I'm sorry to say that I think this story is a one-off - I just woke up one morning with the idea of it very detailed and I knew exactly what the major twists and turns would be.  I wrote like a fiend, had it beta-ed and brit-picked like crazy and then let it loose on a friendly audience.  I have other friends who are real writers - they were very encouraging of me and of this effort, but I can't imagine how hard it must be to write something when you don't have that kind of clear vision of how it all must go.I promise that if I ever get another bolt out of the blue like this one, I'll write again.

I'm sorry to say that I think this story is a one-off - I just woke up one morning with the idea of it very detailed and I knew exactly what the major twists and turns would be.  I wrote like a fiend, had it beta-ed and brit-picked like crazy and then let it loose on a friendly audience.  I have other friends who are real writers - they were very encouraging of me and of this effort, but I can't imagine how hard it must be to write something when you don't have that kind of clear vision of how it all must go.I promise that if I ever get another bolt out of the blue like this one, I'll write again.

Glad you enjoyed it - thank you for the feedback!

Glad you enjoyed it - thank you for the feedback!

You get halfway through your life and then suddenly something forces you to re-examine your presuppositions.  It can be vertigo-inducing :)

I look forward to seeing your stories :)

Yay!

Thank you!  I thought it was rather clever, myself.  I was snickering as I wrote it.  I asked my spouse to read it and his reaction was very noncommital, so I thought perhaps it wasn't as funny as I had hoped.

Oh no!  It was funny!  Maybe if your spouse doesn't read HP, and doesn't know what a stick in the mud Snape is, he wouldn't understand, but Snape's comment of "I find this entire conversation offensive in the extreme" had me CRYING laughing.BWAHAHAHA

I think he just thought the conversation was getting away from him and he was feeling huffy and unsettled.

Which one of them, do you think, is brave enough to venture forth?  Don't give up hope.

Glad that you're coming along for the ride :)

More is in the pipeline - Chapter 9.5 has been submitted to the queue.

It took a lot of courage for Severus to get to this point.

One of my friends was reading my earlier drafts and noted that there wasn't any dramatic tension.  Thus - the conflict between what they mean and what they say, and what they say and what the other person hears.

Thank you!

Discovering Rockaway Beach was one of my favorite surprises about living in NYC.

I like spending my Saturdays at a bookstore, too.

Good!

I hope you stick with it!

I think Hermione is a pretty reflective and perceptive person.  I can see her connecting the dots.  And I see Snape as having a wholely undeveloped sensual side.  Long repressed.

Well, if *I* had the power to make my clothes look like anything I wanted, I'd do that.

Thanks!

He's telling himself that he wants to let her figure out her path without influence from him - but really, I think, he's afraid he's imagined the whole thing, and if he approaches her she'll reject him.  Such a conflicted fellow, our Severus!

Observe the lone Snape in his natural habitat...

*blush*Thank you!  I try to write in an impressionistic manner - capturing moments in terms of how they feel, the real meat of the matter.  My punctuation is not the best (commas, in particular, bedevil me), but has been ruthlessly pruned and pared by my excellent betas, and the admins of this site.  I use the online thesaurus religiously in an attempt to avoid repetition, for the same reasons that you mentioned.  I'm glad that it's all coming together for you!

People ARE silly.  And romance is so treacherous.  The whole idea of trying to communicate with our hearts in the balance, when it's clear that everyone is speaking his or her own private language with its whole lexicon of specific meaning - well, it boggles the mind.

It certainly boggles my mind.  I tend to be a bit of an open book, like a Gryffindor.  I have to work at not blurting out whatever is in my head.  I live in a house full of people who are either unable or unwilling to communicate what is in their heads.  My son has asperger syndrome so isn't a great communicator.  My husband has asperger tendencies so a lot of times it's a communication skills thing.  But he also has Slytherin tendencies and knows how to leave out information.  My daughter is very able to communicate but can choose not to divulge information if she feels it is in her own best interest.  My husband and son will speak in metaphor or will finish a sentence without having started one.  They forget I don't know what the beginning of the sentence was.  It's pretty typical asperger stuff. 

The situation with Ron seemed like something that could happen, if two people weren't well matched.  Not that he's a terrible person - just that neither of their affections were particularly engaged.