narya_flame | Entries tagged with real life

Whoops, I did my classic "go back to work and lose all track of time, comments and posts." I'm sorry <3

These were from

saelind :

What is your favorite part of writing?

It varies from story to story. Sometimes the initial rush of an idea is incredibly exciting - but then execution turns out to be a slog. Sometimes a piece will just write itself, or so it seems (my most recent example of that was The Marsh Where the Dead Sleep.). Sometimes I get so completely lost in a story that I forget where I am. Both of those things are thrilling - but, consistently, the thing that delights me is looking back at a first draft. Not because it's always good (it often isn't) but there is a quiet satisfaction in looking back at pages of my own handwriting, knowing that I made a thing.

Favorite vacation spot?

Galloway. I've been going for years with university friends. Wigtown with its second hand bookshops; miles of unspoilt (and practically empty) coast; the Isle of Whithorn, with its ruins, and history, and its links to all of the rest of the British Isles. When the light is right you can see five ancient kingdoms - Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, and the Isle of Man. Excellent food too - locally caught fish, farmhouse cheeses, salt marsh lamb...oh, and the best place in the UK I've found to really see the stars.

Is a hot dog a sandwich?

Not according to the British Sandwich Association, apparently!

I feel like some things break free of the basic "thing in bread" definition of a sandwich, and become their own separate category. A hot dog is one. See also burger, fajita, etc..

These are from

kimaracretak :

1) A character you've wanted to write but haven't yet, and why?

So many!!!

I have Ideas about Ungoliant that I haven't quite managed to work into anything yet. The main thing stopping me is I need to button down my thoughts on the cosmology and creation myth as presented in the Silm, and what the 'reality' might be. Bits and pieces have crept into my 'verse but it's more hints than anything.

There are whole groups that I want to give more time and thought to but haven't made time to do appropriate levels of worldbuilding for.  The Éothéod, the Woodsmen of Mirkwood, the Lossoth, the Haradrim...

There are characters outside Tolkien I would like to write more of too, mostly from Penny Dreadful and Castlevania.

Time, really. It's always time.

2) Favourite coffee/tea/cocktail/beer/etc to order when you go out? (Or feel free to pick several from different categories if one overall is too hard)

Ooooh.

Coffee - black coffee all the way. Nothing beats a really good espresso, though finding one is a different matter.

Tea - I actually really love jasmine tea. I tend not to order breakfast tea out and about because it's never as good as when I make it at home.

Cocktail - dirty martini or Aperol spritz, depending on the weather and occasion!

Beer - I really love a black IPA, not that you see them that often.

3) Best discovery of 2023?

Perthshire!!!

I never spent much time there when I was a student; if we were leaving St Andrews we would go further afield, rather than just heading across the Tay. But we went for a short break there this autumn - completely by accident, actually The place we were supposed to go to, up in the Highlands, had flooded, so we had to scramble last minute to find somewhere - anywhere - that would let us bring the dog. It was wonderfully quiet, the hills are amazing, we visited a distillery we hadn't been to, found some gorgeous farm shops...it was perfect, exactly what we needed.

More responses from this post.

First, from

pattrose :

What is your favorite fandom and why?

Tolkien. Always has been, really, and I don't see it changing at this point. It's had a grip on me ever since I was tiny, and I first saw the Bakshi cartoon. That little film, weird as it was, grabbed at something inside me that nothing else since has been able to reach, and it hasn't let go. There's this quote by CS Lewis, which explains some of it, but those words could equally apply to Narnia, Doctor Who, and plenty of other fantasy/scifi canons. While I like - love! - lots of other books, films and shows, nothing else has had quite the same effect on me.

With Tolkien, I think - though I certainly wouldn't have had the words for it as a kid - the appeal is that the whole thing is primarily about grief, and loss, and the consolation and the very specific kind of hope that grows out of that. It was the idea of accepting that there are things in the world beyond our control, that you will lose things (friends; places; ways of life; the natural world itself) despite your best efforts, that everything won't necessarily be OK, but that you keep on in spite of that, and do what you can to make things better. You grieve for what's gone, and then you walk on as best you can, because it's the only thing to do.

From

grundyscribbling :

Favorite characters?

Maglor is the easy one! He's had a grip on my imagination since I first read the Silmarillion, when he wandered out of known canon and into the realm of fair imaginary game.

I love lots of characters, though. Most First Age Elves. The Hobbits. Weird cryptids like Old Man Willow and Tom Bombadil. Characters that only get a brief mention in an appendix somewhere, but it's so tantalising (Eärnur! Faramir son of Ondoher! Malbeth the Seer!) Characters that are just echoes of possibility, like the Lady of the Blue Brooch.

Beyond Tolkien, I love Amy March, Sydney Carton, Alucard and Hector from the Netflix Castlevania show, the Eleventh Doctor, Vanessa Ives (actually basically all the Penny Dreadful characters), Lady Mary Crawley, Charlotte Lucas, Spike from Cowboy Bebop...the complicated ones, the ones whose choices we don't always agree with, but nonetheless those choices feel true to them and what life has done to them.

And how are your pets doing?

Mostly pretty good!

Balto seems to be out the other side of his stroppy teenage shepherd phase and is back to being (mostly) a total delight. He's so much fun to train and work with - desperate to please, super smart, so loyal. He can still be spooky with people he doesn't know but that's fine. I don't love everyone the first time I meet them either.

Kaspar is his usual chaotic-mischievous self. He's getting a little stiff; he's 8 now, so into the senior years for his breed. We're taking him to a new vet soon who offers hydrotherapy, so we'll see how he goes on with that.

The bunnies - we lost our oldest boy, Quill, just before Christmas. His best pal Layla, our gorgeous Belgian Hare doe, promptly fell out in lumps with Thena, the other doe she was sharing with. So now we have Layla temporarily by herself, Thena and Loki (siblings, black Dutch x Conti) together, and Peggy (mini lop) Happy (Angora x lop) and Misty (chinchilla rex) in the big aviary and run. I think Thena got jealous, having to share her brother with another doe, so now we're trying play dates for the trio and Layla to see if we might be able to bond them into a quad. I'm not super keen to go for one big group again as Thena's health is a little precarious (another reason why she can be rather grumpy) and our vet won't board more than 4 rabbits in a group, so if she needs to go in overnight for anything, we'd have to split the group up and then start the bonding all over.

If we really can't get Layla to take to the trio then we will look at rehoming another bun to bond with her, but I would prefer it if we didn't have to go that route. We never planned to have seven rabbits in the first place. It just sort of...happened.

We also have a small aquarium now, home to a betta named Curufin and a snail named Brian. And we almost ended up rehoming a gerbil recently, but decided against it. Kaspar just about copes with the rabbits, but something that to all intents and purposes looks like it should be his dinner would, I think, be challenging to manage.

From

hhimring :

Maybe talk a little bit about Hidden Paths?

<3

Hidden Paths is an annual event that I run to celebrate the smaller (i.e. non-Middle-earth) Tolkien canons. It's deliberately low key; I post two sets of optional prompts during the event, but creators are welcome to make anything they like, as long as one of the small Tolkien canons plays a significant role.

I started running it last year, mostly because I've wanted an event dedicated to the smaller Tolkien canons for some time. Plenty of other events allow and even encourage content for these canons, but matching on them is challenging. I didn't want to run the event as an exchange because I didn't want people to feel pressured and nor did I want to give myself a heap of admin work, hence the loose format and lack of minimum requirements for the event.

The Tumblr promo post this year has been reblogged much more than last year, so fingers crossed for plenty new fanworks. In the meantime, the AO3 collection (which is always open) is here if anyone wants to browse or add something.

Yesterday I was down at the beach with my dog. He was off-lead, it wasn't too hot, and the sight of him charging about in the surf (and coming back when I called him!! Such a good boy!!!) was wonderful - like sunny balm for the soul.

He takes so much joy in life. It's delightful. Maybe we should all be more dog...

I feel more relaxed about my TRSB fics than I did this time last year - which is odd because I still have one unfinished and currently not making a whole lot of sense, but it is squarely in my comfort zone, and I have faith that it will come together in very short order. I just need the "a-ha!" moment.

I'm taking a breather from writing this afternoon, and prepping for D&D. The campaign I started with friends during the first lockdown has run its course, and it's hard to get so many people together on a Saturday night now the world has opened back up again, so this one is smaller scale - I'm running a two hander for my husband and myself, which I've never done before. I'm quite excited!

Dog stuff - nothing solid to report yet, but I've got a watchful eye on a few rescue websites. Probably no point given we're going to Cornwall at the end of September and it wouldn't be fair to bring home a new dog before then, but I can't seem to help it...

I haven't been doing a lot of life posts or fic posts lately, for which there are reasons (life: overwhelming; fic: absence thereof) but apparently I can still find time to scribble down what I had for lunch.

I've been making variations on this since I was a student, and the pandemic has reminded me how much I love cooking with beans and pulses (we had a storecupboard full of them in March 2020, in case we had to isolate at home and couldn't get to the shops, and neither Sam nor I like waste, so we had to come up with ways to use them). It's a great one to keep in mind for camping trips, too - the ingredients are reasonably portable, no fancy equipment is required, and it can be made as easily on a tiny gas stove as on a cooker at home.

Serves 2

Roughly chop four fat cloves of garlic and cook them very gently in a couple of good glugs of olive oil. Once the garlic begins to fizz (don't let it colour; lift it off the heat for a few moments if it's going too crazy, and if necessary add another dash of oil to calm things down), drop in 8-10 anchovy fillets, and allow them to slowly separate out into chunks.

Meanwhile, roughly chop a generous fistful of fresh sage. Once the anchovies are melting into the oil, add the sage, and cook for a further two minutes, stirring gently.

Drain and rinse two 400g cans of butterbeans and add to the sage and anchovy mixture. Stir through until the beans are evenly coated, and add a few good grinds of black pepper. (No salt necessary, with the anchovies.)

At this point you have a choice. Either keep the beans on a low heat, allow them to warm through, and serve as they are with a squeeze of lemon and maybe some salad leaves - or add 300g passata to the pan, turn up the heat, and allow to bubble for 10-15 minutes until slightly reduced, then serve in warmed bowls with bread.

A few stray thoughts:

If you're taking the passata route, then dried sage is fine if you don't have fresh. Use 1-2 tsp, or to taste. Thyme and/or oregano will also work fine.
There's nothing to stop you pre-cooking a batch of dried butterbeans, if that's your preference - I think the texture is nicer, if I'm totally honest, but the point of using the tinned version is ease and speed.
Most white beans are fine with this if butterbeans are for some reason unavailable - I've done it with cannellini, haricot beans, or just a mix of whatever's in the cupboard.
It's possible to turn the passata version into something slightly fancier (a dinner, rather than a lunch?) by adding chorizo. Fry it off first of all, in a dry pan if at all possible, or with the barest minimum of olive oil. Lift it out with a slotted spoon, allow the fat to cool slightly, then add a little more olive oil, then the garlic, and proceed as above. Add the chorizo back in immediately before adding the beans, use an extra 100g of passata (depending on how much chorizo went in there) and allow to bubble uncovered, very gently, for an hour or so, to let the flavours permeate and intensify.
You could throw in a handful of black olives, or some chopped capers (the latter work better with the version without tomato sauce), or even a pinch of chilli flakes.
If I'm making it in winter, I've been known to put a couple of glugs of red wine into the tomato sauce, to make it richer.

Back in the 90s, garlic mushrooms were a staple starter in many English pubs. They came piping hot in a tiny individual casserole dish, often accompanied by thick slices of buttered toast and a wilting heap of cress and cucumber masquerading as a salad. It's a dish that's fallen out of fashion, but I loved it as a kid, and it holds fond memories of family birthday parties when we'd all gather around a long table in a function room, reminiscing, laughing and looking to the future.

As the pandemic hit, I sought comfort food. This was an obvious candidate to try and recreate, but annoyingly, I hadn't been able to get it right. When I cooked the mushrooms simply in butter, garlic and pepper, they lacked a little something. I seemed to recall the sauce being a dark creamy-grey rather than translucent, so I tried adding double cream (too rich), sour cream (too like a stroganoff – nothing wrong with a stroganoff but not what I was going for) and yoghurt (just no).

Eventually, frustrated, I rang my grandmother – my Dad's mum. She ran a pub of her own in the 80s and very early 90s, and she is a mine of sneaky cooking tips and unlikely recipes.

“Put milk in it,” she said, sounding bewildered that I'd needed to ask.

Milk? Milk? I screwed my nose up. She was losing it.

“And a tiny pinch of mustard powder.”

A bit of a kick. That sounded more sensible.

“Lots of butter and salt, as well. Lots and lots – much more than you think is good for you.”

That, too, seemed about right for the war generation.

“And proper bread, not that silly stuff with holes in it.”

Very on brand. I thanked her, shrugged my shoulders, and gave it one more go.

It was bloody perfect.

( Read more... )

Screaming in the shower to Judas Priest and AC/DC while the hot water runs through my hair.

Watching my grumpy lady-bunny eating grass as fast as she can, fierce and determined, glaring at us like we might be about to take up the turf.

Breathing in the scent of damp wood chips as I walk past the garden centre on my daily walk.

Realising that it's still light at quarter to four these days.

Remembering that I actually like to climb hills.

Laughing like an idiot at Derry Girls, despite having seen it so many times I could nearly recite the script.

Freshly laundered sheets. Warm cake. A bud on the rowan tree. Someone asking "are you OK?" and actually giving a damn about the answer.

The little things have made a big difference this week.

Current Mood: calm

A few years late, but I just played through this short, bittersweet visual novel after downloading it from Steam, and it was like having all the awkwardness and uncertainty and second-guessing of my teenage years distilled into a few short IM conversations. Nicely done, developers.

( Semi-spoilery nattering )

Current Mood: thoughtful

I'm not a great fan of saying hi to people or doing nice things just because there's a challenge out there that says I should. I was going to skip these, but I've already met some lovely new people via Snowflake posts so I suppose that satisfies Day 5. As for Day 12's act of kindness, I volunteered to go down to Manchester for the day to help my old team with something. I didn't strictly *have* to; I could have taken the slopey shoulders approach and decided it wasn't my problem any more, but I like my old team a lot and it felt like the right thing to do.

For my pains, I had the train journey from hell back to Edinburgh - five and a half hours instead of three - but on the plus side it meant I finally had time to read

bunn 's wonderful Rexque Futurus (BBC's Merlin and Arthur adventuring in 21st century England, with a healthy side dose of dragons, linguistics and snark). I also wrote a couple of snippets in response to combinations left on my new year prompt meme, so hopefully I can get those typed up and polished over the weekend.

And I got home eventually, and had a very late supper of prawns, brie and radishes. All in all, it could have been worse.

Current Mood: awake

Posting this from my phone but it isn't ideal for DW, or commenting on fics.

I'm going on holiday at the end of the week anyway so will be dropping off the radar for a bit, until I'm back home and can fix my computer. In the meantime, I hope you all stay safe and well in this crazy weather, and may the muses be kind!

Current Mood: aggravated

Day 1: My Happy Place

It will surprise exactly no-one who knows me to read this, but my happy place is St Andrews, Scotland. I spent four years there as an undergraduate. I loved the town, I love the friends I made there, and I loved being surrounded by history and the sea. (Celebs popping up for the golf on occasion were an added entertaining bonus.) I adored spending cool summer afternoons at the beach or lazing in the cathedral grounds, book in hand - and that was also the period in my life when I first got really into fandom. I shyly posted a couple of one-shots at the erstwhile lotrfanfiction.com, got some good feedback, started chatting to people, and the rest is history.

I work in Manchester now, and live in Clitheroe, neither of which are very much like St Andrews at all - but I married someone I met there (we actually met in the Students' Union on the first night, although it took us eighteen months to get our act together romantically), and we had our wedding ceremony in the university chapel. Some of our friends have done the same thing. In non-wedding years, we try to get up there for a long weekend if we possibly can, to walk the streets and see what's changed - and revisit what hasn't and (hopefully) never will. Dolphin-watching from the end of the pier. Sunset on West Sands. If we're very lucky, the Northern Lights over the Eden Estuary.

I'd love to move back one day, but until my firm decide there's a role for me in our Edinburgh office, I'm happy enough where I am and lucky to have had such a wonderful place to call home for four years.