Thrihyrne

I'm copying much of this from my friend heartofoshun, as she has so eloquently phrased this true end of an era. Henneth-Annun is going to shut down at the end of this calendar year. From the site announcement: "HASA will be retired and taken offline at the end of the year. This is not being done lightly, and there is a lot of sorrow surrounding the decision."

I'm tearing up just writing this down. I learned so much from that site, and all of my vast amount of Tolkien fanfic is there. My ancient (ie: 10 year old) character biographies are there. I was mentored and won awards there. I mentored other authors once I'd been writing for a while there. My second fanfiction survey paper, Under the Waterfall, was written about HASA participants in particular and how they saw themselves. That paper was even referenced and printed in its entirety in a fellow fandom studies' book, The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context. It's just so sad. Perhaps this is the universe's way of prompting me to learn enough to do a major overhaul of my own, rustic website.

Anyway, heartofoshun eloquently wrote this: "But first and foremost it prompted a serious love for, engagement in, and commitment to the entirety of the fandom and all its genres. It promoted the sense that fanfic writing was real writing and deserved to be treated as such."

I'm posting this publicly to assist in getting the word out if, like me, you hadn't been active of late and may want to revisit what all you have there and go snag it if you hadn't.

I read aloud the Númenorean story that I'd started writing back in '03 or '04 to evannichols in the car yesterday while driving to Newberg. While it's pretty short still, only the beginnings, it reminded me of why I've held onto this one story and its to-be themes of obsession and… well, mostly obsession. Partnerships. At the time, it was a way for me to project the negative messages I was getting from my wasband on to another character and to deal with it by writing about it. I'm in a very different place now, but still think that the story would resonate to whatever maybe-dozen people might read it. Stories set during the Second Age aren't necessarily a huge draw, especially a story that is taking place in multiple time periods at once and in a fairly static format of the present of the one protagonist, a cleric in the 600s in Númenor (I think) and then journal entries of Tar-Aldarion. And yet, I really, really want to get back to this fic. I'm having a stylistic issue in that when I started this, I was somewhat trying to emulate Tolkien style, so it's archaic and stilted. I think I may modernize the 'modern-day' Númenorean protagonist's speech, but I can let Aldarion's entries still feel more Tolkien-esque. Evan enjoyed it, though he doesn't know this fandom to the depth of degree that I do, and I'd venture that even most devoted Tolkien fans aren't necessarily going to be up to speed on this gem of a story from Unfinished Tales. I'll need to reread Aldarion and Erendis' story, and it appears that I ditched my copy during that February trip to Harrisonburg. Guess I'll put it on my library hold list. :)

I've been thinking about participating in a holiday fest (beyond Yuletide, which I'll gleefully participate in again as I have another fandom I can add!). You all know how I feel about H/D, and I'm not a Snarry writer, either. I believe I've told all of the H/R tales I have, and no more Elf slash for me for a while. So! I noticed that my Neville/George fic received a lot of favorable response during weasley_fest, including glowing comments from a lot of people who I suspect normally would never have heard about me due to it being from Neville's POV. If some of you here (or your friends) are Neville fans, is there a Neville-centric holiday fest? I'd enjoy writing another story with him as the focus. Maybe there's an HP-slash-rarepairs holiday fest? If only Merry Smutmas hadn't come to its end. :sigh:

Suggestions/guidance appreciated!

And in very troubling news, I was writing back to the designer of this great fingerless glove pattern I've been knitting (I've made two pairs, both as gifts so I'd been a bit hesitant to post a picture, but I will anyway!) who I'd met in person a few years back, and discovered, to my tremendous frustration and incomprehension, that the yarn store I've been frequenting since I moved here has closed its doors!! :::cries::: They have an online presence only now. It was Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks, and it had a cafe attached where I spent several hours on various projects, soaking up the positive vibe of the store. The last time I was there was to get my yarn balled up, including the yarn for a baby sweater I'm working on now and the gorgeous yarn pictured below:
( fingerless gloves, Spirogyra pattern by Lynne Vogel found via Knitty.com )
I meant to post about this at the time, but it was a rough day that day: it was a Friday and I'd just received Storm's extensive comments about my M+M revision. I went by there and the staff was great and balled up the yarn for me. What was fabulous, and made me happy, yet again, that I live in Portland and no longer a small college town in Virginia, is that there were three staff members there. All three of them were male. :)

And now they're closed! I'm so upset. I'm glad they have an online presence, though, as in my crazy state I've agreed to knit two more pair of the fingerless gloves, and I wanted that same brand of yarn, but a different colorway.

Phooey. Damn economy. Unless there was something else going on, which is entirely possible. But I'm heartbroken. That's two yarn stores I liked that I've seen close their doors. While living in Harrisonburg I saw the store literally across the street from Rosetta Stone open for business, I patronized it, and watched it close less than two years later. Then again, the owner was young and ended up having a baby and had other things to focus on. Still.

I miss elfscribe5 already. Want to commiserate with her about the Lord John books, about her Numenor fic, about M+M, etc. That said, I want to thank all of you for being along with me on my path. garsher_03, you and I will have to talk Lord John once you're in a position to do so! And heartofoshun, I can't thank you enough for beta'ing M+M. And the new friends on my flist, and those who've been with me for years… just thank you. Fandom and writing has allowed me to cross paths with some of the most attentive, thoughtful, inspiring and generous people I've ever met.