I've been a born-again Christian since childhood, and a Southern Baptist by denomination since I was in the 7th grade. Therefore, I am very careful to neither read nor write slash, and I'm also careful as to what elements I will include in a story. With that said, I have long enjoyed the fantasy stories in which people from our world visit other worlds (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, etc.), but until recent years, I never expected to enjoy a fantasy novel that was set completely in another world. Those kinds of fantasy held no interest for me. Then, in December, 2012, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey came out in the theaters, and Wal-Mart began a massive campaign of advertising and selling Tolkien's works (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) and the Peter Jackson movies that are based on his works. It also sold a number of promotional items that are also based on his works (posters, Legos, etc.). Since I didn't want to read a fantasy novel set totally in another world without also reading one in which someone from our world travels to another, I decided that I would read Tolkien's novels and The Chronicles of Narnia side by side; it just seemed fitting that I should read them together. (Before I had my own copies of those books, I didn't realize just how fitting that would be!) I began to read them in January, 2013.

Suffice it to say that reading The Lord of the Rings, in particular, converted me into a diehard Tolkien fan; I have since purchased and read other books by him, as well as a number of books about him, along with books about C.S. Lewis. (I have read The Hobbit, or There and Back Again; The Annotated Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings; The Silmarillion; Unfinished Tales: The Lost Lore of Middle-earth; The Children of Hurin; Beren and Luthien; The Fall of Gondolin; the entire The Histories of Middle-earth series: The Book of Lost Tales, Parts 1 and 2, The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Lost Road and Other Writings, The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, Sauron Defeated, Morgoth's Ring, The War of the Jewels, and The Peoples of Middle-Earth; Bilbo's Last Song; The Tolkien Reader; Smith of Wootton Major; Roverandom; Tales from the Perilous Realm; The Atlas of Middle-Earth; The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Their Friends; J.R.R. Tolkien: a Biography; The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien; and Letters from Father Christmas, as well as some informational and devotional books about Tolkien's Middle-earth.) In addition, I've purchased and watched all of the movies based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: both the original animated versions by Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass and by Ralph Bakshi, and the more recent epic live-action versions produced and directed by Peter Jackson, both his theater editions and extended editions (as well as the animated and live-action movies of The Chronicles of Narnia series). And I have also since started writing my own Tolkien fanfiction based on The Lord of the Rings.

I have posted my Tolkien stories on this forum, in the hopes that others will enjoy reading them; if and when I have completed any more, I will post them here as well, if they're allowed here. It took me a long time to be accepted as a story author here on SoA once I applied, but I am so glad that I finally am! My fanfiction stories are also posted on a few other Web sites. To access them, go to these URLs: Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own. Some of them are also posted on LiveJournal.