Dreamflower's Mathom-house

I signed up for the WIP Big Bang

I decided to go with "Eleventy-one" as I know I can get that one done by April 15, whereas I am not so sure about "In the Court of the High King", which I will also continue to work on.

The sign-up is still open until Friday, if anyone's interested in also signing up!

Remember that I mentioned one of my FFN readers thought I should combine "Kingly Gifts" and "Waking Day"?

Here it is:
A reviewer at FFN, KathyG helped me to fuse these two stories taking place within the period from three days after the Ring was destroyed to the end of the day that the Ringbearers awakened. The first story was "Kingly Gifts" originally written in 2004 for Marigold's Challenge #6; the title was Marigold's prompt element for the story. The other story was "Waking Day", which was written for Shirebound in the 2013 LOTR GFIC Yule Fic Exchange, which overlapped the previous story and filled in some gaps that I missed in the first story. Finally, the drabble was "Before the Feast" written in 2011 for Back-to-Middle-earth-Month. I also added a small amount of new material, and made some minor edits. Thank you so much, KathyG for encouraging me to do this, creating a single cohesive narrative from these stories.

Spring After Winter, Sun on Leaves: The Kingly Gifts-Waking Day Fusion at FFN

Spring After Winter, Sun on Leaves: The Kingly Gifts-Waking Day Fusion at AO3

Yesterday our son came over to do a couple of little chores for us. He brought with him his girlfriend's adorable little two-year-old daughter.

Our dog Sophie just loves our son, and she also likes the girlfriend's kids (a huge improvement over Sugar's attitude, poor thing--she was a menace to any kind of visitors and sincerely wanted to bite a chunk out of our son whenever she saw him; she always had to be shut up). But this was the first time it was just the baby. The DS left her in my charge while he went out to take care of some stuff in our garage.

Fortunately, little A. is used to dogs (my son has a huge mixed-breed male, and she adores Cado), and was only too happy to let Sophie lick her and play with her. They chased each other around the house with A. giggling "Puppy!" (Miss Bella, however, did not take well to being chased around as A. was calling "Kitty!", and took to the high ground, where she stared down at the little menace, LOL!)

Sophie loved all the attention, of course.

However, it's possible my son is allowing her to spend too much time with his dog, as she's learned some rather odd habits--like grabbing me for a hug and licking me! I was somewhat startled by this to say the least! LOL! My son thinks it is hugely funny. Anyway, she did give me a couple of people smoochies before they left.

http://wipbigbang.livejournal.com/401.html?mode=reply

Do I want to try this? I really want to get my WIPs finished. The thing is, the two I'd consider putting in: "Eleventy-one: Too Short a Time, Book One" and "In the Court of the High King"; and the problem is, whichever one I choose would have to go on hiatus until April 15.

I've done "finishing" marathons before; once it worked pretty well (I finished "Trotter") but not so much the next time. Hmmm...

I have a couple of weeks to make up my mind. What do you guys think, and which one would you like to see me finish, if I do it? (Keeping in mind how long I'd have to wait to update if I do this!)

My friend danae_b is dipping her toes into Who-fic! She's writing as theotherbadwolf, and has a new ficlet posted here. Very lovely bit of post-Pond angst, written with Dana's usual tight POV!

Well, this has been an...interesting...morning.

As I've mentioned before, we had been having plumbing problems. Today the plumbers came to replace the sewer line beneath the house, a noisy and stinky process. At some point while they were here, I put some eggs on to boil. Then, because my brain is still foggy from being sick, I forgot. Because of the sewer stink, I did not notice the smell when they started to scorch after the pan boiled dry. I did, however, hear when they began to explode! There was exploded boiled egg all over the kitchen!

I am feeling better today, but whatever laid me out last week is still lingering, and my head still feels like it's wrapped in cotton.

The plumbers finished, and I am waiting to get a call about how much it has cost us. It was not covered by the home warranty. As much as that was a big help our first few years here, the last few repairs we needed, we could not get them to cover. We've about decided to drop them.

But I was able to do a load of laundry AT HOME! :)

OTOH, I've been uploading some chapters of "Eleventy-one" at AO3, and was able to add the nice banner baranduin made for me! I felt quite accomplished when I figured out how to do that! I'm going to add it over at MPTT next!



I'm going to have some lunch now that the house doesn't smell so bad, and then depending on how I feel, I will either do some writing or take a nap.

Does anyone know if SoA is down?

My computer had a virus, and I was online and on the phone with Norton all afternoon getting it de-bugged. Unfortunately, the tech person had to de-install Firefox, which put me back to IE as my main (only actually only) browser, and wiped out my favorites; trying to get SoA back on the list and none of the links are working for me. I don't know if it's down, or if it's just me.

I actually haven't done this one before. danae_b gave me the letter "K".

Something I hate: Kardasians. Actually, I don't really hate them as individuals. I don't really know them. I'm sure that underneath their public personas they may be perfectly nice people, and not nearly as vapid and shallow and materialistic as they present themselves. But I do hate what they represent--that you don't have to actually deserve fame--all you have to do is be famous for being famous. I prefer celebrities who actually have talent or who accomplish something to get their fame.
Something I love: Kitties! I love doggies, too, but they don't start with K. My kitty is such a love sponge, and she's soft and furry and purry and she goes limp in my lap. But she can also be very silly and funny!
Somewhere I have been: Kentucky. That was my mother's home state, and I went there many times as a child. She grew up in a small town called Hazzard, in Perry County. I think the last time I went there was about in, maybe '73. I know I was still in college then, and she went to see a cousin. Mostly I recall all the narrow winding roads, the beautiful mountains and scenery broken up by the ugly places where coal had been strip minded, and then beautiful again. And I can barely remember my grandmother's house, which seemed huge to me when I was little, but when I saw it on that last visit didn't seem all that big after all.
Somewhere I would like to go: Kent. OK, this stumped me for a while, so I was just thinking of places that start with K, and I know Kent's in the UK, and I never got out of Scotland when I went there in '07, so I'd like to see some other places in the UK. I looked it up, and it has some neat places there I've heard about, so yeah, it seems like a place I'd like to go. :)
Someone I know: kerravonsen. I also know quite a few people whose RL names start with "K", but I don't like to put other people's real names online.
Best Movie: Karate Kid. The original one with Ralph Maccio and Pat Morita. (I haven't seen the latest remake yet). Umm, that's the only movie I could think of that I've seen that started with "K" except for Kung Fu Panda, which I also liked. But not as much as Karate Kid.

You know the drill: if you want to do this one, ask me for a letter!

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!