Fan Fiction Writer: Cassandra Claire

Cassandra Claire, or Cassie, has established quite a reputation in the fan fiction community. The Secret Diaries, which are hilarious, made her famous. However, she can also write very compelling serious fantasy stories as evidenced by her Draco trilogy.

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	Author:	Cassandra Claire (Pseudonym)
	Link:	nyu.edu
The Very Secret Diaries	Year published:	2001 Updated with each release of the Peter Jackson LOTR movies

I'm guessing the Very Secret Diareis will be a classic for some time. It will be remembered by anyone who's old enough to have seen Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy when the movies first came out, AND had access to the internet. These are the first fan fiction I've read, and the first slash stories I've come across, too. I discovered both genre, and Cassie Claire, when I got an e-mail containing snippets from the diaries.

After The Fellowship of the Ring movie came out, only the members of the fellowship had "diaries". These diaries chronicle their thoughts (as imagined by Cassie's naughty brain) from the time each of the company arrive at Rivendell till they reach Gondor (where the first movie ends). Cassie would update the diaries, or make new diaries, as each movie in the trilogy came out. You can say her works are parodies of the movies.

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	Draco Trilogy
	Author:	Cassandra Claire (Pseudonym)
	Link:	schnoogle.com
	Year published:	2001-2002 Only the first two are finished

This trilogy showcases Cassie Claire's skill at writing. You forget you are reading fan fiction. This made me a Draco/Ginny shipper, actually. Unfortunately, reading this as my first Harry Potter fan fiction, many of the other stories begin to sound like they copied ideas from this one. Ofcourse, there is somewhat of a feud in fanfiction circles whether Cassie copied another author or not - point is: I read hers first and Cassie's stories were good. I'm also amused that some good Harry Potter fans who are also artists have contributed drawings to accompany the trilogy.