Thrihyrne

Hee! Emansil_08 emailed me to let me know- I've not written HP in what seems like a long while and I'm always thrilled and gratified to realize that people haven't forgotten my body of work, and still enjoy my stories.

http://crack-broom.livejournal.com/1840184.html

So that really made my day. Writing Gimli is also great fun, though his 'voice' hasn't quite settled for me yet. Due to the situation of the story I'm writing, at times there's a lot of his inner thoughts going on which is perhaps not what people think of when they think of Dwarves… but Gimli is rather a unique Dwarf and I'm really loving getting back into what I think Dwarvish culture is like and how they interact with each other. In fact, on Monday when I was modeling I spent a goodly amount while sitting still, gazing off and mulling over what Dwarvish funereal practices might be like. :) Glad to have my muse back! She was on quite the trip.

I forgot to mention this other fabulous find at my Goodwill excursion on Monday: a 'grab bag' of yarn! For $6.99 I was able to pick up a bag with 6 skeins of varying colors and types of yarn, including some high quality wool and Finnish cotton. The colorways are primarily what I'd call subdued peacock heathers (gorgeous!) with one random milk chocolate brown worsted weight probably acrylic/wool mix that I'm going to make a hat out of. SCORE! Also, the 18 skeins of tweedy blue/grey wool I ordered to make a 1967 Vogue Knitting Aran cardigan out of arrived yesterday. I'm a very happy camper in my knitting world right now.

I'm reading a fascinating book titled Reality Bites Back: the Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV by Jennifer L. Pozner. It was reviewed in Bitch magazine a while back and as someone who does indeed somewhat guiltily enjoy a few reality TV shows while knitting, I'm finding her writings on it and the messages both implicit and explicit to be very interesting. Unlike younger audiences, especially those who have grown up with this genre on TV, I'm very aware of the messages there and the ridiculous product placement in the few that I watch (various countries' Top Model series, Project Runway [which I do absolutely adore], and some British shows I was downloading a few months ago). I'm really enjoying the book, at any rate.

If anyone would like my snail mail address, drop me an email (it's on my bio page) and I'll be happy to send it.

Also, last night I did something I very occasionally do anymore, which is to see if anybody has recc'ed any of my fanfic recently. It doesn't appear so, though I did come across someone's rec made years ago (I know this because the link is to an archive which has been defunct for several years now) of two of my Gimli stories, and it got my mind going. I actually lay in bed and had a few potential plots come to mind for shorter one-shot Gimli-centric stories! I also think I'll re-read LotR, which I've only read it from beginning to end once, as opposed to reading sections looking for particular details for a story. But I actually am sensing that Gimli's voice has come to visit, which pleases me tremendously, even if the audience for such stories has shrunk.

This was originally posted to lotr_community for their 'Believe it or Not' challenge for October. It's very short, but boy was it fun to write Tolkien again!

Title: A Rose Among Thorns
Rating: G
Theme: Believe It Or Not
Elements: "dim"
Betas: booneda and brumeux77
Author's Notes: I've not written any Tolkien in a while; I hope you enjoy this fanciful tale involving my favorite race in M-E.
Summary: What would be truly unexpected within Dwarvish society? Maybe someone like Dimvin.
Word Count: 1086

( Read more... )

Title: Unanswerable Questions
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Characters: Gimli, Legolas, Rohirrim, Aragorn
Word Count: 1250
Rating: G
Summary: The night before following Aragorn on the Paths of the Dead, Gimli struggles with his purpose and questions which have no easy answers.
Author's Notes: Another short gapfiller for my fanfic100 table, this time with the prompt of Why? Self-beta'ed and crossposted to fanfic100. Perhaps a slight nod to movieverse, but this is definitely extracted from canon. Gormgloine is the name for Gimli's axe that I gave him within my own fanon, initially from the story "Speak, Friend, and Enter." My notes about it were these: "blue-glass" (Irish) My vision is that Narvi's axe handle has two sapphires embedded in it, and I love that it has the word "Gloin" in it. Many of the weapons in Middle-earth have names, including Orcrist, Thorin's sword. To my knowledge Gimli does not name his axe, but perhaps he's being coy in that secretive Dwarvish way that they have. I considered his axe to have been handed down the family line from Narvi ultimately to him.

( Unanswerable Questions )

It's nearly the conclusion of 2008, and while I do have a couple of stories which haven't yet had the author reveals, I'm going to go ahead and do a summary of the year. It's been another productive one, in which I dove head-first with great gusto into a new fandom, which really surprised me. I thought my head would be full with Harry Potter and Tolkien and I'd never get involved in any others. Instead, Storm Constantine's Wraeththu series of books totally took over, but I also wrote a few short selections in Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint world as well. I'd love to write some Mary Renault The Persian Boy fanfiction one day, but it hasn't yet happened. ;)

I'm going to organize these by fandoms rather than by date, but here's what I've written and posted in 2008 (not including 2 fest stories not yet revealed):

Wraeththu
All of my Wraeththu fics can be found here at my website. You can't leave reviews, but for the first fic below, I do have it saved as a pdf there, and there are pictures of 'Castlegar' as well as some other yummy pictures.
§ Maelstrom and Mage, Desire Thine Darkling
49,083 words; Ashmael/Vaysh and OCs, adult
Available here at Forever Wraeththu [where you can leave a review! ;) ] or here as a pdf file to download.

§ Down the Whispering Well
44,523 words; Vaysh/Ashmael and OCs, adult
Available here at Forever Wraeththu. I didn't get around to making a pdf of this one, though maybe I will soon.

§ Passion's Acolyte
3,015 words; Cal/Swift, adult
Available here on LJ or here at Forever Wraeththu

§ Interpret Me the Savage Whirr
6,198 words; Seel/Ashmael, adult
Available here on LJ or here at Forever Wraeththu

§ Quare Clausum Fregit (Wherefore he broke the close)
3,364 words; Vaysh/OC [Yazdyar, from 'Down the Whispering Well'], adult
Available here on LJ and here at Forever Wraeththu

§ Mere Trifles
1,723 words; Seel/Swift (not adult), Cobweb
Available here at Forever Wraeththu or here at my website. I don't seem to have ever posted it at my LJ!

§ Swooping to Landward
13,800 words; Chithra/Lemuel (OCs), a study of Fioan/Colurastes cultural interaction, adult
Available here on LJ (link is to part one) or here at Forever Wraeththu

§ After the Storm, Restless Fire
4,979 words; Ithiel/Cobweb and Ithiel/Terzian, adult
Available here on LJ or here at Forever Wraeththu

§ Reap the Wild Wind
24,402 words; Kelp/Blackspur, Kelp/Hunt (OCs), adult
Link to the first post on my LJ here, or you can read the whole thing here at my website. It hasn't yet been uploaded to Forever Wraeththu.

§ Libertine
389 words; Terzian, PG-13
Available here at my LJ

A few Wraeththu drabbles written along the way are here at my website

Harry Potter
§ Cloudscape of Ravens
18,030 words; Ron/OC, Ron/Severus, adult
Written for the ginger_lust Ron-centric fest I hosted with a lot of help. The link there is locked to ensure no-one underage in the community got to it, but you can read it here at my website or here at Skyehawke if you'd care to leave a review.

§ No Shame, This Life, Beloved
14,792 words; Ron/Draco, adult; in all likelihood, the last story in the "Magic Immunity" story arc.
Available here at my LJ

§ A Rally Toward Exalted Moments
5,567 words; Harry/Charlie, adult
Available here at my LJ or here at the weasley_fest community

§ Scotch Game
9,144 words; Ron/Remus, adult
Available here at my LJ; it's locked at the remus_ron_slash community to prevent underage folks from reading it there.

§ The Sensibility of Wantonness
3,181 words; Ron/Draco ["Crown of Rope" universe], adult
Available here at my LJ

I also seem to have written a slew of various drabbles by request on a few different days. Rather than organize them, there are a bunch of requested HP drabbles here (some Wraeththu, too, but I put them on my website), a rare het Ron/Hermione drabble here and Ron/Charlie drabble from the vampire!Charlie incest story I wrote a year or so ago for wolfiekins

I also have one lingering WIP, a Dean/Ron for the very patient Callum James. I actually printed out what I had when I was at his flat in England in October, and I really will finish it. It's just taken a back burner, to my chagrin.

Swordspoint
These are nearly all drabbles, though I think I did write a vignette. LOL. I've written a lot this year and can't keep it all straight! Hence the annual wrap-up.

Basil's Banquet, Fall of the Kings drabble
Untitled Richard/Alec drabble
Revenge Effloresces, Richard/Alec drabble

Hmmmm. Thought I'd written more Swordspoint than that; I think I just wish I had!

Lord of the Rings
Unbelievably after my start in the Ardaverse, the only things I've written in LotR fandom this year have been drabbles, but I do seem to have written a few. All are general rating unless otherwise noted.

Untitled Halbarad-centric drabble
Alliances, Gimli-centric
Untitled Gimli-centric drabble
Untitled Éowyn-centric drabble
Untitled Celeborn/Aragorn drabble, adult
Another untitled Gimli-centric drabble

Wow. So, looking at the non-drabbles, it appears as though I've written around 200,000 words of fanfiction this year. I'm not a real word-counter usually; it's just good for me to look at the year and see where my focuses have been. Obviously it's been with Wraeththu more than anything else, and I don't know what my focus will be next year. I will be expanding "Maelstrom and Mage," trying to double it in length to get it ready to be a proper novel available from Immanion Press, and my slashy_santa fic is Tolkien. This year I also started out trying NaNoWriMo, so I wrote about 3K of actual original fiction. Wheeeeeee.

For those of you who have read and enjoyed my stories and let me know, thank you so much! Feedback, commentary, and enthusiasm are always gratifying for an author.

I'm at home, as my knight in armor, pghpatronus, has come down with the flu, so I'm not travelling to visit with him and wolfiekins and koshweasley. We're all disappointed that we won't get to see each other, and I hope that PGH gets well soon. He's on some serious meds, and I'm in a funk.

So! This time of year is a good time to look back. I can't really begin to comprehend how incredibly painful, anger- and anxiety-ridden this year has been for me in RL, so instead, here's the listing of the stories I've written, the various new and old pairings and life experiences I explored through writing as an escape and/or written alternative to my own situations out in the world. Despite the very, very challenging year, I've written a lot that I'm proud of, and hope that you who are readers of my fic, have enjoyed at least one or two of my output from 2007.

( fic listing, in chronological order )

The ones I'm most proud of? Probably the Ron/Dean Vermilion Hunger, Cerulean Thirst; Strange-Eyed Constellation (a rare trio if ever there was one!); Strife from the Furthest Prime, and Crown of Rope. Here's to an equally creative outpouring in 2008. For those of you who continue to read and enjoy my stories and let me know, my heartfelt thanks to you. To those who read my stories and lurk, thank you for that as well. And to my many betas, I so appreciate your insights and enthusiasm. With each story I hope that I'm honing my craft, and one of my planned intentions is to spread my wings a bit out beyond fanfic this next year. I'd hoped to do that in 2007, but it wasn't to be. Still, as I look back at what I did contribute to the Harry Potter fandom in 2007, I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Thank you all for bothering to take the time to read my often long-ish fics, and to let me know what you thought.

I've realized that I get almost as giddy when someone I've beta'ed for posts a fic and lists me as a beta (usually myself and someone else; two sets of eyes are always better than one!) and writes that I was astute, perceptive, or something similar, as I do when I receive reviews for my own stories that laud the story and/or my wordcraft. I really love editing. I seem to be pretty good at it. It would be really cool to earn money for writing, especially writing gay erotica with plot. Or just plotty stuff with gay sex as part of it. But I still think I'd enjoy doing that on the side, at my own pace, and being paid to edit fiction. Especially reading good authors. I finished reading I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb and cried. I don't do that very often, and it wasn't because it was the most gorgeously written book in the world, nor the most innovative and heart-wrenching (I sobbed the last few pages of His Dark Materials); it was because I really felt for the main character, and I really admired Lamb's clean prose and the overarching story. I think I could be a helpful editor for writers, and would love to do that, but there don't seem to be degree programs in editing. Am I missing something? Do you have to simply get into it somehow, and then people get your name out there? Or do you pay your penance at a newspaper or magazine or something and then segue into fiction?

( Elvish question )

Well, I didn't place first in anything writing-wise, but I did make a few appearances! Considering how little Ardaverse-fic I wrote last year, I'm thrilled to be in this at all. Oooh, and this means that I'll get to use some of the award banners I made! How funny; I think they're all ones that I made. Granted, I did have a focus on Dwarves, but still, the third-place cross-cultural I made, too. And I made a major typo in the 3rd place for Dwarves. Augh. Of the many banners I made, I think this one may be my fave:

Congratulations to so very many people, especially annmarwalk. ((hugs))

Thusly are my awards:

Genres: Romance: Rohan— Honorable Mention— Kindly Winter's Gift (warning for slash)

Races: Cross-Cultural— Third Place—

A Taste of Diplomacy

Races: Dwarves- Second Place—

Antiphon to Light

Races: Dwarves- Third Place—

The Stones' Lament

Genres: Romance: General Authors— Honorable Mention

Races: Cross-Cultural: General Authors— Honorable Mention

Races: Dwarves: General Authors— Second Place

Races: Men: General Authors— Honorable Mention

I'm still writing the other Gimlifics, but this one just came to me in drabble form. Since it encompasses a lot in a very few words: this is set after the Ring War; Gimli is back home, presumably after Aragorn's coronation and he and Legolas have seen the Glittering Caves and all that. The Dwarves lost a lot of people in their own battles up north during the mess in Mordor; this takes that into consideration. Vram is Gimli's… companion.

Title: Earth Friend Thee Forever
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Rating: PG for implied deaths and m/m relations.

Gimli endured the feast, the likes of which hadn't been engineered since the successful, but devastating conclusion of the Battle of Five Armies. He'd fought there; tested his metal, in the most visceral way imaginable. He still harboured an otherwise inexplicable, profound satisfaction of the thunking, wet sound of his hacking blade. Goblin, orc, other… he'd battled enough.

His palms itched with memory.

Much later, he sat on his heels in the moonlight, paying homage to his fallen kindred. The fire in his diamond was gone, forever. Gimli thanked Mahal for sheltering Vram until they were reunited again.

He wept.

The Muse has been busy, cross-fandom and everything. I'm especially pleased with this one.
edit, 4/28: have changed errant 'stocky' word to more appropriately Dwarvish sentiment.
edit, 12/4: I was a Best Bet!!

Title: Antiphon to Light
Characters: Gimli, Galadriel, Pippin, Legolas
Prompt: 85: She
Word Count: 1,548
Rating: G
Summary: Gimli meets Galadriel, and is forever changed.

( Antiphon to Light )