Flowerpot

Author Spotlight: DJKopper

Of Witches and Snitches

DJKopper
COMPLETE

The life of Harry Potter, told in stories to his children and loved ones. Pretty much AU. No horcruxes, French!Harry, not-quite-oneshots but we'll call it free range narrative, the Dursley's were moved to France to get Harry Potter out from under Dumbledores control, not realizing that the French government had no intention of giving him back, he goes to Beauxbatons and has a life.

Dearest Fleur

DJKopper
COMPLETE

Don't read this y'all, its sad. Postwar Harry struggles to deal with the loss of the battle of Hogwarts. With work and family doing its best to make him face his problems he finds normalcy at the bottom of a bottle and comfort wrapped in silver hair.

Kingdom of Ashes

DJKopper
UPDATING

The war burned through Britain, long years of pain and fire, but they built a life in the rubble and survived. For the most part. Until a letter from Hermione called Harry out of his safe little community and thrust him into a bizarre and twisted world, one in which the country hadn't burned to the ground in the wake of Voldemort's rage, one in which it was still 1994.

Pathfinder's Salvation

DJKopper
COMPLETE

Harry had never known comfort, had always been haunted by the shadow of great evil. After a short life, and a grim mission, he seeks out his end at the hands of the paladins of the light, ready to die for a world that had never cared for him. He didn't know what to expect from the temple priestesses, other than salvation in the form of death, but he got more than he bargained for.

We asked DJKopper some questions about their experience in and outside of the community

Favorite Ship

Harry/Fleur In HP, flowerpot of course. Outside of Harry Potter I’m a massive simp for AstridxHiccup from HTTYD, and if we’re going to really dive into the cringey past: Alice and Jasper from twilight have a beautiful relationship that was infinitely more interesting than the main characters but that’s just teenage fanfiction reader me shouting into the void. To highlight a few other OTPs: Lelouch/CC from Code Geass, Eragon/Arya from Eragon, Link/Midna from Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess

Favorite Color

Favorite Scene Written

There’s a scene in oWaS that always makes me laugh, that I don’t think people really properly read, quoted as follows: “He'd managed to hold off two weeks before coming round. The first few days were fine, Fleur was distracted by Gabrielle suddenly being old enough to fawn over and treat like a real little sister. But then the reminders started. Little things first like 'when Harry gets here' and 'remind me to show Harry'. Then those transformed into sullen looks and pointed glares while he drank his coffee in the morning. Finally she'd declared all out war. Going into fits the likes of which they hadn't seen in years from her, slamming every door in the house every time she walked by it and refusing to even look at him.“ It’s the last line that always makes me chuckle on rereading, and I feel like it gets glossed over when reading from the outside perspective. She is not slamming every door she goes through, she is slamming every door in the house every time she walks past it. As for my favorite material I’ve written, published or otherwise, the penultimate chapter of a time travel fic I’ve been working on includes a scene in which Fleur meets and talks to an older version of herself. A version of her that’s been through Voldemort’s second attempt at taking England, and fallen in love with Harry, and older Fleur explaining everything to TWT age Fleur hits me in the feels every time i reread it. Hopefully one day I get to the stage where I can publish it, because that chapter always gets an emotional response from the people I’ve sent it to. I don’t want to give away too much, but it’s essentially the last moments of “future fleur” as she explains everything to her younger self and entrusts her younger self to look after Harry. Gets me choked up everytime.

Favorite Scene Read

This one was hard for me, and even now I don’t have a firm answer, so instead I’ll shill for a fic that doesn’t even (technically) exist anymore lol. Chasing Thunderstorms, a fanfiction series from the HTTYD fandom, is probably the last angst heavy work I enjoyed. It’s so well done, and exists still on AO3 as far as i can remember, but It’s amazing through out, and I recommend everyone seek it out. Knowledge of How to Train Your Dragon is barely needed, and the romance is to die for.

Favorite Scene Read Outside Fanfiction

So I don’t think I can pinpoint a specific scene, I probably could pull one if I went and found my paperback copy, but honestly I can’t be bothered, BUT: the fallen gods of a world to reincarnate their mother/sister Enefa, one of the big three gods that created all life and the universe. These fallen gods have been given to the humans to act as weapons by the Sun God that betrayed the slain goddess Enefa out of jealousy for the god of darkness’ love for her. The main character, Yeinne, is a human that had a fragment of Enefa’s soul attached to her in infancy to enact the gods’ plan to bring Enefa back. The book is written in first person, from Yeinne’s perspective, and throughout the book the narrative breaks as Yeinne/Enefa gets confused by her/their own recollection of the events. As the story progresses you learn of Enefa’s soul in hers, and then the back and forth introspective between the two entities starts to make sense as you realize it’s the evidence of a human narrator ascending to godhood. Truly an amazing twist and an amazing feat of writing that makes a reread almost necessary once you know the secrets. The blending of two entities, the confused recounting of events from multiple perspectives, the slow realization of what's happening and the unique perspective of a god talking to the mortal fragments of a soul they once shared a body with make this book one of my all time favorites.

Reason for Writing

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. Earliest was in 1st grade, so I was about six, and I wrote a 2 page (front and back :smug:) story for class about getting chased by a zombie on Halloween night. I wrote fragments of original fiction all throughout elementary and into middle school and then sometime around 12 years old I met a girl that introduced me to RPing and Fanfiction as a whole and it’s been nonstop since then lol. I’ve been writing a fantasy series in my head, my own personal ASOIAF/WoT, for about 12 years now, and maybe one day i’ll even sit down and write it for real, who knows. Either way writing is one of the cores of my artistic expression, it’s where i go to parse big ideas, to express emotions, and to study the interactions of everyday people. Even in times, sometimes for years at a time, when I wasn’t actively opening word documents and writing I was still building worlds and crafting plots in my head, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to turn that off, even if I never published another word again.

Desire for Readers

What do I hope to inspire in my readers? As an adult, who’s made it through the edgy angst obsession of youth in fanfiction, I want to create feel good stories. I’m someone that finds comfort in fiction, series like HP and the Inheritance Cycle I listened to/read on repeat in my childhood and teens. These, and other worlds, were a comfortable place for me. A place I could escape to and enjoy endlessly, and so I guess my goal in writing is to create works that stand up to repeat enjoyment. I’m the type of person that will relive stuff I love over and over again and if I can write something that’s good enough that someone out there comes back to it again and again to live in my world for a bit then that’s more than I could ever ask for. And secondly, What do I aim to do with my writing? This one is a bit more obscure, and I think speaking as if I’ve accomplished it already is a bit self congratulatory but here we go: Something I focus on heavily in my writing process these days is authenticity. The goal that is always in my mind is to craft characters/scenes/dialogues that feel real. This is something that transcends genre. Doesn’t matter if you’re writing a slice of life highschool story, a fantasy epic, or a sci-fi space opera: Characters being, and behaving, like real people is something I always aim to accomplish. Probably the single greatest piece of praise I’ve received about my writing to me is comments on my OC Arianne, Harry and Fleur’s daughter who starts oWaS as a 6 year old and ends it going to school at 11. I don’t have kids, and honestly haven’t spent that much time around them compared to people with siblings or kids of their own, but I tried really hard to make her seem like a real kid, and I got feedback on her that said I’d accomplished that goal, and that means a lot to me. I’m the same way with dialogue. When I’m writing characters talking, I say it in my head, sometimes even out loud, I adopt the characters accent and sometimes I even try to choreograph the character’s body language mentally, to try and craft a conversation that feels like real people talking to each other. It’s a lot easier to come up with a beautiful monolog, delivered by a shiny character to a crowd of eager listeners, than it is to write a real life conversation between two friends. So I suppose in answer to the question, my desire for my readers is that they feel transported by my writing, however briefly, to the world I have built. That they feel a part of it, and the narrative/dialogue/characters feel as believable as fictional characters can be.
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