1st January. Happy New Year from Eryn Carantaur!

I hope this is the first day of a very good year for all of us.

And back to Winter Magic, asap!

31st November. Well, it's Christmas!

I've put a special banner on the front page, and added the snow, and I've started posting our traditional Yuletide calendar—the story behind this one's a crossover! Once I get things going, I'll be posting one part a day until Christmas Eve (but due to an emergancy at work, which means that I have to stay in London tomorrow night, I've had to post part 2 a day early :-)

In the meantime, I haven't forgotten Winter Magic and will be working on that again very soon!

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A few weeks ago I went to see the Half-Blood Prince, came away obsessed with Draco, and suddenly found myself writing a Draco/Hermione story. It's sort of complete, but I am thinking of going back and filling in some of the blanks—you'll see what I mean if you read it:

I've also added two other very short non-LOTR stories, which I wrote a while ago:

6th October. I've added Chapter 4 of Winter Magic (at last), in which Melannen makes some new friends, and Legolas and Eowyn find out what made that terrible sound. The chapter has taken a very strange turn. I tried and tried to get it back on track (which is why it took so long to write), but the culprit is Arador, and he does generally know what he's doing :-)

I've also added an edited version of a talk I gave at the WriterConUK Midimeet, about writing mysteries. It only scratches the surface of a huge topic, but it does discuss the sorts of problem I've come up against when writing, and the things I've found interesting in books & TV programmes.

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Inspired by a talk about accessibility by kazzy_cee at WriterConUK, over the last few weeks I've been converting the main stories to pdfs, which can easily be downloaded and printed, or used with an e-reader. So each story now has a download button on its title page—just click on the button and the pdf will open in a new window.

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I made this banner for the WriterConUK banner grab challenge (click for the full-sized version):

Sadly, nobody grabbed it—if they had, they were supposed to use it as a 'prompt' for a story—but it will illustrate the next part of the Eowyn/Legolas challenge (when I finally get round to writing it :-)

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Some more icons:

5th August. I've added chapter 3 of Winter Magic, in which Legolas and Eowyn, having failed to find Gimli and the others, return to the Forest, and Hentmirë finds herself in a sticky situation!

Speaking of Hentmirë, Trix very kindly sent me a picture, which shows how she imagines her.

So now, in my head, Hentmirë's become a sort of cross between Trix's picture and this one, which I've used before:

Here are some Legolas graphics I made for a Live Journal challenge—click on the images for the full-size versions.

And some more icons:

26th June. A big update!

First, I've begun the continuation of the Winter Magic story—it's the morning after their wedding, and Legolas and Eowyn are planning to return to Melannen's homeland and find out what happened to the elves who lived there. If you click on the Continued > link on the right, you can jump straight in at the new bit; clicking on the icon will take you back to the beginning of the story.

Secondly, do you remember Melannen's picture book? I've also made some pages from that. The animals/birds/plants are drawn in fibre tip pen and coloured pencil and pasted onto torn tissue and scrapbooking papers. The text is added using a photo editing program.

Finally, I've written a short story (in 10 parts, LOL) for a LiveJournal 'plot without porn' ficathon. The story is caled Supernatural, but it's not a crossover...

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More icons!

20th May. An update!

I've added parts 46 & 47 of the Eowyn/Legolas challenge, in which Legolas and Eowyn enjoy a few fluffy moments tying up some loose ends, then go on a shopping trip an important salvage mission to Caras Galadhon.

I've also added a 'featured story', because I haven't quite finished—in other words, I'm quite a long way from finishing—the second update I had planned, but I thought it was about time I took the Yuletide Calendar off the front page!

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Some more icons, including a couple that are not LOTR, but that I'm pleased with!

16th April. Part 45 of the Eowyn/Legolas challenge!

I'm sorry it's taken so much longer than I expected. I moved house at the end of last month, and everything got lost, and then found again, and then there was so much house-stuff to do...

Anyway, I won't give too much about the plot away here, but I hope you enjoy it. Next time, Legolas and Eowyn will be going shopping—honest!

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Eryn Carantaur was four years old on 14 March! Amazing!

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Some icons:

24th February. I've added three (short) parts to the Eowyn/Legolas challenge.

I hoped to have finished a fourth part, but it's being a pain, so we're left with a bit of a cliffhanger :-) I have three more parts planned, then I intend to start work on the second half of Winter Magic (the one with Melannen, his missing parents, and the disappearing town, which began in the 2007 Yuletide Calendar).

That probably means that I'll end up carrying on with the challenge instead. {sigh}

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Have you seen the pictures of Orlando making his next film? It's called Sympathy for Delicious and he plays a rock star.

1st February. Already!

I've added the next part of the Eowyn/Legolas challenge, and it's actually taken a slightly unexpected turn—suffice to say that the gaur took me by surprise, and there will be a lot of Legolas-angst in the next part :-)

14th January. Yesterday was Orlando's birthday—let's hope he had a great day!

At long last, I've added part 40 of the Eowyn/Legolas challenge!

It's taken me a while to get back into the story, but I've actually got some more parts planned, and this part ends with a bit of a cliffhanger :-)

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I've also added some icons I've made for various icon-making challenges:

6th January. It's Twelfth Night, so I've taken the Yuletide banner off the front page but I'll keep the snow until I make a proper update. (Besides, it goes well with the banner).

I'm working on the next few parts of the Eowyn/Legolas challenge at the moment, and will post them as soon as they're ready. And I've started on something else, which I'm quite excited about :-)

In the meantime, here are some Yuletide icons, which I should have posted before!

26th December. A belated Merry Christmas!

I hope you have enjoyed the festivities, and look forward to seeing you again in the New Year :-)

9th December. I'm going on holiday (to Krakow, Poland) for four days, so I'm posting the next few parts in advance.

No peeking early!

30th November. It's Christmas!

As usual, I've changed the front page banner and added snow -- I love that snow :-)

And I've started posting the Yuletide calendar. This time its an adventure story, which I hope you'll enjoy! There will be 24 parts, one per day, plus an epilogue, and I'll post each part the night before (except for when I'm on holiday, when I'll post a few parts in advance—but no peeking)!

I also hope to update to the Eowyn/Legolas challenge before Christmas, fingers crossed.

30th October. I've added a teeny tiny ghost story for Halloween.

Next, it will be back to the Eowyn/Legolas challenge and those pesky werewolves!

25th October. Do you like the new banner on the front page? I'm really pleased with the colours :-)

I've added the final part of Season of Mists at long last, LOL.

It turned out much longer than I'd expected (about twice the length of a normal chapter), and took ages to write. I hope you enjoy it. There is also a short epilogue.

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Next, I'm planning to do something for Halloween: Anne has asked me to write the next part of the werewolf story, and I've also had an idea for a short ghost story. I don't know how much I'll get done, but don't forget to check back, nearer the time.

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I hadn't made any proper Legolas/Eowyn graphics for ages, so I decided that now was time!

(Click on the banner below to see the others).

And here are some more icons.

21st September. I've addded Chapter 9, at last, in which Thorkell and Gimli deal with the tad-dail, Legolas and Eowyn make some important discoveries, and Legolas gets a bit of a shock :-)

Parts of Myldreth's adventure are shamelessly ripped off from Susanna Clarke's Mr Simonelli or The Fairy Widower, but that was one of the original inspirations for the tad-dail.

We're almost at the end now—just one more chapter to go.

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Last month I went to the WriterConUK Midimeet, in Reading, met a lot of fellow fanfiction writers and icon makers (most of them from the Buffy fandom), and gave a talk about doing research! I've posted it here:

I also made some 'Spike's adventures in Middle-earth' banners for the banner challenge. (Click on the banner belown to see the rest).

I haven't forgotten the timestamp challenge, btw. Two people have requested 'extra scenes', and I'll post them as soon as they're written :-)

In the meantime, more icons:

16th July. Another chapter! Woo-oo-oo! I'm cracking along now!

Not :-)

But writing is a lot easier than it has been for a while, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

This chapter is a bit longer than most, and I think you can see that the story is beginning to draw to a close. There will probably be two more chapters. Then I think I should get back to the Eowyn/Legolas challenge for a while—Legolas, after all, has just been injured by a werewolf…

I also have the continuation of Winter Magic (the story in last year's Yuletide Calendar) to worry about, and a half-written short story, which I originally intended for Valentine's Day, and which has lots of lovely detail about hunting dogs, that I must finish sometime.

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A challenge

Sagaluthien, at LiveJournal, set herself a challenge that I thought might be fun to try here, too:

Take one of my stories,

sometime in the past (before the story starts) or in the future (after the story ends) and I will tell you what happens.

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Have you seen

It's a website that allows you to make word clouds: you just paste some text into a box, click Go, and the program creates a pattern, sizing and colouring the words according to how often they appear in the text. Common words are ignored by default (otherwise you get really big THE, AND, and FOR). You can alter the font and the colours and choose different types of layout.

This is what a word cloud of the first four paragraphs of Eryn Carantaur's title page looks like (click on the picture for a bigger version):

Hmm. Interesting that Legolas should come out so much bigger than Eowyn. Anyway, I thought I would set a little Eryn Carantaur

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Some more Legolas and Eowyn icons!

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I recently came second in the LiveJournal bwlims ('black and white last icon maker standing') contest!

A few thoughts about future stories.

The following bits and pieces are Work (or, rather, Ideas) in Progress—and though the titles, graphics and order are reasonably certain, the plots may change radically as the stories develop...

Three days before their wedding, Legolas and Eowyn find an abandoned elfling...

Don't expect cute!

Well, on second thoughts, maybe you should :-)

A Robin Hood story.

A band of outlaws has taken up residence in Eryn Carantaur, and is terrorising travellers on the road to Caras Arnen. The fools!

Legolas and Eowyn travel to Rohan.

We first heard of the House of Æðelbert and its political ambitions in Misrule in Mirkwood. Now rebellion has errupted in the north of Rohan, but Berkin is on the case. Under seige, he sends Lëonórwyn to Edoras for help...

A gentle scholar, a teacher at the Academy of Minas Tirith, has invented something he believes will improve the lot of all mankind. One of his colleagues disagrees.

Legolas and Eowyn investigate his death and the disappearance of his life's work.

Celegorm has a secret that sets him apart from other elves. When a terrible disaster strikes Eryn Carantaur, one of the victims asks for his help...

Inspired by a recent TV series.

And two more stories that do not fit into the cycle...

Helm's Deep: whilst seeking renown, Eowyn instead wins the love of two elves...

A story based on the Movie scripts but including lots of 'missing scenes': Legolas' first sight of Eowyn in the Golden Hall; Eowyn's bravery in the Glittering Caves; Haldir's brush with death; Elrond's thoughts at Dunharrow; Gimli's unsolicited advice; Legolas' accidental eavesdropping in the House of Healing...

Special Features: Appearances by Elrond and Merry.

Eowyn joins the fellowship! Don't ask me how: I don't know yet. But it just has to be done.