4/21/19: After writing two novel-length stories the past two years, I'm in a lull at the moment. I'm willing to write, but nothing is really calling to me just now. I'll continue to read and tweak my old stories while I wait for inspiration to get me moving again. If you haven't already, sign up for Author Alerts and that will let you know when anything finally posts. I've got plenty of works in progress, but nothing anywhere near ready yet. Also, I've started cross-posting my Rogue One stories on AO3 as DeandraAlleyan. I won't try to copy the rest of the stories over there as it would take far too long and be much too complicated, but much of the Rogue One fandom resides there.

10/8/16: For those still around and reading this, I found a website (someone may have told me about it, but if so I don't remember who - thank you, if it was you!). It is called The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources and is edited by S. L. Uckelman (/names). Clearly many of the names will fall outside Tolkien's world, but I've found it a good starting point for getting new names to use in your LOTR fan fics. Begin by choosing those that 'sound' like they belong in Tolkien, and then see if you can make a valid argument for them (origin, meaning, spelling) in Middle-earth. Hey, it's easier than trying to think of one off the top of your head.

9/18/16: website/blog ()

8/31/14: Pinterest board for Elfwine Chronicle images (/dalleyan/elfwine-chronicles-images/). As I find them, I will try to post images of places or people that strike me as illustrating a place or person from the stories.

2/10/14: Ah, another year gone. Life goes on; my writing...not so much. And, yet, I eternally cling to hope it will return again. I do enjoy creating stories. In lieu of writing my own tales, I have found some good reading via books recommended to me by others: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer; the Percy Jackson series (original and then the continuation via Heroes of Olympus); and Elantris, and the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Good stuff if you've reached an impasse on your reading list.

1/1/07: Happy 2007, y'all! I'm not much of one for talking about myself, but decided I ought to tell you a little bit, since this is called a "profile" rather than a "blog"! I've been writing stories in various capacities most of my life, though usually just for my own amusement or in letters to friends with a similar interest. I was aware of fan fiction through the old printed fanzines from Star Trek days (the original series) and then Star Wars, so I discovered online fanzines when I was done reading the most recent Harry Potter book and needed something to tide me over until the next one came out. That led me here, got me involved with LothirielofRohan who also writes Harry Potter fiction in addition to LOTR, and after I read her first LOTR story, I watched the movies and bought the books and...well, the rest is history. I'm single, living in the somewhat-chilly-just-now Southern California though I'm originally from Kentucky. My main focuses outside writing are Church work and genealogy. Though I work as a secretary now, in my younger days I worked on race tracks and horse farms (thoroughbreds and standardbreds). So now you know! (Not that you really cared!)

And thanks to all my faithful readers/reviewers for making this such an enjoyable experience.

7/5/06: Since I am frequently getting questions about how I come up with the names for my characters, I will attempt to post some websites that I use somewhat to accomplish this. I don't claim to be an expert, by any means, and those more in the know than me may think my efforts laughable, but I do the best I can to make them somewhat acceptable and believable. In general, I use Old Norse for Dale and Dwarf names, Old English for Rohirric names, and Adunaic or Sindarin/Noldorin Elvish for Elf or Gondorian names. It can be challenging trying to come up with some reasonable meaning, with something that sounds decent and figuring out how much can be left out while still retaining the meaning. I watch known names for their root words and how they were formed to try to take my best guess.

Old Norse names - www.vikinganswerlady.com.shtml

Old English names - /Ansaxdat/vocab/wordlist.html

5/6/06: If anyone is interested, many of the names for both Gondorians and Rohirrim have various accent marks in their absolutely correct form. Due to the fact that I change "format" on my stories, for various reasons, and some of those formats won't always accommodate special characters, I leave the names/words without those accents. It isn't that I don't know they belong there, but rather that they can be difficult to KEEP there!

2/21/06: In case you're wondering, originally I had the notion to give all my Elfwine Chronicles a one word title, but that was too restrictive in some instances, so a few have longer titles. For the most part though, when I can, I stick with that protocol for naming them.

Also, I still welcome suggestions for future Elfwine Chronicles. You just never know what I'll do with them (or when). It was clear back in June that lsoa suggested using the Beren & Luthien tale in an Elfwine story. It took all this time to actually do that story, but it finally showed up. So you just never know what will strike a chord with me. You may have had experiences, or witnessed things between spouses or with children, that I haven't seen, but that would make good stories. Any more, since starting this series, I find myself doing "field research" wherever I go, trying to collect ideas!

12/7/05: Several of you alerted to me to some "story theft" taking place. I sent an email to Support and they assure me that they are doing Administrative Testing and using these stories (possibly because they are short oneshots). I suspect they didn't expect such an uproar and thought they'd have them taken down before anyone saw them. The most recent occurrence now says in the title or summary that it is an admin test and not to review. So do not be alarmed by it, though I do thank my faithful Rohirric posse for chasing down these apparent perpetrators! I'm glad it didn't turn out to be a story thief, and I did email one reviewer to alert her where to find "the real McCoy".

10/31/05: FYI, if you reread any of my stories and think something is different, you may be right. As I have learned more about Tolkien naming conventions, I find some of my earlier attempts unacceptable. (Ardrien probably isn't pleased with a feminine name ending...) Most could be dealt with by a minor change, but that is the reason for the change - to make them more nearly acceptable. They may still be lousy names, in the eyes of purists who know more about this than me, but they should be a bit less laughable now.

Also, as the Elfwine Chronicles have progressed, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep everything consistent to a timeline. When a later story requires something that contradicts an earlier story, I fix whichever one is easiest to tweak. Consequently, you may see some slight changes in those stories.

Same old, same old:

All stories that I post have been completely written before posting, so you won't have to worry about whether or not a story will be finished.

For the record, most of my stories are not over PG. The only reason one would be PG-13 would be if the subject matter was rather mature and I didn't want to risk offending anyone, but it won't be because there is anything particularly risque in it.

Regarding The Elfwine Chronicles: At least two of the basic ideas came from TV commercials by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were modified to the LOTR universe and characters. Since not everyone will have seen these commercials, I did not mention them in the stories themselves, but did want to give credit where credit is due.