Intro Post

[narya_flame]

Hello and welcome! I'm Narya – bi; she/her; writer, bookworm, fan, gamer and geek.  I like people.

I also exist over at Tumblr and Pillowfort (I really need to get better at using that site). I post moodboards and manips at DeviantArt, periodically trawl for aesthetic inspiration on Pinterest, and am active on the Silmarillion Writers' Guild Discord.

I was born in Yorkshire but I now live in Scotland. I have a busy “career” type job with more than full time hours, but when I can, I write, read, or retreat to the sea or the hills. I've been hanging out in the Tolkien fandom for going on fourteen years now (I am a Fandom Old, though I was a naïve teenage baby when I started). My uncle introduced me to the Bakshi cartoon when I was a tot; I read LOTR when I was still fairly young, the Silm when I was a bit older, and I never looked back. I both write and read fic, mostly about Elves, though I like or at least am interested in most of the canon characters.  I also love to read and write OCs, and I enjoy reading non-Tolkien fic, though I rarely write it and almost never post it.  Non-Tolkien fannish interests include:

 

• The MCU
• Narnia
• Star Wars
• Star Trek
• Castlevania
• Doctor Who
• Mushishi
• Penny Dreadful
• Firefly
• Downton Abbey
• The Hollow Crown
• Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire
• Dragonriders of Pern
• The Old Kingdom
• Folklore and Mythology (including British, Greek, Roman, Norse and Mesopotamian)
• The Forgotten Realms
• A bunch of smaller fandoms based on individual books, films, short stories, plays, fairy tales, poems, songs, games, works of art and other things.

My Fic

 

My main, mostly Noldor-centric 'verse lives here on AO3. Mostly my fics are canon-based, if not strictly canon-compliant (I pick, choose and blend the versions of canon that I like best; I stretch, bend and extrapolate beyond established canon fact; I treat LACE as an optional extra) and run from pre-First Age all the way through to modern times.  The stories are listed in chronological order as far as possible, and for the most part they stand alone – though if that isn't the case, the story notes or summary will say so.

I also co-write the Summerland series with Spiced Wine, a crossover between my modern Maglor story The Ways of Paradox and her Dark Prince/Magnificat AU.

I write original fiction too, but like my non-Tolkien fic, I rarely talk about it and never post it.


My Journal


Mostly I use Dreamwidth to keep in touch with my fandom friends. I try to post links to my fic when I remember, but I'm not good at doing this consistently.  Personal stuff is locked to my access list (and may also be restricted to a filter, depending on how personal it is); fannish stuff may also be f-locked if it's just wittering, or bits of drafts, but links to finished works will be public.

Other things posted publicly are my 'Poem of the Week' posts, which (when I'm doing them) go up on Mondays, 'Dear Creator' letters, and the results of my kitchen experiments.

 

Friending

 

If you follow me I will most likely follow you back, as long as you seem like a nice person and not a troll or a bigot.  If it's not obvious how we know each other, I'd appreciate a DM or a comment on here to say hi :)

 

Commenting

 

Comments are welcome, including single word responses and emojis. Equally, you're welcome to stay quiet if you're more comfortable doing so.

One caveat – my job is stressful. Fandom is my happy place. I don't do discourse, drama or arguments, and I will step away if things look to be heading in that direction.

 

Transformative Works

 

If anyone wants to translate, remix, make art, podfic etc. that's absolutely fine - just tell me so I can get excited about it and promote/reblog your creations! Please note, though, that this does not extend to writing spitefic, parody, or feeding my fanworks into any kind of generative AI programme.


Events and Communities


I moderate the hidden_paths event, a low-pressure annual celebration of the smaller Tolkien canons. 



I had a sort-of admin role at Faerie, a small Tolkien archive which was my fandom home for a long time, and is now sadly defunct.  I also cross-post fic to the Silmarillion Writers' Guild.  From time to time I run fanfiction book clubs on the Silmarillion Writers' Guild Discord.

I love exchanges and prompt fests.  A few favourites:
 

• My Slashy Valentine, a hand matched slash fiction exchange focused on the people of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
  
• Innumerable Stars, a low-commitment, low pressure fic and art exchange inclusive of all things Tolkien (books, movieverse, game canons, and more).
• The Tolkien Short Fanworks community, which is exactly what it says on the tin - a DW community for the posting of very short texts from all Tolkien fandoms (word count up to 1000 words, especially 500 words or less).  There are optional monthly prompts and formal challenges, though all short form texts are welcome.  I've found some lovely pieces and writers here.
• The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang, which involves authors writing long-ish fic (5k words minimum) in response to an artist's prompt. The prompt should be based on one or more of Tolkien's works.  I am slightly biased about this one as I was one of the founding mods; I stepped down in 2022 but intend to keep taking part as a writer and maybe an artist.
• Tolkien Secret Santa, a fandom-wide gift exchange inspired by the season of giving and celebrating. Everyone who participates gets to make and receive a little digital present from their Secret Santa, which could take any number of forms: a fic, a playlist, an artwork, a poem, a graphic… 

Other
 

I'm married, I play the cello, I love Italy, I speak decent French and a little Scottish Gaelic, I have a soft spot for a dram of good whisky, I'm a football fan (my team is Leeds United), and I giggle at anything.

I have an enormous cat also. (“He is the size of a sheep, as majestic as a snow leopard, and the colour of Irn Bru.” - a dear friend.)

Comments

[fiachairecht]

cha robh fios agam gu robh thu ag ionnsachadh gàidhlig! inns dhomh ma tha thu airson a bhith ag obair <3

(tha gaol agam air do chat, cuideachd :D)

[spikedluv]

Hi! I'm glad you joined in on Snowflake.

Since you like Star Wars and I've recently watched it: your thoughts on The Mandalorian?

[narya_flame]

I've literally just started learning so I will confess I had to put this through Google Translate 😂 but yes, that would be good! <3

I love my cat too. He's the bane of my life but I adore him.

[narya_flame]

Hi!

I really enjoyed it overall - I liked the characters and the storylines, though I think it could go deeper in places and might benefit from hour long episodes. How about you?

[fiachairecht]

...I did wonder about the particulars of the 'learning' after I'd hit post on that, yeah haha oops. But one of my goals in 2020 is at least weekly Gaidhlig posts - I've lost so much of the language since I stopped taking classes it's embarrassing - so yay, we can chat there!

[madeline_gwydion]

Is your cat a main coon? Sounds like ours before he took up mouse-hunting for excercise. *g*

I'm absolutely with you on the no discourse, drama or arguments thing.

[spikedluv]

I think one of the things I liked about it was that it was relatively light. Which is odd given how many people died. It was a fun watch. Not that I wouldn't like to also watch something deeper. Now that they've got an audience, maybe next season. Also, baby!Yoda. (Or, as I can't stop thinking of it now that I've seen the art with baby!Yoda and Moira Rose, bebe!Yoda. LOL)

Oh, length of eps - it was so weird. Some were 42 min long and some were super short. What was up with that?!!

[narya_flame]

He is a Maine Coon! He's a very big boy ❤

[narya_flame]

I don't necessarily mean deeper as in darker, just that there were a few things I'd have liked them to spend more time on - but I did really enjoy it and I'm excited for season 2!

[spikedluv]

I agree! I was thrilled when we found out more about Din/Dyn in particular and The Mandalorians in general.

[mithrial]

Hi Narya, Thank you for your subscribe and access on our DW accounts here.
Lovely to meet you via spiced_wine.
Loving reading and also creating banner-illustrations for some of your fics on AO3.

XX Tia

[narya_flame]

Hi! Thanks for granting access back 😊 your banners are absolutely beautiful and I'm so glad you're enjoying the fics xx

[mithrial]

I really enjoy making them. And lots of inspiration in the fics.
I have so much to read and create now I'm not too worried about rainy, gloomy old January.
By the way, I love your Venice icon. I looked on your Tumblr and saw your fab picture there. Looks like you had a wonderful time there. I visited in late October for the first time with my husband. We found it absolutely stunning. We had a beautiful sunny week, then just a few weeks later Venice was hit by those devastating floods. So sad.

[narya_flame]

Oh yes, that is extremely sad :(

My DW Venice icon isn't me; it's a picture that Spiced Wine found that looks a bit like my OFC, Claire. But the picture on Tumblr is me :) it was take at the Ponte del Diavolo on Torcello. My husband and I went to Italy for our honeymoon, it was absolutely wonderful.

[mithrial]

What a wonderful place for your honeymoon. So romantic.

I took some photographs in Venice that I was really excited by. Unfortunately I only took my phone and not my proper camera, but I still took some atmospheric shots of Venice at night after the rain. And doorways and other odd bits too as it's all so beautifully old and fascinating.

I can see that the character in your icon looks like the character Claire. Would you like some of the icons I made of Venice? Does she go there in the fics? I haven't read that part yet. I'm sure I'm not reading anything in the right order.

[narya_flame]

I still took some atmospheric shots of Venice at night after the rain. And doorways and other odd bits too as it's all so beautifully old and fascinating.

Oooooh, I love little details like that! If you don't mind sharing your icons that would be amazing :)

So Claire does eventually go to Venice, though so far we've only seen it "on-screen" in the Summerland series.

I'm not sure what you've read, but Claire's first extended appearance was in this fic, The Ways of Paradox:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14638137/chapters/33832815

Spiced then wrote Summerland, featuring Claire and her OC, Van, and I am working on a follow up, Summer's Song:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18659233/chapters/44249800

There are other stories in that series, some by Spiced and some by me, but it's arranged in chronological order on AO3, so hopefully that helps?

[mithrial]

I'm reading every evening when I go to bed. I've started on the dark Prince, so it'll take me a while to catch up, but thank you for these links too.

Just help yourself to any of my icons. I'm totally happy for any of my DW friends to use them if they see some they fancy.

[narya_flame]

Oh goodness, please don't feel like you're under any pressure or obligation - only read them if you want to!

I hope you're enjoying Dark Prince, it was one of the first fanfics I read and I still adore it.

Just help yourself to any of my icons. I'm totally happy for any of my DW friends to use them if they see some they fancy.

Thank you <3

[mithrial]

No problem at all. They are all real pleasure to read. And I'm really enjoying the work making banners.
Next step is to get creating some of the characters in photoshop - which will be a challenge - but a fab one.
I needed this push to get underway with my own art skills.

[carmenta]

Hi! Just stumbled across this entry via the Snowflake challenge - I knew I'd recently seen your name somewhere before! Your Tolkien fic collection has been open in a browser tab here for a week or so, to be checked out once I find more than a minute to read :-) Looking forward to it!

[narya_flame]

Hello! Nice to meet you :D I hope you do get a breather, and that you enjoy the fics if you get to them.

[rekishi]

Ohhh, long time Silm writer. :D

How busy is that Hobbit Discord? I'm sort of in the same boat with the super busy job and I never managed to keep up with Discord and fell away again because it was just draining my energy in the long term. Not the point of fandom!

Thanks for the fic links, I'll go check them out (if...I'll ever get through my TBR pile?).

[narya_flame]

Hello, nice to meet you!

Well, I've only been writing Silm fic for a few years, though I've been a fan for much longer - I started off writing Third Age fics, I didn't think I could do the Noldor justice, and I had a very soft spot for the Rohirrim!

It's busy-ish; at the moment I spend more time on the Silmarillion one, purely because of what I'm writing.

[rekishi]

Well, it's not like the Third Age doesn't have its own appeals and we know so little about the Rohirrim that more fic is always great! And the Noldor are...let's say, very diverse. I'm very amused and supportive of your stance towards LaCE.

❤

Hello!

[ysabetwordsmith]

My mother read me The Hobbit when I was four. You can thank Master Tolkien for my grasp of the hurt/comfort ratchet. \o/

You sound interesting, so I have friended you. Feel free to drop by my blog to see if you like it.