The Way of the Wombat

Congratulations to everyone who is mentioned in the results for The Tree and Flower Awards. I have shiny things! Rather an embarrassment of shiny things. A really big thank you not just to those who nominated and voted for my stories, but to everyone who participated in any way - without people to run them, to nominate stories, to read and vote, awards schemes just cease to exist.

For those of you haven't heard of them, they are 'by nomination and vote' annual awards for stories posted at Many Paths to Tread which is a small, well run, Tolkien specific site - and the winners lists(Posted on MPtT's sister LJ community) make a very, very, good reading list.

I post mainly my drabble sets there, and am really pleased that many of them have done so very well against some excellent, and often much longer, stories.

( Shiny things... )

Congratulations to all the people on my Friends List who have won awards at the Tree and Flower Awards.

So well done to Clodia Metelli, Ellyn, Erulisse, Himring, Keiliss, Lady Branwyn, Larner, Levade, Linda Hoyland, Ningloreth, Oshun, Shirebound, and Virtuella. (I hope I didn't miss anyone - if so, apologies!)

And for me...

First Places:
Dust
Éomer's Guide to Contemporary Bardic Works
Edoras to Ithilien…in Twelve Moves
The Long Road Home

Second Places:
A Is For Apple
By Pastures Green

Third Places:
Winds of Change
The Long Road Home
Invocation Of Memory

I will go and collect the banners at the weekend and post them onto the stories.  Or, thinking about my coming weekend... maybe at the beginning of next week!

And - hmm - it's just occurred to me that The Long Road Home was in two different classes at the same time!

So - first thing - a big thank you to everyone who nominated any of my stories from Many Paths to Tread for their anniversary awards.

There have been some excellent entries - they can all be found at Many Paths, of course, and are all listed in the polls, links to which can be found here.

Second thing - I have written another 'Small Return' - but still take heed of Kazzy Cee's advice never to post stories with other things - so I will post it separately!

The Middle Earth Fanfic Awards (MEFAs) results are out. These are the Oscars of the Tolkien Fandom - chosen by peer review - and so I am very, very proud of my results!

Pretty Banners - mostly by Ellyn;



Yes - A Powerful Absence got a First! It was almost painful to write - a bit like giving birth at times - and so I am very proud of that.

Also a First for the second set of drabbles about Eldarion and his governess - Return of the Governess -





A Third for The Fosterling - and what a perfect banner for it!




And an Honourable Mention for I must Go Down to the Sea Again - with yet another perfect banner made for me by Ellyn.





This year there were also special awards (Smaug's Treasures) for the stories that came in the top 1/3 overall, by number and length of review. This is because some classes will be very popular and the fifth or sixth entry will have got more points than the second or third from a different class. Three of the above were also given that award -



I am really, really happy - and want to say A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who took time to review any of my stories, and to everyone who is involved with he organisation - everything runs so well - and if you ever have an hour or two to spare, and want to read Tolkien related fanfic - then a visit to the MEFA Archive is a very good place to browse.

Congratulations, too, to all my friends who got wins, placings, mentions and Treasure - all well earned, and very one worth reading!

The results for the Middle Earth Fanfic Awards are now decided. For those of you who have no knowledge of the MEFAs, winners are decided by the number and length of reviews written per story over a period of about six months - so real peer review!

( Look - pretty, shiny, shiny, things! )

Many congratulations to all my friends who also won pretty, shiny things in the MEFAs - well done to all!

I am embarrassingly chuffed! I won 'Best Lord of the Rings Crossover' at the Crossing Over Awards over at Twisting the Hellmouth.



I am embarrassed because speakr2customrs, who I think is a better writer than me by quite a way and who betas my stories, only got second places and honourable mentions...

Major congratulations to ffutures who won THREE categories.

Actually the very best thing about Return of The Key being at TtH is that so far it has had an average of 1,278 readers per chapter! That just makes me feel really happy!

I am feeling rather pleased as Ten Years After came second in the good__evil's 'Good Dawn' category - the pretty is under the cut, and when he has his next nights off I will ask the husband to put it onto the story on the Wombatzone. (I can't do it myself because I don't have a password to the site! As it is a small corner of his.)

( Pretty, pretty award )

In other news - Mother in Law has now moved on to the next leg of her trip - revisiting old haunts from her youth in Newcastle upon Tyne, although sadly without her sister, which was the original plan. And finally - I have been teaching all day today, the first day of a two day course, and something happened to me that has never happened before.

For those of you who don't know my profession, I am a Clinical Nurse Specialist - my specialism is Continence, and so this is what I teach.
( Cut for length, and maybe a bit TMI )

A long time ago - well more than eighteen years ago, I remember finding out I was pregnant. The husband was really happy about it (well if not he gave a good impression!), but I was a bit apprehensive about telling my sister, and I was relieved when my mother offered to let her know for me. Why? Because although younger than me, she had been married for over five years, and trying for a baby for two or three of them, whereas we'd been married just over a year, and this pregnancy was unplanned, we had meant to wait until we'd finalised the sale of my old flat, sold the one we were living in and bought somewhere more suitable for a baby, but D-d didn't want to wait and lo and behold, here I was pregnant.

My Mother must have rung my sister quickly, because sister rang me within a few minutes, really happy to hear the news - and full of her own news, because she had only told Mum an hour or less before that she was pregnant herself! Suddenly I could be really excited, because my sister wouldn't feel that I had somehow beaten her to something without even trying!

Why has this come to my mind tonight? Because I won a pretty for Ten Years After!!

And can you imagine how awful I would have felt, if S2C hadn't just won at the RDAs? If I had won for my one story, without really trying, when he had been writing for so long? Although it was even more like sister and I - S2C also won at the Loves Bitch Awards -so I can Snoopy Dance, and go Squeeeeee as much as I like! And I am truly chuffed. Stunned as well, to have won something, and must say a big thank you to whoever nominated me, and to the Awards organisers. To look at my pretties (Yay MY pretties!!)

( Click Here )

And congrats to bogwitch who got THREE pretties!! And to sockmonkeyhere who got a pretty for Canis Familiar, and myfeetshowit who I noticed there under her other name, and to all the other winners - go check out at
http://lba.vampyrehaven.net/rnd3win.php