I first came across Tolkien at the age of nine. I used to really enjoy reading C.S. Lewis’ ‘Narnia Chronicles’, and so a friend recommended ‘The Hobbit’ to me. I didn’t like it! I didn’t understand Hobbits and I didn’t like Dwarves. Most of the Dwarves I had read about in Narnia were not that pleasant.

Never trust a Dwarf!

When I was fifteen, I realised that many folk had, or were reading ‘The Lord of the Rings’. One of my fellow students had ‘Frodo Lives’ written on his pencil case. I was curious. But then he started talking about the Wizard and the Balrog. That had me hooked. Gandalf was my hero! So I read ‘The Lord of the Rings’, finishing the final chapters on a long, stormy night, and wishing I had only just picked it up. I loved the sense of ancient beauty and tragedy Tolkien had captured in his writing; the scope of his storytelling, the lands of Middle-Earth, the characters – and I began to understand Hobbits at last. I also revised my opinion on Dwarves. I am not sure when I began to admire the character of Gimli – but it was during my first reading.

So then I went back and re-read ‘The Hobbit’ – and fell in love with it.

But it was ‘The Silmarillion’ that sealed my fate.

Both a cousin and I both bought a copy of ‘The Silmarillion’. We read it enthusiastically, and compared notes. I don’t know what I was expecting, probably more of ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Some folk told me not to bother – ‘The Silmarillion’ was a difficult book, and a disappointment after Professor Tolkien’s other works. I was not disappointed. ‘The Silmarillion’ was certainly very different to anything else I had ever read, but I was totally enthralled by it. It was the combination of beauty, myth, history, theology and yes, Elves, that finally made me a Tolkien ‘fan’.

Since then I have read ‘Unfinished Tales’; ‘Smith of Wootten Major’; ‘Farmer Giles of Ham’, ‘Leaf by Niggle’ (which I thought was wonderful) and the ‘History of Middle-Earth’ books. I have also read a few works on Tolkien, including ‘Tolkien and the Great War’, and a couple of books by Verlyn Flieger. I am still working my way through Humphrey Carpenter’s biography, and Tom Shippey’s ‘Road to Middle-Earth’ I have recently acquired ‘The Children of Húrin’.

I must say that I enjoyed the films, particularly the first one. Within their scope, they portrayed much of what had long been in my mind so very well. They gave me further food for thought. But I still prefer the books by far.

Fanfiction writing began for me as a creative outlet to counter all the reports I had to produce each term at work. They were the sort where I had to select sentences from a list of approved statements, rather that actually write anything specific or meaningful to anyone. I started 'Nerdanel's Story' just over a year and a half ago, (Spring 2005) as a refuge from being stifled, and the obsession took over from there. I am still a 'new' writer, although I have recently re-edited 'Nerdanel's Story' story considerably - with help from my friends - before putting it on this site. All the other things I have written just seem to have flowed from that.

Almost all of my writing is from Nerdanel's point of view - I have always found her such a fascinating character. A few stories, such as 'Flame Rekindled', are Fëanor's thoughts, and one, 'Maglor's Song,' is obviously about Maglor ;-) I may write about other characters in the future, though they will still be Silmarillion based - the Valar and Maiar hold my interest a lot - but for now I will continue finishing my longer stories about the Fëanorians and a few one-shots that I have in mind.