Dreamflower's Mathom-house

While I am quite sure that most of the folks on my flist have probably read this one, since it was posted in 2006, I just finished it for the first time, and am just blown away by it!

It's by mariole, and it's called By Life or Death. It's an AU in which Strider and the hobbits encounter a LIVE troll right after they found the petrified ones.

An epic battle with the monster and some brilliant h/c, especially for Aragorn and Frodo (though others come in for their share as well), some wonderful angst, lots of love, loyalty and friendship and terrific characterizations of all five heroes (I'm blown away by her Aragorn, as I don't think I'd ever seen her write him before; I'm used to her wonderful hobbits)--well, I'm still a little breathless.

So, maybe if you are new you haven't read this; if it sounds like it might appeal, I highly recommend it! And perhaps if you vaguely remember it from the past, you might want to renew your acquaintance with it--it is certainly worth a re-read!

As I was watching the coverage of the events in Boston, our OKC channel broke away from the national news to cover the memorial events for the OKC bombing of the Murrow building 18 years ago today.

A sad reminder of just how long horrible things have been happening, and then just keep on happening...

Weather disasters and horrific accidents are bad enough. But realizing just how cruel people can be to other people, over and over and over...

Well, it's been going on since the world began. But somehow it seems more awful now, perhaps because we know about it as soon as it happens, and see it in detail.

ford_of_bruinen asked for prompts for poetry, and she wrote me two lovely poems about little Turin and Sador Labadal! They are very touching and (of course) a little sad, seeing as they are about Turin--but quite lovely!

Hello all!

Starting tomorrow, it looks as though I will be offline at the house for a while--I am not sure for how long--it could be anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. I will try to go to the library to do stuff, but I will not be as available as I have been. Emails may pile up, and any posting will be intermittent at best. I am hoping my semi-absence will be brief, but since I'm not sure, I am going to try and set things up in advance.

I am going to post the lotr_community April challenge today, but in order to expedite things, I will make it so that you do not have to wait for me to send out prompts.

I suggest that if you have any questions you send them to Cathleen (or to Dawn if they are of a technical nature).

I'm sorry this is happening right in the middle of B2MeM. I hope to have time to catch up on your stories during Reading Week. And I may have time to finish a few stories and post them from the library.

In more pleasant news: I got to see TH:AUJ today. My son got me the DVD (It's the combo pack that includes the DVD, the Blu-ray, and the Ultra-violet whatever that is.) and he and his girlfriend and her kids came over to watch it with me and have lunch; they just left a few minutes ago. It was a wee bit more hectic than watching it at the theater, but still, lots of fun. And I am so proud of Sophie--she behaved beautifully with the kids, and we only had to shut her in the bedroom while we ate lunch. Miss Belladonna mostly hid.

I'd also like to signal boost the following community. It is having a "prompt fest" to which you can request plot-bunnies for stories set in The Hobbit. They are accepting gen prompts as well as pairing prompts, and have several of those requested already. You can post your prompt requests between now and March 26. The great part? You do not have to claim a prompt to write in order to request a prompt! (Of course, they hope you will, but it is not a requirement.) So if there is a special story you'd like to see written, but you don't think you have time to write yourself, this is a great thing to take part in!

Here's the link to check it out!
Hobbit's Tale Prompt Fest

This afternoon our son treated us to a movie and then took us to dinner at a local Chinese buffet.

I thought I'd post some of my thoughts about the movie; behind the first cut, some non-spoilery general impressions...( Read more... )

Now for some spoilers: ( Read more... )

So that's my thoughts on the matter! Has anyone else on my flist seen it yet?

One thing I have always appreciated about the Tolkien fandom is that it has always seemed to eschew "cutesy smooshed together pairing names" such as one often sees for example, in HP and other fandoms. If you LIKE these, just pass on by and attribute this rant to cold-induced curmudgeonliness...

( Read more... )
Move along now, it's just a cranky old lady complaining...

I forgot that the great_tales fic for Challenge 202 was supposed to be a fixed-length ficlet of either 142 word or 214 words. So here's my entry that actually qualifies for the challenge, LOL!

Title: Their Other Loves
Author(s): Dreamflower
Rating: G
Fandom: The Lord of the Rings
Character(s): Pippin, Merry
Summary: The Shire may hold first place, but there's room for more in a hobbit's heart...
Word Count: 214

Their Other Loves

ROBIN ROBERTS is back on Good Morning America!!!

*happy sigh*

I've missed you, Robin!

They are having a neat discussion at TORN about the wisdom of Middle-earth. Seems like it would be a fun thing to explore here.

My own response is here behind the cut, but I'd love to see what others might say:
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My plan for today was to work on my WIPs, but a thunderstorm made it necessary to turn off the computer, so I sat down with a pen and notebook, with every intent of finishing up my challenge story for this month.

Instead, this little one-shot came to me out of nowhere:

Rating: G

One Great Leap ( Read more... )