clinging to detrius of the week as I approach the shore

[thrihyrne]

Where's the rum gone??

Boy is that movie a lot of fun for being PG. Or PG-13. Whatever.

Long, rambly updates below.

But first, two phrases and thirteen words for my fellow Nashville drivers, who are apparently trying to get the hell out of town on Friday afternoon:

1- The turn signal is your friend.
2- Don’t speed through effing traffic, you morons.


So! My annual evaluation at my job was yesterday. It was the world’s longest day, because I was really, really worried about it. I was half afraid/hoping that I would get fired. Afraid, because, well, then I wouldn’t have a job. Hoping, because then I’d get off my ass and actually be forced into action. But that’s a cop-out. I was worried because on Wednesday I went in and found out we were having an emergency staff meeting (that’s never a good sign) and found out of something like $180K in governmental grants we expected, we were only getting half of that. One person who was already leaving won’t be replaced, and other measures will obviously have to be taken, but it left the already stunned staff (we’ve had a 50% turnover in 3 months, and I’m only talking 11 people here; we’re a not for profit arts organization) feeling pretty demoralized. I went home for “lunch” to ponder my future and actually think about what I do, and was rather surprised when I was able to write down things about what I’d like to do differently, and some key phrases if I needed them, to plea for my job (“I’m a constant in a sea of change,” things like that. I’ve been there 5 years.). Instead, my review was fabulous. I sat down with my boss and she had already filled out an evaluation that basically said I excelled at everything I do and I am a key, valued employee at the opera. Well! That opened the floor. So I told her my ideas, which included me helping out the development people rather than marketing (which I felt pushed into from the start and it’s not my forte), especially in regards to overhauling our rather tired thank you letters, working on donor biographies (I spent 3 years as a research assistant in corporate and foundation relations back in my past and I know what kind of information you need before going to hit someone up for money), and also helping with grant writing. My boss’s eyes lit up. Writing is not her strong point, and she knows it. She was thrilled. So. Points for me! I still need to either find another job, go to graduate school, or both, but at least for the next little while, I think I’ll be much happier going into the office.

Two other things made yesterday a turnaround day, from “cannot” to “can-do”:

- over at the ffsymposium community, somebody else is writing a fandom-oriented paper and she listed a few papers and authors she wanted to cite. Yours truly’s first fandom paper was included. I’m being cited by other people!!

-one of my circle of friends in Australia, who, after several unsuccessful IVF treatments, was carrying twins last year. At 5 1/2 months, she lost them both, but birthed them first. It was that last tragedy on the heels of many others over 18 months that prompted me to go back to Brisbane to visit my friends before anything else happened. Quite honestly, I figured I’d be in a plane crash and that would round it all out, but that’s stupid. Air New Zealand is a fabulous airline. Anyway, while I was at home, pondering my job future, I got the mail and had a letter from said friend. She is pregnant again. I almost cried right then. I was 3/4 the way through a knitted baby blanket for her when I got the news that she had lost the other babies, and it put me off knitting for months. I just couldn’t bear it. But now I can get it back down, and finish it.

In writing stuff, there’s just so much going on!



~I have new twinfic, but not enough really to post. I had written several paragraphs for February, which included Fred and George Apparating from Hogsmeade over to Diagon Alley to find a place to rent for their future shop. Then I consulted my handy OotP this morning and found out that - ack - the twins don’t go to Hogsmeade on the 14th. They stay back and watch the Gryffindor team’s practice. Damn. So I had to start over, which was kindof a shame as I had managed to incorporate the word flotsam into those paragraphs. Now that I think about it, though, I’m sure I have a future scene in which I can reinstate it. Hee.

~I have new George/Remus. Don’t know if it’s stand-alone in the series or if I should add another scene to it. I’ll probably post it on my filtered list this evening.

~I’m pretty close to finishing the young-Denethor-meets-a-Dwarf story, and it’s really gotten me back into that time period. It’s one I “know” intimately because it takes place around Thengel’s wedding, and I spent so much time learning about what was going on in Gondor when Thengel and Ecthelion were there in their 20s and 30s when writing “A House Divided” (whoops, well, Ecthelion is at least a decade older than Thengel- don’t have his dates off the top of my head), so it’s like revisiting familiar territory. The problem now is that it’s spawned a new nuzgul. I swear, they are worse than hydras! Now I’m thinking about a story (hopefully short) about Denethor and his first experience looking into the palantir. I have this idea that Ecthelion, and perhaps all of the stewards after Denethor I, have some kind of ritual and a particular age, say 15, when they let their sons gaze into the seeing-stone for the first time. My quandary is that I don’t know how the palantir in Minas Tirith got there. [nevermind: just figured out Minas Arnor=later-age Minas Tirith and they had a palantir all along, tho’ in my ‘Complete Guide to Middle-earth’ the suggestion is made that the Kings and Stewards didn’t use it after the fall of Minas Ithil. Why that is, I’m not sure. Hmmm. I find it completely bizarre to think that Denethor II would be the first person in like 900 years to decide to look in it]

I’m all intrigued by adolescent!Denethor II after being called upon personally to write a story about him meeting a Dwarf for the first time, both because it’s put me back into one of my favorite places, the Appendices from the Lord of the Rings, and also back to a time period that most other writers don’t consider and/or write about, which means I can be rather imaginative about it. The other thing (and yes, this is now REALLY rambly, shut up, I know, welcome to my head) that’s so cool about it is that I can kindof correlate Draco and Denethor, in that they’re both from essentially regal lines, with obvious expectations on them. I suppose that’s about it, but anyway. Plus Gondor has actually had a long period of peace as Denethor is growing up- Sauron doesn’t take up residence next door until he’s around 15 (Denethor, not Sauron, lol), so writing about him on the cusp of what is going ultimately to be the exceedingly complicated thing known as his life is very fun. So there’s that story.

~More Tolkien: my post from Monday was about the new idea about a story from the POV of Aldarion and some of his sea-voyages. In preparation for that, I reread the story of Aldarion and Erendis this morning and got even more inspired. As I was driving to the public library this afternoon in search of books on boats, sails, shipbuilding, ropes and knots and the like (because if I’m not writing HP, I’m writing Tolkien and it’s all about my excuse for being able to do research, and I don’t know a thing about boats and I’m about to write about a hard-core mariner), I had a new thought about it that gave me chills. I almost don’t want to share it, but I think it will be so interesting that I’m going to anyway. It will be from Aldarion’s point of view, sortof. It will actually be set 200 years or so after his death from the POV of a cleric in the library in Romenna who is categorizing the scrolls, and he’ll come across all of Aldarion’s writings (JRRT conveniently says that Aldarion wrote about his voyages [“It is said that Aldarion himself wrote records of all his journeys to Middle-earth, and they were long preserved in Romenna, though all were afterwards lost”], but when Numenor/Atlantis sinks into the ocean, the original writings vanished), and discover that while some are merely dry, ‘I did this, Gil-Galad said that, I drew pictures of these trees in Middle-earth, these are the sketches of the Palarran,’ etc. etc., there are going to be a lot of rather personal entries as well: his thoughts while under the stars, about his father continually giving him grief about being gone so often, about his love of sailing, about Erendis, and it will become apparent that some are so personal that Aldarion indicates on some of them that he intends to destroy them. But either he doesn’t, or they got shelved without him knowing. And the cleric will become obsessed with this former king, his life and adventures, and his wife will give him grief about living in what is not his “real life.” Since who among us has any idea what that is like, becoming immersed in history and alternate realities? Hmmmm. I wonder.

~the other cool thing is that I was approached out of the blue by a writer at HASA looking for a beta reader last week, and I really enjoyed her story, and read another of her stories, a WIP which is set during the last few days of the Ring War from the point of view of an OFC in the Houses of Healing. It’s really, really interesting, and her imagery is great. I do find it unfortunate that there seems to be such a knee-jerk negative reaction to original characters, whether male or female, in Tolkien fandom. This one, like my first ever fanfiction story character, is no Mary-Sue. That’s what saddens me about the lack of original characters within the Ardaverse, because there is so much possibility for them, such depths of material into which new, fleshed-out characters can be woven. See, licia_north? You have me hooked on that word and that image now. Thank you.

Guess I’ll be writing tonight. But must have food. Only had a piece of peanut butter toast so far. Been busy. ;)

Comments

Wow! Busy times for you!

[mistressofrohan.livejournal.com]

That's really encouraging about the job front. It's always good to know that you are excelling at something... and brownie points to you for sharing your ideas and getting to do things you *enjoy* doing!

The different story ideas are most intriguing. I am always in a state of awe / admiration for any author who can keep multiple storylines in their head at one time. I can handle 2 (on my good days) and anything over that is guaranteed to get confoozled. Good luck and may the muse cooperate fully!

MM

Re: Wow! Busy times for you!

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Yes, busy indeed. :P

Thank you for your kind comments. When I first started writing, it was simply one story idea after the other. That was a bit easier. Then I wrote HEAPS of stuff and was sure that I'd never have another new idea again. Then I simply was pummelled with multiple plots at once, and now they're in multiple fandoms. It's no wonder that I dream about fanfiction, fandom characters, and even talking to other writers in my dreams.

My muse must be exhausted. But she's brilliant. Or maybe there are several of them. ;)

p.s. hope that things are going well on your front, too. I haven't done any real LJ'ing in the past day or two and haven't checked up on you, but I've been thinking about you.

[llembas.livejournal.com]

OMG. *gasps* If you only knew how much I'm in love with your Aldarion story idea.

It's a very little known fact that Findegil is one of my favorite obscure characters from Tolkien. I've always been intrigued by a guy who spent his whole life copying down the Red Book and recording all these adventures but never having any of his own. In fact, for a week or two I thought about him all the time when I was poking around with my own writing and even considered having Findegil as my new lj name instead of llembas.

And now, you're gonna write about a simliar type of character and combine it with the Aldarion story. asl;flas;djkl;f!!!! *squees* You're a genius! A genius! A cleric reading about Aldarion!! It's my favorite story. Really, it is. Just the idea of it is brilliant.

And after than fannish gushing...

I'm glad your job review went well. And I can't believe you haven't been helping them out with grant writing long before now! No telling how much money they'd have had coming in with your powers of writing. *grin*

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

OMG. *gasps* If you only knew how much I'm in love with your Aldarion story idea.

Well, to be perfectly honest, I hope I'm not taking an idea of yours, my dear. I've known of your interest in Aldarion and the Palarran (obviously) and Findegil, too.

You're a genius! A genius! A cleric reading about Aldarion!! It's my favorite story. Really, it is. Just the idea of it is brilliant.

Well, it's certainly obscure, and you know me, and you know my preferences. But it positively seethes with potential, doesn't it? A person caught up in another person's life, and one that was not particularly even-keeled, as it were. For all five of us who will ever read it and know who the characters are.

Just kidding. I do want to write it. But you're welcome to write another one! In fact, I'm surprised you haven't. Yet. Must be on the horizon.

I'm glad your job review went well. And I can't believe you haven't been helping them out with grant writing long before now! No telling how much money they'd have had coming in with your powers of writing. *grin*

Well, they weren't that great until recently, but certainly it couldn't have hurt. I'll hope to make a more positive contribution this way. :P

p.s. I still think we should both go to NZ and do that creative writing thingie I posted about in your LJ. I saw the playwright/screenwriting part of it and immediately thought of you, Ms. I AM DIALOGUE, HEAR ME ROAR.

[llembas.livejournal.com]

Well, to be perfectly honest, I hope I'm not taking an idea of yours, my dear. I've known of your interest in Aldarion and the Palarran (obviously) and Findegil, too.

Ack! No way! It never crossed my mind to even attempt to write any stories about any of them. As much as I love those characters, they all intimidate me too much. Impossible to get inside their heads, ya know? Certain characters are automatically off limits the moment I read them because I know I'd never do them justice. So they just sit around in my head and intrigue me. :)


p.s. I still think we should both go to NZ and do that creative writing thingie I posted about in your LJ. I saw the playwright/screenwriting part of it and immediately thought of you, Ms. I AM DIALOGUE, HEAR ME ROAR.

LOL. I never even thought about looking at schools in NZ. Hmmmm.... I'll have to look and see what library degrees they've got over there. (I think one writing degree is enough for me.) Although double majors are always nice. writing/library. I'm so horrible, I could easily stay in school forever taking classes that interest me. I think I'm addicted to the quest for knowledge.

[helveticat.livejournal.com]

In preparation for that, I reread the story of Aldarion and Erendis this morning and got even more inspired. As I was driving to the public library this afternoon in search of books on boats, sails, shipbuilding, ropes and knots and the like (because if I’m not writing HP, I’m writing Tolkien and it’s all about my excuse for being able to do research, and I don’t know a thing about boats and I’m about to write about a hard-core mariner), I had a new thought about it that gave me chills.

^ I'm totally curious! This caught my eye because I had a similar moment back-in-the-day with Seabird, and I practically ran to the library to become a sailing scholar, lol. I know every stupid name of every stupid jib and line and sail. I ended not using A LOT of it in the final story, but it was so, so, soooooo fun just to say, "hey, I'm going to become an expert in ____."

You know? Research is da bomb, babe. I could sleep in the library and randomly become an expert on every specific topic there is... so long as they fed me. ;-)

*sigh* That's what composition notebooks are for, you know? So we can be all "Seven" and geeks and stuff.

:-)

PS: *claps* about the Denethor-as-Draco idea. That's fantabulous. I <3 villains, so... there's another one I can't wait to read.

Bye!

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

I'm totally curious! This caught my eye because I had a similar moment back-in-the-day with Seabird, and I practically ran to the library to become a sailing scholar, lol.

And I was thinking of YOU when I went to the library, looking up books on ships, boats, etc. I honestly almost emailed you today to ask what that one book was that you wrote about that analyzed all the bits and pieces of boats, so I could have one book, not five. But oh well. I love going to the library.

*sigh* That's what composition notebooks are for, you know? So we can be all "Seven" and geeks and stuff.

I took a spiralbound notebook today. Very odd. Red cover. It was from the office. Otherwise I have my "Artist" notebook with my purple legal pad. I felt all... young.

PS: *claps* about the Denethor-as-Draco idea.

Well, *cringe*, it's really more Draco-Denethor family parallels than anything else. And I haven't gotten back to poor Lucius stuck in Erebor with the Dwarves this week, I'm so sorry. Hopefully there will be more comedy ready to burst forth this weekend.

p.s. Seabird rocks, as you know. I need to read the ending, but I'll probably reread the prior part first. So gorgeous. Just like you. Oh goodness. I owe you a letter, too.

[helveticat.livejournal.com]

*points at whole end of your comment, not bothering to copy-paste-italicize*

Licia is resilient, despite icky thunderstorms, and can handle your bigger moments of inspiration that might gently overpower the comedyLucius insanity she's gotten you into. :-)

Also, Licia is disconcertingly patient. Even passive. Heck... even lazy. I promise (because I know her personally) that she'll be cool with whatever you do whenever and however you do it.

And Licia has lots of faith in your new story ideas and your ability to bring them to fruition (there's a word I never use much).

<3