stories have brought us and lead other people to their works.

Okay, so I'm working on very little sleep and getting misty eyed. I'm a sap, I know. But still, this really is one of my favorite times at the site. And who knows, maybe in reading one of the stories to be nominated you'll find inspiration of your own and next year (fingers crossed) you'll be on the nomination list yourself!

Good luck to all of out authors - each of you, every single one of you, deserve a ribbon for just be willing to open your writing up to the critique of others. Well done and I wish you the absolute best as our award ceremony gets underway.