MEFA results
Dec. 6th, 2006 02:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartGot "honourably mentioned" as an author and so did "The Last Yule in Halabor". Well, it's better than nothing at all. At least some people realized I'm still around in the fandom. I was never such a big name author, so I should be grateful, I guess.
The rest is all sour grapes. *shrug*
Edit: Well, at least the comments - all three of them - are really really positive. I'm glad that there are readers who can value fics that are based on extensive research. *g*
The rest is all sour grapes. *shrug*
Edit: Well, at least the comments - all three of them - are really really positive. I'm glad that there are readers who can value fics that are based on extensive research. *g*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 04:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 08:32 pm (UTC)The MEFA is the Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards, where you win according the amount of reviews you get for your story. I won once, and it was nice. I haven't really expected to happen it again, but there's always a little hope hidden somewhere... ah, well.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 10:34 pm (UTC)I am SOOOO hoping to get reading time again soon. I keep reading your teasers and other's comments in the group, and I feel like I'm missing out on loads of good reading (and reviewing, of course!).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-07 05:54 pm (UTC)I'd really like to see you back to happy fandom time one day. Elladan and Boromir are missing you, too. Not many people are interested in them anymore, and they were the ones who brought us together, right?
To other readers: No, not that way! Get your minds out of the gutter, dammit! I write enough smut, I don't need to actually do the nasty!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-07 01:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-07 05:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-07 02:34 am (UTC)At least you got nominated. *sniff, wah...* *grins* So much for being a supposedly big name author!
Love you!
Hugs,
Jasta
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-07 05:51 pm (UTC)Thanks. :))
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-08 01:50 am (UTC){{{hugs}}}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-12 08:32 pm (UTC)MEFA musings, and Madenn
Date: 2006-12-12 09:10 am (UTC)I was worried, though, that it was in a sense miscategorized. The others were all single vignettes, as opposed to your long series. I'm not sure if finding an unexpectedly long story in that category could have turned some people away, or not, but it definitely deserved more recognition, IMHO.
One thing I'm not sure I like about the author rankings: The review system certainly seems to be weighted to favor individuals who have many entries in a given category. Not that I think that anyone who did win was undeserving! But it doesn't seem like it should count; in fact, ranking authors at all gives me a vaguely uncomfortable feeling.
OK, back to my original purpose in coming over: Can I find out if I'm right about Madenn's canon identity? I didn't want to put too much into your forum, just in case I gave it away for others who are puzzling it out.
Denise/dkpalaska
Re: MEFA musings, and Madenn
So, it was you who wrote that wonderful third review? I was most touched by it, honestly, and not knowing who had gifted it upon me did bother me a bit. I've known Dwim for quite some time - we have some sort of mutual respect for each other but no personal closeness - and I know Imhiriel by name, but I couldn't recognize you by that other name. I'm glad that my little things give you such enjoyment. We all write for our readers, after all. :))
Re: categories
Yeah, it's always a sorry thing with me and categories. I have a hard time to match any, particularly because I write a wide variety of Tolkienfic. Most people are interested in Elves. Or hobbits. Or Men of Gondor. Or slash. Or hate slash passionately. And when an author cannot be put into one of these categories exclusively, people have a hard time to accept him/her.
It's a sort of ghetto thinking that appears in other fandoms as well. In the Atlantis fandom, particularly, the followers of certain slash or het pairings isolate themselves in small groups and breathe fire on other small groups. In the Tolkien fandom, it might not be quite as bad, but LOTR authors and Silmficcers still count as two completely different kind, and there were times when it was really ugly.
Re: author ranking
Personally, I find it insulting, even though I got honourable mentioned there, too. IMO, popularity doesn't make anyone a better author. I only know Isabeau out of the winners, and I know she's good and deserves it, but declaring that X is better as Y or Z, just because more people seem to like their stuff is, well, a bit... I don't know what it is, but it irks me very much. I never had more than a handful of very loyal readers (you are one of those few), but does it make me a worse author than those who got more gushing reviwes for a chapter than I can hope for an entire series? I don't think so. Even though I'm struggling with the fact that I have to write in a third language.
Re: Madenn
I think you got it just right. "Kinswoman" was a give-away, wasn't it? And Imloth Melui, I think. I wonder who else will figure it out.
Thanks for dropping by. And thanks for the support you've been given me all these years. It's an encouragement I sorely need whenever I get the feeling that nobody cares for my stories anymore.
Re: MEFA musings, and Madenn
Date: 2006-12-12 07:39 pm (UTC)*blush* I'm glad you liked it, Soledad. I don't feel I'm particularly eloquent, but I tried to make up for it with sincerity! One of these days, I'll even figure out when to use my login ID for things, and when to use my name... Sorry about the anonymity factor.
And when an author cannot be put into one of these categories exclusively, people have a hard time to accept him/her.
I hope that you wear it as a badge of honor. :) It means you push the envelope and think outside the box. Unfortunately, people tend to avoid things that are unusual or uncomfortable in all areas of life. And truly, no one will like everything, even from an author they otherwise really enjoy, but it's ideal if folks at least try it and let themselves be stretched a bit before making that decision...
IMO, popularity doesn't make anyone a better author.
Completely, utterly true; you put your finger on exactly why it makes me uncomfortable.
I also think I'm disturbed by the element of intimacy, so to speak. It's a bit different to comment on someone's work (although I understand that an author's stories can feel like their children, and so be wounded by any attack on those works), but there's at least some degree of separation. But ranking individuals themselves based on something as subjective as the review system feels... well, like it opens up a whole 'nother level of potential hurt. Especially because it does seem to favor prolific authors, or at least those who've been nominated many times. Again, that's not to knock anyone else - some of my favorites did get well-recognized, and I was happy about that. This was my first year of participating in the MEFAs, but I looked at the 2005 site and noticed that it was also done last year at least, so I guess that it's well-received overall.
Even though I'm struggling with the fact that I have to write in a third language.
I am almost completely monolingual, so I'm always extremely impressed by this. I could never pick out that fact based on "LYiH," for example. Even in "Young Knights" (which you are no doubt rushing in order to get it out) I have only seen a handful of minor potential indicators, like reversed words or something. Stuff like that happens with even published English authors, though, and they have ranks of proofreaders.
On Madenn: Yes, Imloth Melui & healing put me into the right book. :) I was searching the wrong chapter, though, until it occurred to me that, "Duh!" I had an electronic version. That's when "kinswoman" made it simple. *g*
And thanks for the support you've been given me all these years.
Could you be thinking of another Denise? I've only known about the Tolkien fandom for two years, and although I remember reading your superb "Face of the Enemy" while perusing the Mithril lists during that first year, I have - to my great shame - only been a good reviewer for the second year. *blushes deeply to think of all the great stories I've not yet gone back to show appropriate appreciation for, including "FotE"* I've only recently had the time to start getting into some of your other pieces.
It's an encouragement I sorely need whenever I get the feeling that nobody cares for my stories anymore.
:( Please don't get discouraged. You really are a wonderful author.
Re: MEFA musings, and Madenn
Date: 2006-12-12 08:37 pm (UTC)And that's about the time I started to post my stories to the TFF archive in earnest. You and someone named Rebecca were the first ever readers who hadn't been my personal friends from earlier, and yet you kept coming back to read and to comment - I appreciate that very much.
It's hard to win new readers nowadays, the fandom has grown so huge and so fractured, most people only read very specific stories or those of very popular authors because they think that would mean they're going to find good reading material, and don't even try unknown names.
I must admit that I'm not entirely blameless in that area myself. Since most of my old friends have fallen out of the fandom and don't write anymore, I kinda stopped reading altogether. Granted, Real Life is not being supportive right now, so I have to choose between writing and reading, and selfish creature as I am, I always choose writing. :(
*raises paw sheepishly*
Date: 2006-12-19 07:57 pm (UTC)I did take a couple of looks at the MEFA site but mostly confine my comments to LJ and would like to say that I thoroughly enjoy your work, and work it is too..LOL..that much I do know from my efforts at writing in the old La Femme Nikita fandom.
Right now I'm currently waiting for more of your Young Knights series...*g*. Also, are you planning on doing any more of your Halabor series? Knowing what happens later on to all the people you talk about gives reading it a bittersweet tinge, which I adore..LOL
Re: *raises paw sheepishly*
Date: 2006-12-19 08:14 pm (UTC)I'll try to finish "The Young Knights", if not till Xmas Eve, which seems rather unlikely, considering what an insane week I am having right now (everyone seems to think that I'd have time for their little idiosynchrasies or whatnot), at least until the end of the year.
Yes, I'm planning to do more Halabor stories. First of all, I'd like to work more on "The Shoemaker's Daughter", which is the mother of the entire Halabor stuff. Then I might have to rewrite a bit "Shadows of the Past", who has bred Halabor and what's attached to it in the first place, as there are some inconsistencies that need to be corrected.
I have several other ideas to Halabor stuff, but I'd like to finish some of my other never-ending WIPs first. Perhaps "Emissary of the Mark" to begin with, as that story is practically written... only in Hungarian and in a different fantasy universe. *g*
We'll see. Thanks for dropping by, I love to chat with my potential readers.
Re: *raises paw sheepishly*
Date: 2006-12-19 10:06 pm (UTC)I just got done re-reading "Anuminas" too and I keep seeing Elrond's face as I saw it at the end of the LOTR marathon on tv Sunday night, when he encourages Arwen to step into her future. He must have had a very similar look on his face when he finally accepted that Elladan had chosen the fate of Elros and that he would lose him too.
Re: *raises paw sheepishly*
Date: 2006-12-20 10:18 am (UTC)Elrond shouldn't whine so much. Granted, he lost Elladan in that story, but at the very least I killed off Aragorn, so that Arwen could do with Daddy to Valinor, after all!