Which is good, because it keeps me motivated, because I want to see your reactions.

At first I thought that you should know what my reaction will be. Then I realised that there is a myriad of possibilities. Will I squeal? Will I gasp? Will I weep? Will I pant? Will I somehow manage to combine all these reactions and suffer a massive embolism?

No embolisms for Elena! And do you really think I've told you everything? Some things should be a surprise, my dear.

I'm quite sure that you've not told me everything. What I do know haunts me.

why have so many writers fixated on him, and did they invent his charm wholesale?

As Katie said, he's blond and evil. He's a natural choice if you want to make a suggestion that things might not be as black and white as Harry, and the canon, see them; if you personally find Harry as annoying as Harry finds Draco, you find yourself on Draco's side; and there's also the big thing of HP fandom as a whole, which is that the fun part is writing the characters not as presented in canon, but as adults. And Draco-- being so incrediably 'sterotyped' in one role, bascially little!Lucius-- has plenty of room to be developed in a hundred different ways into an interesting adult character.

Also, evil. And blond. And, of course, amazingly good looking. And potentially having an obsession with Harry, though frankly I find it a bit hard to read anything more into the canon than 'Potter is very famous; let's pick on him'. (Although I will admit that Hermione probably has a bit of a nearly-canon unmentionable crush on Draco. Though that may be me projecting.)

YourDracoMayVary.

Non-fiction is often a great deal more fun to read than fiction. The real world has a better imagination than anyone else gets credit for.

Wrod. For the past several years, I've been reading more non-fiction than fiction. (Not that I've been a slacker on my fiction reading or anything...) Combine real-world oddness with a gift for language and a passion for one's subject, and wowza!

BTW, I'll second the recommendation for the Writer's Digest crime series--I refer to my "Body Trauma" book frequently.

And of course, "A Year On The Killing Streets" which I cannot pimp highly enough. Best. Crime. Book. Evah(independent of my initial desire to match the detectives to their characters) Simon's quite the stylist.

In other news... Sir Ian on Slash (and other things)

TW: What's the weirdest fan reaction you've had?

IM: Some of them were angry that a gay man was playing Gandalf. They called it Gandalf the Gay and were opposed to my casting. They're ignoramuses who don’t know about acting. I sometimes look at slash material on the internet, same-gender sex stories usually written by young women. They write about Legolas and Aragorn getting it on.

TW: Do you read Gandalf slash?

IM: Well, I'm quite a fan of pornography. I think it's a very good idea. I think it stops people from going out and hurting each other.

It sounds so twinkly and grandfatherly coming from IM, doesn't it?

He kinda, but not almost, took all the porn out of it.

I love him.