Fandom Special Snowflake meme, Day Nine

Day 9

In your own space, rec at least 3 fanworks you thought you wouldn't like (because they weren't your fandom or they pushed against your boundaries or you thought you just wouldn't be interested) but you ended up loving. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Now, it's well known that my main interest in Middle-earth are the hobbits of the Shire; at first I had no interest in Elves unless the Elves were accompanied by hobbits; most certainly not Elves in Valinor with no hobbits anywhere to be seen. The first writer who made me like Elves asElves was Bodkin. She had a little series of vignettes called Reflections on the Paradise of Elves which were basically conversations between Legolas, Elladan and Elrohir as they adjusted to life in Aman. It started out humorously, but with each new chapter, she added more and more depth to the society she was showing us. It was fascinating! Hobbits will always be my first and best love. But they don't have to be there to make me like Elves now.

For a second story that pushed me a little further, there was Not Fade Away by Jael. I'd always discounted "modern Elves" stories. Most of them did not seem to be very well written. Jael's story blew me out of the water. Her Elves are magnificent and plausible, and Thranduil makes a most excellent CEO of a multi-national corporation.

To begin with, my reading was also confined only to Middle-earth. I was almost afraid of other fandoms. Then I discovered that under another name, my friend rabidsamfan had written Harry Potter fic. Knowing the excellence of her writing I gave a try with her story Yet Another Snape Meets the Dursleys. This was quite a bit of envelope pushing for me, because even though I liked the books and movies for HP, I was a little wary of the fic. I'd heard things. Plus I disliked Snape and I loathed the Dursleys! But because I knew I could trust RSF, I gave it a try. Now I read fairly widely in other fandoms I'm familiar with!

And just one more acknowledgement of someone giving me a push, this one as a writer. I'd never written in a non-Tolkien fandom, either. But my friend danae_b convinced me to take part in Yuletide one year, and I did, and I did it again for two more years. I still mostly create my stories in Tolkien's sandbox. But now it's nice to know that if I want to, I can dig a little in some of the other ones, too!