Snowflake Meme.

[curiouswombat]

Day Six said "share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life".

I found this quite difficult - everything I read probably makes my life a little different to how it would have been if I hadn't read it.

Finally I chose Lord of the Rings not for any of the reasons you might expect.



My reading had been anything I laid hands on as a child - books my grandmother won at school, the Biggles books and adventure stories passed on from the son of my father's friend, James Bond books of Dads, modern classics from my English teacher, lots of fiction from the school library. But there was no fantasy in it at all.

At university someone in the Chaplaincy took a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring from a cupboard and suggested I might enjoy it... He was absolutely right. I set off to absorb as much fantasy as I could get my hands on.

Some 12 years later I met S2C on a blind date. He not only read fantasy but played D&D. And I knew what he was talking about, loved some of the same books, wanted to learn to play D&D. And so the person who suggested I 'might like this book' actually set the foundations for my marriage. Pretty much defines something that changed my life I think!



Day 7 said create a fanwork. A drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. A picspam. Something.

That was easy - I wrote a drabble for the current challenges at Tolkien Weekly - Which is here - and I'll post it on my journal when I have finished the current challenges, as it is part of a set.

Day 8 is today. This is really difficult. It says create a love meme for yourself. Let people tell you how amazing and awesome and loveable you really are.

Mu first reaction was 'Oh no, I couldn't possibly!' But the challenge also says this kind of emotional bravery is really inspiring... Sometimes it's the hardest thing in the world.

And many of my friends doing the challenge have girded their loins and posted this one on their journals.

So feel free to regard this post as my Day 8 'love meme'.

Although I still feel embarrassed asking people to tell me why they are my friends - so in true Brit fashion do feel free to skip on by! But, as just_ann_now said A word or two, please? Just so we can check the box?

Comments

[hobbituk.livejournal.com]

Oh you are so brave... we Brits don't deal with praise well at all!

I have you on my flist because I enjoy your posts, you take wonderful photographs and manage the photoscavenger community with grace and style and even when people (me) don't keep up, you support not nag.

I love the fact that you have seamlessly integrated Dawn into the LoTR world, and have even brought my woobie Spike through to be her friend.

And you are brave, loyal and always inspiring.

*hugs*

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

I'm your friend because you are such a cheerful, stoical, optimistic person that it always makes me feel better to read one of your posts or to get a comment from you. You give such a lot to your family and your community, and to your online friends (even if we can only salivate enviously at the baking pics!)

And, of course, because you're a fellow Pervy Elf Fancier (even if we ultimately prefer different elves - means we don't fight over them!)

[clodia-metelli.livejournal.com]

I always enjoy your posts: I love your photos, I like hearing about life where you are, and I'm pretty sure I've used at least one of your recipes (cider and orange cake? it's been a while...)

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

How can anyone with a tag for hedgehogs not be awesome-in-a-jar? Plus - Jane Austen? Great taste there! At any rate, you are super fab and interesting and all sorts of other lovely adjectives.


Gabrielle

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

I love your writing, but even more than that, your photographs - I've got so many of them here on my hard drive as part of my screensaver rotation. They are glowing, uplifting, inspiring, and just fill me with joy every time I see them.

I'm so glad we had an opportunity to meet! That London Meetup was one of the best days ever, and I hope we can do it again sometime!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

You're just a lovely person...and anybody who loves a camera as much as I do is tops in my book.
;)
I do love your posts and how you seem to love life, your family and your Island also...
:)

[gillo]

I am forever grateful to LJ that I met you through it. You are a terrific woman, great fun in person, an interesting writer of fact and a very talented storyteller.

And incredibly brave to post this. It's so painfully unBritish!

[dougalsservant.livejournal.com]

What to say? I can't say nothing!
What did I see over 40 years ago?
You had, and still have, seeming boundless enthusiasm; I once joked to A. that you were anaerobic (sorry, in-joke) but I think all I meant was that your enthusiasm bubbled over so much.
You were quite as bad as me for only wanting to go to those lectures and labs where we were well taught. Do you remember writing up the Chemistry labs we hadn't done as the requirement was to write up and submit, but nothing about attending?!
You are loyal and kind and love cats. I remember my Tygger and Tiny "nursing" you when you were poorly - I don't suppose you still have the photos?
I think it's great that technology makes it easier to keep up to date, although I do still rather enjoy a "real" letter.
I have so much enjoyed reading your fic since you introduced me to LJ - and I am so impatient for the next update. Hint!
I love comparing "your" island with "mine".
I still use your recipes and your mothers - I wonder how they have evolved?
And finally I can't wait for our 60th celebrations, even though A. and I are making you start to celebrate 6+ months early.
D

[sparrow2000.livejournal.com]

As others have said, I love your photos, your details of every day life, the fact that you wrote one of my favourite post-Chosen Xander fics and that you are cunning enough to know just how to tempt me to think about reading a LotR crossover *g*

I also love the time and effort you put into writerconuk, even though I don't get to go very often, that kind of dedication is what keeps fandom going and I can appreciate it, even from afar.

And if that weren't enough I think you and S2C are just great together.

But yeah, I had difficulty with this one as well - it's definitely the Brit thing :)

[shirebound]

My reading had been anything I laid hands on as a child

I had the same experience. I'm so glad I grew up in a house filled with books of every size and genre.

I love the pictures you post, and the bits of your life you share with us. And I'm still chuckling over... "we just sung a song about it. Mary laid him in the manger. So what happened to the shell?"

[chaotic-binky.livejournal.com]

Us Brits do find this sort of thing embarrassing. Let's give it a try, in spite of my red cheeks lol - I like your posts, the glimpses into your daily life, your recipes and your general niceness :)

Skipping off now lol

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I love your drabbles, especially those about Eldarion and his Governess and I love your photos and your accounts of your life. It is like paying a visit to the Isle of Man.

I read everything I could as a child too including my Mum's school prizes.

[jerusha]

You are awesome! I love your posts about where you live, and that you share pictures frequently. It's so nice to get a window into another area of the world. And your posts are always so interesting.

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Well, I posted Challenge 8, along with so many of my much braver friends. I have truly enjoyed getting to know you over the past few years. We're very different people, but I think if we ever had a chance to meet, that we would easily talk and talk and talk some more. My life is enriched because of you and other LJ friends who weren't even in my wildest dreams as few as ten years ago.

- Erulisse (one L)
I'm so lucky!

[samtyr.livejournal.com]

I love your writing and your photos both. But I am also fascinated by your posts about life on the island -- it is so vastly different from anything I know. I hope one day I will be able to visit there. :)

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

As others have said, I love you posts - the wonderful photos, the details of life being well lived. Reading your posts always leaves me feeling good about the world.
You have been doing writerconuk for so long and so very well. I admire your staying power, tremendously.
Plus, in person, you are such a very nice person to know.

ETA: oops, correction to tag.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

You are a lovely person, and you do so much for people both in your 'real' life, and in the fandom. By presenting such a friendly, welcoming face to people, I am certain that you make people feel wanted here.

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

Hi,

So nice to see you again! It's been a while since we've been in the same fandom. I love that you're still around. It's really awesome that you're still here and still creative and still contributing.

Anyway, I figured that I'd use this love meme to spread positive vibes by sharing encouraging quotes because I believe that all of us have the potential to be amazing and awesome beyond our wildest dreams and worst fears. This is the quote I picked for you:

“I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”
― T.S. Eliot

♥ Live out loud!

[sharpiefan (from livejournal.com)]

Hi there!

I'm here from the Snowflake Challenge (I've seen you around outside that, though) and I want to encourage you. A lot, if not all, of the people who've taken part in the Day 8 challenge have said how tough they found it. So you're in good company.

I love the fact you're not afraid to admit what you believe - sometimes admitting it is the hardest thing ever, even in your own space (I know I find that). You're creative and friendly.

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. - Saint Basil

[starbuckssue.livejournal.com]

Day Six: I love Lord of the Rings, I persuaded my mother to buy me The Fellowship of the Ring for my tenth birthday and was completely immersed. I still have that battered book in my possession some (almost) forty years later!

Day Seven: Lovely drabble and I really do like the sound of the cake, love those spices together.

Day Eight: Sending love your way, both your love of LotR and the cake recipe make you pretty awesome, as well as the fact that you've participated in the challenge.

*Hugs*

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

Choosing a book wasn't easy for me either, so many books had such an impact on me! The Hobbit and LotR as well, of course but alas, they were not the first real Fantasy books I read, as much as I would like to. ;o) The Hobbit was my second, though.
How nice to hear how you got your hands on LotR, and how awesome that this eventually led to you finding such a great significant other! :o) (On a side note, I think now even more than before we need proper fiction in the Tolkienverse! *g*)

And about the other: ;o) You truly are awesome! I've met such a kind and generous friend in you, welcoming me with open arms into fandom and your online life. I love your stories so much, but perhaps even more the terrific exchange we had over the reviews and some of the points and questions that came up, in reviews or our entries. You are creating such an amazing world with your Returmverse (and also a truly working, believable crossover, no mean feat in my eyes!), a wealth of creativity, imagination, joy, fun and new discoveries, but you're equally creating such a terrific space to meet and interact with others with your photo_scavenger communty, and allow us to participate at your life on your small island. *hugs*

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

I do love your optimism and your gusto for life. I also love the way you let us share the people, places and things you love.

[sulien.livejournal.com]

Why did I friend you? Well, I really enjoy your writing, so I bookmarked your journal to make sure I caught anything you may not post over on TTH that might interest me. I decided you sound like an interesting, intelligent and genuinely decent person after reading your personal posts for a bit and friended you. You've turned out to be one of those few religious but non-judgmental folks whose journals/blogs I enjoy and interacting with you is fun and informative. I tend mostly to lurk and just read and comment on occasion, so thanks for not minding that. :)

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

I love hearing about your island home over there on the other side of the world and the photographs you share of it. I enjoy your warmth, your humour, your intelligence, and am so glad we met (at the death of the MEFAs, of all the unlikely beginnings, lol) And yes, I have a recipe folder with your name on it!

And that is a fine reason for picking that book!

[kathyh]

A little late and feeling frightfully British about this :) I love your posts because you give a wonderful flavour of your life, both in fandom and reality. Your photos are absolutely gorgeous and I really like how proud you are of living on the Isle of Man :)