Soledad's Journal

... because the cleaning, with which I wasted the whole morning (up to 3pm) clearly doesn't count. That's slave labour.

But I did work a bit on pot holder #3; stitched together the sides temporarily, before I'd do the actual sewing. And I've typed up the rest of Chapter 16 to "The Book of Mazarbul" and posted the finished chapter to AO3 and SoA. I also typed up the beginning of Chapter 17 - not quite two pages yet, but small progress is progress, too.

Fortunately, we've cooked for several days in advance yesterday, so no kitchen duty was required. And now I'm tired; ready to read some fanfic, watch some telly and play some Solitaire.

On Sundays, I get up an hour earlier (assuming that I hear the alarm) to make Mum ready for Sunday Mass, in which she participates via telly, at the ungodly hour of half past eight. Brrrr!

But since I got up earlier, I had more time to get things done, and I've made very good progress on the crafting front. Three of the four double pages of the quiet book are completely finished, and I only have to sew along the last quarter of the remaining one. Of course, that one is the hardest, including several layers of hard felt and stuff. I didn't even start counting how many times I had to undo and redo certain stretches. There were many, many occasions. But when everything goes well, I'll finish it tomorrow, and then can move on to the book spine and inner binding. Which is a tedious thing in itself, but basically the final task. Silver lining and all that.

Mum volunteered (well, rather let herself talked into) to make Faschiertes, or frikadellen, or whatever they are called in English. And Tütensuppe. I made mashed potatoes (the artificial ones from the cardboard box), and we consumed the leftover salad and the last piece of the very yummy improvised cheesecake. There were other mundane things, too, like taking down the dried laundry, but those are hardly worth mentioning, aren't they?

As you can see, my life isn't particularly exciting. I talk about the same things every day. But we're safe and in good health (so far), so I'm not complaining.

Edit: Oh, and in case anyone is interested, I've posted my unfinished Orc story (or rather the only, unfinished chapter of it) to both, AO3 and SoA. Having realized how unlikely it is that I'd ever get around to write the actual story, I thought I'd share what little there is of it, focusing on Uruk-hai society and suchlike, featuring Uglúk in all his dark glory. *g*

... and I've been busy. I went out into town to deal with a few things I never had time for while working; like finally applying for that 60+ card with which I can get things at a lower price in some places, including language courses and gyms and so on.

I also bought the paperback version of "Lúthien and Beren", composed by Christopher Tolkien. They could only have ordered me the hardback version of "The Fall of Gondolin", as apparently no other version exists yet, but it would have cost twice as much (and a half for good measure) than the "Lúthien" paperback, so I refrained from ordering it. I'll wait until the paperback version (hopefully) comes out. I mean, Gondolin is my favourite First Age tale, but I won't pay ridiculous amounts of money for it if I don't absolutely have to.

I also managed to completely rewrite Chapter 12 of the Dwobbit fic and put together an originally not planned Chapter 13 from snippets of the already posted Ch 13 and some additional stuff from Rateliff's The History of the Hobbit. It isn't re-written yet, I hope it will work out.

Now, I think everyone knows by now how much I dislike the Jackson films, especially his concept of most of the Dwarves. Especially poor Ori and Bombur. But the Weta designs are nothing if not breath-taking, and I've found among them one that fits my idea of book!Ori (who has a seniority of several decades over the film version), so I'm willing to share.

Here it is, Ori, heart-breaker, who managed to get a warrior Dwarf half his age as his spouse:



Apologies for the quality of the picture. I took it with my iPad from the first Weta book about art and design of The Hobbit, where it was about the size of a stamp. This was the best Microsoft Office Picture Manager could do with it.

On less cheerful news, Mum's telly is broken. From one moment to another, there was neither picture nor sound. Now she'll have to watch mine until hers gets fixed; and let me tell you, mine is really small! I hope she gets back hers before her eyes roll out of her head.

... and I've nailed the private teaching job, starting in January. Of course, one has to live long enough to see that day yet, but I'm fairly happy and started developing ideas about how I wish to do it. One being not using any given language book but work through a series of topics like family, school, professions, health and illness, plants, animals, travel and so on, and build the vocabulary and grammar around them. Well, we'll see.

I've also made decent headway with Chapter 12 of the Dwobbit story, hopefully forging the given material into an alloy of my own. *fingers crossed*

The mini sewing kits are moving on with good speed. I've finished all the detail work and am now sewing them together, one after another. 6 done, 14 more to go. I really hope that the rest of the week and perhaps a day or two from next week will be enough to finish the entire batch. I'm eager to move on to my needle books that now count 8. I found some felt rests that would be a shame to throw out and combined them into another needle book. Yes, I'm insane, I think we've established that some time ago.

I talked to one of my beloved young colleagues on the phone and she mentioned that we're going to meet next week anyway. I was baffled. I've completely forgotten that August 23 is next Thursday already. Where has the summer gone? I'm so glad that I only have to return to work for 14 weeks, roughly!

I'm still ridiculously tired. The heat and the various chores of the last two weeks have taken out a lot of me. I don't understand how Mum manages, at her age, but she's one tough cookie and no mistake.

Well, at least I managed to write the long-dreaded scene of Balin facing off King Dáin about trying to re-take Moria. Hopefully the story will move off its dead spot now. I also bought a couple of really pretty long envelopes, with tissue paper lining, for the pocket letters and decorated two of them for the things that are already done. Pictures later, I swear. I have to digest the fact that work re-starts next week again, and that Monday is lost for me because of it being a national holiday and all shops will be closed. I had plans for Monday, you see, and forgot to look at the calendar. *sigh*

Yep, I've actually brought up the strength to do some typing.
( Read more... )

Today, as the Germans would say, der Knoten ist endlich geplatzt - I'm sorry, I can't translate that into English. But the fact is, a many-years-old plotbunny finally decided that it wanted to be tended to, and I wrote 3 pages for the first chapter of a story temporarily titled Elf-Root Revisited.

It started off as a missing scene to Elf-Root, which refused to work, no matter how much I tried. Due to my general inability to write anything short - save for a few exceptions - as soon as I've worked out a plot that consists 6 chapters so far, things seemed to work at once. I've put what's written beyond the tag in its entirety, in the unlikely case somebody is interested. Should that happen, questions and comments will be welcome. If not, at least the fact that the bold fonts and italics are already put into it will spare me the hand-coding when I post it to AO3. ;))

( Read more... )

I had a busy day today, despite the fact that we had to go to various official places in the morning. Like trying to move my retirement process forward (no such luck just yet), paying the bills, buying the train tickets for our upcoming holiday and the likes.

Coming home, I've finished a card I've been working on for a couple of days (picture coming up tomorrow), and then I threw myself into writing! *g*

I wrote almost a full scene for the current chapter of Timescapes, plus I typed up the already written stuff for The Book of Mazarbul. I also came to the excellent idea of swapping Chapters 14 and 15 (both as-yet unfinished), because I realized that it would make so much more sense that way; not to mention make the transition a great deal smoother. Oh, and I finally found a title for Chapter 14 - for now.

So, I am well content.

Excerpt:
( Read more... )

I've finalized the list of Dwarves who would go to Moria with Balin, adding all the personal details I have figured out so far. With a list of 57, it took me several years, to be honest, and some of them still don't have anything beyond their name, gender and Clan. But I'm getting there.

So, go to edhellondawards, take a look and have fun!

No, really! It only took me two years or so, but Chapter 12 - Dark Legacy has finally been posted to FF.Net.

In which Balin summons the BlackLocks of Erebor to an important Clan meeting, Dori's wife wields her due power as Clan matriarch and Ori reveals his young spouse Flói some dark events in Clan history.

Enjoy!
Soledad