Cathy and I are in the midst of the Seattle Film Festival where we do a lot of both volunteering at movies and going to movies so I'm not around much right now, and I was afraid I might miss the birthday of one of my dearest friends on LJ, the sweet addie71!!!

Made this for you, sweetie. Hope you enjoy it. And I hope you have one of the BEST birthdays you ever had. Still hoping to get you out here for a visit one day soon.

Love always... and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

The third thing I love in Tolkien's work is Merry's journey. I will qualify that by saying: Merry's journey IN THE BOOKS. Sadly, Peter Jackson reduced both Merry and Pippin to mere comic relief in the movies, but in the books they made a journey of self-discovery that was as powerful as that undertaken by any other character in Tolkien's work... excepting possibly Sam and Frodo.

To me, the quality that most sets Merry apart was his sheer determination. No matter how many times others tried to leave him behind, he simply refused to allow it. It didn't matter WHO told him to give in and go home, he refused. Kings told him. Great Lore-masters told him. Frodo himself told him. But Merry didn't care. He refused to be left behind.

He knew the journey would be dangerous, knew this much better than Sam or Pippin. He was older than both of them, and had learned much by observing Bilbo for years before he left the Shire, even to the point of reading parts of the 'Red Book' when Bilbo wasn't watching. Of the four main Hobbits Merry was the best observer. And not only did he SEE things that the others didn't see, he understood what these things meant. He was uncommonly bright... uncommonly insightful. And to watch him grow as a person through his struggle not to be denied his chance to be part of the great undertaking of his age was one of the most inspirational aspects of the entire trilogy, and for that matter of ALL Tolkien's work.

Merry believed in himself. He KNEW he had a part to play in the great mission to save his world from evil, and he would not be denied the chance to fulfill his destiny.

I loved, and still love, watching Merry's character develop. Every time he had to fight for the right to be part of the quest, he grew even more courageous, more determined, and more confident of his ability to play an important role in the great battle of his time. And he was right. His wounding of the Witch-King was one of the greatest feats of that era, leading directly to the defeat of Sauron and the destruction of his evil realm. Merry's general-ship during the 'Scouring of the Shire' was the focal point around which the Hobbits rallied in order to defeat the ruffians who had invaded their homeland... a victory which constituted the final chapter in the 'War of the Ring'.

Here's a few 'Merry moments' for you to savor. All drawn directly from Tolkien's work. Some images from the movies, some from other sources since many of Merry's finest moments were not included in Jackson's films. These sources are named when I could find a name.

( Meriadoc Brandybuck )

Title: Toronto - Date Night
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sean and Elijah
Summary: It's date night and they're feeling both anxiety and hope. After their devastating conversation in Toronto, can their relationship be made whole again?

Author's Notes: I'm very blessed to have the most wonderful editor in the world as my beta. abandonada makes every story I write better, not just with her editing skills, but also with her love for the boys, her knowledge of who they are, and her deep understanding of their relationship.

( Toronto - Date Night )

Jesus, these people just fucking SUCK!


Originally posted by vaysh11 at What fresh hell is this?

Well, OK, here's the second reason why I love Tolkien's work.

I love the way he uses adjectives!!! Petty I know, compared to all the other, more glorious, reasons why I love this man's work. But one of my reasons none the less.

( And here's why..... )

Thinking today, well actually for the past several days, about the process I used when I write a story and I got to wondering if anyone else went about things in as convoluted a manner as I do.

1. I get started. I write. And write and write. I don't censor myself. I know as I'm writing that some of it is crap and will have to be changed. But at this point I just want to capture the vision. I've already got that vision in mind and all I'm trying to do at this point is put a framework around it. Manifest it? We used to say in metaphysics, 'earth' it? Whatever. I write.

2. I go back and read what I've got so far, make changes, then add on to the story. This is the core of the process I think. And this part repeats itself again and again and again.

3. When I feel like I've got a good semi-solid story, I start printing it out and reading it on paper. I have NO idea why, but that's when I see a lot of glaring flaws that somehow eluded my eyes when I was reading it from the computer. I'm usually a week or so away from being done when the 'print it out and read it' part of the process starts. I'm winding it up.

4. I read it out loud. And this may be the weirdest part of all, at least to me. But it puts me in touch with the rhythm of the words I've written and I do a lot of re-writing based on the rhythm of the words. If I stumble over it when I read it out loud, then I know it's not right and that the wording needs to be restructured. Oddly enough this part of the process, and actually part 2 as well, often, in fact more often than not involves REMOVING works, sentences, or even full paragraphs from the story. But that's fine. I'd rather say too much and have to remove it than not say enough and miss a vital component of the story.

5. The last part of the process is the nit-picking part. I go back in and read it again, on the computer and in printed form, and just change little itsy-ditsy wording issues. These changes are mostly person preference choices... things I change just because I want to.

6. Then after laboring with this process, sometimes for months at a time, I hand it over to abandonada for editing. I'm blessed in that I have a professional editor as my beta. She's taken many college courses in this subject and is just the BEST at it. Plus, she adores Sean and Elijah AND Sam and Frodo, so that's a definite plus. And it gets edited all over again. And even after I've slaved over this process she'll always come up with things I could change to make it even better.

7. I get her edited draft back, change it where needed, then I post it and hope all of you like it.

Wow. Sounds like a lot when I write it all out this way. But it's a process I usually enjoy very much.

... I love about Tolkien's work is how much it inspires me. We all have a Ring of some kind to bear in life. Something hard. Something that tempts us to move to the dark side of life, or worse yet, BECOME the dark side, whining and belly-aching about how bad I've got it.

But then I think of Frodo and Sam, and what they overcame in order to complete their 'errand', and it gives me a whole new perspective on my own issues, on the Rings *I* have to bear in life.

I figure if Frodo can do what HE had to do with patience and grace, the least I can do is stop whining and make the best of my relatively light load.

I've decided to do this. I'm going to write 100 things that I love about the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. This won't be just 'Lord of the Rings', but all of his work. I shouldn't have a big problem finding 100 things that I love about his works. I've been reading them since I was 15. There must be at LEAST 100 things I love about them to be reading them for 53 years! LOL!

So, on I go.

Happy Birthday to a wonderful, and deeply generous man who gives so much to our fandom. I hope you have a joyous day, elijahs_mumble and that the year ahead brings the fulfillment of all your fondest dreams.

I've been working on the sequel to 'Toronto' for months now. Almost since I finished it. And I've never felt a story be this hard to write. Every word was like pulling teeth. I'd been at it since December and I only had 8 pages done. And, frankly, I didn't like where it was going or how it sounded.

I lay in bed the other night thinking about it, thinking about the 'date' that they had arranged at the end of 'Toronto'... and I began to hear them having a conversation. And it hit me that I was coming at this story from an entirely wrong angle. I'd been trying to tell what was going on. And if I've learned one lesson as a writer in the past zillion years it's that you don't 'tell', you show. So I started the story over on this past Saturday and I'm already at 14 pages. And what's really important is, it pops! It zings. It has life. It's still pretty intense, but it's not 'heavy' where my first attempt was VERY heavy. And I am happy about this.

I've felt pretty low for the past week or so, ever since Brian left. I miss him so much. And then being sick on top of it hasn't helped. PLUS, work at the Senior Center was a bit of a pain last week. There's one lady there who really knows how to be a class A bitch and at times it really gets to me.

But... kicking this story into high gear has helped drag me out of the doldrums.