All about me. And my fic.

[thrihyrne]

It's a rare, three-day holiday weekend, even for we essential employees. OMG. I can't tell you all how much I've been looking forward to this; I've not had a holiday since New Year's.

At any rate, I've already started the weekend off with a fabulous IM chat with elfscribe5, and I'm nearly finished with part one of my two-part (I think) Wraeththu Challenge fic, and there's a good chance I'll get to hold sexyscholar in my arms as well by the time the weekend is over. We'll see; she's within a 3-hour driving distance, but that's still up in the air, logistics and all.

I also have at last a recent pic of me with my shorter hair (I'm the one with red hair):

While chatting with Elfscribe, it rekindled a thought I'd had which was to post my thoughts of what are my top 5 of my own Tolkien fics, and why. I've not written much of anything within the Ardaverse in recent years, having been engrossed in Harry Potter, which has now been claimed by Wraeththu. Not that the styles are at all similar, but there's something about the mythos between Wraeththu and Tolkien which has really made me consider going back to Tolkien fanfic. What's also been lovely — not to mention totally unexpected — is that there are many Wraeththu fans who came from Tolkien and/or are still involved, and a couple of them had even read my Tolkien fic in the past! I'd not have imagined such a delightful circle, but fandom can be that way.

So I reread a couple of my Tolkien fics and was delightfully surprised to see that I was writing some innovative stuff five years ago when I first began writing fanfic. If any of you are interested in my navel-gazing and self-indulgent thoughts on perhaps my top five recommended Tolkien fics,

‡ Speak, Friend, and Enter
In recently re-reading this, I see that I have a scattering of typos, but I'm recommending this link so you can see the bit of Dwarvish runes in it at the end. This is a primarily two-generation story of Dwarvish/Elvish interaction, one to do with Narvi and Celebrimbor (in which Narvi is a female Dwarf, inspired entirely by Adina Atl's Closing Doors) and Legolas and Gimli. Genfic. There's even some parallel scene writing; my thought had been a visual one, actually, of two points starting at a vortex and then spiraling outwards. It also features a favorite theme of mine, of a piece of symbolic jewelry making its way through multiple generations from one 'correct' owner to another. I remain proud of the innovation and intertwining of similar but different Dwarvish/Elvish cultural interactions, something near and dear to my own Dwarvish-leaning heart.

‡ The Hours
This one actually gave me chills in the early hours when re-reading this last night. A then-LJ friend writing HP had used the monastic hours as an inspiration for fic, and I took it and applied it to one particularly rough day during the Ring War, going through the day, all over Middle Earth, various cultures, and also each section focuses on one of the senses. It remains a unique gap-filler, I believe.

‡ Antiphon to Light
A three-part story from Gimli's POV about his experience of meeting Galadriel. What struck me when I was doing the research for this is that Galadriel, one of the few remaining first-born Elves in M-E at this point, speaks Khudzul aloud. For some reason, I loved that JRRT had her do that, and figured that Gimli would've been totally bowled over. I'm fond of the structure of this, as well as the fact that though short, it illustrates Gimli's perspectives on Elves and shows the very beginning of his friendship with Legolas, as well as a fun scene between Gimli and Pippin.

A couple of longer and more obscure ones, which is probably why they're in this list:
‡ A House Divided
I love the Rohirrim nearly with equal measure to the enigmatic Dwarves. In this, I wrote about Thengel and Morwen of Lossarnach's life, which I found to be such an interesting inversion of the Éowyn/Faramir Rohirric/Gondorian union forged two generations later. I did a lot of research canonically for this, which illuminated all kinds of fascinating things to me. It remains one that makes some readers mad at me because I do have Morwen engage in one adulterous act with Aragorn (though he's not going by that name at this point in the history, pre-Strider but post-first-pass in Gondor). She was put under a lot of stress, and I made sure it didn't happen in Rohan itself. Still, I love this for the differing points of view: Thengel, Morwen, Ecthelion, and 'Arthur' (Aragorn). I wish I'd made the breaks in POV even more blatant beyond typographical marks, but I did write it this few years ago before I was beta'ing so much and knew better. ;) The exploration and tension of Thengel, who abandons his father and serves Ecthelion through to his 30s in Gondor, takes a Gondorian wife, and then is called back to Rohan, interested me greatly, especially from Morwen's eyes, since she wouldn't necessarily have seen it coming as soon as it did. The time period isn't one that most readers seek out, but that's partly why I was drawn to it.

And finally!
‡ Celestial Quartet
I picked some of the most obscure time periods and characters I could, touched upon topics most others wouldn't: The Star-Watcher King of Númenor, hobbit adultery and the Fell Winter, Gríma right before he leaves for Meduseld [and self-pleasure], and the grand-daughter of Meriadoc, years after the Ring War. It also has two interwoven themes: stars in the night sky, begun with Tar-Meneldur, and also a piece of jewelry which finds its way from Númenor to Middle-Earth through each vignette to end up most recently from Gríma to Éowyn to Merry to his granddaughter. Chapters 2 and 3 are adult enough, though I never wrote any true adult fic while writing Tolkien.


For those enjoying a holiday weekend (as I sure am!!!), my best to you. Now I need to stop sitting on my laurels and go off to write. ♥