Hey! I was just wondering, you wonderful, beautiful, and downright inspiring person, what are your favorite books (including fanfic)? I really adore your writing, and in order to become a great writer and hopefully become like you someday, I’ve got to read like a madwoman!! Thank you!! *hugs* (P.S. If you don’t have the time, what about favorite writing tips?)

omg okay, this is actually – both of these are really hard to answer, for me! 

Here’s all my fic recs for LOTR (Gigolas and Bagginshield). 

It’s easier for me to name authors, rather than books. Because I tend to fall in love with the way a person writes, as well as the story they tell, and the two become conflated in my weird head somehow 🙂

Notable fanfic authors whose works I ADORE include @elenothar, @scarletjedi, @poplitealqueen, @emilianadarling, @culumacilinte, @yubiwamonogatari, @salviag, @themarchrabbit, @bgtea, @alkjira, @avelera, @lindzz, @notanightlight, @diemarysues, @urbanspaceman, @bigmamag – and honestly this is only the tinest and most partial list, bc there are so SO many wonderful authors and works out there.

On AO3, I adore icarus-chained, enigmaticblue (THIS AUTHOR IS MY FAVE SCIENCE BROS/DR PEPPERONY AUTHOR), thehoyden, keelywolfe, astolat, winterhill, rageprufrock, waldorph, versaphile, and ohhelpme so many more.

Published authors include Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Ursula Le Guin, Diana Wynne Jones, Guy Gavriel Kay, John Birmingham (read Leviathan if you want to see how history and people shape a place, and vice versa), Jasper Fforde, Robin Hobb, China Mieville, TE White, CS Lewis (OF COURSE), Ben Elton, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Safran Foer, Christopher Koch (Highways to a War was a formative read for me), GRRM, Vikram Seth, Alexandre Dumas, Joseph Heller, Spike Milligan, Agatha Christie, HG Wells, Gregory David Roberts…

… I have a LOT of books. A LOT of books. My house doesn’t need insulation: every room is covered in bookshelves, basically! I’ve chosen mostly fantasty/sci fi authors here, assuming that that is what you are into, Nonnie. 

Poets I love: Edna St Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Seamus Heaney.

eep Nonnie, I am occasionally asked for advice, but tbh I don’t feel like I am up to the challenge. I try to rise to the occasion, but I feel that advice is an odd sort of beast: sometimes a tip from a reputed writerly-type source will work for you, and sometimes it doesn’t. I suspect it is because we are all different people, with different minds and ways of succeeding. So idk, maybe try them all out: read all the advice out there, there are so many blogs, so many forums. I read the advice sometimes too, and sometimes it is the opposite of helpful for me – but sometimes it is great. 

So, there we go, a list of awesome authors for you! But this is a tiny, tiny drop in the ocean of all the work out there. I began hiding in the school library during lunchtimes when I was 8 years old, and I think I left a part of me there – or found it, pressed amongst all those pages.

Do you have a Patreon or online tip jar or PayPal or something where you accept donations because you’re amazing and your song “Light on the Horizon” literally brings me to tears every time I even *think* about it much less sing it and you really deserve to be massively rewarded for all the amazingness you bring into the world and I kind of would really like it if I could do that?

hey Nonnie!

I didn’t – as of two seconds ago! Now I do. Here it is! 

Dets has a Patreon now omg

I want to stress, though, that I do not need money. I have a good job that supports myself, my family AND my hobbies. So don’t feel obligated, ever! I appreciate the thought more than I can ever say, though, and I am so SO HONOURED that you think my music is worth actual real-world money! 

(no really, that last thought is making my whole head implode) 

Lastly, I’d like to direct folks towards the lovely @kailthia, who could use a little extra far far more than I do. Please donate to her, if you can! This post has details!

I finally got around to catching up with Sansûkh after a year away, and the latest chapter made me bawl like a baby. Thank you so much for writing this masterpiece, and for your wonderful music. You’re an inspiration, and I will forever be awed by your wondrous imagination

Oh my gosh, THANK YOU. I am thrilled you enjoyed the music! Honestly, that makes my whole heart leap. And I’m so stoked you liked the chapter! *hugs* thank you so so much! 🙂

I HAD A GOOD WRITING NIGHT, AT LONG LONG LAST (probably bc I had an hour and a half! HUZZAH). I just pumped out 1.7K in one sitting!   

I’ve missed having a decent stretch of actual, uninterrupted writing time. 

Hello! I’m asking about this because you’ve always seemed a very wise and compassionate human being to the ways of the world, and your works have always given me solace. I’m bi, & not out to my parents as they aren’t exactly supportive. Today my mom randomly brought up how Disney was ‘making’ LeFou gay, and how she was glad I “am old enough (I’m 19) to understand,” basically implying if I was younger the movie might have ‘turned me gay,’ per se. Any tips on how to deal with things like this?

Oh cripes. Nonnie, I am sorry. That is a shitty thing for your mum to say to you.

I don’t know if it is advice worth following, because you know your family best. But here is what I would do: I’d ignore her. I would completely, COMPLETELY ignore these hurtful, ignorant comments. I’d say totally nothing. NOTHING. Let the silence get awkward. Let the crickets chirp for every bigoted remark. I’d allow these statements to echo around the room, so she can hear how small it sounds. 

if pressed for a comment, I’d probably just shrug. Or flatly: “Okay.”

Then I’d go and vent to a trusted friend who knows me, in safety and in private.

Again, you know your family best, so if this sort of small, silent rebellion wouldn’t work for you, or if you feel it is dangerous, then don’t try it. But I do think it is a good idea to seek out a trusted friend who cares for ALL of you, and let it out. Not in a place your family can overhear, of course! 

I’m sorry that this is something you have to face from your folks, Nonnie. And I’m proud of your strength. So proud. You are real, healthy, valid and authentic in your bisexuality, just as you are. *hugs again* 

modernamelia:

Reblog if u appreciate altos. And I don’t mean “reblog if you recognize that sopranos would sound pitchy if altos weren’t there to sing harmonies.” I mean reblog if you appreciate girls who can get bassy, who can’t play Christine, who constantly have to take it a fifth or an octave lower so as not to damage their vocal chords. Reblog if u would listen to a solo from a girl with a medium voice, who can’t go particularly low but can’t go particularly high, instead rocking those middle ranges. Reblog if you wanna tell all the altos out there who have struggled with confidence bc they just wanna sing higher, just wanna get solos and melodies for once, just wanna be as appreciated as sopranos, that they are beautiful singers with beautiful medium low voices who are beautiful and valid and worthy of attention.

Watching Supernatural with my mom today (and re-reading Sansukh because of reasons), I had a thought. Supernatural and Sansukh are alike in a way. When a character dies in either of them, it’s sad, but there’s also the sense of ‘the end is just the beginning’ and the knowledge that you’re definitely going to keep seeing that character, whether they’re alive or not. It’s one of the things I love about Sansukh, which is the only fic where major character death doesn’t scare me.

AWWWW oh my gosh, Nonnie. Thank you! That is a truly beautiful compliment.

(I am one of those rare creatures that have never seen SPN, heh)

Since you seem so musically oriented(thinking of writing musically, writing those incredible numbers for the fic!!) I was wondering if you had listened to A R Rahman’s Lord of the Rings musical? It’s so unlike any other musical in song structure and every other element it’s just wonderful. A lot of the singing is done in Quenya!! And the instrumentals are incredible. I just thought you might like it <3

Ooooooooooh – I believe it has been recommended to me before, actually, it’s in the pile of stuff to get to! SOUNDS INTRIGUING AND AWESOME. 

Is there a plan for a lil drabble of the Dwarves in the Halls reacting/watching Thorin and Co. as they go to/reach Erebor? I just really really want to see that (even though it’d rip my hear put and roll it in ice shards) but like, Thror and Thrain and all celebrating as Smaug dies but that moment of dawning horror when they see Thorin succumb to dragon-sickness, and then the triumphant exaltation as they leave Erebor for the BoFA, and then… yikes. rushing to the sepulchers to welcome Thorin

sounds like you could write it, Nonnie!