Many Paths to Tread-- A Tolkien Fanfiction Archive of the Lord of the Rings GenFic Community




At long last we are opening our new archive! We mods (Cathleen, Dreamflower, Pearl Took and Dawn Felagund) are very excited about this. We have been working hard on it for months, and feel that it is now ready for you members to read, post and explore.

The site, we think, is very visually appealing, thanks to Dawn's hard work. We currently have two skins available. The first one has all the "bells and whistles" and is image-intensive: for example, we have randomly rotating images on the header! The second one is simpler, and meant to be user-friendly for those who have slow internet or dial-up connections. We are using the e-fiction program, which is very familiar to many of you, although we have added a few things to it.

One thing some of you may notice: many of you may already have stories on the site. We are putting all of the challenges there, and so far have uploaded the first three challenges of the LOTR Challenge Community, the 2008 May Challenge: Coronation; the 2008 June Challenge: Father's Day; and the 2008 July Challenge: Summertime. If you see something incorrect or missing in your story entry, please feel free to edit and fix the problem. You may find these three Challenges by clicking on "Challenges" on the Home Page, or by looking for "Series" in the search program. For those of you who were added by the mods, you may certainly go in and edit your profile, change your user name if you like, etc.

We will in time add each challenge to the site, but if you wish to go ahead and upload your challenge stories before then, you may certainly do so!

Because the archive is new, it is likely to have a few problems. We believe that we have most of them fixed, but are aware that there are some which will be inevitable. For that reason, for the time being posting privileges will be limited to those who are members of either the Yahoo! group, LOTR_Community_GFIC or the LiveJournal community, LOTR Community Challenges ( [info]lotr_community). We hope by doing this, we will be able to manage the numbers of stories being uploaded at one time in the beginning, and minimize inconveniencing people when glitches do happen. If you are a member of either community, simply let us know and we will give you posting privileges. However, even non-members are free to join, read and comment, and it is our plan to open the archive to open posting for all at the beginning of 2010. Please email us at manypaths@lotrgfic.com for general questions or suggestions, or at websmith@lotrgfic.com for technical questions.

Please go to check out Many Paths to Tread and let us know what you think! We hope you all will be as excited about it as we are!

The mods,

Cathleen ([info]ceshaughnessy)
Dreamflower ([info]dreamflower02)
Pearl Took ([info]pearltook1)
Dawn Felagund ([info]dawn_felagund)

VoicePost 590K 2:57

(no transcription available)

'Can we-' began Frodo.

'Half a minute, if you please!' shouted the man over his shoulder, and vanished into a babel of voices and a cloud of smoke. In a moment he was out again, wiping his hands on his apron.

'Good evening, little master!' he said, bending down. 'What may you be wanting?'

'Beds for four, and stabling for five ponies, if that can be managed. Are you Mr. Butterbur?'

'That's right! Barliman is my name. Barliman Butterbur at your service! You're from the Shire, eh?' he said, and then suddenly he clapped his hand to his forehead, as if trying to remember something. 'Hobbits!' he cried. 'Now what does that remind me of? Might I ask your names, sir?'

'Mr. Took and Mr. Brandybuck,' said Frodo; 'and this is Sam Gamgee. My name is Underhill.'

'There now!' said Mr. Butterbur, snapping his fingers. 'It's gone again! But it'll come back, when I have time to think. I'm run off my feet; but I'll see what I can do for you. We don't often get a party out of the Shire nowadays, and I should be sorry not to make you welcome. But there is such a crowd already in the house tonight as there hasn't been for long enough. It never rains but it pours, we say in Bree.

'Hi! Nob!' he shouted. 'Where are you, you woolly-footed slow-coach? Nob!'

'Coming, sir! Coming!' A cheery-looking hobbit bobbed out of a door, and seeing the travellers, stopped short and stared at them with great interest.

'Where's Bob?' asked the landlord. 'You don't know? Well find him! Double sharp! I haven't got six legs, nor six eyes neither! Tell Bob there's five ponies that have to be stabled. He must find room somehow.' Nob trotted off with a grin and a wink.

'Well, now, what was I going to say?' said Mr. Butterbur, tapping his forehead. 'One thing drives out another, so to speak. I'm that busy tonight, my head is going round. There's a party that came up the Greenway from down South last night – and that was strange enough to begin with. Then there's a travelling company of dwarves going West come in this evening. And now there's you. If you weren't hobbits, I doubt if we could house you. But we've got a room or two in the north wing that were made special for hobbits, when this place was built. On the ground floor as they usually prefer; round windows and all as they like it. I hope you'll be comfortable. You'll be wanting supper, I don't doubt. As soon as may be. This way now!'

He led them a short way down a passage, and opened a door. 'Here is a nice little parlour!' he said. 'I hope it will suit. Excuse me now. I'm that busy. No time for talking. I must be trotting. It's hard work for two legs, but I don't get thinner. I'll look in again later. If you want anything, ring the hand-bell, and Nob will come. If he don't come, ring and shout!'

My Aunt Helen sent this to me and I thought I'd share.



For years my son, when he wants me to do something for him, has used "But you're the Mom!" It just made this even funnier.

Hugs to all!
Pearl

Hi,

I haven't written because I don't know what to write.

I wash dishes and do laundry. I go exercise two or three afternoons a week for an hour. I maybe practice my fiddle. I try to work on my writing everyday. I go watch Sarah and Michael's boys one night a week, which starting this week will be a late night every Wednesday, so I will be going over there on Tuesday evenings as well to spend time with Sarah as she isn't home until 9pm on Wed. I try to read but it often doesn't hold my interest. I'm restless, but not acomplishing much of anything.

That said, I somehow seem to run out of time to do things. It is totally stupid. All of you are busier than I am and all of you get more done than I do. I try to work faster, but then things get sloppy and poorly done, ending up taking more time anyway because of having to correct mistakes.

I went to a fiddle workshop on Jan. 29th put on by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason.  In the early 1980s he wrote a fiddle tune called "Ashokan Farewell" (pronounced: ash-oaken).  It was later used by Ken Burns in his documentary "The Civil War" and the song became famous.  We all got to jam with them and even got to play "Ashokan Farewell" with them. It was really cool! Then Hubby and I went to hear them in concert Jan 31st with a reinactor regimental brass band. Also very cool!  Here is the tune played by Jay and Molly.




I hope you all are well. I'll try to read my friends page this week to catch up a bit.

Hugs,
Pearl, the waster of time and effort

My dear friend and companion.

I had to help a dear friend today.  Bobby had started to behave oddly a couple of weeks ago.  This morning I figured out that he wasn't seeing well.  He was also increasingly having accidents.  I made an appointment with the vet to have him put to sleep.  When the vet looked him over, he confirmed what I had noticed, he was nearly blind from detached retinas; a condition usually caused by high blood pressure in older cats.  He was also not his usual personality, most likely because of the blindness.  He bit me while the vet tried to shave a bit of hair off of his leg.  He had never acted that way from the handling or the shaver before.  My decision to have him put to sleep would be the right one.

Bobby was purchased from a no kill animal shelter for my daughter for her to use in the Cat activities in 4H, but he bonded with me.  She did use him to show in 4H and he took Grand Champion Cat one year.

He was a good hunter.  Whenever we would have a mouse in the house, we would make sure Bobby saw it and he would have it in seconds.

He was my good buddy.  He would snuggle with me and would jump up onto the vanity in the bathroom every morning to watch me brush my teeth.  I was the only one he would bump heads with.

I will miss my dear friend and hope to see him again some day.

Fare you well, Bobby.

I just finished watching "Casablanca".

WOW! Good movie! I should have watched it sooner. I loved the ending, Rick and Louie walking off into the fog making their plans to go to another unoccupied French city as Ilsa and Vincent fly off to Lisbon.

A wonderful movie!

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are an Ingrid!

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

It is time again for one of those rare posts from me. I hope, since last I wrote, life has been more good than bad to all of you on my friends list.

I’ve just returned from a magical weekend. I went to The Shire without leaving the shores of the USA. Three wonderful fans of Tolkien’s writings, who are know to many as Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, had grown weary of the usual conventions held in generic convention centers and monotonous hotels, grown weary of waiting for someone to hold the sort of event they, and others they knew, longed for - so they did it themselves. The result, two years later, was “A Long Expected Party” with the number of attendees limited to 144 people. When all was said and done, the central group involved in the planning and presentation of “ALEP” numbered 9. They knew it for a sign that they were on the right path.

I picked Lynnette up at the Blue Grass Airport in Lexington. We had a lovely lunch at a local coffee shop then headed for Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. The Village is a restored Shaker community set in the rolling Kentucky hills southwest of Lexington. The simplicity of the architecture and the peacefulness of the countryside made it a perfect Shire.

Many people were already in their Tolkien costumes for Thursday’s supper and by Friday afternoon there were very few people wearing modern dress. Somehow, it felt right, looked right, for all of these people in long dresses, robes, breeches and braces to be walking the dirt street that runs the length of The Village and out a-ways to the “Grange” as we called the barn/meeting hall where events to be attended by all were held.

One of the many things that made the event perfect was the entertainment. No large speakers blasting us out of our seats, no electric instruments. All the music was acoustic and the other entertainments were readings, skits and story telling. It was just like entertainment would have been in Middle-earth. The Brobdingnagian Bards were the main entertainers for the weekend with appearances by singer Kate Brown and harpist Krista Padgett giving a more Elvish sound to parts of the evenings.

Talks/workshops were given by Professor of Old and Middle English - Michael Drout (who also gave a wonderful reading of the opening Beowulf in the original Anglo Saxon on Thursday night), artist Jef Murray, writer/editor Constance Wagner, armor and sword-smith Michael Cook, and costumer Judy Mitchell. I went to Dr. Drout’s “Tolkien and His History for England” talk which made the study of Old English tempting. He loves his subject and was an entertaining and enthusiastic speaker. I bought his book “Beowulf and the Critics by J.R.R.Tolkien” and a CD of him reading several poems in both Old English and modern English. Then I went to Jef Murray’s slide show showing many of his Tolkien based works which he showed in chronological order for Tolkien’s universe. I bought a print of one of his vibrant dragons.

The highlight of the weekend was the actual Long Expected Party - Bilbo Baggins’ eleventy first and Frodo Baggins’ thirty third Birthday Party. The location, a part of the Village holdings that was a mile and a half from the Village proper, was perfect. The trees were hung with little cloth flags and lights. Everyone was in costume, including Billy Boyd Bear in his Pippin togs. The food, as it had been the entire time, was sublime - simply deadlicious! The entertainment perfect. We were all quite happy to listen to Bilbo’s speech, although he did say some rather odd things, but when he said good bye and disappeared in a flashing of blinding lights . . .! Well, we were all quite shocked. Then, to add to our discomfort, shortly afterwards there was a terrible disturbance as a strange rider in black rode down the road right behind where we were all seated at table! It asked for “Baggins” in a horrible voice. Gandalf called for the Rangers and it rode off at a full gallop. Many of us availed ourselves to the drinks at the cash bar after that, needing something to sooth the nerves. Soon, we were all back to dancing, singing and talking. It takes more than some strange Man in black to keep a crowd of Hobbits and their friends down for long.

In all, this was the perfect Tolkien get together, and we all happily insisted that our hosts do it all again. As of this time, they have given us an estimate of another splendid weekend being ours to enjoy in two to three years time.

I’m going to start setting my money aside starting this week!

Here is a link to my photos: http://pics.livejournal.com/pearltook1/gallery/0000dch6

I was very busy today. I seem to be being busy a lot more than I used to. It's good for me, or so I'm told.

The main item on the agenda was taking my vacuum cleaner to get it cleaned, tuned up and repaired as needed. Despite being 12 years old and never going for an official tuneup before, it was in rather good shape :-) Also I ran some of my out of town errands while I was out of town and then went grocery shopping on my way home.

I got four paperback books spiral bound at Kinkos. There are just some books that should be spiral bound - like music/song books. They need to stay open by themselves to really be useful. I also did my manual for iLife '08 - the Mac software bundle that has my photo, website, music making/recoding, movie making and such programs in it, and I did my CBT Workbook.

Workbooks should also always be spiral bound so they are easier to write in.

I'm hoping tomorrow I can work on some at home stuff since today was all out of town.

I'm going to be doing a MySpace site for our favorite Bluegrass band, the River Ramblers. That means I'll also have to be keeping it up to date and such stuff as that. I will also be doing their new website - part of why I needed that manual about iLife so I can better use iWeb :-)

I've learned "Liberty" on my fiddle. Well, that is I'm learning to play it one of the ways it is played. I'm quickly learning that with these old tunes - tunes that are both "old time" and "bluegrass" especially - there is rarely one set way to play them. What I've been told is that even if I'm not playing the melody exactly like the person next to me, it won't matter because we are staying within the same chord sequence. I'm not all that convinced. This sure is different than singing in a choir!!! :-) I also want to learn "Old Joe Clark" as it was played at a jam I was at recently and I was able to play along pretty quickly.

We are getting about 4 inches of snow tonight. I am getting tired of snow now, although it is still very pretty.

Hugs to all :-)

Pearl

Hello,

I'm not doing as well as I had hoped with keeping up with my friends on here, but I think I've been a tad better than in the past.  I may set a goal of going through my friends page at least once a week.

I'm keeping busy.  I'm looking into the possibility of getting a Bachelors degree online.  Just not at all sure what in, which is why I've not gotten one prior to now.  I'm toying with Forensic Science, but might end up seeing if I can find a school that offers an online degree in English.  Don't know about the English though as I hate grammar. LOL  My other concern is that I won't have time to write if I'm taking classes.

I'm happily taking photos for the 100 snapshots community and also taking photos of birds.  Here's one I took of a Purple Finch.

I've no idea why they are called "purple" finches when they are red/deep rose colored, but that's what they are called.

Hope you are all well :-)

Hugs,
Pearl

I am posting this to make a confession.

( I feel terrible about all that has happened. )

Edited to Add: I have asked a few people to link to this post from their sites so more people can read this post for themselves and comment if they wish to.