Peter Silverman

it took me a while to get here as an author. I did not write seriously until 2006, when I was in my early 60s, and ironically it was Harry Potter that got me going. Almost every parent has a story about the influence Harry had on his or her child's interest in reading, and my own daughter was no exception. In my case, however, I needed no impetus to read, but rather to write. My fan fiction career began with short stories and progressed to novels. I have written three Harry Potter novels and nine short stories; there is a link to them at FanFiction.net on my web page, www.ActingObsessed.com.

My most ambitious HP novel is The Hog's Head, over 400,000 words in 54 chapters, and many readers consider it to be their unofficial eighth Harry Potter book.

Harry Potter fan fiction gave me the experience I needed to write Acting Obsessed, my first original novel. It takes place in and around Philadelphia, the city I grew up in and have lived in for sixty-six years. Several scenes take place at the Jersey shore, my favorite vacation haunt, which I have visited for over forty years. Anyone who has ever been on Long Beach Island has to have fallen in love with it, as I certainly did.

The protagonist in Actin Obsessed is Ginger Brossard, a Canadian actress living and working in Philadelphia. She (and the book itself) were inspired by my Muse, the identity of whom is known but to a handful of people, and it shall remain so. Ginger falls in love with Philadelphia, but her true romance is with Winston, and you'll have to read the book to find out about that. Please do.