I've nearly read all the stories in my to read folder. It doesn't help that jay_of_lasgalen will never stop writing long enough for me to catch up. She's like some sort of unstoppable machine

Making Acquaintance by bodkin_ra: First meetings maybe signify more than it would seem. Hobbits. And a wizard.

Watching The Sunrise by jay_of_lasgalen: On midsummer's day, Elrohir tries to persuade Elladan to wake up early.

The Price of Being Peredhil by jay_of_lasgalen: The Valar's gift to the Peredhil of the choice between mortality and immortality comes at a high price. An elf says farewell to his brother and twin.

Wedding Nerves by jay_of_lasgalen: A story written for a birthday request. It was supposed to be a drabble, but it grew! It shows Aragorn as King, on the brink of his wedding to Arwen. Elladan and Elrohir - of course - make their presence felt.

Far From Home by jay_of_lasgalen: Trapped by a blizzard, Elladan and Elrohir face a bleak, lonely Midwinter far from home - and they begin to question their priorities.

Thoughts From Home by jay_of_lasgalen: Elrond passes a lonely Midwinter without those he loves - but there is always hope for the future, and a wish on the Midwinter star comes true.

Comfort by bodkin_ra: Elladan attempts to cheer his brother up.

Trouble by bodkin_ra: A youngish Elladan and Elrohir manage to irritate the Lady of Imladris. Glorfindel is no help.

Size isn't Everything by bodkin_ra: As the Fellowship go south, it becomes apparent that being small doesn't make you helpless.

I don't usually write this fast, I swear but my Remix fic is in beta already. I was quite amused to see the letter from the person I'm remixing for since I'd already looked through what they'd written, so the letter to say here's where it is and what it's like was entirely superfluous. And the 'what I like' bit obviously was since this is a write for yourself ficathon.

I also worked on my Big Bang fic, which actually went quite well once I got into it. I now have 17,600 words, some of them better than others and most of them dialogue.

For this year's Back to Middle-earth Month, I'm reading. I have 24 email alerts from Stories of Arda dating back to January last year. So I am going to work my way through those, hopefully read some older ones to review for Sel, and maybe have a look at some authors I haven't read.

Since it won't be much of a B2MEM without me writing about it in here, I'm also going to talk about what I've read:

Celebrían's Special Day by jay_of_lasgalen: Celebrían also has a special day, and Elladan and Elrohir plan a surprise for her - a greater surprise than they realise.

Dragons in the Trollshaws by bodkin_ra: A peril awakes that demands all Elladan and Elrohir's attention - and requires more than skill to defeat.

The Dwellings of the Dead by nilmandra007: The lands of the Dunedain of Cardolan are ravaged by war and plague. On a scouting expedition, Elrohir and Glorfindel discover that there is more to the decimated landscape than meets the eye.

B2Mem was trickier this year than last. Last year I wrote 25 drabbles for there_n_back. I'd have liked to have written some for their alphabetic theme this year but going to America doesn't go that well with that.

I thought I ought to write something at least, since those drabbles were the last things I wrote in LOTR, I think. I was thinking how this means I haven't done anything in the fandom for a year.

Then I realised I was wrong. It's not all about the fanfic writing. And the one thing I can point to and say I have done, since I have proof, is read. Admittedly, I'm a bit behind: I have 10 email notifications from Stories of Arda sitting in my inbox, I have Tiriel's GAFFS bookmarked and her latest is marked as unread in my RSS reader.

I have read things earlier in the year, though, and since I try and review everything I read, and SOA keeps records of this, I had a look back through what I've been reading since last March.
Read more...

For Back to Middle-earth Month, I thought I'd work my way through my (long) list of LOTR to read emails/bookmarks/RSS feeds. I have nearly made it but it doesn't look like a lot of activity. So I thought I'd write about what I'd been reading. Although it would be easier to remember what I'd read if I hadn't been deleting the reminders as I read them!

History Lessons: The Third Age by Nilmandra: This one's been the easiest to keep up with because there haven't been that many updates in the past (quite a) few months. It's all about Elrond, so you can't go wrong with that one really But mostly, these are the stories Tolkien should have been writing - he just didn't realise how important/interesting Elrond was

Arwen's Heart by Bodkin: I started reading this when there were just a few chapters, so by the time I came back to it I had about ten to read. I was expecting to just deal with Arwen during the time when Aragorn was Estel, but it goes right up to the end of the Third Age, which was not an unpleasant surprise. Bodkin makes Arwen really sympathetic in this, and there are all sorts of other interesting things going on with other women in the story too.

A Lesser Treason and A Midsummer Night's Dream by Jay of Lasgalen: Every time I think I've caught up on Jay's stories, she goes a posts a new story or chapter. Both of these are Jay's usual twins stuff. Both really good, of course. A Midsummer Night's Dream has some great action scenes in it, A Lesser Treason has some great emotional family moments. I'm caught up now, Jay, you can finishe A Midsummer Night's Dream!

Don't Panic! by Boz4PM: Nilmandra recced this one in her LJ, so I had to go and see what it was all about. It's a realistic girl dropped into Middle-earth story. There's loads of interesting stuff in there about how they did ordinary stuff at the time, as well as loads of Middle-earth knowledge. There's a sequel but I haven't started that one yet - it took me long enough to read this one (it's quite long).

As part of Back to Middle-earth Month, the There and Back Again LJ, and HASA have been challenging people to write something based on the Tale of Years from March 3019:

In the "Tale of the Years" Tolkien tells us about what happens to certain characters each day of March 3019. We challenge you to write about the character(s) he does NOT mention.

So, I've written a drabble for each day of March, up till the 25th, and each one from a different character's point of view. Which is a hard way of writing 2500 words. And a pain to put here because I've got 25 LJ cut tags, the links for which I then have to copy back in WP.

But, I present to you, March 3019.

1st March

2nd March

3rd March

4th March

5th March

6th March

7th March

8th March

9th March

10th March

11th March

12th March

13th March

14th March

15th March

16th March

17th March

18th March

19th March

20th March

21st March

22nd March

23rd March

24th March

25th March