Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all. - Douglas Adams
_

If you’re reading this bio, then I think I can safely assume you wish to find out a little something about me. In other words, I have free license to ramble on cheerfully about nothing other than myself. Ah, my favorite kind of prose.

Well, now. I’m a degree-holding, field-tested wildlife biologist currently utilizing absolutely nothing for which I’ve been trained. Instead, I’m making a living of sorts running a home-based online business and writing bitter, overly sentimental, and amateurish poetry. Okay, so I don’t make any actual money from the sophomoric poetry, it just sounded more romantic that way. Other than those two hobbies (I call them both hobbies because neither is at present generating an income), I’m also a singer and erstwhile musician. At least I used to be before the cynical nature of this cruel world robbed me of my voice. Just kidding. I think. I can, however, make the claim - and back it up - that no-one can outwit me at Rock-N-Roll Jeopardy. Not nobody, not nohow. Sadly, this show seems to no longer be on the air, so I will evidently never achieve the fame and fortune which I am due for this particular talent. Figures.

Let’s see, what else? I’m a rollercoaster fanatic and still like to play with toys, so those in the 8-14 age range think I’m wicked cool. I love all water sports like a zealot, particularly swimming and white-water rafting, and I practically grew up on horseback. I’m also an extreme-sports wannabe. By that I mean that I want to, intend to, and hope I don’t die before I get up the nerve to skydive/bungee etc.

And to round out this pathetic attempt at autobiography, I’m a30 year-old female, still single/unmarried (my opinion about that seems to change daily), and I just recently moved back to my native Oklahoma. I’m rather a vagabond at heart and have lived in 4 or 5 different states, but traveled almost everywhere, and would truly like to do nothing more than globe-hop for the rest of my natural life.

So, that’s enough of that, don’t you think? For more pointless rambling like this, head to my new blogsite at the above URL and say hi. (If you’re sadistic and bored enough, that is). Cheers.

FANFIC FEELINGS
Or an intro to my thoughts on particular fandom categories.

I first found the world of fanfic through my X-Files obsession, moved on to the Buffy/Angel universe, and then miraculously realized there were other Tolkienites out there who wrote fiction for the world to share. Oh, happy day!

I’ve been a Tolkien fan since reading The Hobbit at the age of 8 and The Lord of the Rings at 13, so I appreciate canon considerably, but adore a good AU as long as it knows it’s AU and doesn’t pretend to pass as canon. I’ve actually read some brilliant Mary Sues, but they are few and far between. The majority just make me want to stab myself in the eye with silverware. As far as slash is concerned, I occasionally sneak a delicious, guilty peek at some, but would never attempt to write in the genre because I would just fail miserably. The only thing I cannot read is a serious Sam/Frodo pairing. If it’s all in good fun and humorous, I’m all for it, but I can’t help but feel that taking a serious view of this pairing just undermines the very thing that Tolkien was trying to promote with this relationship: true, unadulterated friendship. It’s my one real hang up with fanficI don’t even dismiss those Ent/Elf pairings offhand. Kidding, again, only kidding! Otherwise, I have no objections and have read some really beautiful pieces using the most imaginative couplings available, so there you go.

FAVORITE MIDDLE-EARTH/TOLKIEN CHARACTER

Okay, I’ll admit upfront that I’m a Legolas junkie like so many of you. It all began at 13 with the line “You would die before your stroke fell.” Sigh. My life has not been the same since. And yes, like all of us gals who are old enough to know better, I do think Orlando Bloom is a beautiful creature. And while we’re confessing, I must also admit to a newly found and smoldering passion for Karl Urban as well. Enormous sigh. Besides those two, though, my all-time fave Tolkien character is the elusive and enigmatic Beleg Cuthalion. There aren’t nearly enough fics about him either, so get cracking all you whip-smart authors. (Get it...cracking...whip-smart? Well, it was funny in my head, at least).

SOME FAVORITE BOOKS:
These include children’s books because they impacted my life tremendously, much more than most literature I read today.

The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
The Silmarillion
The History of Middle Earth series
The Prydain Chronicles - Lloyd Alexander
The Dark Tower - Stephen King
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
The Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred Taylor
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
The Witching Hour - Anne Rice
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls

There are countless more and include writers like Asimov, Crichton, McCaffrey, McMurtry, McCarthy, Clarke, Donaldson, Card, Heinlein, Hawking, Michener, as well as the standard classics like Twain, Alcott, Brontë, Steinbeck, London, Austen, Vonnegut and titles like King of the Wind, Peter Pan, Dracula, Anna Karenina, The Haunting of Hill House, To Kill A Mockingbird and the odd Kerouac here and there. Hmm, I seem to notice a certain repetition of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. Not to mention authors with a last name beginning in Mc. Odd. And since this list is growing to overindulgent proportions, I think I’ll end it there. Don’t even get me started on the poets.

QUOTES TO MEMORIZE AND LIVE BY

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. - Oscar Wilde

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing views. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death. - Dave Barry

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Emerson

A man can stand anything except for a succession of ordinary days. - Van Goethe

Don’t believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose. - Douglas Adams

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of habit. - M. Somerset Maugham

They sicken of the harbor that know the storm. - Dorothy Parker

In religion and in politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten second hand and without examination. - Mark Twain

There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. - Douglas Adams

Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion. - Edward Abbey

Though much is taken, much abides; and though we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are - our equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. - Tennyson