UPDATE 2/05/2020: Oh lawdy, has it really been four years since I've updated my bio?! First of all, YES. I AM ALIVE. Second, I am so so sorry I've gone silent for so long! I have been busy working on stories, both original and fanfiction, and as soon as I have something fully prepared for this site, I will be posting again. In the meantime, please make use of my extensive Favorite and Follow tabs, and know I am still on the other side of the computer screen, faithfully plugging away at my stories (they WILL eventually be finished, I promise!).

UPDATE 6/12/2016: I am so sorry for the wait! I just graduated last month with my Masters degree in Business, and I ended up getting promoted at my job a week after that. It's been so hectic for me all year, and between going to school for my Masters and working at the same time, I didn't have any left over to devote for writing. I have a crazy busy work schedule now, but the good thing is that my weekends are mostly free from here on out, which means I can devote more time to writing. To all of my devoted readers, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me and for all of your favorites, follows, and reviews! It truly means the world to me, and I promise I have not abandoned you. XOXO

UPDATE 8/24/2015: I am working on Ways to Drive Commodore James Norrington Insane and Little White Lies, I promise! I haven't had much time to devote to any of my works, including all of the ones I am trying to get ready for publication here, especially since my senior year of university was very hectic and now I am preparing myself for graduate school. Please bear with me, and I promise I am not dead!

UPDATE 1/04/2013:I am finally back in business, at least for the time being. Look for new updates to WtDCJNI during the upcoming days! I will also be reposting Little White Lies with permission from the author -- hopefully one chapter per week. I have fixed minor errors in the existing eleven chapters, and am continuing it. I am also working on my Silmarillion fic with a beta and getting it ready for publishing, so within the next several months there should be new things coming on. Thank you so much for your patience! Xoxo

UPDATE 5/17/2012:I will be hopefully posting a story under The Silmarillion very soon, and am figuring out either how to expand it, or make a sequel out of it. Most likely the latter. Also, I am still continuing work on Little White Lies, as well as Ways to Drive Commodore James Norrington Insane and Red and White Roses. Hallelujah! Thank you all for your patience!

UPDATE 7/23/2011: I will be reposting Little White Lies with permission from the author. Chapters twelve onward belong to me. The story is currently under works, but I hope to have it up very shortly. Unfortunately, I am starting my freshman year in college in about three and a half weeks, so I'll be updating even less. Great. But, my new goal is to have my stories completed before I begin to post, this way there shouldn't be long gaps in between updates. Of course, this might also mean hardly anything will get published, but we'll keep our fingers crossed. Bear with me. Thanks!

MAJOR HUGE GIGANTIC ANNOUNCEMENT! Everything on this account that isn't already complete is on temporary hiatus. I'm wrapping up a particularly jam-packed senior year, and next year I'll be busy at college. I by no means am abandoning this site-everything worth completing will be completed, I swear! I've never stopped writing either-eventually, once I actually finish a story(hopefully soon), I'll tweak it a bit and have it posted on here. Promise!

As of 26 December 2009: RED AND WHITE ROSES HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN PUT ON TEMPORARY HIATUS! I have neither the time, nor the motivation to write for this story. Sorry, everyone!

Some info, for all you nosy peeps out there... ;)

Name: Laerwen (as if I would share my actual name on the Internet -- c'mon, mate)

Gender: Very female

Hair: Dark brown, shoulder-length, sometimes frizzy and in denial over the amount of premature greys that are springing up.

Eyes: They are eyes. Sometimes they work. Okay fine, almond-shaped and light brown, just like the majority of the human population.

Skin: I be tan, yo. Lol. But in all seriousness, ethnically I'm primarily Mediterranean. My active attempts at shunning all sunlight (read: office job) result in at best a weak attempt at sallow olive. Very yellow, very not pale. On the positive side, blessed to have a natural tan with only a slight suggestion of jaundice. If you haven't been able to tell this is heavily colored with sarcasm...I'm sorry.

Height: 4'11" (not lying)

Age: 26 (egads...)

Other: I'm of Italian, Austrian, English, and Portuguese descent, with possibilities of having Native American, either Irish or Scandinavian, and Arab ancestry (Arab being the result of their occupation of the Iberian Peninsula until 1492). I am Roman Catholic born and bred, but my Austrian ancestors were Jewish until they converted and one became a priest. (2020 update: I was clearly displaying my History major roots when I wrote this. Also, very likely it was written at either 2 AM or after five venti black Starbucks dark roast coffees, so the overshare is a little much. Oop.)

Info: I hold both a Master's in Business Analysis and a BA in History with a Minor in Medieval and Byzantine Studies. Guess which of these degrees is actually useful. Lol jk they're all useful, and I'm not just trying to convince myself and my parents and that one random Uber driver who spent the entire drive criticizing my undergrad choice of that (yes I am). While I may not utilize the actual History part of my History degree, the skills I gained during my undergrad were essential to both my grad school and post-grad career. Mainly, critical thinking and writing, reasoning, research, information synthesis, and both academic and business writing (what do I know, what does my audience need to know, what is the most important information to include, how do I frame it in a way all levels will understand, what is extraneous information that does not belong, and how do I present them the final product, etc.).

To date, I've completed a case study with a business client and had our research published and distributed to over a thousand clients, written a 39 page thesis on the historical Macbeth, and am published in a scholarly journal for Early Christianity in conjunction with one of my old professors. I have also dabbled in Forensic Anthropology, which was hands down one of the best classes I have ever taken, but I have definitely realized that my favorite bones are de-fleshed and thousands of years old, thank you very much. I was Vice President and then President of Medieval Society and de facto officer for the Arabic Club at my university, as well as involved in other areas of the foreign language department (Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut, aber meine Lehrerin ist sehr gut.) My favorite periods in history include anything from the Greeks and Romans, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Great Awakening, Enlightenment, American Revolution, World War I and II, and onward. The Civil War isn't interesting to me. My favorite areas (covering history, archaeology, and geography) deal with the British Isles, Western Europe (mainly Italy), the Mediterranean, including Greece and Byzantium, and early Arabia (centering on Pre-Islam and the Rise of Islam).

Interests: I have a very wide array of interests. Primarily, I enjoy reading and writing, my job (LOVE it, no I am not crazy), cooking, learning (curiosity killed the cat, the threat of finals brought it back...), and experiencing a ton of new...well...experiences. Pretty much game for what life has to offer. I am a highly competitive person and skiing and Tae Kwon Do are two sports I take particular pride in. I earned my black belt at thirteen, and while I may not practice it anymore, I still have a very healthy respect and huge love for the martial art. I am a Roman Catholic from a very Italian family, so I tend to embody that very Mediterranean way of expressing myself. Keyword, lots of hand-waving, potential for shouting very high. I will at times weave spirituality into my writing as an underlying theme when and where appropriate.

Music: I primarily listen to Baroque, Classical, the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, Celtic, traditional Italian, and Arabic. I do not gravitate toward Romantic the way I do Baroque or Classical, but there are some works that I will listen to and enjoy. I also will admit to having a thing for liturgical music, especially if there are pipe organs and choirs involved (Gregorian chanting, anyone? No? Okay...)

Books/Movies: I enjoy The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as all other related works by J.R.R. Tolkien, Van Helsing, The Patriot, Harry Potter, The Phantom of the Opera original novel by Gaston Leroux, Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Tremain, Shakespeare, and Gone with the Wind, just to name a few. Honestly the list could go on, and to include numerous primary references from various areas in History, works from early Islamic Arabia (al-Farabi, al-Ghazali, Ibn Sina, etc.), Ovid, Vergil, Homer, St. Berchan from The Prophecy of Berchan (the ninth to eleventh century primary source from which I sourced a lot of my thesis), et al.

Messaging: If there is anything else you would like to know about me, you want to chat about anything and everything, or if you are interested in my services as a beta, please feel free to reach out!

-- Laerwen