Not much to say about me. I am homeschooled and a Christian, which certainly influences my writing as well as my reading: I won't read any stories over PG-13 rating (with very few exceptions), or slash stories. My favorite book is (obviously) the Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. I'm also very fond of "The Squire's Tales" Arthurian series by Gerald Morris (if you haven't heard of them, go on and buy them now! I command you!), "Scaramouche" by Rafael Sabitini, and "The Riddle-Master" trilogy by Patricia McKillip. If you want to know more, visit my LJ. :)

Regarding Slash:

This is in response to a review from 'CCC'. To be blunt, some things are simply WRONG (i.e., sinful), and in our over-tolerant society people have a hard time accepting that. Slash/yaoi/yuri/shounen-/shoujou-ai is one of those things, and I believe the Bible supports my belief. I am not trying to offend you, or anyone else, but that is the way I see it, and so there will never be ANY slash intended or implied in any of my fics, no matter how 'non-explicit.' But I hope that we can leave it at that. God bless!

"The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously so in the revision. That is why I have not put in (or cut out) practically all references to anything like 'religion'... to cults and practices in the imaginary world... for the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism." - J. R. R.Tolkien, from a letter to Robery Murray

For the benefit of my readers (and myself!), I'm going to be keeping this profile updated on the status of upcoming chapters from now on. Since I have the tendency to take a long (very long) time to update - coughFollycough - I'll keep you all updated on the status of each upcoming chapter so that you can be assured I don't intend to abandon any of my stories! So don't forget to check back here often for updates:-)

Note, 5/4/06: It is with great reluctance that I must announce that all of my current WIPs have been DROPPED. They will be deleted from fanfiction.net and Stories of Arda shortly, and then archived permanantly at my fanfic journal (http://). I am very sorry that it has come to this, but I just don't have the time or the will to work on them anymore. Perhaps sometime in the near, or not-so-near, future I will take them up again and finish them, but as I enter my senior year of high school and prepare to dual enroll in college, that seems like a remote possibility.

To all the faithful readers who stuck through my first, awkward attempts and waited patiently for each new chapter - thank you, so very, very much. Your reviews encouraged and inspired me, and I hope they will continue to do so if I am ever able to pick my stories up again.

My one-shots and drabbles, andI willcontinue towrite those, although my interests have expanded far beyond LotR now and most of what I write will probably be for other fandoms. I am trying to concentrate on my non-fanfiction work right now, which you can find here: http://www.fictionpress.info/~tirralirra(formerly under the pen name of Taryn McKay).

Once again, I'm sorry to disappoint you all, but thank you for everything. It's been fun, and I hope to see you around.

God bless!

~Tathar