Profile

All right, then...here are the basics.

I'm 37 years old and I live in a small city in Ontario. I'm a writer, a book addict, a musician (violin, viola, bagpipes, and a soprano in two choirs), and a licensed, if not quite practicing, teacher. I currently volunteer in an elementary school classroom to brush up on my skills and gain a bit more experience; it's been working out quite nicely, and I'm enjoying it immensely. I am also a music teacher of sorts, as I've been teaching beginning students how to play the Great Highland Bagpipe for the past several years. Occasionally, I've been known to deface my sketchbook as well, though what ends up on the page isn't ever at all close to the idea that inspired it. Oh, and I also crochet, and though most of my projects to date have been simpler things like blankets and scarves, I'm starting to branch out a bit.

I mentioned earlier that I write. Although I've used the name "Pennfana" on various websites since sometime in 2004, most of my activity under this name has been writing-related. And while I do have a few original works in progress that I will probably try to get published someday, most of what I write is fan fiction, usually based on the Harry Potter series. Most of that is humour. Or at least, it's intended to be funny...whether it actually is can sometimes be a very different thing, though over the years I've found that what makes me laugh when I'm writing it will usually be received fairly well by the people who read it. Now, I know that fanfic doesn't really have the same kind of prestige as most other kinds of writing, and that it's often perceived to be far less creative than anything else, but I'm not ashamed to say that I'm a fan fiction writer. Several of my friends are fanfic writers as well, and they're among the most creative people I know. And in the course of my life I've had the privilege of knowing a lot of very creative people.

I'm also a pretty good cook, but I used to absolutely suck at baking, though I'm (slowly) improving. A few years ago, when I tried to bake a cake, it blew up in the oven. I'm still not sure what I did wrong with it.