#poto romania

[marleneoftheopera]

Now there are several things I really like about the 2023 Romanian production. Overall, I might even go so far as to say it’s one of the best non-replicas. But this version of the Il Muto ballet… I just want to know what the creative thought process was behind it.

From alle.petrescu on Instagram.

[operafantomet]

...my music.... my music... 1. to 4. Irina Ioana Baiant and Adrian Nour, Romania 2015 5. and 6. Astrid Giske and Espen Grjotheim, Norway 2018-2019 7. Mira Ormala and Espen Grjotheim, Norway 2018 8. Astrid Giske and Espen Grjotheim, Norway 2019 9. to 11. Astrid Giske, Norway 2018-2019 12. and 13. Astrid Giske and Andreas Hoff, Norway 2019 14. and 15. Amy Manford and Ben Forster, Greece 2020 16. Georgia Wilkinson and Dougie Carter, Greece 2023 17. Harriet Jones and Tim Howar, Greece 2023 (MOTN in Romania / Norway / Greece, designed by Andrew Riley)

[ballerinadellamusica]

Confirmed cast members for the Middle East tour:

Rachel Bird

David Burilin

Ester Cameron

Grace Chapman

Maria Conneely

Paul Erbs

Daniel Jagusz-Holley

Michael Kirby

Ebony Jayne Kitts

Rhidian Marc

Rebecca Ridout

Nikki Skinner

These people have been confirmed to be part of the tour by their agents or Spotlight cvs.

[lucygold95]

POTO Romania video.

[cantikdaae]

A non-replica version of Phantom is coming to the national opera of Bucharest next month, why is no one talking about this?

Also look at that proscenium

[mel-0n-earth]

Everyone and their mother needs to be talking about Bucharest's current production of POTO, I'm losing my mind over it. Like, they said "what does Romania do best?" and someone said "Dracula" and the whole production was like Y E S and then they cast the most gorgeous angelic voice ever as the Phantom like??????????

Also, I don't speak Romanian but it just SOUNDS utterly gorgeous.

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

For the send a fic idea ask:

What are your thought on a Phantom of the Opera vampire AU? 👀

OMG OMG OMG

I do not have the brain to write one, but I WISH I did and I am SO excited to share why.

About two years ago I got into a minor debate about whether "sexy" vampires are a "modern" invention or if there's any basis for it.

Now my standard for "Modern" as far as vampires go is BD and AD ("Before Dracula" and "After Dracula")

So the answer to that was "Yes and No".

No, because "original," vampires of Slavic folklore are mainly zombie-like.

Bram Stoker's classic Gothic novel is largely considered the birth of the modern vampire in pop-culture, and that's TRUE

BUT

He is NOT the first example of the Vampire as a fantastical erotic stalker in media.

Now most people probably do know that Dracula was predated by John Polidori's The Vampyre and Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood by several decades.

But the ORIGIN of the erotic vampire predate THEM by more than a century.

Widely considered the first appearance of a vampire in media is the 1748 poem Der Vampire by Heinrich August Ossenfelder. (Read more about that here)

The poem is notable, not only for being the first recorded appearance of a vampire in fiction, but also for its intense erotic subtext.

So how does all this relate to a PotO Vampire AU? Well because when I rediscovered this poem after getting into PotO I discovered in it a few things that connect it, albeit loosely, that connect it to Phantom, some things I think will probably jump out to you as well, including, what I think, is the ideal title for a PotO Vampire AU.

Here is the text of the poem's English translation, which is, like the first translation of Phantom of the Opera, flawed but iconic:

My dear young maiden clingeth Unbending. fast and firm To all the long-held teaching Of a mother ever true; As in vampires unmortal Folk on the Theyse's portal Heyduck-like do believe. But my Christine thou dost dally, And wilt my loving parry Till I myself avenging To a vampire's health a-drinking Him toast in pale tockay. And as softly thou art sleeping To thee shall I come creeping And thy life's blood drain away. And so shalt thou be trembling For thus shall I be kissing And death's threshold thou' it be crossing With fear, in my cold arms. And last shall I thee question Compared to such instruction What are a mother's charms?

If I ever DID work up enough of an actual story to write a PotO Vampire AU, I would, without restraint entitle it "But My Christine, Thou Dost Dally"

But the other section I highlighted you'll notice is the mention of Tockay.

Now Tockay appearing here is not an astonishing thing. It's a sweet Hungarian wine, and as the poem alludes to the Eastern European origins of vampiric lore, the likening of a maiden's blood to this particular wine is not at all shocking.

What does make me smile to myself a bit is the fact that Tockay is also mentioned in both Dracula and The Phantom of the Opera. Its not really a massive bombshell in either of these places either, because Dracula himself serves Jonathan Harker at his castle in Romania, with his tasty roast chicken dinner; and Gaston Leroux has Erik serve Christine a duvet of Chicken with tockay during her stay in his house by the lake.

(Also not too much of a stretch in the case of PotO because Tockay was very in vogue in the early 20th century and only fell out of favour following the Great War when availability became scarce. But Gaston Leroux was a noted admirer of Dracula, and even mentioned Erik reading vampire serials in the original Gaulois serial.)

Tl;dr I have the perfect title for a PotO Vampire Fic

I just don't have the brain to write it.

Yet.

[rucow]

ok here's my interpretation of the phantom, specifically female phantom bc im a lesbian and i crave more women characters in fiction who have actual depth and are a bit unhinged :'D

(please keep in mind that i haven't read the book yet and that my way of seeing her is based mostly on my own imagination and also me projecting very hard on her😭)

putting this under a read more bc its Long long

first, here is my art of fem!phantom ! and one more art of her

to begin, i headcanon the phantom to be named erica with a c, like the flower that grows in harsh conditions and that's very enduring and requires little water to thrive. i think it suits her! please look up "erica flower" and see for yourself :)

i think 35 is a good age for her, the same age as how long the broadway poto has been running for before closing :')

let's talk about her early life. she was born to a loving mother somewhere in eastern europe (modern day romania perhaps 👉👈), and her appearance was indeed unique but not disfigured. she was born with a birth mark of sorts that affected half of her face and her hair as well, causing strands of her black hair to lack pigment and appear as white (im thinking maybe vitiligo? idk exactly but the point is she looked Unique). she has grey eyes. besides that, as an infant she had a very quiet and calm personality as well, not really crying loudly like most babies do and often staring deeply at people, appearing "creepy" to them. (hint: she was just autistic)

erica's mother loved her. she thought these traits made her special and beautiful, not strange or unsettling. her mother would sing to little erica every day and night, but thats something erica doesn't remember, because her mother died far too soon (i like to keep the cause of death vague) and so little infant erica ended up in an orphanage.

now, the caretakers in the orphanage saw these unique traits of hers differently than her mother did. where erica's mother saw beauty and something special, these people saw Evil and Wrong. they thought they could pray away erica's "affliction" and "cure" her, both her appearance and her quiet reserved odd personality.

she was only about one year old when one of the orphanage caretakers tried a new way of "curing" erica via pouring acid on her little face. the acid dripped onto her neck as well. erica doesn't know this is what caused her scarring. as far as she knows, she has always looked the way she does. she thinks she was born this way, that she was doomed in some way, and sadly she will never know the truth: that this was Done to her

erica spent her first years of life in bandages and healing. even after she had healed, the orphanage caretakers kept her bandages on because they didn't like to See her. they didn't want to acknowledge what they'd done, so they kept her hidden and covered up and pretended her skin would be fine under the bandages.

(this is based on the 2004 film) the travelling fair. members would occasionally visit orphanages and other institutions while pretending to be interested in adopting, when in reality they were interested only in finding children they could exploit. when they saw little erica, who was still only a few years old, they knew they could make money off of her. the orphanage's caretakers were most relieved to be rid of her.

and then we all know what happened, and how a young madame giry took young erica and brought her to the opera and kept her safe and hidden. but erica was deeply traumatised and acted purely on instinct, she was completely nonverbal and nonresponsive. to this day, erica and madame giry still don't speak; their agreements are speechless and they both prefer it that way. erica is very uncomfortable acknowledging her past, so she secretly appreciates madame giry for not prying despite the fact that she witnessed little erica Murdering a whole grown man (again, she acted purely on instinct, she was protecting herself)

the opera was all she's ever known, and she has watched singers and managers and dancers come and go, while she remained. art and drama are all she's ever known. she's never felt the breeze in her hair or the sun on her face. she has access to the opera's roof, but she only goes there at nighttime when she can't be seen, and only on extremely rare occasions. art is her only escape and her only outlet. she doesn't just create music, she also paints, and she can sculpt if she has the materials for it. she creates any and all art

erica is incredibly smart as well, and has a vast knowledge on many topics despite lacking any form of education. she learned to read by watching the operas, because sometimes there would be signs and written words on the props. she paid close attention to any and all information she could get, and there were a lot of old things stored down there beneath the opera house that helped her learn and discover new things. but even so, her knowledge of the real world is incredibly limited. she has no idea what the sea sounds like, or what mountain air smells like

having so little to do, she focused her attention on the operas and on studying them, seeing what could be improved and thinking of how to make them come to life. she found most of the singers and dancers lacking, she felt no one really understood the passion required to make a performance feel alive. but that is probably because the performances were just a job to most of those people, while for erica it was her entire lifestyle. at the end of the day, the performers and managers and whatnot would go home to their families and see to their lives, while erica can never leave the opera house. she's fixated on every aspect of it, from the music to the choreography to the management... she constantly sees things that could be improved, and that leads me to my next point.

she started disguising as the phantom in order to help bring her vision to life, by communicating what she wants changed in the operas. of course, her social skills are lacking, so she puts on an act when interacting with anyone, and she doesn't let herself be seen. acting is the only way she knows how to approach another human, so adopting the role of a phantom wasn't hard for her. its easier to be the villain than to be herself. she is, in both literal and autistic terms, masking. she also sees how women are treated, and how they're not taken as seriously as men, so she dresses herself as a man and uses her naturally deeper and lower voice to seem as one. she's also very tall, which really helps on the rare occasion that she's spotted, though it's usually only her shadow that gets seen

now, christine. erica pretending to be christine's father/angel. again, she did this because its easier for her to play a role than to be herself. she knows that no one would accept her for her true self. she doesn't even really know herself, she's never had the chance to discover herself.. what she's like when she's laughing with friends, or how she acts when caring for a pet or child.. she doesn't know herself at all, all she knows is her work, her passion, her escape: music, art, acting. dreaming.

at first, erica did use christine as a way of making her dreams come to life. she can't perform herself, both because of her appearance and because her voice doesn't allow her to sing as a soprano. so she sees christine, alone and aimless, and begins refining her talent. erica never realises how intensely she feels for christine until raoul comes into play. she's possessive, not really in a romantic sense, but because christine is all she has. christine is the only person who willingly meets with her and listens to her, even though she doesn't know her true identity

seeing christine face to face and in the flesh is what really awoke feelings in erica though, and what made her want to have christine to herself, though she doesn't know how to go about it other than pretending to be something that christine can find trustworthy and desirable (again, the whole masquerading as an angel thing). but erica tries, she tries to drop the façade and be herself. she tries to ask christine to trust and accept her, but you can imagine how difficult and terrifying it must be to be that vulnerable with someone for the first time in your life.

when the unmasking happens, erica basically goes into full panic mode, and can't regain her composure. she doesn't know that christine's intention wasn't bad, but she's truly deeply traumatised and acted on instinct once again, which caused her to lash out at christine as a form of defense. she was really really scared in that moment, and once she became rational again she felt immensely guilty for lashing out at christine and for frightening her :')

she pretty much hates raoul. because he's what she can't be: a safe presence for christine, someone she can feel protected by, someone who can OFFER her a life of freedom and warmth. someone who can be seen in public with her, someone who wont ruin her reputation. erica has nothing to offer but her creations, her music, her hidden passions. she hates raoul because she can't be him. because she can't compete with him. she feels this way about most men, its just that raoul just so happens to be the man that christine is closest to

the murder of buquet. erica had always despised him, for obvious reasons. he reminded her of the men at the travelling fair, with the way he would describe her just for shock factor, and she didn't know how to process that. he was always watching the dancers too closely. his death was a perfect way of showing that she should be taken seriously and that her demands should be met. his death also meant the death of any memory of her past. also, he saw her. she couldn't let him live anyway

the masquerade! don juan triumphant was basically erica's vent art/music (she needs healthier coping mechanisms /lh). erica declaring herself christine's teacher in front of all to see...a cruel act which served to humiliate christine and force her into being associated with her. with the phantom. a complete parallel to christine and raoul's secret engagement........

erica's SINGING. it's just as unique as the rest of her, each word she sings is filled with emotion and passion and meaning. she sings low, and her voice can be soft and forcefully powerful in the same breath. she sounds unearthly, especially since she has no training herself yet she knows how to express herself through song. if only she knew how lovely she sounds,,,,,

performing the point of no return with christine on stage was the highlight of erica's life. she had abandoned all fear and showed herself in public, in front of all to see, JUST to be with christine and to show christine her heart. yes, she knocked piangi out (she didnt quite kill him, because shes Not a mindless murderer) to steal his role, and she doesn't regret it. singing with christine is erica's favourite activity and she wants the whole world to see how well they complement each other. madame giry nearly had a heart attack when she saw erica on stage

erica didn't see it as herself kidnapping christine. in her mind she Had to do this, because it was the only way to make christine understand her and force her to SEE how she feels for her..... and she never intended on killing raoul. would she take her frustrations out on him and brawl with him and choke him and whatnot? yes. would she kill him? no. she can't do that to christine. but it Did feel good to fight him. fighting for her life is all she's known after all

erica was so desperate to show christine her heart that she was willing to say and do anything, and her making christine choose between raoul and herself was her last desperate attempt. though inside she knew christine can't choose and that it isn't fair to force her to do it. when christine kissed her, and comforted her, and told her shes not alone, it was like the heaviest stone was lifted from erica's heart. she snapped out of her desperation and let christine go, because she truly wants to see her happy and safe, even if with someone else. erica had always known she doesn't stand a chance, she knew she can't win christine over, but she dreamt of it anyway. and if she spent less time trying to manipulate christine, she would've seen that christine was always willing to know her and to be with her

also, for any astrology nerds out there: i hc the phantom to be a pisces (with a scorpio moon and capricorn rising) :') basically i made her be an emotional wreck who gets Very obsessive about her passions. art flows through her

that is all :) im sane about her (not true)

[britishchick09]

a list of poto productions in 2023/24

(because i'm losing track of all of them!)

west end

broadway (soon to be rip...)

japan

australia (rip)

greece

sweden

korea (coming soon!)

china (cs)

italy (cs)

vienna (cs)

romania (cs)

spain (cs)

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

New designs for the Olso production vs the costume in Romania

On The Stage UK, the designer Andrew Riley had an interview and with it there was some concept art for Raoul’s masquerade costume, The phantom’s masquerade costume, Carlotta’s 1st managers outfit, and an ensemble girl’s masquerade costume.

They EXTREMELY changed Raoul’s masquerade costume. Much better than the clown costume, but a bit too fop looking. But the 1700s aesthetic looks interesting, I wouldn’t give it to Raoul, he gets too much of a fop rap as it is. Maybe it would work if Christine also gets a 1700s inspired gown instead of her Angel one.

I do LOVE the new “Red Death”. It looks so much like Mephistopheles from Faust. It looks like a big improvement from the Romanian one. Though, it really reminds me of the costume from the San Francisco Opera’s version of Faust. Almost looks like they just slapped a mask on it...

I also love the design for the ensemble girl’s masquerade costume. Looks much more detailed and lush than the Romanian ones. There’s no direct parallel costume in Romania, maybe it’s the Alice from Alice in Wonderland looking girl. It looks too modern looking compared to Carlotta’s 1st managers outfit. I think Olso is going for 1900s aesthetic but that is clearing 1950s.

[glassprism]

Phantom of the Opera Romanian Production - Promo Clips

Since the Romanian production has gotten some attention, and since people are wondering about some of the scenes there, I thought it was time to re-upload this collection of promotional clips from the production. Note: These were uploaded on YouTube but taken down for unknown reasons; I have simply re-uploaded them.

Starring: Adrian Nour, Irina Baianţ, and Florin Ristei; 2015; Bucharest, Romania

For another video with interviews and some more footage, see here.

[operafantomet]

Different incarnations of the Elissa skirt in Andrew Riley's design

ROW 1 AND 2: Romania 2015. I don't think I ever found the answer to if they did two different skirts during the run, or if two different skirts is a part of the plot. I think the former, that the costume was slightly redesigned. The only wearer was, as far as I can tell, principal Irina Ioana Baiant (as it was a very short run).

ROW 3 AND 4: Norway 2018-2019 and Greece 2020: Brand new costume, this time the blue and red bodice over a golden skirt with golden drapes. Also a golden shawl with gold fringes. Wearers include Mira Ormala, Astrid Giske, Charlotte Brænna, Amy Manford, Celinde Schoenmaker and Glain Rhys.

ROW 5 AND 6: Middle East Tour + Europe 2023-2024: Same bodice, new skirt. This time a sky blue fabric with gold brocade pattern, under larger gold drapes. In Greece 2023 the gold shawl was kept, but during the Middle East run the shawl was changed to a red one with gold fringes. Wearers include Harriet Jones, Georgia Wilkinson, Bridget Costello, Grace Chapman and possibly Jessica Hackett and Glain Rhys.

[ballerinadellamusica]

Meg wigs/hair colour in non-replica productions

Picture credit: Nevena Đoković, Kaja Mianowana, Edyta Krzemień, Kamila Tell Aronsen, Micaela Sjöstedt, Andrea Gabrišová, Natálie Grossová, Irina Baianț, Enikő Lóránt & Teater Vanemuine social medias. Danny Kaan & Blesk.cz websites.

[thebrideinthemirror]

Sometimes I hink about how it’s the 21st century so it’s a lot easier for costume designers to design historically accurate costumes now that there’s so much information on the Internet and then I look at Phantom non-replicas and cry

[cantikdaae]

Look at these designs for the new Phantom non-replica production in Bucharest. I am so curious to see how it looks in real life. But it looks like the budget is HUGE.

Design: Gary McCann (x)

Also apologies for the bad screenshots.

[relishredshoes]

Interview given to The Severus Snape and Hermione Granger Shipping Fan Group.  (sharing here Admin approved)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718373383293/

Hello Ciule and welcome to Behind the Quill, thank-you for sitting down with us for a chat.

SS/HG readers might be familiar with your stories “Awkward” and “Headmaster’s Wife”. 

Okay, let’s jump right in. What's the story behind your pen name? Well, I sort of took one of my real names, swirled the letters around in the air with my imaginary wand, and I ended up with this. Can’t begin to imagine where I got the idea from... ;-) Later on, I realized that Ciule is actually a name in Romania. I had no idea, but there are people out there carrying this name for real. I guess I’m #sorrynotsorry?   Which Harry Potter character do you identify with the most? To be quite frank: No one, really. This is more about the characters I like, than truly identifying with them. I can relate to parts of some of them, but not the whole package. Primarily, I write about Hermione, Voldemort and Severus, and the one common thread between those three is the search for knowledge. That’s a trait I can identify with, but I’m neither an evil bastard, a grumpy protector nor a fretting, intelligent activist. I am, however, a swot. If you had asked who I’d want to be, the answer is clear. I want to be Albus Dumbledore. Though I can’t agree with the things he did, I feel absolutely certain that he’s the one who has the most fun during the books. I want to have that twinkling fun in face of absolute chaos.   Do you have a favourite genre to read (not in fic, just in general)? Fantasy! Definitely fantasy. While growing up, I read ‘everything’ in every genre, and in my twenties, I decided I’d spend my time reading what I loved the most. So, fantasy it is. Do you have a favourite "classic" novel? You landed me in an existential crisis right there. I mean, there’s so many to choose from! ‘Wuthering Heights’, I think. It hurts so good. Or maybe ‘Rebecca’, at least, I loved that when I was younger. Or the fairly obscure ‘Lorna Doone.’ When I was a kid, I wanted to be a film director, shooting Lorna Doone into an epic film. Oh well, there might be a theme in this selection of books which reflects in my writing… At what age did you start writing? The creative process has gone on since forever. I’ve told myself thousands of stories in my head, but rarely written anything down. At the age of ten, I had a co-writing project with one of my friends. We created this secret room in her basement, and painstakingly wrote a ‘novel’. It was fun, though the writing ended as it became too cold down in the basement during winter. How did you get into writing fanfiction? In 2009, I became completely obsessed with a TV-show in the last episode. I was watching the entire series, casually enjoying the murder mystery, and in the last episode, the villain said: “I can do the math,” and I was literally gone. That obsession sparked writing my first fanfic stories. Those stories are still on FFnet, but they aren’t any good. *shrugs* What's the best theme you've ever come across in a fic? Is it a theme represented in your own works? Compromise. The world isn’t a perfect place, and will never be. You can, however, make it more to your liking. It may not be perfect, but if you play the cards you are dealt, you might improve something. In Robert Jordan’s “the Wheel of Time”-series, one of the characters goes through a test in a parallel universe of sorts, and she thinks: “The world was not what she wanted, not anywhere near it.” I loved that: trying your best to make things as you want them to be in the face of dangers and difficulties.   And then there’s time travel! I love messing with time, and there are so many great Time-travelling fics. Plus, I have to say I have a certain love for the villains...   What fandoms are you involved in other than Harry Potter? Currently, I’m not writing for any other fandoms. I read Star Wars, GoT, POTO and LOTR, and in the past I read Smallville. Though it’s more of a type of ship for me, because I only read Reylo, SanSan, Erik/ Christine, Lex/Lana and ….drum roll… the extremely small and quite oddball ship of Eowyn/ Grìma Wormtongue. If you’ve never tried the last one, go search for the fantastic stories by auri_mynonys. If you could make one change to canon, what would it be? Do you have a favourite piece of fanon? One change: duh, that’s easy, isn’t it? Severus lives. Or, maybe Dumbledore acting more rational, not keeping so many secrets. Maybe telling McGonagall that Severus is on the Order’s side… (Interviewer is laughing - ”NOT so easy”) I do write Voldemort wins AUs, but I wouldn’t want canon Voldemort to win. I prefer him to be more sane than in canon. My absolute favourite piece of fanon has to be the Black library. I thought it was canon, but it’s not. This is a thing that really, really should exist in canon! Do you listen to music when you write or do you prefer quiet? I’m very much inspired by music, and sometimes I listen as I write, but not always. Some fics are heavily inspired by music, such as ‘Absence’ and the last epilogue to ‘The Manipulation of Time and Matter’. What are your favourite fanfictions of all time? Definitely ‘Two Steps from Hell,’ by the amazing Ssserpensssotia, but that’s a Volmione. This was such a wild ride, I felt like I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath the entire time. Those twists and turns were so unpredictable and … Well, I’m in awe. The SS/HG fandom is so massive, there’s a plethora of great stories out there. The unfinished ‘Self-Slain Gods on Strange Altars’ is a wonderful story by scumblackentropy, and I love Slytherpoufs stories, especially the wip ‘Ghosts’, but also ‘Angels to Fly’. And then there’s the one that got away - it means, I can’t find it. In this story, Severus watches the thestrals, befriending one of them, I think, but they’re unpredictable and maybe even dangerous. He’s heartbroken, and knows how it all will go down, having bitterly accepted his role. It made me cry. And then there’s the works by Aurette, and lena1987, Subversa, Kittenshift… Are you a plotter or a pantser? How does that affect your writing process? I need (strike that: want) to draft the entire story before I post, to have some idea on how it goes. That makes it easier to write, but if it’s a long story, I’m happy as long as I know the general direction. This year, I finished a story that was on an unintended hiatus for two years, and I think part of my problem on getting back into writing it up was a too vague idea for the ending.   What is your writing genre of choice? Uh. I don’t know? Basically, you could argue that I’m a porn writer, or at least it’s fuelled by sexual tension and angst. So, romance or drama, bordering on erotica might be correct. To be frank, I haven’t really thought about categories after I started posting on AO3. Which of your stories are you most proud of? Why? Hard to say. I might go with “the Manipulation of Time and Matter,” because I think it’s the best plot I’ve created. Besides, I managed to write Hermione having a relationship with both Severus and Voldemort in the same fic. My favourite “clean” SSHG would be the short story ‘Grimmauld’. Did it unfold as you imagined it or did you find the unexpected cropped up as you wrote? What did you learn from writing it? In Grimmauld, the house became a character. That was unexpected, and not something I had planned from the beginning. So the lesson would be “don’t start posting until you know what’s going to happen.” Or else, this story might have turned out very much different. I had to throw in a little made-up lore on how you set blood wards on a house too to make it sentient. That proved to be a quite chilling piece of magic.   How personal is the story to you, and do you think that made it harder or easier to write? I love old houses. Exploring abandoned houses, going inside to see what remains of furniture, tapestries and everything is so exciting. (It can also be dangerous, but that’s another matter). Such houses makes me feel .. nostalgic, plus I get those nice little shivers down your spine that is a little like a horror story. So, I wanted to use Grimmauld as a setting to explore that in a fic, to really dig into the aching loneliness of a lost house. The story came very quickly to me, so I guess that helped me.   What books or authors have influenced you? How do you think that shows in your writing? Big question there. Hmm, I think … it’s hard to say. I’m a reader, really, and I couldn’t easily pick apart any influences. Though I have to say that one of the things I enjoyed when reading ‘Two Steps From Hell’ was the attention to magic. I think it’s important to include spells, rituals and the use of magic in my fics, because that’s what sets it apart from a Muggle AU, for example. That’s an important part of the world-building.   Do people in your everyday life know you write fanfiction? My significant other knows. I didn’t tell him, but he found out for himself, probably by spying on me. When he told me, I almost couldn’t stop laughing, because he… erm, he said he had thought about reenacting a scene in my PWP ‘Twenty Points to Gryffindor’, where Severus shouts the title as he… well… you get the gist. If he had done that, I’d have had a heart attack. I would literally be dead. Instead, I laughed non stop for an hour.   How true for you is the notion of "writing for yourself"? Haha, so true. You spend all those hours in front of your laptop - and if I wasn't motivated by doing it for myself, I can’t even see how I’d force myself through all those hours. It’s fun, though. I do this because I love it.   How important is it for you to interact with your audience? How do you engage with them? Just at the point of publishing? Through social media? Very important. I'm on the publishing sites (visible interaction is why I prefer AO3 instead of FFnet) and on Facebook, mainly. I love feedback (as all authors do), and when people form theories or make comments, I get an insight into my own writing. I know how it’s going to pan out, but the audience doesn’t, and how they perceive things might be different from how I think it is. At times, it influences how I go forward, mostly because I need to add things, to explain what’s going on. What is the best advice you've received about writing? Don’t post until you know the ending, and remember: the devil on your left shoulder will be at war with the angel on the right side. Listen to the angel telling you to wait a little longer, and not to the devil chanting: ‘Post, post, post!’ In the end, of course, you’ll give in to the devil, regretting it until you’re done. What do you do when you hit writer's block? Read. Read a lot. And read some more. Has anything in real life trickled down into your writing? Certainly. I’m a foodie. For example, everything that Voldemort eats is stuff I love. His food habits are primarily mine, and I love cooking.   Do you have any stories in the works? Can you give us a teaser? It’s a short piece, maybe three or four chapters, with the title ‘Transference’. The point of departure from canon is during their time in the tent at DH. Hermione wakes up in a bed, in a room she doesn’t recognize, having no idea where she is, but she spots a large, moving picture on the drawer:  Feeling panic rising, she stared hard at the moving and smiling pictures, and her heart leapt into her throat, pulse hammering as she recognized herself in the largest picture. A slightly older Hermione, in a white wedding dress, kissing and laughing at someone who simply had to be a much younger Severus Snape. It had to be him: Long black hair, hooked nose, sallow skin - but then he looked so young, carefree and happy - expressions she had never seen on her dour Professor's face. Beside the picture, there were numerous cards, greetings and well-wishings for their wedding - the date an impossible 21 August 1982, and amongst the cards, the largest one stood out, the black ink showing an elegant handwriting: “Dear Hermione and Severus! Best wishes for your wedding, Lord Voldemort.” Any words of encouragement to other writers? Read and write, in that order. Don’t worry about trolls, because when you contribute something that you created, it makes you so much more than people spending their time just raining on anyone’s parade. You brought something new to the world, they’re just reacting to things. If someone accuses you of a self-insert, go ahead and lecture them on the intentional fallacy. I promise, you won’t regret looking it up. ;-)   And please, mind the normal physical limits when you’re writing smut. Unless you give the male a stamina potion or put him under the Imperius, it’s unlikely that his refractory period allows him to come five times in one hour. Realistic smut is so much more sexy, lol. Thanks again for speaking with us Ciule.