Crossposted from monthlydiaryday:

Except for the having of company, it was a rather ordinary day. Glad my 'net is working this AM.

( Read more... )

Yesterday I was supposed to work from 10-3. My back was feeling kind of stiff when I went in, and then I had some sort of muscle spasm in my lower back. It was so painful; I took some Advil and stuck it out for a couple of hours, but it kept getting worse. I started to have customers ask me what was wrong, and then I tried to give a customer his money back along with his change--thankfully he was honest and called my attention to it--but I knew I wasn't thinking straight with all the pain. So I told my boss I had to go home. I got home and took something else for the pain and put heat on my back and mostly slept the afternoon away. It's still sore this morning, but not like it was yesterday. I'll probably get a few things done but I'm not going to push things though.

The DH was a trooper; he'd spent most of the day out in the snow getting our outdoor lights up, but he also went to the laundromat and got all our laundry done, went to the store for some stuff we needed, and then picked up supper. (Take out fried chicken from a local grocery store). He's just the best!

Last night after the medicine wore off, I made a try at something I've been wanting to do, and began to put my first story up at AO3 (well, not literally my first there, but I didn't put the first one up, Yuletide did that a few years ago which is why I have an account I've never really used myself before). I'm beginning with "Trotter". We'll see how it goes.

As seen in about half the people on my flist...

<LotR 30 Day Meme in one day:
( Read more... )

I had to run out to the store this afternoon to pick up a few items, and Walmart had their big pumpkins on sale for .01!!!!!!!!!! That's right: one cent!

I picked up 5 of them. I'm planning to use them for Thanksgiving decorating, but I'd rather not waste them. I know you can freeze pumpkin, but I've never done that before.

Has anyone put up fresh pumpkin in the freezer? What's the best way to do that? Will they be all right uncut on the porch for a couple of weeks?

I would love to rec a delightful fic I've been reading today. Voices at the Door by rhymer23. It's a beautiful series of vignettes about the friendship between Bilbo and Aragorn, how they met and how their friendship developed over the years that Bilbo dwelt in Rivendell.

The author is fairly new to writing LotR fanfic, but her story is filled with rich and vivid descriptions and the characterizations of both Bilbo and Aragorn are spot on. You can see why they are drawn together, the hobbit in exile from his own people and the lonely king in exile whose wanderings are given a new purpose when he can describe them to another kindred soul. It's not a long story--only 14 short chapters!

Please do read this story if you are at all fond of Aragorn and/or Bilbo, and let the author know if you enjoy it half as much as I have been!

A few weeks ago I got a PM from a person who was publishing a scholarly work on Tolkien for permission to mention some of my stories in the essay. I gave permission, and had some nice e-mail correspondence with him.

The essay is now published as a Kindle e-book: Tolkien's Triumph: The Strange History of 'The Lord of the Rings' by John Lennard. It includes an entire section devoted to secondary works and fanfiction.

He has some very flattering things to say about my stories "A New Reckoning", "The Road to Edoras" and "In the Court of the High King". I am not the only fanfiction writer he mentions. He also includes pandemonium_213 (my co-author for "The Prisoner and the Hobbit") blslarner (analyzing "The King's Commission" and "Murder Most Foul") and jodancingtree (concerning her three stories "Following the Other Wizard", "The Queen's Orc", "The Grey at the End of the World").

The author has an LJ: bracketyjack and a blog, Reading Matters.

I think he did a wonderful job!

The October Challenge stories are up!

Some of you might have spotted mine briefly the other evening, when I accidentally posted it here (I was working on the formatting and meant to post privately) so if you wondered where it vanished to, here it is!

I took that political quiz a lot of my friends have been taking, but my results don't look quite like everyone else's.